Unbroken Circle Transcript
The Unbroken Circle transcript
Margaret MacArthur sings Fifty Years Ago:
How wondrous are the changes since 50 years ago
When girls wore woolen dresses and boys were pants of toe.
Boots were made up cow hide, socks of home-spun wool,
Children did half days work before they went to school.
When girls took music lessons upon the spinning wheel,
They practiced late and early on spindles swift and real.
Boys they rode so far to mill, a dozen miles or more,
And hurried off before twas day, 50 years ago.
When people rode to meeting in sleds instead of sleighs,
Wagons rode as easy as buggies nowadays.
Oxen answered well for teams, though now theyd be too slow.
For people lived not half so fast, 50 years ago.
Yes, everything has altered, I cannot tell the cause.
Man is always tampering with natures wondrous laws.
What on earth were coming to, does anybody know?
Everything has changed so much since 50 years ago.
Cordelia Cerasoli sings Young Charlotte:
Young Charlotte lived on the mountainside in a wild and dreary spot.
No dwellings there for miles around except her fathers cot.
And yet on many a winters night young swans would gather there
For her father kept a social board and she was very fair.
At a village inn fifteen miles away theres a New Years ball tonight
The piercing air is as cold as death and her heart is warm and light.
And while she looks with longing eyes, then a wellknown voice she hears,
Dashing up to the cottage door, young Charles with sleigh appears.
Her mother says, Oh, daughter dear .........
Cordelia Cerasoli:
I was born in Chazy, New York, upper New York, but I came to Vermont at two years old, and Ive always lived here since. And I am 84 now. I was born in 1900. My parents bought the home, and so we lived over 40 years in the same home up there at Barre Town because he worked on the quarries.
Young Charlotte (cont.):
Such a night as this, I never knew. My reins I scarce can hold.
And Charlotte, in a frozen voice, said, I am exceedingly cold.
He cracked his whip and.......
Cordelia Cerasoli:
My father couldnt afford a horse or a car, so we stayed home a lot. Evenings were long. There were no radio or TV. So we used to sing in evenings a lot. My oldest sister was six years older than I am, and she had a boyfriend. He played the violin. My sister played the organ.
Young Charlotte (cont.):
They reached the inn, and Charles jumped out and held his hands to her.
Why sit you like a monument with not the power to stir?
He called her once, he called her twice ............
Cordelia Cerasoli:
As I was a child my mother used to sing some of the old songs and Young Charlotte was one of the songs. Well they were just almost like a story, you know. They shouldnt be forgotten. They should be kep up.
Young Charlotte (cont.):
... and the cold stars on it shone.
Then quickly to the lighted hall, her lifeless form he bore,
For Charlotte was a frozen corpse, and words spoke never more.
He bore her out into the sleigh, and with her he drove back home,
And when he reached the cottage door, oh, how her parents mourned.
They mourned the loss of their daughter, dear, while Charles mourned o er their gloom
Until with grief his heart did break, and they slumber in one tomb.
Margaret MacArthur:
Here in Vermont, in the very rural community, people used these ballads as their
entertainment on the long winter nights in the last century, a century before that, and up
into this century before the time of radio and television. So these ballads were passed,
passed from family to family, from village to village, from lumber camp to lumber camp.
Young Charlotte was one of the American ballads, a ballad that was very common here
in New England and spread across the country into the far west also a song that
captured the imagination of the singers and became very, very well known.
When I was a little kid, my mom used to sing to me all the nursery rhymes. And my dad sang cowboy songs. When we were in the car, we always sang together and made a great racket. In my midteens, I discovered the lengthy cowboy ballads and the really long old English ballads, not realizing at that time that when I moved to New England, I would find even more of these old songs and that they would become a lifelong interest of mine. I didnt suspect it, I was just very interested. But when I did move to New England, I found out about Helen Flanders work and got some of her books and studied on them.
Margaret McArthur sings The Lakes of Champlain:
It was early one morning Willie Lannard arose,
Straight to the chamber of his comrade he goes.
He said, Wake up, my comrade, let nobody know,
Its a fine summers morning and abathing well go.
They walked and they talked till they came to a lane.
