The Mickey Mouse Gang

Some of the most important things we gain as we travel through life are the friends we make along the way. The memories of the activities we enjoyed with these friends will remain with us always. This story is about some our our best friends we made memories with.

The Mickey Mouse Gang

 

Pam and I moved to Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 1983 from Odessa, Texas. Our real estate agent was Jean. While visiting with her we found out she belonged to a square dance club in Bartlesville. We told her we had square danced a few years ago in Borger, Texas. She invited us to come to a new set of square dance lessons that were just starting and we decided to give it a try. At the lessons, we met Dale & Sandy, John & Sue, Jean & Paul, and Joe & Mildred and we all became very close friends. We square danced together for about a year, and we probably had more fun whooping, hollering, and cutting up than the rest of the dance club put together. We traveled together, snow skied together, camped and fished together, water skied and jet skied together, canoed rivers together, honky tonked together, and did many many other fun things together. We decided at that point to create the “Mickey Mouse Gang” so the whole world would know we were close friends. The ladies designed some special Mickey and Minnie shirts for the men and women which we wore on all our adventures from that point on. The ladies also designed all of our square dance outfits. We sort of appointed Dale to be our activities director and gang coordinator. Sometime later along the way, we met Howard & Jane and decided they would fit right into to the Gang and they became Mousers also. The Mickey Mouse song became our alma mater and we always sang it as a group every where we went. We continued our Mickey Mouse Gang activities and fun times for several years until work moves, health problems and other things caused us to drift apart. Our leader Dale still keeps track of everyone and occasionally we have a reunion to talk about old times and create some new memories. We have had Mickey Mouse Gang reunions at John & Sues Grand Lake cabin, at the San Antonio River Walk, at Dales Condo in Breckenridge, and at the Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, Texas. Dale has been buzzing lately about having another one soon.

Square dancing is a wonderful way for seniors to have fun and get much needed exercise. Perhaps more importantly, you will make friends that will stay with you for the rest of you life.

 

L- R. Howard, Mildred, Joe, Pam, Jane, Bill, Sue, John, Jean, Paul, Sandy, and Dale – Mousers

A square of the Mickey Mouse Gang dancing at the early workshop.

A square of the Mickey Mouse Gang dancing at the evening dance

A square of the Mickey Mouse Ganat another dance in 1987

The Mickey Mouse Gang at a reunion at John and Sues Grand Lake Cabin

by Hawg Jaw Bill