File: mackenziesheila06-oh-gettingstarted_M.mp3
Speakers:
SM – Sheila MacKenzie
KP – Curator Ken Perlman
SM: I started step-dancing probably – I know I was 5, and that sort of came – Again the music was always on the radio or a record would be on and I would try to dance. Then I satrted taking lessons from the MacKinnon family from Richmond [Prince County]; I was probably 9 or so. One year I was going back to dance and decided because they taught both, I wanted to take the fiddle too, but only if I could still take step-dance. So I did both of them. And they [The MacKinnons] used to come down to Souris for six weeks of lessons at a time, probably a couple of times a year. And I think I did that for maybe two years. And then I went to Kathryn Dau Schmidt in Rollo Bay.
KP: Right, so that's the Rollo Bay teaching program that's been going on Monday nights?
SM: Exactly, yeah. It's the program that – The Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival was started in 1976, and the proceeds from the Fiddle Festival go towards this: hire a teacher, who has been Kathryn Dau Schmidt, to give lessons to anybody of any age or skill level, who wants to learn to play, for free. So it's been really great. And it was the Chaisson family who started the Fiddle Festival and they sort of administer the program. When I started there was the three levels; there was beginner, intermediate, and advanced. And at the point when I was there the third class was mostly the younger Chaissons like JJ, and Curt and Stephen, and Melanie and them, and a few other students and myself. So it was lots of fun.
KP: So at what point did you leave the Rollo Bay Program?
SM: I think probably around Grade 9 or 10. Probably Grade 10 or so.
KP: What year would that have been.
SM: 1993.
KP: And then how did you continue after that point.
SM: During that time the class, we always played as a class at Rollo Bay [the Rollo Bay Festival] and once a year at the Queens County Fiddlers' Concert. And then the Ceilidhs at Monticello, I started going there on on Sunday nights, which was really a big deal because you got to start playing for dancers and playing for square sets, and playing more, and getting exposed to more fiddlers. And then the Goose River Dances would be on Saturday nights. So got into going to those, and would always play. And at once point was sort of hired to be there. I used to get $25 a night to be there – I guess it was more of whoever was there played but just in case…
KP: Somebody didn't show up.
SM: Yeah, exactly. I know Angus McPhee was always there.
KP: So you were the official relief pitcher?
SM: The backup fiddler, yeah. And then from there – During High School, Grade 12 or so, it was actually – That's what we did, that was our weekend. We went to Goose River and we went to the [Monticello] Ceilidh and stuff like that. And Friday nights used to be the seniors dance at St. Peters. So we used to go Friday, Saturday, Sunday.