Here’s a great collection of pictures of stuff from the past–commercial things that you might remember from your youth.

So I googled square dance nostalgia and found a petticoat fetishist site: Petticoat Pond. The site came up because of a caption on one of the pictures: From the days when one didn’t have to go to a square dance to see what you saw at a square dance .

The google search took me to a site, Save Square Dancing. I can’t tell who owns it (whois on the domain name shows all the info as unavailable). It’s actually a fairly nice-looking (by my criteria: clean design, no animated graphics, no auto-music) site, although there’s not a lot of content. Google found it because of this, from its History of Square Dancing page: “Early American dancing is not a relic from a crowded attic of nostalgia, but is still a part of the recreational scene.”

I found this:

There is also a “culture” out there of square dance records on new 45’s. A square dance caller and a band take a popular song (mostly country, but on a few occasions, rock) and change some of the lyrics to things like “allemand left and once around”, “square through four”, etc. (And nearly all square dance callers nowadays SING the songs rather than just speak words.)

here.

Petticoats and vinyl records…yep, we’re a nostalgic activity.

So what is it about modern music and songs named “Square Dance”?

Here’s one by The Brodys. (“I just want to dance a little dosido, allemande left in the undergrowth”). There’s an mp3 file of the song available.

And one by Eminem: (“C’mon now, let’s all get on down, let’s do-si-do now, we gon’ have a good ol’ time/Don’t be scared, cus there ain’t nothin’ to worry ’bout, let your hair down, and square dance with me! “).