Chris Wildhagen
St. Joseph, Missouri

2020 Caller / Cuer Hall of Fame

Chris Wildhagen Like many other I began calling accidently. I blame my brother for this mishap. Noel (My Bro) called one day you all need to go to square dance lessons with us Tuesday night. I had my doubts. Noel, Linda and I danced with a kids club from the mid 50's through the mid 60's. 14 years later I felt a little rusty. "Aw Come On, you'll have fun, so we went." And DANG IT WAS FUN!

The caller teacher was a high school pal of Noel's. And as a friend loaned Noel 2 45rpm square dance records to learn. One accident led to another when Noel brought the records to my house and asked me to return them to the caller on Tuesday night because he had to skip class that week. Curiosity is a dangerous, I decided I would try (just for fun) to learn to call those songs. I learned them in about 2 days and returned them on Tuesday. The caller asked did Noel learn these? I said no, but I did. As a result I called both songs that night without a cue sheet. The caller didn't say much, but handed me two more records to learn. Soon I was asked to call a tip at area dances. Area callers were happy to give a newbie a chance to call a tip, if you did ok, you would ask you to do another at the next dance.

After teaching two mainstream and one plus class start to finish, I started a club in 1984 called the Crocodile Rockers (a plus club). The Crocs evolved into the St. Joe Squares and is still going today. Soon afterward, I was hired as the club caller for the Riverbend Promenaders of Atchison, Kansas.

Currently I am the club caller for St. Joe Squares, The Maysville Wranglers, and The Happy Times Squares of Lawrence, Kansas. I also call regularly for clubs in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas as well as Missouri.

After 40 years of calling, teaching, dancing, and traveling, DANG IT IS STILL FUN!

My goal is always to share that fun with the dancers.