This is an opinion column

As is often said, there are two types of people in the world – there are those who still watch commercials on television and there are those who do not. This divide may be based somewhat on age. Younger people prefer streaming services with no commercials, while older Americans still gather around traditional programming like it’s a warm fire.

I fall – just barely – into the latter. And if commercials are supposed to imitate slices of day-to-day life then I feel like I should see more dancing.

Now am I implying I never see any dancing? No.

I saw a man on the side of Highway 80 in Selma dancing. But he was by himself, and his eyes were closed, and nobody was joining in with him.

I’m not entirely sure the Selma Police didn’t pick him up for public intoxication later in the day, but he was definitely dancing.

I saw a Camden man dancing in the middle of Broad Street in downtown Camden a few days ago. Really it was more of a jig than a dance. I think he was playing chicken with a big yellow Wilcox County school bus.

He was kind of skipping across the street, and he had both arms stretched out with both of his hands waiving in the air.

I assume he knew the driver.

He either knew the driver or needs a mental evaluation, so I take it they were friends – which is nice, but again…it wasn’t a coordinated routine and nobody else filed out of downtown businesses to join him.

Last Monday I was at Wind Creek Atmore and I camped out for a while on one machine and just by chance of the way the place is designed, there was another machine directly in front of me diagonally.

The woman at that machine – who potentially could qualify to dance in a commercial for type 2 diabetes medication – won $176. This made her happy enough to holler, pulling the attention of everyone near, but then when she hit the bonus spins she jumped off of her stool and started dancing in place.

Eddie Money would have really liked it, she was shakin’ and snappin’ her fingers – rather passionately I might add, and still nobody joined her.

An older woman gave her the eye for being loud and interrupting her spin counting, and then a person that appeared to be the dancing girl’s sister staggered up to check on her, but she didn’t dance or shake or spin or anything.

I didn’t join in either, yet as a retired dance mom of three daughters who were involved in competition dance for years I feel qualified to have an opinion.

In fact, my opinion may be the most valuable thing I have to show for it…and as other dance moms I’m sure will agree – nobody would describe it as cheap.

All I’m saying is this: as many commercials there are with groups of people so happy with their medicine that they are dancing around city fountains, and men so thrilled with their internet service that they dance through their neighborhood before having morning coffee…it just seems we would see more of it.

Amanda Walker is a columnist and contributor with AL.com, The Birmingham News, Selma Times Journal, Thomasville Times, West Alabama Watchman, and Alabama Gazette. Contact her at [email protected] or at https://www.facebook.com/AmandaWalker.Columnist.