Just ask!

 

I took my uncle, the handsy one skilled in making up colorful lyrics to old pop ditties, to see his ophthalmologist the other day.  I didn't have to, someone else could have, but I wanted to put certain events firmly in the past and make it clear there were no lingering ill feelings.  I also had a reason of my own:  I'd read that a nightclub was having a big band night, featuring a locally famous band and I wanted to go.  I love big band music and the dances that go along with it.  El Jefe is overseas or he could have taken me.  But I knew my uncle loved dancing. Most men these days don't, and if they are willing they aren't skilled.  But my uncle loves to cut a rug.  He taught me swing dancing and foxtrot when I was knee high to Ginger Rogers.  He could also do the stroll and the twist and other later-era dances, right into the disco and house music of his own youth.  I can do all sorts of dances thanks to him.
So anyway, I told him I would drive him to his doctor's appointment if he made it for late in the afternoon and that after we would have a light dinner or something, marking time till the club opened and then go and dance, dance, dance! 
He was a bit surprised and seemed a little abashed, looking down and away for an instant before looking back at me and asking if I really wanted to go dancing with him.  I said, "I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to."  He looked earnestly at me, scanning my face.  I stuck my tongue out at him and he burst into a big grin, saying, "You scamp!" and started to hug me then stopped himself and pulled back.  So I hugged him.  He didn't respond until I called him the world's biggest goofball and then he hugged me too and we stood for a minute.
The day before his appointment, I asked him to pack a bag with a nice suit and accouterments and good dancing shoes and I would also put together an ensemble suitable for tripping the light fantastic.  I reserved a hotel room for us to change in and refresh after he had seen the doctor, and the next day off we went, both of us in a happy, anticipatory mood.  His visit with the eye doc produced better news than expected, so we had that to celebrate. 
I thought we could eat at an inexpensive chain restaurant, but my uncle asked the hotel concierge to recommend a first-class dining establishment and made reservations for us and treated me to a swell feed, as they would have said back in the Forties.  Then we took a walk through a nearby park that had a small lake where boats could be rented and enjoyed the sunset and a cool evening zephyr after the heat of the day.  Then it was back to the hotel to get into our dancing duds and we were off to the club, which was within walking distance.
The band did not disappoint, but the number of other dancers did.  Only a few couples ventured onto the dance floor.  But that gave us room to strut our stuff, which we certainly did. I had no idea my uncle could be so energetic.  But he had led an active life asea and ashore and he was not ready to

slow down. At one point, we did the Big Apple, incorporating into it the Charleston Swing, Truckin' and the Suzy Q moves. Other dancers paused to watch us and applauded. When we sat down to catch our breath, the waiter brought us a bottle of champagne, compliments of the band leader.  We toasted him and his players and when the band took five he came over and chatted with us, sharing a glass.
The evening ended with a series of slow dances that saw us the only couple on the floor.  After the last number, we went up to the band and thanked them all for providing such a wonderful evening.  My uncle bought them all drinks and when they finished them I was surprised to realize it was 2am and the club was closing.
It was too late to drive home and neither of us were really in any condition to do so, being both exhausted and a little tipsy.  So we walked back to the hotel along the deserted boulevard, stopping to look in a few shop windows, greeted the doorman, who had been dozing on a baggage cart in the lobby, got our room key from the sleepy front desk man, who also handed me a message from home, so I called and left a voice mail explaining all was well and we'd be home the next day.
Then we went to bed*

 

*

Oh, please.  Unc was on his best behavior and besides was so beat by the exertions of the evening that he was asleep the minute his head hit the pillow.  So was I.