Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer 
Alton Ellis - File
The road was a ballroom floor, quite a few couples twirling and snapping their legs up and down from the knee in time with the music.
Just past midnight yesterday it was steady rocking in the streets of Rae Town, Kingston, with the rocksteady o Ellis on the turntables and the oldies faithful going where cars normally ventured.
And it remained that way for the latest instalment of the Sunday night oldies street dance, until the disco of the extended mix of Eddy Grant's Walking on Sunshine signalled a change of pace going up to 2:00 a.m., the percussions rattling over a gathering that had grown significantly from in the earlier going.
In that earlier going,it wa Ellis' Weeping Willow that was holding sway, the first of a quadruple from the rocksteady standout.
When Ellis mourned "I lost that love before", the selector restarted without fanfare and the groove continued.
On More Reasons Than One, a man with a pipe sending puffs of indeterminable matter into the night air dropped legs, then many voices chortled "breaking up is hard to do".
An older, much older, and short, much shorter, man in a brown suit, held hands with a lass and grinned as he looked up at her very happily as Delroy Wilson sent "tears from my eyes ... rolling down my cheeks" from the turntables.
Beat picked up
With the crowd growing bit by bit, a vendor pushed a stroller with his wares down the street - a cardboard box rimmed with lollipops where a baby's bottom would normally be and two bottles of sweets balanced over where the head would have been.
"One Delroy a no Delroy," the selector said and the deceased Wilson duly complained "once upon a time, I almost lost my mind, I was lonely".
A police car served as a back support for one woman, the bonnet doing dumb waiter duties for her bottle of choice, Carl Dawkins' Satisfaction living up to its billing.
As a dreadlocked man in a red, green and gold tam had his moment in the spotlight, knees together and crouching as he rode his musical horse in one position on the asphalt as the beat picked up with ska, Eastern Standard Time, Carry Go Bring Come and Blazing Fire among the selections.
"Madness, they call it madness," the singer commented before the beat was changed to R&B and, suddenly, the road was a ballroom floor, quite a few couples twirling and snapping their legs up and down from the knee in time with the music.
After Sam Cooke pledged "yes I will, you know I will", the distinctive strings of Change Must Come held sway and a man who had been twirling a lass in a blue top and white pants changed his partner, but only her shirt was different from the previous one's outfit.
A couple held sway in the crossroads, stately in movement even as they rocked their way out of an intruding car's way.
A lass in a blue jeans skirt outfit standing under a street light, on the sidewalk, rocked away, her bleached face attempting to outshine the public lighting.
More than spirits raised
And the lyric "I was born and raised in the ghetto" seemed to have added significance, getting an enthusiastic restart, even as the older man in the brown suit got close contact from a young girl in tight blue jeans.
More than his spirits were raised, to the extreme amusement of all around, the gentleman looking down with an extremely pleased expression and clutching his higher standard repeatedly.
As the disco hit, The Gleaner left a merry crowd, passing by one young lady whose push-up bra gave a new meaning to vertical lift on the way out of Rae Townfrom another night of oldies in the streets.
