McCormack, 71, Tap Dances Again After 10 Years

Sitting in a folding chair in the corner of a vacant store in his strip mall, Tom McCormack, 71, jokes about getting fat in his old age as he bends over to zip up his custom-made black leather tap shoes.

A few tap-taps later, he rises and walks toward the corner, adjusting his belt. His costume, he says, is the original costume he wore when he worked as Doc Holiday in a show in Tombstone, AZ in the years after he graduated high school.

He says he has returned to Tombstone to play the role whenever he could over the years, but he hasn't worn the costume in at least 10 years. Nor has he danced in more than a decade.

Now, however, McCormack isn't shy about strapping on his tap shoes, badge and gun holster and dancing for the camera, and he says he has his chiropractor, Scot Tasco, to thank for his newfound flexibility.

"I'm brand new, and I love him for it," says the 71-year-old Oakland Township resident and owner of Goodison Station, which his home to the new and other businesses – including Goodison Family Chiropractic, Tasco's practice.

McCormack, who worked as a tool and die maker for 25 years and then as a teacher, now substitute teaches part-time in the area.

In fact, his "miracle worker," as he has taken to calling Tasco, is a former student of McCormack's.

"I was looking for a new place to practice," says Tasco. "I came and met the landlord, and it happened to be Tom McCormack, who was one of my old teachers in high school."

Tasco chuckles, adding, "It was a real small-world kind of a thing, and I was like, I'm meant to be here."

Tasco still treats McCormack, who says his golf swing – and tap dancing – are better than they have been in years.