As a regular guest, I was fascinated by form but, in height of my coolness-conscious years, also acutely aware of overwhelming dork factor. These people lived to square dance.

They skipped around for two or three hours at a time, twirling and smiling and dabbing at their foreheads between dances. They hunted for holiday-themed fabric months before special dances in order to whip up perfect ruffled dress and matching shirt for each occasion. They packed their petticoats and headed to Penticton, British Columbia every summer for a regional square dancers' convergence.

The square dance girls were just as boy-crazy as my regular friends, but they had a built-in way to hold hands with guys they liked. As for me, I had a major crush on my friend's older brother who, at 15, was an articulate, ambitious student body president with piercing blue eyes and blond hair to his shoulders (it was 1972, after all).

In one of our (for me, anyway) excruciating conversations involving much blushing, he told me that square dancing was like meditation. "It's a way to forget about everything except what's going on right now. You have to pay attention to what caller says, and let your mind and body make sense of it naturally, without trying too hard."

At time, I had only a fleeting familiarity with meditation, and I didn't see much similarity between these suburban, gingham-clad dancers and Hare Krishnas that offered carnations to passersby on downtown street corners.

Years later, I have to marvel at his insight.

There is a secret vitamin in neighborhood, wandering around your body under cover. This "vitamin" has just one single purpose, although some researchers believe he has ulterior motives. He goes by inconspicuous codename of "D" – Vitamin D.

Don't be fooled by his clever disguise. D is no vitamin. He's a steroid hormone, slipping through your body under guise of a vitamin. And he doesn't have dozens of functions, like vitamin C or vitamin E, just one vital mission – to mineralize your bones!

Mineralization is a key objective of every body. Imagine if we all had flabby bones. The world would look like a Salvador Dali nightmare. Vitamin D saves us from having flabby bones.

More importantly, vitamin D saves us from having brittle bones. He prevents us from rickets and osteomalacia by balancing calcium and phosphorous in our blood. Ooh, that D is a clever one. Not only is he a master of disguises, but he is a master chemist, constantly monitoring, measuring and balancing mix so it just right to ensure everybody has strong and healthy bones.

Word on grapevine is that 30% to 40% of hip fractures in elderly people are result of insufficient vitamin D. So we caught up with D, and managed to slip away with a rare interview transcript:

"D, some of your fans can't get enough of you. What should they do?"