Back on the Dance Floor

For Kit’s August 6, 2023, birthday, his former graduate student, geographer and longtime friend Professor Emeritus Daniel D. Arreola and his wife Susan sent the following message—

This is an 85th birthday tribute to Christopher Lord Salter, geographer extraordinaire, landscape scholar, loving father, and devoted father.  It comes at a time when Kit is repairing and the spirit of the message and audio I am attaching is that Kit will be “Back on the Dance Floor” soon in full swing with his lovely Chloe.

Feliz Cumpleaños Profe, 
Dano and Susan

Enclosed in Dan’s message was a YouTube from Mark Knopfler’s album “Down the Road Wherever” and the song “Back on the Dance Floor.” The Lyrics were included so Kit could sing along.  Keywords appropriate to a geographer were “shantung gambler suits” and “motherload.  Dan and Susan caught his last live performance in Phoenix in 2019 and left feeling Knopfler is a poet.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4isMP-MBnE

Hand me down my high roller Stetson 
Hand me down my smokeless .41 
We're gonna look so sharp when we walk in 
They're gonna be jazzed we come

We're going for the major comeback 
For the motherlode, the mighty score 
We'll be the toast of every knocked out boogie shack 
Now we're back on the dancefloor 

Going all the way is the only way to go 
The only game in town 
Shake your moneymaker closer to the floor 
Shake 'em on down 
Shake 'em on down

Hand me down my two-tone wingtips 
Hand me down my skull head walking cane 
You all gotta wear them shantung gambler suits 
They're gonna be jazzed we came

We're going for the major comeback 
For the motherlode, the mighty score 
We'll be the toast of every knocked out boogie shack 
Now we're back on the dancefloor 
(Back on the dancefloor)

Kit’s recovery from a traumatic brain injury a year ago is an ongoing journey and the road ahead may be long, but he and I have begun stepping out of late from the rehab “Lodge” where he resides just 10 minutes from our home in Nevada City.  In time, I’m hoping we’ll be back on the dancefloor again. 

Here are some of our recent adventures out and about on what we used to call “dates.”

Dinner for two on the Lodge patio at an umbrella table.
Menu: Chloe cooked ribeye steaks and baked potatoes served with a glass of French red.

Lunch at Mel’s Diner in Auburn after an iron infusion. 
Menu:  Fish and chips (sweet potato fries) and Mel’s signature ketchup.

Saturday night dinner for two at Tuscany Gardens in Grass Valley.
Menu:  Homemade pizza with four meats (for his iron), Caesar Salad, and Spumoni ice cream.

We’re not dancing yet, but we are therapy walking, winning bingo games in the community room, and working on retrieving words that elude us (like when you can’t remember what was served at breakfast but can still remember something that happened 50 years ago!)

Life is a journey with detours we never imagined taking just two years ago.  Some are into unknown territory.  Others are like a detour a few years ago down a road named “Romance” somewhere north of Ada, MO.  At first we assumed it was a dead-end road.  Intrigued by the town’s name, we backed up, and explored its history.  There is always a story where romance is concerned.

With Kit, life has always been filled with romance.  Our shared romance of the road.  The romance of sharing a dance at a wedding.  Dancing on Main Street in Buffalo, WY during Longmire Days.  Or dancing one full moon night on a concrete pad at the Beckmeyer Farm before it became the floor of a corn silo.

For now, as Kit hits 85, we’ll settle for some wheelchair dancing.  But hope springs eternal that just down the road we’ll put our boots back on and head for the dancefloor once again.