The Trailblazers

Often we think…if I could do things my way, I think I could make things better…..But, it takes a lot of courage to break off from an established group and start your own group. This story illustrates that the break can be successful and very rewarding.

The Trailblazers

 

In 1991, our family belonged to an exhibition clog team called the “T Town Country Cloggers”. Some of the members were getting a little restless and were wanting to do things their own way. Ken and I started talking and decided to become 50% partners and start our own clog group. I was too busy to do any teaching at that time, so we decided Ken would be the team director and handle all the teaching. We located some used sound equipment and drove up to Wichita, Kansas to check it out. The equipment looked good so we purchased it on the spot. I had the largest 45 rpm record collection in the area, so I provided the music. Ken found an old American Legion hall in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, that had wooden floors which he was able to lease and we started the new clog group. We started giving clog lessons followed by an experienced clog dance once a week. I recall we were brainstorming for a name for the group and went to Sizzling Sirloin to eat dinner. Someone saw an item on the menu called the “Trailblazer” and we had our group name. Over the next six months, several sets of lessons were completed. We had developed an “Exhibition Team”, an “Adult Competition Team”, and a “Children’s Competition Team”. My daughter, Tamara, choreographed the competition dances for the teams. The competition teams practiced on a different day of the week. We were doing exhibitions all over the area and were preparing to enter our first competition. Since the Trailblazers were a new competition team were able to enter the competition in the novice category in the National Clogging Competition in Branson, Missouri. The adult team won the first place trophy in adult line dance and the kids won the first place trophy in their age group, and the kids also won overall first place grand trophy for best open line dance. We did well at our first competition. We continued dancing with the group about another and year and Ken approached me and offered to buy me out. We were getting tired of driving back and forth to Broken Arrow so we agreed on the price and the Trailblazers were all his now. We had been thinking about starting our own group in Bartlesville any way. We then started the “Country Rhythm” exhibition team and the children’s “Rhythm Masters” competition team and the adult “Rhythm Aces” competition team in Bartlesville which were also very successful. We still remember all the good times with the “Trailblazers” and will never forget these times in our lives. Our daughter, Kristi, was away attending Oklahoma State University after the first year so she does not appear in all of the pictures. Look for a future blog about the “Country Rhythm”.

Trailblazers Exhibition Team, Ken on left, Pam next to him, Bill tallest one, Lisa,on right.

Trailblazers Exhibition Team performing a circle dance.

Trailblazer Children’s Competition Team – Tamara & Kristi are on the center bench. There’s Casey, Justin, and Mindy also, forgot the names of the other two.

My wife Pam presenting Director Ken a birthday cake at one of our dances.

Thanks for reading The Trailblazers,

Hawg Jaw Bill