Bowing Down Home Oral History Transcripts

File: mackenziesheila06-oh-youngfiddlers_M.mp3

Speakers:

SM – Sheila MacKenzie

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

SM: There's definitely a lot less older fiddlers out. You'd go to the ceilidh in Monticello on Sunday night and you'd have George [MacPhee] and you'd have a couple of other

banksreg06-oh-changesfidmusic_M.mp3

Speakers:

RB – Reg Banks

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

RB: There's an awful lot of the old-time tunes you don't hear the younger people playing at all. They play more waltzes and more songs and this kind of thing, but the real old tunes you don't

File: gaudetdavid06-oh-declineandrevival_M.mp3

Speakers:

DG – David Gaudet

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

DG: When I was growing up to be a fiddler, there wasn't many around then. There's wasn't a big demand then. I wouldn't even take the fiddle to a party if there was a bunch my age

File: doucettejoe-oh-frolics.mp3

Speakers –

JD: Joe Doucette

KP – curator Ken Perlman

JD: Tell you how they worked. Supposin' that you had a piece of wood to cut and you were alone. Well they'd make what they called a bee. He'd ask a bunch of men or they'd offer themselves.

File: farrellleo06-oh-frolics_M.mp3

Speakers:

LF – Leo Farrell

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: Did they have frolics in your day?

LF: Yeah, choppin' frolics. All the neighbors go to your place and cut wood for you, eh. You maybe had an operation or

File: mackenziesheila06-oh-womanfiddling_M.mp3

Speakers

SM – Sheila MacKenzie

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: Did you experience any sort of resistance yourself to your wanting to play?

SM: I definitely didn't meet any resistance, just because I think – Around

File: chappellella06-oh-wintertravel_M.mp3

Speakers:

EC – Ella Thomson Chappell

EC: And then I remember when I went to school, there's no snow plows then, and then we'd go through the field. They'd break a road with the horse and sleigh, and then they'd go and take branches off a

File: lowejudy06-oh-elliottwightdance_M.mp3

Speakers:

JL – Judy Lowe

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: Tell me about how got started playing with Elliott [Wight]?

JL: I went to the dance, I was 19, at the Junior Farmer's Hall in North River, which

File: cheveriecharles06-oh-womansrole-M.mp3

Speakers:

CC – Fr. Charlie Cheverie

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: Why do suppose there are more girls than boys excelling at the fiddle, or getting serious about the fiddle.

CC: I don't know what the demographics of

toolestephen-oh-goodfiddler_M.mp3

Speaker:
ST – Stephen Toole

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

ST Well, I think that there has to be music in you, yes. I've known people that are trying to play the fiddle, but I know very well that they'll never be able to play.

KP

File: hughesemmett06-oh-housepartydress_M.mp3

Speakers:

EH – Emmett Hughes

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

EH: Back then nobody would dance with their overalls on. It was kind of a B The whole damn trouble was, back when I was a young man was B [to] get money enough to

File: huestislowell06-oh-wppartyline_M.mp3

Speaker:

LH – Lowell Huestis

LH: That was on at 11:30 in the morning, every morning Monday through Friday. We would go to the country and record at some of these various talent shows, whenever there was a talent show advertised

File: livingstonemarie06-oh-wellingtonjam_M.mp3

Speakers:

ML – Marie Arsenault Livingstone

EA – Edward P Arsenault

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

ML: Friday evenings for the last six years we have a jam in Wellington at the Boys and Girls Club

EA: Every

File: macdougalljim06-oh-weddings_M.mp3

Speakers:

JM – Jim MacDougall

JM: There was always what they'd called a wedding shower. I can remember my oldest sister when she got married, we had borrowed this dancing booth they had for the parish for their picnics and we had it set up in our

File: woodrichard06-oh-olderfiddlers_M.mp3

Speakers:
RW – Richard Wood

RW: Those experiences, they were great for me because it was a bonding time with my Dad [Terry Wood]. It would be nothin' for us to be up at a ceilidh, or be in Monticello. Or say, "We just had dinner, what do you