Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

So, can I take a moment to say that I’m proud of my son?

Paul is ten years old now. We just recently got back from a series of trips out of town—He is in competitive dancing class this year, and there were a series of competitions. Over the course of four weeks, we went to Lancaster, New Castle, and back to Lancaster again, so he could compete with his team, Team Edge.

We signed him up for dancing during COVID. I give the kid credit, it took a whole year of that disaster, but it was beginning to get to him. We figured that dance class was safe enough, and there were likely to be precautions in place. So Paul started hip-hop at Rachael’s Dance Unlimited, in Flemington.

I cannot say enough good things about Rachael Bischof, the owner, and her team. They’ve given my son a wonderful experience, and he’s really grown and thrived. At first, I wasn’t sure he’d stick with it, but he genuinely enjoys it, and he’s been consistently attending for a couple of years now. And this year is his first year competing.

He’s on the team with a bunch of great kids. I enjoyed watching them all perform. And I lost track of the awards they won, but as I recall, the awards included Platinum, High Gold, First Place, Third Places, and Most Entertaining. I have a minimal idea of what any of this means (except for Most Entertaining; I can follow along on that one) but the kids were thrilled, and I’m proud of them.

They danced to “Respect” (A remix, not the original) and a medley of songs from Mama Mia. They all had costumes covered in glitter and all sorts of shiny stuff. I wound up volunteering to help move props and set pieces onstage, so I saw some of this from backstage with a collection of other dads. (The moms had better things to do, like take pictures from the audience.)

What interested me most was seeing Paul with his team. He would wake up and be stressed and nervous about the performance, but when we got there, and he joined his people, he relaxed and everything was fine. I can understand that; I’m the same way with LHPS. (Tim, Millie, and Ashlin, thank you.) When Paul gathers with Team Edge and sees Juliet, Lili, Maddie, Sophia, Tall Addie, Short Addie, Josie, and several others whose names will never stick in my memory, he’s clearly among the people he loves, and he’s doing what he cares about.

It’s fascinating, raising a child—As they grow, they develop their own personalities and interests. I’ve gotten to watch my son grow into his own person, doing his own thing, with a life that I get to witness, but not entirely. He was out with his friends, and they were off having their own little experiences, and Paul abandoned his parents to be with them. (Until he needed money.)

But we did do a little ghost-hunting together. One of the Lancaster hotels was built into two different historic homes; while building the hotel, they just added the old buildings without altering them at all (and I would love to see this sort of emphasis on preservation adopted in Clinton County.) So when I pulled out some of my equipment to do a little investigating, a couple of Paul’s friends asked me about joining in.

So this was the night that Rachael’s Team Edge became, to the best of my knowledge, the world’s first ghost-hunting dance troupe. Paul, Juliet, and Addie (not sure if it was the tall one or the short one) joined me for a little investigating….So it looks like maybe my kid isn’t growing away from me too fast, after all.