File: wilsonteresa06group-oh-womenfiddling_M.mp3
Speakers:
TW - Teresa MacPhee Wilson
AM - Anne McPhee
MM - Marie MacIntyre
TB - Tracy Warren Burke
MW - Mary MacPhee Warren
GM - Gloria MacPhee MacInnis
KP – Curator Ken Perlman
TW: It was almost a no-no around here for women to play the fiddle. Hilda was the only one around here we knew that played.
AM: What was explained to me was that fiddle and booze went together and often the fiddler was paid with alcohol.
GM: Like to keep women down.
TW: Dad would never ask us to play the fiddle. He'd never encourage us. So I was always sneaking the fiddle on the sly. And Mom could play a little on the fiddle, she was quick musically. So anyway, I played at a little birthday party someplace, and Josie MacIntyre was there this relative of Marie's [Marie MacIntyre]. He played the fiddle, and he said, "I heard you were playing the fiddle." And there was an old lady who used to play over in Farmington, Maggie Butler was her name; she lived alone. I had never seen Maggie Butler in my life. But as soon as he said, "I heard you were playing the fiddle; you'll be like Maggie Butler now," that was the end of me life. I didn't want to be like Maggie Butler. And I had no idea what she looked like! Just right there I stopped playin' the fiddle. And for a long time I didn't play. Because he discouraged me right there.
KP: What did they think about Maggie Butler?
TW: She was an old lady that lived alone, and she was a good fiddler. She was an Irish woman.
MW: She'd be going to the dances and she'd be playing when the men didn't want her to be playing.
TW: They just made fun of her because she was playin' the fiddle. Nobody ever made fun of Hilda. Nobody ever said anything.
TB: Hilda was a strong woman. I just get the feeling that Hilda would stand up.
TW: Oh yeah, she'd play anyway.
MW: She wouldn't take anything off of men. In those days, women couldn't smoke, couldn't have a drink.
TW: At St. Margaret's Hall, at St. Margaret's Father George was the priest and a few of the girls were learning to smoke, and he ordered them out of the hall. That's the authority that they had over women.
KP: So if it was men who were smoking he wouldn't have ordered them out?
MW: Oh no, they could do whatever they wanted.
GM: I think what changed it was the war when the women…
AM: That's right, year, they took men's jobs yeah.
KP: So why do you suppose there are so many young women playing now, almost more than the men?
TW: I believe it just got started when they found out that some were a little more braver, and they thought, "Why not, why can't we do it."
TB: Women I think have a tendency to hold on to history, who are my ancestors, where did I come from, who am I related to. They're a little more family oriented. They have more of a sensitive side and they want to hang onto something and not lose it. Whereas some boys nowadays are just not into fiddle music whatsoever; either sports or rock and roll.
GM: At the ceilidhs, you never see a boy dancing, or step dancing.
TB: No, you don't see any boys step dancing. But myself, I'm young but I'm trying to hang on to the heritage of where I come from. I'm not a great fiddler but I'm trying - But I'm learning, and pass it on to my daughter. She enjoys it, and she does it not to compete with anybody; she does it because she likes to do it in her own way. And she does enjoy it. And you see a lot of girls in our [fiddle] class and women in our class. It's just a generic thing where you're trying to hold on to the past, and bring it forward.
AM: Cause it's slipping away, cause there aren't as many young boys taking it up so the girls – Somebody has to hold on to it.
Several voices: Yeah!
