Two holidays!! Beer and square dancing

I can’t decide between two holidays on today’s calendar: Small Brewery Sunday and National Square Dancing Day, so why not celebrate both?

First, let’s sing the praises of small local breweries. We are living in a golden age of local beer, and here in Maryland we enjoy an abundance of excellent small breweries. In a three mile stretch of U.S. Route 1 a short drive from our home, we can find three breweries, a meadworks, and a distillery making awesome gin and apple brandy. Featured here are our two favorite destinations, Franklin’s Restaurant, Brewery and General Store (come for the fridge magnets, stay for the sours and IPAs) and Streetcar 82, one of a handful of deaf-owned and operated breweries in the country.

And square dancing? When I was a kid in Nebraska, that WAS phys. ed. In elementary school. I have always loved folk dancing, and there is something wonderful about the way that square dancing engages both the body and the brain — you have to listen to the caller, and a good caller keeps you on your toes, dancing and laughing. A few years ago there was a story circulating on the internet about how Henry Ford promoted square dancing as a white supremacist, anti Semitic reaction to the popularity of jazz. Ya know what? That might be why Henry Ford liked it, but I have a feeling that he would really hate the vibrantly queer square dance scene that has sprung up across the country. There is something lovely and hopeful about the transformation of something planted in hate that blossoms in love and joy. So take that, Henry Ford.