God Made a Clogger... (from the Doubletoe Times Magazine of Clogging)
This year, Paul Harvey’s Superbowl commercial extolled the virtues of the American Farmer. This was adapted to fit the ‘American Clogger’ by our own Jeff Driggs.
And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned Paradise and said: “I need a dancer!”
So, God made a clogger!
God said: “I need somebody to get up before dawn and get kids off to school and work all day, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board and still find time for classes, practice and choreography”.
So, God made a clogger!
God said: “I need somebody with strong legs. Strong enough to stomp out syncopation, yet gentle enough to pitter patter a glorious rhythm. Somebody to call dances, tame cantankerous cue sheets, come home hungry to earn new steps and have to wait until after they are done feeding the kids and visiting with the neighbors and telling them to be sure to come back real soon… and mean it”.
So, God made a clogger!
God said: “I need somebody that can double-lace a shoe, rip off a broken tap in the middle of a dance and not miss a step. And, who, at class time and practice session, will finish their forty hour week by Tuesday noon. Then, pain’n from ‘tractor back’, make it to every weekend exhibition.
So, God made a clogger!
God said: “I need somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to help get the sound equipment set up or the portable stage torn down ahead of the rain clouds and yet race t get a cold bottle of water for the dancers coming off stage when they are the first one down during a hot July show.”
So, God made a clogger!
God said: “I need somebody who believes in preserving the heritage of a dance that is rich in the traditions brought to this new land, but who is gracious in receiving the ideas and creativity brought to it by a new generation of fresh ideas and influences. Someone who will commit themselves to perfecting a step no matter how long it takes… but will stop to help a beginner learn to drag and slide and reassure them that it is okay to miss a sound or two”.
So, God made a clogger!
It had to be somebody who’d throw together a show to help raise money in the community… and not think of self. Somebody to give this same gift of dance to the young and the old, and those with special needs. Somebody to plan a week’s classes and practice and then finish a hard day’s work with a five-mile drive to Church. Somebody who’d lace a family together with the soft, strong bonds of sharing, who’d laugh and then sigh… and then respond with smiling eyes, when a son or daughter says they want to spend their life ‘doing the dance their family does’.
So, God made a clogger!
Thanks, Jeff!
This year, Paul Harvey’s Superbowl commercial extolled the virtues of the American Farmer. This was adapted to fit the ‘American Clogger’ by our own Jeff Driggs.
And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned Paradise and said: “I need a dancer!”
So, God made a clogger!
God said: “I need somebody to get up before dawn and get kids off to school and work all day, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board and still find time for classes, practice and choreography”.
So, God made a clogger!
God said: “I need somebody with strong legs. Strong enough to stomp out syncopation, yet gentle enough to pitter patter a glorious rhythm. Somebody to call dances, tame cantankerous cue sheets, come home hungry to earn new steps and have to wait until after they are done feeding the kids and visiting with the neighbors and telling them to be sure to come back real soon… and mean it”.
So, God made a clogger!
God said: “I need somebody that can double-lace a shoe, rip off a broken tap in the middle of a dance and not miss a step. And, who, at class time and practice session, will finish their forty hour week by Tuesday noon. Then, pain’n from ‘tractor back’, make it to every weekend exhibition.
So, God made a clogger!
God said: “I need somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to help get the sound equipment set up or the portable stage torn down ahead of the rain clouds and yet race t get a cold bottle of water for the dancers coming off stage when they are the first one down during a hot July show.”
So, God made a clogger!
God said: “I need somebody who believes in preserving the heritage of a dance that is rich in the traditions brought to this new land, but who is gracious in receiving the ideas and creativity brought to it by a new generation of fresh ideas and influences. Someone who will commit themselves to perfecting a step no matter how long it takes… but will stop to help a beginner learn to drag and slide and reassure them that it is okay to miss a sound or two”.
So, God made a clogger!
It had to be somebody who’d throw together a show to help raise money in the community… and not think of self. Somebody to give this same gift of dance to the young and the old, and those with special needs. Somebody to plan a week’s classes and practice and then finish a hard day’s work with a five-mile drive to Church. Somebody who’d lace a family together with the soft, strong bonds of sharing, who’d laugh and then sigh… and then respond with smiling eyes, when a son or daughter says they want to spend their life ‘doing the dance their family does’.
So, God made a clogger!
Thanks, Jeff!