File: arsenaultedwardp06-oh-musichome.wav
Speakers
EPA: Edward P Arsenault
ML: Marie Arsenault Livingstone
KP: Curator Ken Perlman
KP: Your parents, did they fish or were they farmers?
EPA: They farmed, pretty well.
KP: So you grew up on a farm?
EPA: Pretty well, yeah.
KP: Can you talk a little about growing up on a farm and how music came into it.
ML: It was more our mother. She played the (pump) organ and the mouth organ, and she sang a lot. She played the mouth organ for square dances sometimes in the community, so she was quite good on tunes like we learned a lot of tunes from her like in our heads,and we used to diddle them with our mouth -- mouth-jigging.
KP: Turluter?
ML: Yes, Turlter, C'est ca! And Eddy (Arsenault) lived next door so we heard fiddling a lot.
EA: That's where it comes from, the fiddle. Eddy! Always Eddy.
KP: And did you have parties in your house.
ML: Yes.
EPA: Oh yes. Kitchen parties.
KP: What would you call a kitchen party in French?
ML: Une soirée.
EPA: Just une soirée or une soirée musique.
KP: Can you describe what these parties were like.
ML: His would have been different. He left home when I was a little girl. So we had different experiences.
KP: What were yours like, Edward?
EPA: Well kitchen parties those times, like sometimes there'd be a dance, like a square dance in the kitchen. There'd be a fiddler or a mouth organ player or something like that, and guitars. And couples would dance the square dance. That's about it.
KP: Did they do the quadrille?
EPA: Sometimes, yeah.
KP: Do you know how many figures it had.
EPA: They'd usually have just two figures.
KP: Dennis [Pitre] said that in his area they called them the quadrille and the flux. Was that the same here?
EPA: No here it was different. Up west I think they played a jig first and the second one is a reel.
KP: Do you know what he meant by "flux"
EPA: It would have to be just a square dance like you swing you partner and stuff like that. I would think that's what it was.
KP: And [to Marie] what were the parties like when you were growing up.
ML: It was either at our house or at Eddy's father's house, and it was always fiddling and guitar and a lot of step-dancing and square dances. My parents would square dance with their friends. It was mainly that -- a little bit of singing and guitar playing. My mother would play the organ.
KP: But there was no one who playing fiddle in the house.
EPA: Not in our house, no.
KP: Did Eddy ever come over and play?
EPA: Once and a while.
ML: A lot in the summer when people would be visiting from away. Relatives.
KP: [Summary] Was the custom of square dancing around Mardi Gras still going on in your time?
ML: There was a lot of square dances, yes at Mardi Gras, like the week before Lent would start. There would be parties at many houses that week, with a lot of food. It was a tradition I guess, before Lent would hit and then at mid-Lent again there would be something.
KP: And I understand that all square dancing had to stop when Lent started,.
EPA: Yes, no more dances then. Penance time.
KP: When did that all stop
EPA: It's still going on. In Summerside they still celebrate Mardi Gras, the same as Louisiana.
ML: It's just not as prevalent in this community in people's homes as it was. It's more organized in halls.
KP: [summary] I understand there was once a custom in this area where a cake was passed around. One slice had a seed in it and whoever found it in his or her slice was declared king or queen for the day. Does that still go on?
ML: It's done in some places. We heard about that. I don't remember that custom myself. But they are trying to bring those things back.
