By: Emilie

Emilie — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 18:01:39 +0000

I haven’t been to the tams in a couple of summers. Back when I did go, when my work availability did not include sundays so that I could please go, I used to look around anxiously for a certain couple. They were both well into their 70′s and the wife held red castanets. She was always garishly dressed, but made-up with the exagerated blush and red lips of a three year old’s doll. Her husband’s face stands out more clearly to me…strangely enough I had to call my people-watching-partner Raph to remind me how he used to dress. I’m so disappointed in myself for forgetting that he wore raver clothes, once in a while he’d sport some standard old-man clothes, but mostly he’d prefer alarmingly bright pants and crazy chunky necklaces. RAVER CLOTHES! CASTANETS! NEON GREEN WHISTLES! And then they’d dance. They’d dance for hours and hours right in the frey, completely over-the-top DANCE MOVES- spins and gyrations and slides and claps. I’d sit and watch worriedly while they moved and shook with french hippies with lizards or ferrets perched on their shoulders and mcgill students sporting man-sarongs. I don’t remember them ever smiling, though I do remember their faces turning dangerous red-ish colours that made me really nervous in the 35 degree heat. And so every week when I went back I’d check in with them, just peer over the crowd to see if they were still there, if they were ok. There were a few scary weeks when one of them wouldn’t be there, but, dedicated as they were, one would always represent. And as if the hypnotic sunday beats weren’t enough for them, they’d end up dancing the same dance at some of the jazz fest shows I saw. Gradually, this fantastic couple was upstaged by my interest in giggling at the epic medieval battles and so I haven’t seen them in years now. I hope they’re ok and still living it up (more than me, I think). Does anyone else remember them?

Comments on: Sundays in the Summer

By: Emilie