There they met with the keeper of the game.
He said, Go back, Willie Lannard. Do not venture in.
Theres deep and false water in the Lake of Champlain.
Willie stripped himself off and he swum the lake round.
He swum to an island but not to dry ground.
He said, Go back, my comrade. Do not venture in.
Theres deep and false water in the Lakes of Champlain.
Margaret MacArthur:
The Lakes of Champlain came as a song from Ireland as the Lakes of Cool Finn. And through the Flanders collection, I found this version that has changed the Cool Finn to Champlain as folk songs so often do, change their locality. I realized that over the years I have changed it in many respects, but its still the story of Willie Lannard going swimming against all advice.
The Lakes of Champlain (cont.):
To see Willies funeral twill be a great sight.
Four and 20 young men all dressed in white.
Theyll take him to the graveyard and lay him in the clay.
Theyll say, Farewell, Willie and go weeping away.
To see Willies sister, twill grieve your heart sore.
To see Willies mother, twill grieve your heart more.
To see Willies true love, twill give your heart pain.
Theres deep and false water in the Lakes of Champlain.
Margaret MacArthur:
Helen Flanders started collecting under the auspices of the Vermont Commission on Country Life. This was her charge to find some ballads to put in this book and folk songs. She didnt know if shed be able to find any, but she had a very able helper, George Brown from the Boston area, and they were very amazed at what they found when they set out into the small towns in Vermont. And they collected many more than they could put in the first book, which was called Vermont Folk Songs and Ballads, published in 1931.
She, in the early 40s, began the archive at Middlebury College, which bears her name now the Helen Hartness Flanders Collection. And its at Middlebury contains some 4 or 5,000 recorded items of her collection, plus many manuscripts and written letters that have old songs in them. So its a very valuable collection for the state of Vermont.
The folk songs and ballads in the collection were the kind of things that people sang in the last century and in this century just passed back and forth from person to person.
Helen Flanders (voice):
Mr. Ed Dragon, of Ripton of Vermont now sings for the Helen Hartness Flanders Collection, Middlebury College, at Middlebury, Vermont, the ballad, The St. Albans Tragedy.
Ed Dragon (voice):
All righty.
Ed Dragon sings The St. Albans Tragedy:
It was late one Sundays evening as you shall plainly see.
I sent for an (?).....
Margaret MacArthur:
They went about it by just going in, I think, into a village and asking if there were any singers. And this was, of course, the very first step because once you did find a singer then, then they were led to many others. They did it all by taking down by note-by-note the songs because it was before the days of any kind of recording equipment. As soon as recording equipment was available Helen Flanders got some different different cylinder recorders, disc recorders, all of the early kind of recorders she, she had, and there, there are examples of them at Middlebury, until finally the modern tape recorder made things much easier.
Many of the old folk songs that we sing and the ballads came from England originally and have been kept alive here in New England. And certainly the tradition of writing songs has been kept alive here. So we have both songs that were brought from Old England and songs that were made up here in New England. Songs still being brought from England and Scotland, such as songs that my friend Norman Kennedy sings.
Norman Kennedy sings Molly Bawn:
Come all ye young heroes who handle a gun,
Beware of night rambling by the setting of the sun.
And be aware of an accident that happened of late
To young Molly Bawn and sad was her fate.
She was going to her uncles when a shower came on.
She went neath the green bush, the shower to shun.
With her white apron round her, he took her for a swan.
Its a (?) a sight was of Molly Bawn.
He quickly ran to her and saw that she was dead.
And its manys the salt tears on her bosom he shed.
He wen home to......
Norman Kennedy:
Well any work song, you know, that youre going to use to accompany pretty tedious stuff like spinningonce you get, once you know what youre doing, you just switch on to like automatic pilots, so youre needing something to relieve that tedium. And a songs just great for it, you know. Has been for a long time. So you dont want a little short song, because then youd finish it and have to think up another one to start up with. So you would like a nice, long, steadygoing ballad, you know, with some story to it, some meat on its bones, you know. And thats this kind of stuff that you want to keep going. And something with a bit of a rhythm, see, to suit the work that youre at. So thats why I like songs, ballads and songs like Molly Bawn, which is an old favorite of mine anyway.
