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With two "kidlets" at home, I am only responding to email
and updating the list about once a month. Thanks for your patience.
How did SCLS start?
The Southern California Lindy Society started back in 1996. To the best of my knowledge, there was only one place, the Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association, where you could take Lindy Hop in LA. There were about 40-60 people taking those classes at that time. Several of my friends and I discovered that we had email, and we started using the email to let each other know about dances that were happening. At that time, we were lucky to have a live band event with swing music once a week (what a different time it was!)
The original list was about 15 of my close friends (you know who you are!). Being an organizational nut, I found it frustrating to have to continually go through several email messages to find out what was going on any particular night, and I began "calendaring" the events as they came in. I figured if I was going to do the work anyway for myself, I might as well send it back out to my friends once it was organized --- and the SCLS email list was born.
The beginning of the email list also coincided with my learning to write HTML pages for the web. I found that I wanted to keep a list of addresses/phone numbers for the clubs/venues where dances happened fairly regularly, and decided that by posting them to the web, my friends could also benefit from my organizational efforts. So the first web pages went up.
My friends started telling other lindy hoppers they knew about the weekly list I put out, and more and more folks began to be added to the email list and know about the website. PBDA's classes in Lindy Hop were growing, other instructors began to appear on the scene, and at some point, I named my website the Southern California Lindy Society. The name was really a tribute to a much more extensive website (at the time) in the Bay Area run by Eric Mittler, the Northern California Lindy Society.
The list and website took on a life of its own. I never thought they'd get as big as they did or become such a huge conglomeration of information on Lindy Hop and related info. I never intended to create a part time unpaid job for myself, but my passion for the dance and its growth in popularity over time caused it to flourish and become a major resource for the dance in this area.
The email list as of November 2000 had just under 1300 people on it, and the website has grown to large proportions. For my birthday 2000, I was given a URL www.lindyhopping.com, and my husband and I did a major overhaul on the site design.
I'm constantly told how grateful people are for what I do, and I'm happy to play a part in keeping Lindy Hop alive.
Here's a little bit of information about the woman behind the website:
I have lived in southern California all my life.
I was a philosophy major in college and then went on to do a teaching credential. I taught for a year and decided that wasn't for me, so I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up! :-) In the meantime, I can't seem to stop asking "why?" and never want to stop learning (oh, and I do have a job at a local university that pays the bills!)
Favorite Things:
Music, Lindy Hop and other partnered dancing (ballroom,
latin, Victorian, etc.), violin,
piano, singing, swimming, rollerblading, fencing, reading, sewing, crafts,
science fiction, philosophy & physics, purple, chocolate, popcorn,
Halloween, humor, costumes,
vintage clothing, the beach, children's laughter, cats & dogs, Disneyland
Other favorite places:
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More Information About
Margie 