About Happy Time Squares

Happy Time Squares was founded in 1988 by Harry Trott. They danced at the Cocheco River Estates on Wednesday evenings for a while and then moved to the East Rochester Fire Station. “Happy” Harry Trott was the club caller/teacher for a number of years. Later on, Lila Heath joined him and taught and cued round dancing, which is done in between square dance tips at most dances.

The club started dancing at the Rochester Community Center on Wakefield Street in Rochester in 1992. They still dance there today.

Around 2003, the club hired Jerry Maurice as their caller/teacher and Barbara Horlor as their round dance leader.

In 2010, when Jerry could no longer call for the club, Chris Pinkham was hired as the club’s caller/teacher. He was the club caller until his death in 2016.

For a while, the club hired various callers for workshops and classes. Darrell Sprague was eventually hired as club caller/teacher and still is today. At that time, we changed our dance night to Tuesday.

The club had “themed” Saturday night dances every few months. Some of the themes were Hot Dog Dance, Strawberries and Cream, Christmas Dance, Circus Dance, and Sweetheart Dance. A different caller/cuer would be hired for each dance.

Local clubs would do “Banner Raids” at these dances. Each club had a club banner, and if a club visited another club’s dance with more than a square of dancers, they would take that club’s banner home with them. To get the banner back, that club would visit the raiding club at one of their dances to retrieve their banner. It was a great way for clubs to support one another.

Happy Times’ motto was “Don’t Worry – Be Happy!” The club would have potluck suppers and summer picnics occasionally. We even had a “Snowshoe Dance” in a member’s backyard for fun a few times. It was followed by food and more dancing in their home.

When COVID hit in 2020, dancing stopped for several years. It is coming back little by little, but a lot of clubs did not start back up and folded. A few callers found a way to dance during that time by holding sessions on Zoom. Couples could dance in their own homes with a phantom couple. It was not for everyone, but it kept some of us dancing. There were also round dance Zoom sessions happening.

HTS started back dancing in 2023 with weekly workshops and eventually classes for new dancers. The club should be starting to have occasional Saturday night dances soon.

HTS also holds a Camp and Dance weekend every year in September. This year is the 13th year.

We are all looking forward to welcoming new people into this wonderful activity.