GAY BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
SOMERSET (Somerset Co.)
Fred Strang arrives at the Somer
set Area High School just in time
to set up the expensive equipment
he brought along from home.
Minutes before, the gym was
teeming with Somerset County
4-H’ers learning to “swing their
partners” with fine-tuned move
ments.
Some 12 square dance teams
will be headed to the state Farm
Show. Strang, a square dance call
er from Johnstown, is training
them. With caller Dan Prosser of
Harrisburg, Strang will call at the
Farm Show Folk Dance Competi
tion.
Strang’s wearing camel-colored
western boots with requisite point
ed toes and a medium blue, cotton
shirt tucked into blue jeans. From
the shirt back, the glittering face
of a Husky dog seems to stare at
you from a wintry scene.
The job before him, at the out
set of sessions, is sometimes frus
trating. But, year after year he re
turns. In the end, the performances
he sees do justice to the training he
gave. This is the 12th time.
“It is interesting,” he said. “You
pull your hair out trying to teach
them and by the time the Farm
Show rolls around, they are so re
fined. I could a pin a blue ribbon
on all of them.”
That isn’t surprising when there
are young newcomers every year
and older, experienced kids have
sashayed out of the picture be
cause their 4-H days are over.
Four sessions are held with
Strang, the final being dress re
hearsal Sunday before the compe
tition. What happens between
trainings is up to the various club
leaders.
Strang praises the leaders for
being dedicated. They take what
he has taught the entire contingent
of square dancers and work with
the individual teams, usually on
weekends.
A native of Monroeville, Strang
graduated as a dancer in 1974 and
went on to graduate as a caller in
late 1975.
He said prior to that time, al
though he enjoyed country music,
Fred Strang talks with Teresa Landis, a leader in the Val
ley 4-H Club, at a square dance training held at Somerset
High School.
Fred Strang Calls 4-H Dancers To Swing
Partners All The Way To Farm Show
he preferred attending boxing
matches.
“I was interested in country
music, but not in the capacity of a
dancer,” he said.
But somebody issued a chal
lenge which Strang accepted and
he hasn’t stopped dancing since.
He came to realize square dancing
has numerous side effects that are
totally positive for health and hap
piness.
“Square dancing is a multilevel,
generational activity and that
makes it unique,” he said.
Besides its appeal to all ages,
people of all professions meet as
equals.
“It’s one of those things you can
have doctors and ditch-diggers on
the same Hoot,” Strang said. “It’s
cheap entertainment, plus you
have fellowship and refreshments.
It’s a very therapeutic activity.”
About that time, Strang’s wife,
Eva, a sixth-grade science teacher
in the North Star School District,
said, “It keeps kids out of trouble.”
Strang manages her husband’s
schedule of appearances, besides
being a round dance cuer.
So Strang may be out of town
three nights a week, say, at Staun
ton , Va., Wooster, Ohio, or Sayre,
N.Y. On Memorial Day he goes to
Clearfield and to Cook’s Forest in
Clarion County on Labor Day.
Still, he calls for the Franklin
Squares in Murrysville and the
Canoe Club in Verona, where
sentimentality is attached. The
first club he ever called for was
the Canoe Club.
He calls for the Wheelers and
Dealers in Somerset County and
that is what ultimately led to train
ing the county 4-H kids for the
Farm Show event
Harry and Virginia Rhoads of
Beilin, besides regularly including
their four children at the Wheeler-
Dealer dances, trusted that their
friendship with Strang was com
fortable enough to enlist his help
training their own kids for the
Farm Show.
Rhoads’ daughter, Jodell, now
married to David Antram of
Somerset, said her parents thought
square dancing with a club was a
very good way to socialize, exer
cise, and have fun with a bunch of
people.
Evan Strang, wife of square dance caller Fred Strang, coaches a team that Is hav
ing some trouble on the dance floor.
David Antram points out how
well square dancing coincides
with 4-H because, as a co-ed acti
vity, it fosters interaction between
boys and girls, as well as the clubs
themselves, from all over the
county.
Even after young adults gradu
ate from high school and continue
on to college, Strang observes,
sooner or later they will be scon
back at the same square dance
club they were introduced to by
their parents.
It seems once “Do Sa Do-ing”
Fred and Eva Strang work together helping the 4-H
dance teams from Somerset County who will compete in
folk dancing at the Farm Show.
Here square dance caller, Fred Strang, observes the progress of a 4-H dance team
preparing for the Farm Show Folk Dance competition.
gets in your system, it tends to
stick. The only way to deal with it
is simply to find a partner and put
on your dancin’ shoes.
Between calling square dances,
Strang is a Pennsylvania notary
public, works for Laurel Motors,
and cooks for Eat-n-Park restau
rant
No wonder he said, grinning,
the childless couple is too busy to
raise a family.
As "Honeycomb” spins on the
turntable of the phonograph, some
of the dancers are awkward.
Strang adjusts the variable speed
recorder to either slow down or
speed up the pace.
“Were you trying to antici
pate?’* he calls to a nearby team.
They deny. “I told you not to anti
cipate the calls,” he gently reiter
ates what he told them earlier.
Strang then takes the micro
phone and yodels a tune.
Square dance caller Fred
Strang of Johnstown trains
Somerset County 4-H square
dance teams tor competition
at the Farm Show. They start
with the song “Honeycomb”
on the phonograph.