Remembering Marget

April Schwartz

May 30, 2017

My late husband Alan and I first met Peter as our son Aaron's pre-school teacher at Childgrove School, when he told me about a contra-dance group he and Marget were forming. We were intrigued, and once we started, we were hooked. Alan, who could be an outrageous flirt, claimed it was the most fun a person could have with one's clothes on. I was pleased that it was an activity we could bring our son and daughter too. (I remember dancing with David when he was a teenager in Missouri, and then meeting up with David a decade or so later at dances at Glen Echo Park in Maryland.) In the beginning Peter called, and the organization grew slowly and surely. We danced with Peter and Marget at Childgrove in the late 1970's and then later at the church on the corner of Delmar Boulevard and Jackson. We saw them a bit when the group moved to dance in Webster Groves or Kirkwood—my memory is getting a bit fuzzy here—I wish Alan, who was my ancillary memory, were here to correct me—and we enjoyed visiting a few times more after they moved to the country but returned for a visit to dance with us in Chesterfield in the 1990's. I remember Marget’s liveliness and energy—she was an inspiration to all of us. Even when she and Peter only came to the dances sporadically (once with a load of pottery that Peter had made—I still have a turquoise soft-soap dispenser and a wide serving bowl decorated with a fish in the bottom that Alan and I bought from him that evening) it was always a special occasion when they made an appearance. Marget and Peter added immeasurable pleasure to our lives by introducing us to contra-dancing, organizing and calling dances, making those good times possible, and being all-around good folk.