File: oconnorattwood-oh-musichome_M.mp3
Speakers:
AO - Attwood O'Connor
KP – Curator Ken Perlman
KP: Would you have music sessions in the house?
AO: Oh Yes.
KP: Can you tell us a little bit about them.
AO: My father's house there when we were kids, that was the gatherin' place of the community. Now we'd be in there singin, playin, dancin: had the floor half wore out from dancing on it when we were kids. Cause there was no such thing as no radios, no televisions and there was only one radio in this community. And you had to make your own entertainment. There was no other way of having it. That's what we used to do: a whole crowd would gather in the house, and be singing, and dancing, and playing -- organ, guitars, and fiddles.
KP: Would this happen most nights? How often did it happen?
AO:Oh, Once or twice a week.
KP: Would people come in then?
AO: Yeah.
KPFrom how far away would they come from?
AO: What ever they... the community, three or four miles.
KP: Was it the house here?
AO: No, it was my father's house. It was down the road here about a mile farther down the road.
KP: Towards Sturgeon?
AO: Yeah. But, oh gosh maybe there'd be twenty-five or thirty would be in there. The noise was pitiful! (laughs)
KP: Who did most of the fiddling in the house?
AO: There were 7 boys and 4 girls in the family. And my father used to play, and I played. And Arnold my oldest brother, and Elsie my oldest sister, she played, Melville played, we all played, every one of us.
KP: Did you take turns?
AO: Oh yeah, take turns. Sometimes we had 2 or 3 fiddles going, and a couple of guitars. The first guitar we owned, my brother Seymour built it himself: got every bit of it he put the frets on the fingerboard. And it was quite a feat. We had the guitar, I guess for 15, 20 years, playing at dances.
KP: Were there other fiddlers in the community?
AO: Archie Stewart and his father. Them was about the only two that was in the community that played, clear of us.
KP: It was your family and Archie's family?
AO: Yeah. We were the only ones that played in the whole community.
KP: Would other people have house parties?
AO: Yes they used to have house parties other ones too. We'd go to them sometimes, and we'd change houses around. As a rule, my father's place was the leading place to go to.
KP: That would be all year long?
AO: Yeah.
KP: When were most of, the other house parties? Were they in one season or another?
AO: No, break them all up, right through the winter, spring and summer, if we had any summer like it was this year.
KP: So in an average week?
AO: In an average week, we'd be out 3 or 4 nights a week, going around playing at different houses.
KP: Was that in addition to the 2 nights at your house?
AO: Yeah, we were pretty well going on all week. Jumpin from one place to the next. And you'd always have lunch, a cup of tea, sandwiches.
