Spooners celebrate 70th anniversary

Richard and Charlene Spooner clasp hands next to photos of their family earlier this month at their home in Clarkston. The couple has been together for more than 70 years.

Long dance

Clarkston couple — and local square dancing royalty — will celebrate their 70th anniversary this week

It began with a flower. In her final year of junior high in Clarkston, Charlene (Ewing) Spooner plucked a rose and pinned it to a cute boy’s hair. “We’ve been kind of making eyes at each other,” Charlene remembered. “And he left it in all day long.” Richard “Dick” Spooner, who was in seventh grade and a newcomer from Alberta, Canada, said he got teased a little but didn’t mind at all because Charlene was a beautiful “sweater girl.” “We wore tight sweaters,” Charlene explained, laughing at a slightly flustered Richard. “She was outstanding, in my view,” Richard said. They’ve been together ever since.

They will celebrate their 70th anniversary Thursday. He would ride his bike to see her.

They went on small dates to the movie theater and bigger ones like formal school dances, where Charlene story by JAYCE CARRAL said she “felt like a queen.” They married in 1951 and had three children photos by by 1959. Charlene and AUGUST FRANK Richard said they grew up

GOLDEN TIMES in loving households and wanted to emulate that for their own children. “They were pretty lovey dovey,” said Linda Bailey, their eldest child, who retired as director of development of Washington State University’s College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences. If her

parents ever fought, Bailey said, she never saw it.

Charlene was a stay-athome mom, and Richard spent his days working with his father, then later at his own business, Early Bird Supply Inc. On weekends, they would all spend time together during family dinners and picnics. They did a lot of camping, an activity Bailey said she now does with her own family.

Richard and Charlene have 10 grandchildren; 24 great-grandchildren, with another on the way; and one great-greatgrandchild.

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In addition to their family ties, the couple discovered a second passion in 1962. They were visiting Charlene’s sister in California, when they were invited to a square dance. Charlene’s sister pulled Richard onto the floor and made him dance. He adapted to the steps quickly, which was surprising for a first-timer, Charlene said. “I learned to dance with my mom,” Richard said. “I stepped on her feet, and she taught me the waltz.”

Charlene sat out that first event, but she didn’t stay on the sidelines long. When they arrived back in Clarkston, they put on some old records and practiced steps they’d picked up from other dancers. Charlene found her own rhythm in the dance, and within a year, Richard took it a step further and began taking lessons to become a caller.

In addition to calling out steps and formations during a song, square dance callers must create a program and match it to TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2021

August Frank/Golden Times Richard and Charlene Spooner stand for a photo at their home in Clarkston. They have been together for more than 70 years.

music before the dance. Richard’s family was musical: His mother danced and played piano; his sister could pick up any string instrument and play by ear. So his informal music training melded well with square dancing.

Soon, he was regularly leading dances with an average of 40-50 participants. He began receiving calling contracts, so he and Charlene traveled the country to events. A caller’s wife sacrifices a lot, Charlene said. Richard couldn’t dance while calling, so she lost her favorite partner. But she said enjoyed his calling more than anyone else’s.

They had a 28-year contract at a lodge in Oregon, so they would frequently go there for events. They joined and built communities revolving around a shared love of square dancing. “We danced Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday — just had a good time,” Richard said.

In 1988, Richard designed and built a dance hall, Twin City Square and Round Dance, near the home he built in Clarkston. The couple would host dances, occasionally invite guest callers, and dance and dance and dance. “I just love to get them dancers out on the floor and get them going,” Richard said. “I could just feel the energy.“

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Their dancing faltered in 2005 after a visit to their youngest daughter, Alisa, in Canada. Richard got a horrible headache, so he went to rest while Charlene and Alisa went shopping.

“We left him alone, which was stupid,” Charlene said.

When they arrived back in Clarkston a few days later, Richard went to practice calls at the dance hall, and he returned GOLDEN TIMES home visibly upset. “He came in, he had tears in his eyes, and he said, ‘I don’t know what’s happened … there’s something wrong,’ ” Charlene said.

She took him to the hospital, where he got an MRI. They learned the episode in Canada was a ministroke, also called a transient ischemic attack.

The injury caused Richard to “lose his music,” he said. “Putting the calls together with the music, it wasn’t fitting. “That was just his life, and he loved it,” Charlene said. “It was just heartbreaking because he couldn’t do it.”

He spent the next three years practicing his calls to batches of records on the turntable. Through hard work, he was able to call dances again. But he didn’t regain all his ability, and after leading a few more events, he decided to retire.

The silver lining was Charlene got her partner back, and they still continue to dance and enjoy time with their longtime community.

In 2017, the Washington State Square and Folk Dance Federation awarded the Spooners the Almon F. Parker Inspirational Award. It honors people who have “done an outstanding job of teaching and promoting” square dancing, according to the federation’s website.

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Square dancing took a backseat during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since they couldn’t hold events, they spent their time doing puzzles and talking to family over video calls.

