Another Misque
The Misques were a big part of our family’s free time life in the 1990s. I have estimated we did 400 clogging exhibitions with the Misques and Cuties alone during that period of time. My daughters were nearly always with us. We evolved from a scruffy looking group to a more colorful scruffy looking group during that time. This story illustrates some of the changes.
.
Another Misque.
When the original clogging group was born, we were dancing with the T Town Country Cloggers. Our directors picked out a few of the dancers perhaps most likely to make mistakes on their teams performances and asked us if we would be on a special clog group which would wear funny costumes to perform at future dances. We all thought that was a good idea, so we borrowed some costumes from a group called the Clogging Mamas. Unfortunately, there were two men picked and only one mans costume. The man’s costume looked like it fit Gene better so I took the girls costume. They didn’t tell me I had to wear red tights until later. We danced that first dance as the Clogging Mamas at the Home of Hope in Vanita, Oklahoma with the T Town Country Cloggers.
Our first exhibition as the Clogging Mamas in December, 1988 at Home of Hope in Vanita, Oklahoma as a sideline for the T Town Country Cloggers. We were doing “Old Time Rock And Roll”. The crowd was screaming and hollering. From l-r. Pam, Ann, Bill, Gene, Linda, and Jo.
We all loved dancing for the people at Home of Hope and they loved our part of the show much better than the regular cloggers. So we decided to meet and discuss our future. We all decided we would be called “Misques and the Cuties” and the ladies designed us some of our own costumes. After a few months we became more popular than the regular cloggers and there were some management problems brewing. We were no longer allowed to dance with the T Town cloggers so we broke away with the Misques and started booking our own dances although we were still dancing as regular cloggers with T Town also. This arrangement seemed to work alright. By this time we were all much better cloggers.
Misques dancing at the Special Olympics in 1989 in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. At this point we are still supplementing the T Town Country Cloggers. You can see some of them in the black and white outfits behind us. Looks like old Bill put on a little weight.
.
We bought our own equipment and practiced separately from T Town. We started choreographing our own dances and we started getting more exhibitions than we could do, so we had to be selective. After a while we were being offered pay to do exhibitions. We still did a lot of Nursing Homes and Special needs groups along with the paid ones. Over the years, the personnel and the costumes changed some, so I have selected one exhibition from each year to demonstrate the changes
Misques at the Tulsa Northeast Square Dance Festival in 1990 clogging our hearts out. We had pulled away from T Town by now and were booking our own exhibitions. We had added one more lady to the group who is Betty in the center in yellow. Looks like old Bill’s added a little more weight.
Misques clogging at Toppers at Fort Gibson Lake in 1991. Looks like we have added one male dancer on the front left who is Danny, and have changed costumes.
Misques clogging in Tulsa, Oklahoma at May Fest in 1992. Looks like we’ve changed costumes and added two new dancers which were R.L. and Erlene.
Misques posing just before an exhibition in Sedan Kansas at the Yellow Brick Road Festival in May, 1993. We’ve definitely changed hats and added two new dancers. That’s Pearl in the front center and Maxine second from the right on the middle row. By this time we had lost dancers Betty and Jo. My two daughters Kristi and Tamara are pictured here also.
My beautiful daughters Tamara and Kristi doing an advanced clog routine at Sedan Kansas in May, 1993 while the Misques caught their breath. They were truly fantastic.
Misques clogging in Cherryvale, Kansas, in September, 1994. I see no changes except that big snuggie old Bill has. Pearl and Maxine appear to be hamming it up for the camera. Looks like R.L. Was really getting into the dance.
Misques performing in Tulsa at Skyline Nursing Home in December 1994. Looks like we’ve added a few Christmas touches to the outfits. The reindeer antlers caused a lot of finger pointing. Gene later played Santa Claus for the residents and one of the old geysers told Gene he wanted that lady in red for his Christmas present. R.L. was our oldest dancer at the time at 70 years old.
Misques dancing at Green Country Retirement Home in Bartlesville in 1995. All those old farts out there were having a great time. We did this one about once per year. Looks like Maxine forgot her hair bow.
Misques doing a circle dance at the Kilache Festival in Prague, Oklahoma in 1996. We are sporting brand new costumes and have added two new dancers. Fred is in the yellow in the front and Paulette in yellow is hidden in the back. We lost Erlene as a dancer at this time. Those Kilaches made a damn good meal.
Misques on stage at Kids Fest at Woolaroc in 1997. I remember that one because it was 101 degrees F outside that day. That’s Paulette, that was hidden on the above picture, in the yellow on center stage.
Some pictures of some of the crew at our last exhibition in the Spring of 1998 at Miami Oklahoma’s Maimi Fest. Shortly after this Pam and I moved to Houston for 6 months and our days as Misques were over. What fun we had! Upper left – Maxine, Ann, and new dancer Patty. Upper Right.- Linda, and Paulette ( a shining ) Lower Left – Fred, Linda, Gene, and Bill. Lower Right – Fred, Gene, and Bill.
Thanks for reading Another Misque,
Bill
