Dancing 'Till Dawn

Lou and Linda Damiano may have danced until dawn Friday night at a reunion of their friends from the old Degenhardt dance club.

They loved to dance to oldies at Degenhardt, a smoky dive on the Black Horse Pike in Mount Ephraim. It's what originally brought Lou—from South Philly and Linda from Northeast Philly—to Jersey. But a decade ago, just after they got hitched, their beloved club shutdown. It was replaced by a super Wawa convenience store.

Just before the wrecking ball hit, Lou backed up a pickup truck to the door and carted way a signature wood-panel wall mural and a good chunk of the floor boards from the dance floor on which he courted his new bride.

Then, the retired auto-body repairman started on the mission of recreating a piece of the stardust memories he, Linda and a cadre of danceaholics had at Degenhardt. .