It's the weekly dance social at Sacramento's Hart Senior Center on 27th Street. As the live band cranked out a saucy Latin number, and the chiffon skirts and leather loafers swished across the linoleum, Pearl Wiggins had something to say.
"If my leg didn't hurt me, I'd get out there and I'd show them how to dance," she said.
She was being modest. Wiggins already had shown them how it's done. She's been a regular at the weekly dance club for decades, and she was out there on the floor for the first number Sunday – a bouncy fox trot.
But this wasn't just another Sunday. This time the seniors had thrown a surprise party for her 102nd birthday, which is Friday.
Wiggins is the oldest dancer in the group. She's the oldest anyone can remember dancing at the Sunday events, which have been held at the senior center for some 40 years.
"We had a party once for some dancers who were all in their 90s," said Phyllis Heim of Carmichael, who has served as hostess of the Sunday dances for 22 years .
Wiggins has seen the American way of life change a few times over. But dancing has been a steady companion.
It began during her childhood in Montana, where her father homesteaded a cattle ranch. Cowboys in the area held regular dance socials, but there often weren't enough women to go around. So they'd dance with the children instead.
Wiggins and her sister learned to dance at these events from their uncle, also a cattle rancher. And she's danced ever since. Ballroom dancing is her favorite, but she likes every kind.
"I love to dance," said Wiggins, who wore a blue and purple floral dress. "I've danced all over the place."
She milked cows and fed the pigs on the family ranch. She walked to elementary school in the days before the automobile. By eighth grade, she was driving her brother and sister seven miles to school in a horse-drawn cart.
She married at 18 and eloped with her groom from a nearby Montana town. He liked to dance, too, and the couple would kick up their heels at social events.
In 1933, lured by a member of his family, the couple moved to Fair Oaks. Her husband worked as a truck driver, and she raised four children.
With a growing family, Wiggins decided to rent a larger home in Roseville one day while her husband was out of town for work. Their rent doubled from $5 to $10 a month.
The couple later bought that same Roseville home for $1,800, and Wiggins has lived there ever since.
After her husband died in 1970, Wiggins and a girlfriend began driving to dance halls for fun.
"But I wasn't looking for a man," she said. It was just about dancing.
Then in 1982 she met Joe Martin, a retired carpenter, at the Hart Senior Center's Sunday dance club.
"She didn't want to dance, but I insisted," said Martin, 94. When asked what attracted him, he said, "She was a good dancer, for one thing. She taught me the steps I know now."
The two became steadfast companions, and traveled extensively together. They've done 13 ocean cruises, and Martin said he wore out two new Toyota Supras on cross-country trips together.
"I had to slow down," he said. "Now I drive a Camry."
Wiggins still lives on her own in Roseville, but doesn't drive anymore because her eyesight has failed her. Instead, a friend drives her to Martin's house in east Sacramento each Sunday, and he drives them to the Hart Center for dancing.
Warmed up by the birthday celebration – cake, balloons and gifts – Wiggins got in her Latin number after all.
Leading her carefully by the arm out onto the crowded floor, Martin set the pace with a lively but distinctive rhythm that ran from his ankles up to his elbows.
"We're happy just to come here to the senior center, meet with folks and dance a little," Wiggins said.
Call The Bee's Matt Weiser, (916) 321-1264.
