Bop to the top

Every Wednesday night, there’s a dance party going on at Bar 31. With music from the 1950s and ’60s, the dance floor is full of couples dancing the Panama City Bop and the shag.

“We are just a bunch of retired teenagers reliving our youth,” said George Buchanan, a member of the Magic City Boppers.

What eventually became the Magic City Boppers first started as a group of Birmingham/Bessemer residents gathering at WT’s Bar and Grill in Bessemer. They listened to the music of their teenage years, danced the night away, and in 1990, member Phil Graf decided to officially form the Magic City Boppers.

About 27 years later, the group has grown to more than 200 members, with between 40 and 60 boppers coming to each weekly meeting, and about 100 attending their monthly parties at the Fire Fighters Hall in Homewood. The group also hosts an annual “hangout weekend” at the Boardwalk in Panama City Beach.

“It’s mostly people that were in high school in the ’50s and ’60s and just love that music,” said Linda Gail Burchfield, president of the Magic City Boppers. “And then once you get in, you meet so many great people and form so many friendships.”

The group’s five rotating DJs will play music from artists such as Sonny Boy’s, Ernie K-Doe’s, The Drifters, Hank Ballard and others, and everyone will gather on the floor to show off their moves. While they’re all dancing the Panama City Bop or shag dancing, that doesn’t mean everyone’s dance looks the same, Burchfield said.

“If you watch five different people, they say they’re bopping, and the five different people will be doing something different,” she said.

Susan Ausman, one of the original members and the group’s only female DJ, saw the group grow over the years as everyone reminisced about their school days. New members typically join the group if their lifestyle has changed, whether that’s losing a spouse or moving to a new area, she said. 

“I joined because it was a dance I did during the ’50s and ’60s, and I love to dance,” said Kaye Fulbright, a former president of the Magic City Boppers. “This gave me an opportunity to get out and see some friends I knew back in high school and to be able to dance, have fun.”

The group has danced in several places since its old haunt closed down, and member Becky Buchanan said they aim to go places where everyone can relax and be around people their own age.

“When you’re in your 40s and you’re looking for something to do, you don’t want to go to a bar where there’s a bunch of kids and teenagers,” she said. “This is the perfect place, and we’ve danced in a lot of different places.”

When Buchanan was president of the group, she polled members to find a centralized meeting place. There are several members from Shelby County, some from along the Warrior River, and others from Ensley or Bessemer, and Buchanan said it wound up that Homewood, Vestavia and Hoover were the most central cities. So they came to Bar 31.

Vestavia resident Ed Shrake said he heard about the Magic City Boppers for several years before he and his wife, Grenna Shrake, actually joined. Now that they’ve started bopping, however, he wishes they had joined sooner.

“We all get together and have dinner, have fun, and nobody judges anybody,” he said. “You just enjoy your life for whatever time we have left.”

Even after 27 years, Fulbright said the group has not changed much. They listen to the same music and do the same dances, but all that’s changed is when members come and go. When new members come in, however, it’s always a fun experience.

“Most of us, we’ve been doing this for a long time,” Ausman said, “but you see somebody different come in, they just go ballistic because they haven’t heard [the music] in all these years.” 

“I have reunited with high school friends I hadn’t seen in years and years through Magic City Boppers,” Burchfield said.

For those who cannot bop or need a refresher course, Burchfield said they can reach out to the Magic City Boppers, and someone can give them a quick lesson before the weekly meeting. 

“I can’t say enough how nice the people are,” she said. “That’s the thing that draws me to it more than anything is just the people. Everybody, there’s an age difference, but we all seem to have so much in common. I think the thing we have in common more than anything is we love the music. It makes you feel young again.”

The Magic City Boppers meet at Bar 31 from 7-10 p.m. every Wednesday and the third Friday of each month at the Fire Fighters Hall in Homewood.

For more information, go to magiccityboppers.net.