‘I swept her off her feet’: Passion for dance leads to intrigue for Belleville …

For Gary and Mercedes Naumann, and Wayne and Donna Holcomb, line-dancing subsequent to any other led to a new step: Romance.

That was followed by a large step: Marriage.

The late Belleville couples discriminating their moves on and off a dance building during a PSOP comparison core in downtown Belleville.

The weekly 1:30 p.m. Wednesday category is typically filled with as many as 50 seniors overhanging hips, twisting, branch and practicing a infrequently difficult step patterns.

Socializing is roughly as most a partial of a category as is grooving to a Garth Brooks song.

“I had been there for lessons before and Gary wanted me to come” that sold week, pronounced Wayne, 74, of assembly Donna Walthes during a 2006 class. A late municipal buying dilettante for a Department of Defense, he was divorced and a lifelong crony of Gary’s.

“A crony brought me,” pronounced Donna, 65, a late Mascoutah propagandize clergyman and a widow. “We knew any other for a year before we started dating.”

They detected a passion for partner dancing — “We do that on Thursday nights during a Moose in Swansea,” she said. They also float bikes.

“I didn’t consider I’d get married,” Donna said. “Now we use dancing on a patio.”

Wayne grinned. “I swept her off her feet.” They married in 2009. Between them, they have 4 children and 7 grandchildren.

“Donna is a improved dancer,” pronounced Wayne as he and Donna sat with about a dozen associate line-dancers inside Margarita’s in downtown Belleville. It’s their unchanging entertainment mark after class.

“They haven us a list any week. We come here and speak and locate up. Have a margarita or a soda. They keep us in chips and salsa.”

Across from them sat Gary and Mercedes.

They also met in 2006. Gary, a widower, and widow Mercedes Huffman finished adult during a same weekly comparison line-dance category in Fairview Heights.

“I was there with Wayne and she was there with a friend. Wayne was articulate to her crony and we only stood there,” pronounced Gary, 74, a late minute carrier. “I asked her, ‘Do we know how to dance?’ we hadn’t danced with anyone though my mother for 38 years.”

He paused and incited to Mercedes and grinned. “You didn’t spin me down. … She pronounced it was about time.”

Mercedes laughed. After dancing, they all went out and had something to eat together, “and afterwards we went on a way,” she said.

The weekly PSOP category was a place to be seen.

“We saw any other infrequently during line dances,” pronounced Mercedes, 76. “We got to know any other.”

Neither was looking for romance, though “I had a lot of fun with him,” pronounced a late secretary.

After they attended a song festival in St. Louis together, he told her, “Well, we theory we’re apropos friends.”

Gary pronounced he was a one who felt a bit of coercion to get married.

“We were pulling 70 — and there’s not a lot of time left! You have kids, though a residence is empty.” Between them, there are 7 children and 13 grandchildren. They married in 2007.

Both couples pronounced they eased into a thought of removing married.

“We only started articulate about it,” pronounced Wayne.

“We motionless to get married, though not right away,” Gary said. He and Mercedes systematic a crimson ring, that was her birthstone.

“When we got it, we took it to her. we got down on one knee in her apartment. … She worked part-time during Macy’s afterwards and wanted to uncover it to a girls.”

Wayne and Gary were any other’s best men.

And yes, there was dancing during both weddings.

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