STURTEVANT - Jim Strasser didn't know what to do when his wife, Carol, died four years ago. So he started coming to the Hiawatha Bar and Grill, 9809 Durand Ave., Sturtevant, which is where he met two other Carols.

The Raymond girls, he likes to call them. Strasser only lives a few blocks away from the bar. Carol Koel and Carol Harcus travel from Raymond.

They're all regulars on the dance floor at the Hiawatha, which has been the venue for a polka and variety dance every Sunday for the past 10 years.

The music and the exercise get Strasser to show up every Sunday. Dancing usually helps the waistline, he said.

What does he really likes about dancing? "The girls … the partners, the companionship, it's great," he said.

Hazel and Bill Schend of Pleasant Prairie have been hosting the dance at the Hiawatha since the tradition began.

They helped move the regular event from Vance's, a country and western bar that has since closed. The Schends didn't start dancing until later in life, once their children were grown.

Then Hazel gently twisted Bill's arm and they started taking lessons. They didn't know much about polka when they started. Now they're connoisseurs of the state dance of Wisconsin.

If you get them talking about polka, it's hard to get them to stop. They love to dance and their easy to spot - they're usually the only ones on the dance floor decked out in polka attire.

"A lot of people seem to think polka music is dying. It isn't dying. It's just that it's different. There are different types of music being played in polka rhythm for the younger people," Hazel Schend said. "Hopefully, this generation will switch around again and be like it used to be."

The weekly dance is the

best-kept secret in town, Bill Schend said. It's also a fountain of youth for the mostly older crowd that turns out each week. Nothing gets the heart pumping like a twirl around the dance floor.

The Schends estimate that the dance draws anywhere from 60 to 100 people each Sunday. Many come for a dance or two. Others are diehards.

Then there are some who just come for the live music, which is provided by an assortment of polka bands from around the Midwest.

On Sunday it was the Mike McIntyre Band from Rockford, Ill.

The music isn't the only thing that travels.

Joseph and Dorothy Pirc wouldn't miss a dance. It doesn't matter who is playing. The couple has been coming from Milwaukee every Sunday for years.

The Pircs have been married for 20 years. They dance a lot more now that they're both

retired. They dance as much as they can throughout the year. It helps, they said, that polka is in their blood. Joseph, 70, is Slovenian. Dorothy, 68, is Serbian.

"We like polkas. We dance everything, but basically polkas. It's good exercise," Dorothy said.