Dance Duties Keep Ex-Trucker Stepping Lively

Gayle Brandon is on a two-stepping fast track.

“I have too much to do, too many places to go, too many people to meet and not enough time to do it,” said the one-time 18-wheeler driver who now teaches country and Western dancing most nights, except Monday, when she does her laundry.

The Louisiana Polytechnic Institute graduate’s truck-driving handle was “Lady Bones,” a tribute to her ongoing interest in archeology.

Brandon, 52, of San Juan Capistrano, reserves one day a month for camping--”to hide under a tree with a book and a campfire and the only noise I hear is a couple of squirrels yelling at each other.”

The former Arthur Murray dance instructor now teaches the Texas two-step, Texas polka, cotton-eyed Joe, tush push and cowboy boogie, among other dances, at parks and recreation classes, mobile home parks and Western dance clubs and bars.

She also gives private lessons and is promoting “Let’s Dance With Gayle” cruises to the Caribbean, Mexico and Alaska.

“I have every weekend booked through October,” said the Tulsa-born woman who is filming a country-Western dance video and hopes to turn country-Western dancing into a full-time job for herself.

She also teaches classes in T-shirt painting and beading and operates a country-Western disc jockey service with one of her two grown sons who often dance with her in dance competition.

“They are both very good,” said Brandon, whose parents were square dancers.

During the day Brandon works as an accountant, one of the reasons the twice-divorced woman became a trucker.

“I got tired of sitting behind a desk and I wanted to spread my wings,” explained Brandon, who spent eight years behind the wheel before returning to the desk. “I became a professional tourist and got paid for it.”

She hauled produce, aircraft engines and a variety of other loads on coast-to-coast runs that carried her through 46 states.

“I had a wonderful time and would do it again, even though it was a tough life,” said Brandon, who would like to find another husband but says she doesn’t have the time to look for one.

Life on the road was sometimes difficult, “so I had to be tough. I’ll tell you how tough I was. This trucker once said I was the toughest marshmallow he ever met.”

Country-Western dancing is becoming very popular, said Brandon, who continues to take lessons to keep up on what is new.

“Either that or you get passed by,” she said, adding, “People who dance to country music seem to have more fun, especially when it dawns on them that their feet are doing what they tell them to do.”

If she was asked what dance she liked best, “I would tell them I like to teach the waltz most of all. I like things that are pretty, elegant, alive, fun, graceful and a little flamboyant.”

But teaching any type of dance has other benefits, she said.

“Teaching dancing is a good way to meet people and helps keep me in shape,” said Brandon, who claims that she is not particularly comfortable being in front of people.

“It’s real hard for me, but once I get up there and get things under way, I start having fun,” she said.