Roger Lueth

Karen and I learned to square dance the hard way. We learned, along with 5 other couples from Lake George, by watching a square dance tape. We "got the bug" in the winter of 1992 after watching a demonstration. There were no lessons going on at the time and we weren't about to wait until lessons started the next fall. We "took lessons" in a local store. We'd push the shoe racks out of the way to open up a dance floor. It was a frustrating way to learn but we were a determined bunch. Everytime we'd break down, we'd rewind the tape back and relook at the called sequence again. We'd keep rewinding until we could dance thru the routine. I guess we probably rewound that tape 200 times. A caller sure would have speeded up our progress and answered alot of our questions.

Don Littlefield graduated us the next spring and we were off and dancing. We danced alot those first couple of years. Several people/callers cautioned us about "burning ourselves out" by dancing too much. After dancing a couple of years, in Feb. of 1994, I decided I wanted to do more than just dance. Larry Johanson let me use an extra amplifier he had, showed me which end of the mic to "talk into" and gave me a half dozen singing call records to learn. I started doing some guest tips at dances doing singing calls and my calling career took off from there. The Wadena Whirlaways club booked my first official dance in the fall of 1995.

Karen and I have been club presidents, presidents of our local camping club - The Gypsy Twirlers and are currently the NW region presidents. We've been state convention registration cochairman, in charge of sound, style show cochairman, in charge of the sewing room and charged with designing the decorations. We've attended three national conventions and have missed only 1 state convention since 1992.

Three things about square dancing that I especially like are: 1) square dancers as a group are the friendliest folks I have ever met (2 I like the physical aspect of the dancing, it's good exercise and very important especially if you want to hang around for a while yet. (3 Square dancing is also very good mental exercise. Numerous recent studies have shown that to stay sharp mentally, you need to use your noggin for more than a hatrack.

Since I retired in the spring of 2003, I've gotten into some jobs I've always wanted to do. I spend a month in Colorado guiding elk hunters each October and a month in Texas guiding feral hog hunters each February. I tend to keep my fall and early winter calling schedule open to allow for these other activities. I still manage to book dances for 8 months of the year.

We live in a rural area between Park Rapids and Bemidji. We don't live at the end of a road but you can see it from our place. I lean toward country western tunes and dancers say that most of my music "moves right along". I find myself doing more and more "one night stands" and house parties along with the regular club calling. I've gotten many comments from dancers saying that "they can understand me very well". If you're looking for some different or unique entertainment for your get together, give me a call. I can put together a reasonably priced program to fit any age group.