Music, dancing brightens snowy day
Berl Tiskus
Young accordion player Scott Drake, far left, jams with other accordionists and Ralph Salomon playing the drum.
Berl Tiskus
Ellen Achenbaugh dances at the accordion jam. Eight to 10 couples circled the floor most of the time.
Berl Tiskus
Accoridons, guitars and drums combine for an afternoon of melodies.
Berl Tiskus
Dick Tobel brought his guitar to the accordion jam. He and his wife will be celebrating a 60-year anniversary in June.
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POLSON — On a wintry January Sunday, people were out exercising.
No, they weren’t sledding, cross-country skiing or snowshoeing, they were dancing at the Mission Valley Elks Lodge #1695 in Polson.
The occasion was a jam session for the Northwest Montana Accordion Association on Jan. 5. Several guitar players, singers and a couple of drummers joined the accordionists. As couples danced, music ranged from old-time country (such as “Faded Love” and “Fraulein, Fraulein”) crooned by Wilfred “Ken” Kenmille and Dick Tobel, to polkas and “The Tennessee Waltz.”
The Elks Lodge has a perfect dance floor: big with smooth, scuffed boards from years of dancing feet, and ringed with tables and chairs for sitting out the occasional tune.
Shirley Sheridan brought her guitar and joined the musicians on stage. She’s been playing about 30 years, she said, and loves it.
Ralph Salomon, however, is a relatively new musician.
He laughs and said he and his wife come to dance, but occasionally he relieves the drummer.
“I fell into it when I was 70 years old,” Salomon said.
Although these jams and dances might become a thing of the past because almost all the folks there had a gray hair or two, Scott Drake from Missoula has the potential to encourage attendance from a younger crowd.
Drake, 18, began playing the accordion about a year ago. His grandmother taught him to dance, and he dances with all the ladies.
“They’re all my adopted grandmothers,” he said.
To join the fun, listen to the music and dance with people who really know how to slip around the dance floor, the jams are held from 2 to 5:30 p.m. the first Sunday of the month at the Mission Valley Elks and the third Sunday of the month at the Eagles Club in Kalispell.
