Chubby Checker is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Twist.

Flipping through The New York Times a few weeks ago, two words jumped out at me: Chubby Checker. I thought he was dead, but nooooooo. He was performing at Feinstein's at Loews Regency in New York on the 50th anniverary of his hot dance the Twist.

He was born Ernest Evans in Spring Gulley, S.C., and raised in the projects of South Philadelphia. He had lots of jobs and often entertained customers. He got his nickname, Chubby, because of his weight. When he was invited to sing on American Bandstand, Dick Clark's wife heard him do an impression of a Fats Domino song, and she told him his last name should be like a game piece, like a domino. And that's how he became Chubby Checker.

First time I saw Chubby Checker he was in a movie, probably Twist Around the Clock. I was watching this movie in 1961 in Tuscumbia, Ala., while visiting my aunt. Chubby must have twisted four or five times. By the time I got home to east Arkansas I was a twisting fool.

My uncle invited my cousins and me for a week at his cabin near the Cache River in Woodruff County. He always filled up his juke box with the latest '45s. We played The Twist and danced in our socks on a slick linoleum floor. Even bad dancers like myself could do The Twist. My old aunt from Tuscumbia said Chubby Checker ripped the dance off the Charleston. She demonstrated her prowess and we had to agree that it was pretty much like the Twist.

Take off your shoes and see if you can still be a twisting fool. We want you baby boomers to give us a full report.