HISTORY OF STRAWBERRY SQUARES
DANCE CLUB
PASADENA
,
TEXAS
STRAWBERRY SQUARES was formed in October 1979.
Joe and Nancy Hollis decided that they would like to have a square
dance club in
Pasadena
as many of their friends and fellow church members at
First
United
Methodist
Church
had expressed a desire to learn to square dance.
Joe and Nancy and Daymond Mayhall had taken
lessons together and had been members of
St. Paul
’s Promenaders since 1963, Daymond was now calling.
St. Paul
’s Promenaders had just disbanded and Joe and Nancy wanted to
continue to square dance. They asked Daymond if he would help them.
He agreed to help and to be the caller for the club. Then three of
them arranged a meeting with the minister and board of the
First
United
Methodist
Church
and agreed upon the structure of the club. The club was originally a
part of the education division of the church. It was agreed that as
a part of the church, all officers of the club would be members of
the church. This rule stayed in effect until the club moved to the
Moose Lodge in 1985. The club moved as the church had sold its
facilities across the street from
Pasadena
High School
to the Salvation Army. The club moved to the Moose Lodge while the
new church was being built. We moved back to the church in our
present location in June of 1986.
STRAWBERRY SQUARES was chosen as the name of
the club because
Pasadena
at one time was known as the Strawberry Capitol of the world.
Daymond Mayhall is the only club caller our
club has ever had. He has called for our many exhibitions and dances
we have done for various groups:
We now have 3 additional callers who rotate each week. Pasadena
has a sister city in
Hadona
,
Japan
, and when the contingent visits from
Japan
, we always dance at the dinner hosted by the mayor. We make an
annual visit to
New Braunfels
for the Fun-Sti-Toot dance hosted by the Gulf Coast Callers Co-op.
We put on various exhibitions for the local schools and nursing
homes.
On October 23, 2009, our caller, Daymond
Mayhall, received the honor of being inducted into the Texas
Callers’ Hall of Fame. The
award was presented to him at the 61st Houston Hoe-Down
Dance in
Galveston
,
Texas
.
We have lessons every year and graduate a class
in May. We feel very blessed to have such a fun and exciting club
that is still going strong after all these years.
