THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 29, 1994 TAG: 9412280207
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
THERE SHE WAS, sitting on a barstool, watching the line dancers, the two-steppers and vowing, ``No way will I ever get out there.''
That was then, this is now.
Nancy Reid, 47, visits Blakeley's in Chesapeake three nights a week, seldom sitting, usually dancing, dancing, dancing.
At home, she used to be into soft rock, folk - WFOG-FM.
That was then, this is now.
Today, she listens to WCMS-FM.
Her 49-year-old husband, Charlie, on the other hand has always been into country music.
``I heard Russ Cassidy advertise Blakeley's on 'CMS and decided to go,'' he said. ``I was tired of being a couch potato.''
Cassidy, who is a deejay on the radio station and at the club, has become a friend, typical of the atmosphere at Blakeley's.
``We have a crowd of regulars. We're family,'' Nancy said. ``Some are in our age group, some younger, some older.''
She also likes the fact that country dance habitues ``don't have to dress up.''
But the Reids, like most of their dancin' buddies, always don cowpoke attire before going clubbing.
``When we're not dancing, we sit, talk and watch,'' she said. ``I'm the designated driver. I drink water. Charlie stops with the beer at about 8 - after Happy Hour.''
Every hour spent at the club is happy. And there are many hours.
``We get there at six o'clock - no admission, then. We stay till about 11. We come early because we like to have the dance floor to ourselves,'' Nancy said. ``Sometimes we bring our own tapes. We're dancing almost all the time.''
Even at home, where they move the furniture and practice new steps. In the country dance business, a new dance seems to show up every few days.
``All of our dances are on tape and numbered in a computer,'' said Charlie, who is into computers and electronics.
``We learned about 80 dances in the last few months,'' Nancy said, ``but some, we don't do.''
She does not go for things like the cowboy hip-hop, funky cowboy, shotgun.
``Some of the pieces are not played often enough to bother with. The songs may not be played for months,'' Nancy said. ``Some, I don't like the movements. I don't shake. I'm not a shake person. I don't wiggle.''
The Reids are into such popular items as the achy-breaky, electric slide, Charleston bump, ski bumpus and honky-tonk stomp.
``If you make a mistake, you don't feel self-conscious,'' Charlie said. ``You're out there to enjoy yourself.''
The Reids have enjoyed each other company for several decades.
They met at Fort Meade, Md., an Army base where he was stationed with the Navy, a communications technician with the National Security Agency.
Nancy was a secretary in the procurement office there. The couple have been married 28 years. They have a daughter, Kimberly, 27 ``who's also into country dancing,'' Charlie said, and a three-year-old granddaughter, Jonie Marie.
Charlie, a Clinton, S.C., native, is a radar field engineer with the Raytheon Co. in Chesapeake, a subsidiary of the Raytheon Service Co. of Massachusetts. Nancy, who is from Baltimore, is a retired real estate secretary.
When not dancing, she is still on her feet. ``I walk three miles four days a week.''
``If you can do one dance, you can pick up the steps on the others,'' Nancy said. ``Once you get into country dancing, it gets addictive.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Nancy and Charles Reid wear matching Western outfits when they go
line-dancing at Blakeley's.
by CNB