THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN CALLERS ASSOCIATION Inc.

“SA’s Mr Square Dance”, “Cuddles”, “Caller Col”, Square Dance Calling Legend”

(Submitted by Joan Clark nee Huddleston)

  

Early Days

Colin was born on 1st May 1914 at Whyalla, just 15 days after the official name change from Hummock Hill. He was the third of four children born to Oscar William and Susan Isobel Huddleston (nee Rankin). The family lived in Iron Knob. His mother died in 1924 and his father died two years later.

 

He moved to Eurail where he was cared for by his grandparents and where he soon developed a reputation as a fine young sportsman, playing cricket, football and tennis in the town and for the town. He received his Qualifying Certificate at age 13 and immediately left school to work on a number of farms in and around Eurail.

 

In his late teens he moved further north where he worked on Beltana Station and later patrolled the dog-proof fence separating Beltana Station, Myrtle Springs and Ediacaran. Maintaining the fence required the use of a five camel team to carry posts, netting, camping gear, implements and tools.

 

His “home” was a small hut at a point along the fence, miles from anywhere. His and his colleagues’ huts were separated by long distances and they were permitted to spend a long weekend together at the homestead just once a month. A fairly lonely life for quite a number of years.

 

To quote Colin…”Although at times it was a very lonely life, and at times I would not see another person for a month, I enjoyed my life in the bush, and no better friend could a man have than a real “bushy”. Those were the days when you shared your damper and anything else you had with a swaggie or any other unfortunate person you came across, carrying their swags and trying to find work. And they were also the days when friendships were formed and people trusted and helped each other survive drought and the Great Depression”

 

“During my stay on the Station I used to listen to as much country music as I could get in my little crystal wireless and if any country singers or entertainers came up north it was nothing to get on a camel and ride many miles to attend such an event, and even to dances that may be held anywhere within a radius of 30 miles. You would be surprised how much ground a camel can cover within a few hours.”

 

Colin left station life in the early thirties to join a railway gang on the Adelaide – Alice Springs railway line, fettling and generally keeping the line operable. The gang would often have to be out for many hours, at all hours, day and night, shovelling sand off the line to enable the “Ghan” train through to Alice Springs and/or Adelaide. The gang had to regularly inspect bridges and culverts and occasionally floods washed the line away completely.

 

Settling Down

He left the far north in 1936 and moved to Adelaide where he married long-time girlfriend Sophie Kaerger, who was also from Eurail. He started work with GMH at Woodville. After

applying, unsuccessfully, to join the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, he took a position at the Islington Railway Workshops which manufactured equipment for all three. He was issued a National Service Certificate in 1940 classifying him as “serving in a reserved occupation for defence purposes”. Post war he joined the E&WS Department serving as a storeman until retirement.

 

Colin and Sophie initially lived in Alberton, bringing, Joan, Marilyn and Barry into the world, moving to Ferryden Park in 1951.

 

Getting Into Square Dancing

Colin spent a few weeks laid up in the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1953 recovering from a duodenal ulcer. At that time square dancing was becoming popular in South Australia and the outstanding Victorian square dance Caller, Jim Vickers-Willis, was attracting crowds at the Palais Royal in North Terrace, opposite the RAH.

 

He had become interested in square dancing and formed the view that it was the friendliest form of dance in the world; it was family oriented and was not subject to the “generation gap”. Teenagers regularly danced within sets with age groups in their fifties and sixties, and he visualised complete families becoming interested – and that’s just what happened.

 

While lying in his hospital bed, the sounds of Jim Vickers-Willis and happy square dancers enjoying themselves “turned him on”. Following his release from hospital he gathered seven friends and joined an established club, participating in a contest which his “set” won and was featured on the front page of The Advertiser! Shortly after he decided that he had what it would take to become a caller and in August 1953 he started his own club. It grew rapidly and soon became the leading club in Adelaide and surrounds.

 

Hitting the Big Time

The advent of television in the late fifties opened a new chapter in Colin’s life. He and his square dancers became a regular part of what became Reg Lindsay’s Country and Western Hour, which went national and was even shown overseas. The program ran for almost nine years during which Colin and his sets made around 500 appearances.

 

It led to Colin and Reg becoming very close friends, touring Australia on numerous occasions, performing for large audiences in regional cities and in outback areas. They performed to huge audiences in Fiji on one memorable trip.

 

Colin was particularly thrilled by being given the opportunity to take square dancing to several aboriginal communities, including a most memorable visit to Arnhem Land to teach 200+ aboriginal school children the routines.

 

During the years Colin estimates he’d designed and sung square dance routines to at least 1000 country music tunes and had taught somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 people the art of square dancing.

 

Slowing Down

In later life Colin withdrew from running his own Club but spent much time calling to and teaching any groups wishing to learn and/or improve their square dancing skills. He taught for several church groups, at schools, birthday parties and more.

 

Also, in later life, he pondered on the whereabouts of the thousands of people who had made square dancing a big part of their entire lives. He formed the view that in square dancing there are more and more steps and movements to learn and to quote him ….”possibly after dancing for a life time you still have not finished learning, and the majority of people do not want to have to keep on going every week to learn some new movement. You don’t have to do this in old-time dancing or in discos or in rock”.

 

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 The End of an Era…….

Colin passed away on 6th July 1988 at the Flinders Medical Centre, aged 74, as a result of a heart attack.