Stepping into the next century: Centenarian dedicated to dancing at Monongahela legion hall
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Walt Kosh waltzes with one of his favorite dance partners, 100-year-old Ruthie Shuster, last Wednesday at American Legion Post 949’s weekly dance.
Ruthie Shuster and her grandson, Zack, dance to live music at American Legion Post 949 last Wednesday evening. Zack said he and his grandma go square dancing every year on her birthday.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Zack Shuster smiles at his grandma, Ruthie, during a dance at the American Legion last week.
Walt Kosh leads Ruthie Shuster in a waltz around the dance floor at American Legion Post 949 last Wednesday evening. Kosh, 93 and Shuster, 100, moved gracefully to the live music of classic country.
Cameraman Martin Dicicco follows Walt Kosh and Ruthie Shuster as they waltz around the dance floor.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Centenarian Ruthie Shuster and nonagenarian Walt Kosh waltz around the dance floor at American Legion Post 949 in Monongahela last week while Martin Dicicco captures them on film. Dicicco serves as cameraman for director Cameron Yates’s latest project, “Quitting Time,” which will explore the working and personal lives of five subjects.
Nonagenarian Timmy Timlin croons an oldie while dancers spin around the floor at American Legion Post 949 last week.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Monongahela’s Timmy Timlin performs with Classic Country last week at the American Legion in Monongahela. You can see cameraman Martin Dicicco’s camera in the top right corner of the frame; Timlin may make it into the forthcoming project “Quitting Time,” directed by Cameron Yates.
The doors open at 5 p.m., dancing begins two hours later, but by 6 p.m. each Wednesday American Legion Post 949’s social hall in Monongahela is packed.
Dancers like 91-year-olds Jenny and Bob Margoni come from their home nearly 100 yards away from the social hall while others, like Linda Neill, arrive in a car full of friends from Washington.
One dancer, 100-year-old Ruthie Shuster, makes a lengthier trip to take part in the festivities. She changes out of nonslip footwear into her dancing shoes on the way to the hall from work in Irwin.
Neill said Shuster dances and socialized all night long.
“I don’t know how she does it,” Neill said. “She won’t sit a dance out.”
Shuster taught herself to dance after graduating high school in 1938.
“She’s an entertainer,” said Shuster’s daughter-in-law, Marylou.
“I’m just plain Ruth,” Shuster rebutted.
Shuster is anything but plain.
In March, the McDonald’s along Route 30 in Westmoreland County, where she’s worked for 25 years, presented her a with custom Ruthie bobblehead and a message from McDonald’s USA president Joe Erlinger.
“Ruthie, this birthday is an incredible milestone,” Erlinger said in a video, “but we all know it’s not nearly as incredible as you are.”
Shuster also caught the attention of casting director Martha Wallner in May.
Wallner, who was casting an independent documentary project for New York production company Stray, included Shuster on a list of about 20 potential subjects for the project called “Quitting Time.”
“With Ruthie, we basically based it off a hunch. We’d seen a (local) news piece, we saw some photos and we just kind of fell in love,” said Laura Coxson, a producer of the documentary. “She looked so happy dancing. Meeting her so surpassed our expectations.”
Filming took place over two days last week. The small crew, composed of director Cameron Yates, cameraman Martin Dicicco and Coxson, traveled from New York to document Shuster at work Tuesday.
“She’s 100 and still wanting to work, and enjoying work so much,” said Coxson.
But Shuster had other plans for Wednesday.
“She snuck into work,” Coxson laughed. “She couldn’t stay away.”
The crew followed Shuster from McDonald’s to the American Legion, where she made her rounds, introducing friends to Marylou and her grandson, Zack, who square dances with her every year on her birthday.
Before the band struck up a tune, she accepted an offer to dance with Walt Kosh.
Kosh, a 93-year-old World War II veteran who fought at Normandy, said unlike Ruthie, who began dancing in young adulthood and loves all the dances, he’s been dancing his whole life.
“I love waltzing,” Kosh said.
The two danced a waltz while Dicicco followed them, capturing the two senior citizens moving gracefully across the dance floor as Timmy Timlin, also in his 90s, sang with a voice that did not reveal his age.
The cameraman’s focus was, of course, on Shuster, but Coxson said one of Dicicco’s greatest strengths is setting the mood.
“He’s really phenomenal. He’s got a really strong eye,” she said. “He films really cinematically.”
Dicicco had much to capture at the American Legion last week. At any given time, at least half a dozen couples stepped to the music of Classic Country, including the Margonis, who love waltzing as much as Kosh. Bob said the key to a long, happy life is staying busy, a secret the nearly 60 weekly attendees are in on.
“Thank God for them,” said Jerry Maisano, who has managed the legion for about a decade and added he enjoys listening to the live music and watching the older crowd dance every Wednesday.
“It’s like a little party for them every week. They’re so excited to get in here,” Maisano said. “Knowing they’re having fun, they’re enjoying themselves, that’s what it’s all about.”
Neill said the relationships, the friendships and the music keep people coming back week after week, and Coxson noted how friendly southwestern PA is.
“The drive from Irwin to Monongahela was just stunning,” she said. “It’s a really special area.”
And Ruthie Shuster, Coxson added, is “really something special. She never gets tired.”