Molly Bawn (cont.):
For youll never be convicted for the loss of the swan
A night before Mollys funeral, her ghost it did appear.
Crying, Mother, dear mother, young Johnny hes clear.
I was going ........
Norman Kennedy:
Ya. In the old days a murder ballad would carry news of a murder when people hadnt newspapers. They hadnt telephones, not any way of communication, and they would go from marketplace to marketplace. Thats where youd hear singers, singing in the marketplace, you see. Indeed, I remember that. And then folk would pick it up, because people who couldnt read or write, had such great memories, you know. I knew plenty folk like that.
Molly Bawn (cont.):
But tell him, hes forgiven by his own Molly Bawn.
All the girls in this country, theyre all very glad
Since the pride of Glen Allen, Molly Bawn is now dead.
All the girls in this country, stand them all in a row.
Molly Bawn would shine above them like a mountain of snow.
Norman Kennedy:
Folk like that sad story. Because most of these ballads are sad. You get very few ones with a happy ending, and thats what folk like. The women at home used to sing that sort of stuff, and their aprons up and blowing her nose and, Oh my god it was great. Sing me another one. You know they loved that stuff wallowed, in it.
Norman Kennedy sings Barbara Allen:
Its all Im sick, and Im very, very sick.
And its all for Barbara Allen
Oh better for me ........
Norman Kennedy:
Of course it was the stories, you know, the songs that got me, got me interested. I think thats why I shut my eyes to sing like a lot of the old timers did because youre seeing the story going on, you see, and thats how you remember the sequence, the verses.
But it was just that I heard a lot of, well not a lot even but a handful of really good singers who were neighbors. My father and mother could sing good. Theyre not particularly theyre not disinterested in the old songs. To them, a songs a song.
Norman Kennedy sings Mouth Music (in Gaelic)
Norman Kennedy:
Both in Scotland and here too, you know, there was a time when the ministers didnt want
people to play dance music. They didnt want the young men and women getting together. And so they thought it if they could stop the music, then they could stop the dancing where they were making contact with each other and then they could stop anything that came from them canoodling while they were dancing, you see. So they would go around. They did this manys a time took the fiddles and threw them into the fire, and the poor people couldnt do a thing about it, both in Scotland and here too.
So in both places, people got around that by singing for dancing. Here in America, would be the play party songs. At home it would be, and the Highlands would be the port à beul, the mouth music. Port being tune; beul being your mouth. So it was mouth music. And they put words. Some of the words didnt mean too much. Some of them were just nonsense things. Some of them had little bits of stories, whatever. They didnt care about the words. It was as long as the song was going.
Norman Kennedy sings Mrs. McLeods Reel (Gaelic mouth music)
Fiddle music: Mrs. McLeods Reel
Ron West:
Mrs. McLeods Reel its a, its an old tune that was played to all the square dances. And its an old favorite. My dad played it, and I guess all the fiddle players played it.
We used to have dances back on the old farm. And they were, we used to call them kitchen tunks back then. Some call them kitchen junkets, but... And we used to have some great times. And, of course, every time I talk about the kitchen tunks, I think, of my Uncle Clarence and a tune that he used to play. And the name of the tune was Honest John. And, well, I probably could, Id like to play it for you. It goes like this.
Ron West plays Honest John
Ron West:
It kind of brings back a lot of memories. We used to have dances in our home at times, and wed pick out one of the larger rooms and move out the furniture. And wed play perhaps maybe to 11:30, 12 oclock, then wed all stop and wed have lunches, have some coffee, and then after we all got, ate and got rested up, wed go back to playing again. And the music for these things are, well, it could, you know, could be most anything that the people enjoy. Like wed have the square dances, a few square dances. We might have a couple of oldtime waltzes, maybe a twostep or two, and things like that. It all meant for a good time.
My father used to play the violin also. He was a, he was a barber, and I guess I got started in playing the violin through him, you know. And he, I guess, he didnt like me playing his violin, I guess its too much. So I, I used to sneak in once in a while, and I, they take the violin out of the case and saw away at it for a while. And, of course, my sisters there she used to get a little mad at me, and they used to make me go into the bedroom shut the door. They couldnt stand the squeaking.
