Joyce, the administrative assistant in the university department where I teach, is one of those people who brings sunshine everywhere she goes. It's impossible not to feel cheerful when you're around her. Every Friday, as the various professors of our department trickle into Joyce's office to check our mailboxes, she announces an impromptu dance party. Joyce is the baby of a big Southern family, and her older brothers and sisters mostly came of age in the mid-1950s to mid-'60s. While they were learning all the great American Bandstand dances, baby sister Joyce picked them up too. Now she passes along dance tips and good moods to a bunch of stodgy Classical Studies professors. Today we cha-cha'd to the incomparable Sam Cooke.

robinhoo 4 Oct 2013