Dark, rainy, and a bit cold as we turned from the eighty-mile-an-hour US 281 onto a one lane horse and buggy road that led to the historic 1870s Twin Sisters Dance Hall and the 10th annual Festival of Texas Fiddling. Twin Sisters, clad in gray clapboard stone-patterned tin siding, is surrounded by majestic live oak trees. Concrete stairs lead to heavy wooden sliding doors that open to an experience in history. Rain and a muddy parking lot did not dampen the enthusiasm of those who came to dance, or the fiddlers who came to entertain. Inside, along the walls of the hall and surrounding the dance floor, are tables, chairs, and counters, ordinary furniture with no special historic significance. In the center of Twin Sisters Dance Hall, under a barrel-vaulted ceiling, the historic dance floor is the main attraction and, when filled with those who came to dance, the old Twin Sisters Dance Hall is alive. Engineer Patrick Sparks, Director and Founder of the Festival of Texas Fiddling, invited us to the fiddling event and to dance to Texas rhythms. We discovered our big band swing and two-step style will need a bit of modification and improvement for the next annual fiddling festival at the Twin Sisters Dance Hall. Vern Mesler, 2024
