MORE: Partners in Prime Hamilton building sold to school district
A couple members of the Oxford Seniors organization heard about their plight and suggested the Oxford Senior Center. It has worked out well for the past month, and now it looks like the dances will stay in Oxford for the foreseeable future.
“We looked around Hamilton to find a place to go, but everything in Hamilton was too expensive to rent,” said Art Moore, chairman of the dance committee.
Some of the event’s regulars didn’t make the move to Oxford because they felt it was too far to drive, but Moore and Oxford Seniors Executive Director Joan Potter-Sommer hope to see those local numbers grow.
“We’re glad they’re here. They are welcome to stay as long as they can be here,” Potter-Sommer said. “They’ve given us another way to get people to come through the doors.”
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Anyone in the community — not only Oxford Seniors members — are invited to attend. The dances are held Wednesdays from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Cost is $5 to cover the cost of the band and everyone is asked to bring a snack to share.
The band is led by Jim McBride, who plays piano and sings. The group was formerly known as the Over The Hill Gang but had changed its name to Primetimers, in deference to their roots with Partners in Prime.
“The band has been around a long time with different personnel, playing many years in Hamilton,” McBride said. “One of the older members, who was 95, had to quit because of the drive to Oxford. He told me he had been in the band for 20 years.”
McBride said the dances had been going on for many years in Hamilton and they thought sale of the senior center building would end them.
“We had to find a home and thought we would have to stop, but at the last minute we got to come to Oxford,” he said. “It’s been going well. We’re just going to see what happens.”
The other band members are Gordon Fox on drums, Eddie Collett on bass guitar, Ron Purvis on trumpet and singer Shirley Bennett.
Bennett said she has been singing with the band for 15 years and still holds out hope of finding a new home in Hamilton, but Moore and McBride do not see that happening.
Bennett said she sang all over the Cincinnati area when she was younger and enjoyed lounge singing gigs.
“I love singing. From the time I was a kid, they could not shut me up,” she said. “I think it would be good to get the band back in Hamilton.”
McBride embraces the opportunity to play to a new audience and hopes word will get out about the dances and more local residents will stop in on Wednesday afternoons.
“It’s a great thing to do. It’s great exercise, great fellowship. People love it who like to dance,” McBride said.
Potter-Sommer issued an invitation to everyone to try out the dances.
“I encourage members of the community to come and join in as well,” she said.
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