It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The local university was offering belly dancing classes through its Fine Arts department, open to the public and reasonable in cost. My neighbor and I signed up. We were looking for something to get us moving, something that would be fun and something that not every friend and acquaintance was participating in; something to talk about at social gatherings that would set us apart from the crowd.

Twelve of us enrolled. My friend and I were in our 50s, by far the oldest....by much far-ness. Ten belly dancer 'wanna bes' had matriculated along with us. Serious students who had dreams of being the next exotic dancer on the Cleveland night scene. Read between the lines that they had no sense of humor for the two of us, my neighbor and me who were there on a lark?

The instructor was a ballet professor at the university. Who knew you could earn a PhD. in ballet? She brought in jingles and jangles for us to drape around our bodies. Coins clinked like jelly beans being poured over and over again into a bowl every time we moved. Oh, we loved it.

We leaped and swiveled and thrust, finding body parts that were not meant to be moved on purpose all the while tinkling and jingling.

I can't remember but I think we finished the six weeks of classes without throwing our hips out of joint. I by far had the most natural resources to engage in the activity. The rest of the class never did warm up to us. Looking back it could have been jealousy; show business is such a competitive business. Yes, that's absolutely it, they were envious.

And that's what I think about it.