Floyd Brown:
Wonder if hes home. Hello, Ron.
Ron West:
One of the nicest things about our music is having friends over to socialize. Have another musician come in and stop in for a visit and play a few tunes and reminisce a little bit and just, you know, really socialize, and it makes for a great friendship.
Fiddle music: Saint Annes Reel
Floyd Brown (during music):
Oh, we got it now.
Saint Annes Reel (cont.)
Floyd Brown:
You know, I think we got to teach Ron how to tap his feet, same as you and I are doing.
Wilfred Guillette:
Ill tell you why I tap my feet. My dad tapped his feet when he was fiddling. I dont know. I think his dad, he was a fiddler, and he tapped his feet, see. And my father come from Canada. He was a farmer. Hes coming in the States in 1919. And I was about seven and a half, eight years old. When I get to the age of 16, we used to go to dances, the kitchen junkets, and I used to play with my dad, twin fiddles. We had a lot of fun together, yeah.
Fiddle music: Prend Un tit Coup
I think the fiddling is going to continue. And I noticed a lot of young children learning the fiddling. I had this young fellow there, my best friend, Louis Beaudoin, his grandson. And hes getting good.
Glen Bombardier fiddles The Gaspé Reel
Wilfred Guillette:
Its a good feeling to play the fiddle. I think its a real, a good, relaxed music, you know what I mean? A lot of times Ill, I feel kind of blue, say, well, some days, you know, you dont feel like other days. Ill take my fiddle, you know, and Ill start playing, and boy, it just peps me up again. And I dont know, when I get my fiddle, I feel right to home. Thats something I guess Ill always keep. I love it.
Ron West:
Ive always considered myself an oldtime fiddle player, but more or less have to kind of leave that up to the listener, I suppose. I suppose if youre playing to an oldtime dance,
youre playing oldtime dances, and the people are having a good time dancing to them, and the timing is right, and the rhythm is right, and I guess youve got to call yourself an oldtime player.
I was brought up during the time where we were starting to have records then, you know, and so I learned a lot all from records. As well as the records that we used to listen to the radios a lot, and of course that, you know, that had a lot of influence on our playing too, you know, through the radios, and we got a tune from maybe out of the south or out of Virginia, West Virginia or maybe out from the Grand Old Opera that you hear so much about. Of course, we had to learn all those tunes by ear. And we picked them up, and wed done the best we could with them, you know. Sometimes we couldnt remember all the tune or wed get to play the first part of one tune and wed learn a part of another, then wed put them both together and make a full tune out of it.
And made for a lot of fun.
The Hurstins play The Harris Piece:
Dorotha Parkhurst:
This one we call The Harris Piece, and I learned it from an oldtime lumberjack back when I was quite young. This Ellis Harris and a fellow by the name of Herbie Gordon. They were lumbering at the foot of Baldy Mountain in the Worcester mountain range, and we lived there. I lived there with my grandfather. And every Friday night, or Saturday night, possibly, they would come and play their music these oldtime pieces. And at that time, of course, I never had seen anyone perform live nor did I expect to, and so I was very impressed. At this time I was about 10 years old and I would sit in the corner trying to take in every bit of it. I loved the music, but I was trying to remember and all the while saying to myself, One day, Im going to do that. Im going to play those songs.
The Harris Piece (cont)
Dorotha Parkhurst:
My grandfather played the harmonica once in a while in the home, and my grandmother played piano. And I guess that was where the love of these old songs really started.
Back at the time when I was a child, I think music was these records thanks to the
Victrola, and through the 20s when Vernon Dalhart and, oh, the Arkansas Woodchopper,
Lonesome Cowboy even led us into some Western type things. Mac and Bob. I think it
was, we just couldnt hardly believe it. Because, of course it was long before television or
anything and never having seen people perform live, it was almost magical.
Vernon Dalhart sings: The Prisoners Song:
Oh, I wish I had someone to love me ......
Dot Parkhurst:
And I think thats why I tried to learn so many of those songs and remember them.
