File: gauthierjohn06-oh-houseparties_fights_M.mp3
Speakers:
JG – John Gauthier
ID – Ivan Day
KP: Curator Ken Perlman
KP: Did they have house parties?
JG: Oh very much so, my earliest dances I played were house dances.
KP: Could you tell me about those in your community.
JG: My grandfather's house was a pretty large house by comparison and the dining room normally was where you danced, or in some cases the kitchen was the biggest room in the house and you had your dance in there. Normally the host family, having had sufficient forewarning, would put down a keg of beer; this was consumed with great relish during the dance. The aftermath was unpredictable as blazes.
KP: Tell me about that.
JG: Oh well…
ID: Old grudges got settled sometimes at something like that.
JG: Of course, some young lad looked at some young lady in an inappropriate way according to her present boy friend. And this called for an issue of a challenge. Well it really wasn't a good time unless you swept two or three teeth up off the floor the next morning.
ID: Some of them considered that, that was the way it was – They looked for the fight, some of them went for the fight
JG: Some went looking for a fight.
ID: I remember one night there was a chap up home. He'd just get in the RCMP, he'd just been away in his basic training. He come back and he got with his buddies and he got drinkin'. He thought he was a preety big lad, he'd just gone through the training with the RCMP. And they went out to a county dance. He got in there and got to makin too much noise and makin' a little trouble. And somebody decided to put him out. The big chap that put him out he just caught him kind of quick and he went out the door. Then the guy got out there and he's squarin up and he said, "There's nobody in Norboro that's big enough to keep me out of that house, and I'm goin' back in." The guy that put him out was standin' in the doorway. And there was a great big stone, the step was about 18 inches deep. And the guy come up and he got his foot on that stone; and the guy [inside] put him out, he put him back again with his fist. They said the boys loaded him in the car and he woke up in Kensington. They thought he was dead. But he had a 15 or 20 minute ride before he woke up. So there was fellows like that, they just went in with the intention of startin' [something].
JG: I know at Traveler's Rest; I'm quite sure at the end of when we were playing there, that people went there for the fight and not for the dance.
ID: It was known as the Bucket of Blood. The old building is still there.
KP: Some people said the fighting got worse when the dancing moved out of the small kitchens and community halls and moved into the larger halls.
ID: I'd agree with that.
JG: Very much so.
KP: Do you know why that might have been?
ID: People from different communities. There was always a little rivalry between communities, years ago. There still is today; the hockey teams there's rivalry among them. The same thing back then, and there'd be two or three from one community and they'd be out to get somebody from another community. And that guy would get a bunch of guys with him: "We'll settle it tomorrow night at the dance."