Since this is mere looking back, I never danced at any of my three weddings. I have never gone to a prom, a father-daughter dance.
I have never tap danced on Broadway with Tommy Tune, or in high heels and backwards with Fred Astaire.
The few dances I went to with permission of my mother ended up with whispers and warnings from friends in the school auditorium draped with crepe paper, in some attempt to disguise the other use of the room as a gymnasium. My father bursting in, reeking of gin or whiskey, above the sweatiness of teenagers, would grab me by the arm and drag me out, drive me home, and ground me for two weeks.
But back to wishful thinking, I also never danced with John Wayne although I had some custom made cowgirl boots, long gone, just like him. I guess the timing of our lives was off.
If Michael Flatly had asked, I certainly would have said yes to Riverdance or Lord of the Dance. Same goes for Michael Jackson's Thriller or This is It tour. I hear Neil deGrasse Tyson dances a mean salsa and John Travolta anytime, anyplace; I don't care that he's a Scientologist.
I have a list of women I would dance with too...but of all the men and women, it is my mother's brother who I never got to know except through his letters and her stories, that I would do anything for a Lindy Hop that lasted long enough.