Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Swing Shift: The Spinlers love dancing so much they installed a 720-square-foot dance floor in their home.
Days of Wine and Roses
Grandparents of six, Jack and Theresa Spinler still know how to have a ball
By Sarah Gaffney
If two people were ever an inspiration for living the good life, it would be Jack and Theresa Spinler.
Somewhere on the property of their Campbell home, there must be a fountain of youth that keeps this bright-eyed pair of 70-year-olds so vigorous. But then again, maybe it's the dancing.
The Spinlers recently transformed 720 square feet of their home into a dance floor. There, they cut a rug (actually, a hardwood floor) at the dinner parties they host on the full moon of every month, as well as on the equinox and the solstice. A huge dining table sits adjacent to the dance floor, with 16 mismatched chairs for the dance and potluck partners they invite into their spacious home.
"It just kind of evolved because we both love to give parties and we love to dance," says Theresa, explaining why so much of their home has become a dance hall. "Sixteen people can sit down to eat and 16 people can dance. ... It's nothing fancy, just people who like to dance get together."
After they've done a little dancing, they do a little howling, Jack adds.
"We go out on the lawn, and we howl at the moon," Jack says, pointing to the lush back yard he and Theresa designed and built with materials they've recycled from the many construction projects they've completed since buying their home in 1962.
Married for nearly half a century, the Spinlers are parents of four and grandparents of six. They dated for six months before marrying at Sacred Heart Church on Willow Street near downtown San Jose, in the Goosetown neighborhood where Theresa and her large Italian family ran Tomasello's, a mom-and-pop store on the corner of Vine and Humboldt.
"They call it the Willow Glen area now, but in those days it was a little Italian area ... called Goosetown," Theresa recalls. "I worked in that store from day one ... as soon as you get up in the morning, you go in there and you either stock shelves, you dust, you wait on customers, you go to the market with your dad. ... We worked 14 to 16 hours a day in that store. Those were the days of work."
The Korean War brought Jack, a serviceman from New York, to California, where he met Theresa at a USO function. As he describes it, when he was discharged in 1952, it was either go back to the Bronx or get married.
"I took my discharge money ... and I bought a ring. It was either that or the car fare home. I bought the ring," Jack jokes.
The couple lived in and around downtown San Jose before moving to Campbell, where they raised their four daughters. Jack was a fireman, and Theresa stayed at home with the kids.
"I was a stay-at-home mom. I took pride in that," boasts Theresa, who grew all the vegetables that the family ate. "All the other mommies in the neighborhood would be out working, and I was here with my gals."
After her daughters grew up, Theresa went back to school and earned a master's degree in fine art at San Jose State University. An accomplished painter, her artwork is displayed on almost every wall of the Spinler home.
After Jack retired in 1985, the energetic Spinlers, then in their mid-50s, left home for one of their greatest adventures: a dance through Europe for more than a year. "We bought a VW van in Germany, and we just cruised all over in our van," Theresa says. "We were part of Europe. ... Everyday was an experience. We're the adventurous type."
Today the two adventurers spend most of their time working on projects on their home, spending time with their family and, of course, hosting dance parties on their new dance floor.
"We howl and we play games and we have instruments," says Theresa of the monthly fetes. "We just have a ball."
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
