“You look old enough that you would know how to dance,” Bristol’s Hale Sparrow told Sheila deBettencourt at Morris Farm’s barn dance in Wiscasset Friday night.

“Or, I’m so old I’ve forgotten how to dance,” deBettencourt, 71, of Wiscasset told him. She was sitting with husband Del Ketcham, a board member at the farm, as the two took a break from several minutes of lively dancing with about 20 other attendees. But she took Sparrow up on the dance offer.

Sparrow, who’ll be 90 in January, later said he prefers music he can fox-trot or waltz to, over the tunes at the Oct. 17 old-time barn dance. He came to check it out after seeing an announcement.

The event drew several couples, including Ketcham and his wife, and Westport Island’s Gail and Jack Swanton, who serves on the board with Ketcham. The youngest attendee midway through the evening was 2-year-old Josie Spicer of Bath. She kept up with parents Josh Spicer and Sarah Steele, dancing along with them on foot or in her father’s arms. The toddler also ran to the refreshments table for a piece of cantaloupe.

With the aid of an instructor, participants marched and danced in lines and circles, and a circle within a circle, to the music of a piano and stringed instruments.

Along with a recent barn sale and other fall offerings including two upcoming potlucks, the dance was another chance to invite the community to the farm on Gardiner Road, program coordinator John Affleck said.

"The dancers and (musicians) had a lot of fun, and both got a decent workout,” Affleck said following Friday’s event. “We haven't had a dance at the farm for a while now, so we're excited to be able to open it up to the community again and hope to make it a regular event." 

DeBettencourt said she and Ketcham enjoyed the dance. “It was good exercise.”

She hadn’t been to one like it in about 40 years, in her native Wisconsin, she said.