SCENE ON THE STREET : Dots All, Folks

Authorities say the name for the pattern, polka dots , came from the dance: you know, three little steps and a hop. But the pattern itself is so simple, it must have been developed much earlier.

Could be a Neanderthal woman was sourly regarding her drab old last-year’s dinosaur skin. Suddenly, her low brow lifted. She grabbed a stick, dipped it in blueberry juice, and poked at the skin all over. Three little dips and a dot. If her language skills had been better, the pattern might have been called poke-a-dot.

Actually, however, the name came from the dance, which originated in Bohemia in the early 19th Century. (Which figures. Bohemia, the western province of Czechoslovakia, has some of the finest hops in the world. And the beer to match, of course: One sip, and you know why you were born.) And so the dance emerged from that whirling merriment, and the pattern got a name.

And here it is, still: What could be simpler? Crisper? Jollier? You put on a polka dot outfit, like the ones on these girls and women in Pasadena, Pomona and Temple City, and you feel like dancing.