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Swing your partner do-si-do required dancers to circle each other while facing the same direction. Photo from the Ralph and Dossie Rogers Collection
The old Parish Hall at the Trinity Church was used for a number of years for programs for local students. I remember taking a 4-H cooking class there hosted by Ann Gibson. I learned to make peanut butter cookies in the little stove that sat in the corner.
The building originally was an army barracks that came from Camp Bowie in Brownwood. It made the trip to Dublin after they started shutting down Camp Bowie after World War II. The building was lovingly used by the Dublin community until the floor started becoming a bit soft years later.
In the January 30, 1953 Dublin Progress, there was an article about a Teen Club that was started. On Saturday nights at 7:30 the Parish Hall was open to all students for an evening’s entertainment. They had table games and square dancing. They hoped to get a ping pong table and to have future talent shows.
The chaperons were school officials, teachers and other interested adults. For the opening night of the Teen Club, basketball and football Coach Bill Smith was in charge. He asked those attending to bring records with them. Some phonograph records had the announcer telling the dancers how to square dance “swing your partner do-si-do”. It was a popular way of dancing at the time with the announcer calling all the steps. Some adults liked to square dance and attended along with the kids.
Dancing was frowned upon by many churches at that time, but square dancing was considered to be acceptable because it was an organized event.
When Jean and Leslie Billingsley were in high school, they attended and danced at the events. Sometimes the Methodist Church hosted square dances too.
The Episcopal Church had a lot of members at that time that helped pay for the building upkeep. It was during this time the bell tower of the church as moved from the front of the church to the back and the outside of the church was rocked.
The Trinity Episcopal Church made the Parish Hall available for a lot of people to use. Guest speakers would be invited, the Rotary Anns, the women of Dublin Rotary would meet there and Marty Gore taught tap dancing classes. Dublin didn’t have a meeting place at that time so the hall served many functions to help the Dublin community.
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