Night Hooping

The first day that I was introduced to the hula hoop was not all that long ago. June 15, 2007, actually ...and since then, I have taken the hoop into my heart, and hope to spread the fire. I will be learning right along side all fellow hoopers.
Here's how it went: I visited my good friend Tracey in Northampton, MA, where, apparently there is a renaissance movement dedicated to the art of hooping, or hoop dancing. Tracey has three or four hoops, made by a local woman in one of the hoop groups, and I whirled a couple times in her back porch, banging into furniture and upsetting Tuffy the cat to no end. We moved our hoop party to town...there was a hoop happening, as it turned out in town that day. Several women, effortlessly twirled hoops through the air, around their waists, necks, arms and back down again. One willowy woman in black simultaneously spun two around her midsection so that she looked like the nucleus of an atom. I picked up a hoop hesitantly. I have my moments of coordination, but public displays rarely serve to bring them out. I received quite a bit of encouragement that day, to persevere; not 10 minutes had passed and I was doing tricks. Not great tricks, mind you, but more than the run of the mill around the hip stuff. These hoops made it possible! They were not the flimsy, light plastic hoops that I remember from a failed youth of hoop attempts. They were large, graceful, swooping about my middle with a gentle swish of water....I was hooked.
That night, we brought them to a party and hooped our hearts out. An added bonus that we discovered that night--it keeps the bugs away!

As inspiring as a proper renaissance should be, the hooping in Northampton moved me to bring hooping here to York, PA.