Richard and Charlene enjoyed the time together much as they have for the majority of their lives — and they’re finally back to square dancing. They reopened their hall July 17 and danced all night long. “She’s supported me through all these square dance years — and, also, she can cook like you can’t believe,” Richard laughed. “I’ve loved her, and I’ve loved her every minute since I’ve seen her.”

Charlene, who struggles with some hearing loss, missed the comment, so he turned toward her so she could read his lips. “I said, I’ve loved you ever since I met you,” he repeated, drawing a laugh from his bride of seven decades. “We’ve had a wonderful life,” she said.

> IF YOU GO

WHAT: Square dancing.

WHERE: Twin City Square and Round Dance, 2130 Fifth Ave., Clarkston.

MORE INFORMATION: (509) 780-1910.

One trick to traveling cheaply: flexibility

By SAM KEMMIS

NERDWALLET

So you want to travel on a budget. Who doesn’t? Yet it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the cheap travel tips, hacks and strategies out there that promise unbelievable deals on airfare and hotels.

In reality, there’s only one important tactic for traveling cheaply: being flexible with your travel dates, destination and plans. It might sound simple — or even simplistic — but you would be surprised how few travelers are willing to take this piece of advice to heart.

To be fair, this flexibility-first mindset requires a paradigm shift for many in terms of how they start planning vacations. It requires moving from this type of planning:

“I want to go to Amsterdam from Sept. 5 through 13.”

To this:

“I want to go somewhere fun in September.”

For some, this degree of flexibility is simply impossible. Yet for those who can loosen their preconceptions about how to plan travel, it can lead to big savings — and maybe even more fun — whether you’re paying with cash or using points.

WHY RIGIDITY IS SO EXPENSIVE

The cost of travel depends on the interplay between many factors, including: ï Demand. ï Supply. ï Randomness. ï Number of options.

When you make specific plans from the get-go, you essentially constrain the last variable — you give yourself fewer options. This means that the cost of your trip will depend entirely on the first three variables, which are completely outside of your control.

This economic interplay will sometimes fall in your favor, and

David Zalubowski/Associated Press Travelers make their way out of the main terminal to the pickup zone for rental car agencies last month at Denver International Airport. To fly for the lowest price on your next trip, try searching without a specific destination or date in mind. You can save money and points if you’re willing to be flexible with your travel dates and locations.

you’ll score a good deal on the exact destination and dates you wanted. But more often than not, you’ll end up paying more than average simply by starting with a severely limited set of options.

HOW TO PLAN TRAVELS WITH FLEXIBILITY

You can still set some boundaries around your search. Example parameters might include: ï I want to travel in the fall. ï I want to sit on the beach. ï I don’t want to spend more than $X.

From here, you can begin weighing different destinations and dates to see which could maximize your preferences. For example, you might start with flights to Hawaii, but notice that airfare is through the roof. So you switch to the Caribbean, narrow your interest to a few destinations with cheap flights, then start researching hotel prices.

Finally, you can find the dates and destinations that offer the best combination of price and features, then book your travel.

Think about how many times you (or someone you know) have gone about it the other way — by starting with dates and a destination, then accepting whatever costs come up.

THE RIGHT TOOLS

As this flexible travel approach gains in popularity, travel booking sites and services have begun offering helpful tools specifically designed for the task.

AIRFARE DEAL ALERTS

Airfare deal newsletters, like Scott’s Cheap Flights and Dollar Flight Club, are how many travelers start thinking in terms of flexibility. These newsletters send a blast to subscribers whenever they discover a low-cost airfare deal. But there’s usually a catch: These airfare deals are available only on certain dates, or to very specific destinations. You can’t sit around waiting for a great deal from Atlanta to Sydney, because that may not come around in time.

But you can wait for an exciting fare from Atlanta to … somewhere, and jump on it when it becomes available.

GOOGLE FLIGHTS EXPLORE

Many travel search engines, like Kayak or Orbitz, have highly flexible search tools. Google Flights offers a feature called “Explore” that allows you to search in a totally wide-open way. You enter your departure city, the length of trip you’re looking for and your price range, and Google returns a handful of deals to a bunch of destinations at random times within your date range.

POINTS AND MILES

Travel bloggers love to rave about how they scored a firstclass ticket using miles, but they don’t often describe their true secret: extreme flexibility.

Redeeming points and miles for reward travel all but requires a high degree of flexibility to get the most value from them. For one thing, the availability of these awards can be spotty. Before you can even determine if an award booking is a good deal or not, you need to actually find an available award booking option. For another, airlines often double the price or more during high-demand dates. In short: If you’re looking to use miles on a specific flight on a specific day, you might either pay too much — or not be able to score a ticket at all.

To make things easier, many airlines offer award calendars that let you see which dates and prices are available by month, which can be especially helpful when rooting out hard-to-find premium cabin tickets.

RELATED LINKS: ï The beginner’s guide to

points and miles — bit.ly/ nerdwallet-travel-guide.

ï Ask a travel nerd: Should I use points and miles to book

2021 travel? — bit.ly/nerdwallet- points-and-miles.