Rythm Ramblers Square Dance Club (1966‑200?)
Bea and Charlie Bard, Mary and Bill Kansorka, Ila Mae and Claren "Mouse" Mauer and Barbara and Dick Hahn. (Photo taken mid 1980s)
The Rythm Ramblers Square Dance Club was a mainstream level club which meant that individuals who had graduated from the beginner lessons would be able to dance with them because the caller would be calling to that level. There were many levels of clubs, each level requiring more lessons and becoming more difficult. The western square dance lessons were taught by several different callers including; Bob Dibling of Fostoria, and Emett Iliff of Findlay. Harold “Sonny” McClellan of Bloomdale was the last one. The club callers called a dance for us once a month. The second dance of the month was called by a guest caller. They were usually from Ohio, Michigan or Indiana. During the summer Jerry Breckin (?) would call for Ramblers at Vollmer’s Park on Route 65 in Wood County.
Club callers usually taught lessons. The classes were held in Waterville, Bowling Green, Perrysburg, Grand Rapids, Findlay (?) over the years. Each lesson lasting two and half hours at a cost of $3.50 per couple. The lessons were in a series of 15 lessons. Often the first lesson was free. The square dancing was not like what you may have learned at 4‑H camp or at school. This was modern Western dancing with new steps and new patterns that require the movement to music and new patterns to learn. It was stated that Western Square dancing was a growing hobby. In 1992 it was claimed there were over forty clubs listed in the Toledo Area Square Dance Callers Association Magazine. You first had to take lessons and then were prepared to attend regular dances by invitation to join. The club danced at Anthony Wayne South, and thenFallen Timbers School in Whitehouse on the first and third Saturdays during the winter and at Vollmar’s Park the same nights during the summer months. In the later years they danced at the Waterville Recreation Building. In 1996 they celebrated 30 years of dancing with a special event held at the Waterville Recreation Building.