And it meant a great deal. Anytime we had a chance to listen, we certainly did. Back when I lived in Worcester, we played for the Grange dances every twice a month. We had a great Grange there, great attendance, and the dance was the reason. They did what they called the round square dances, like, like Marching through Georgia, Darling Nelly Gray. And then we did some of the contradance type, like Portland Fancy, and Fishers Hornpipe. They used to do the Virginia Reel a lot. And then of course they danced the round dances, but back at that time we had enough elderly people so they loved to do the schottische and the galop along with waltzes and fox trots. Of course a lot of the songs that I like very much are the hymn type.
The Hurstins sing Will the Circle Be Unbroken:
There are loved ones in the glory
Whose dear forms you often miss.
When you close your earthly story
Will you join them in their bliss?
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by.
In a better home awaiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky
In the joyous days of childhood,
Oft they told of wondrous love,
Pointed to the dying Savior,
Now they dwell with Him above.
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by.
In a better home awaiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky
You remember songs of heaven,
Which they sang with childish voice.
Do you love the hymns they taught you?
Or are songs of earth your choice?
Will the circle ......
Dot Parkhurst:
The song Will the Circle Be Unbroken, that was apparently was one of my grandmothers favorites and that was the last thing that she asked for was to play that song. So that does have a, really has a soft spot in my heart for that song.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken (cont.):
..... happy gatherings
Round the fireside long ago.
Can you think of tearful partings
When they left you here below?
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by.
In a better home awaiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky.
Eleanor Martin:
My mother and father used to play the saw, and my mother used to play the knives and spoons and sing the old songs. And she was a dancer, clog and everything like that. And she played the piano and used to play at the kitchen junkets where the neighbors would come in and theyd have a good time. It was really a happy time. It wasnt, well, nothing special. Maybe sometimes the violin was out of tune or whatever, but it was music. I mean, it doesnt have to, it wasnt perfect. But I mean it was music and everybody was happy with it.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken (cont.):
....be unbroken
Bye and by, by and by
In a better, home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord in the sky.
Eleanor Martin:
Im not a guitarist, really. Im just simple. Playing a guitar when Im down, it gives me a lift. And you can belt out of hymn. And if you do that, you know youve got one good friend.
Eleanor Martin sings Jesus is My Neighbor:
Jesus is my neighbor.
He lives next door to me.
My door is open to him.
Id given him the key.
We sit beside the fireplace
As happy as can be.
He seems to understand me.
He lives next door to me.
Eleanor Martin:
I like country music, I call it mountain music. Because mountain music to me is everybody is playing their own thing. Nobody is playing no two people play the guitar alike, really. And everybody has their own style. And everybody sings their own way. And thats what makes mountain music special.
Dot Parkhurst:
The harmonica goes way back. I used to blow on it when I was real young. And the neighbors would say they could tell whether I was happy or I wasnt because they could hear the harmonica coming, they knew I was happy.
In 1935, my grandfather, I lived with my grandparents, and he purchased an old Airline radio. And it took a set of batteries. Of course, we lived in a rural area. There was no electricity, and so by getting closer real close to it we could hear Nashville. And then over WDEV of course there were always performers like Dennis Parkhurst and Merton Long, Don Fields and the Pony Boys, Buddy Truax.
Don Fields and the Pony Boys play Pony Boy Theme:
Here we the Pony Boys
On the air to bring you joy
Sing and play, every day, on your radio.
Do requests you like best
Find us on your dial.
Giddy up, giddy up, giddy up, whoa.......
Smokey Carey:
Well, when people heard that theme coming over the radio was just a... All I could say it was a part of Vermont. At that time I was living in Burlington. I cant tell you exactly how old, but I was oh, for the time I was really old enough to appreciate. Oh, I was really into country and western music, and I wanted to play guitar.
Lois Carey:
The radio was the big thing. I mean, everybody listened to Don Fields. Everybody listened to all of these western bands that at that time from Burlington and Waterbury, you know, were coming on. And when they appeared in their town, well, that was a big night, you know. So they looked forward to going, and that was all they could do. I mean, there was no, no actually music in bars or anything like that. Very few bars, as a matter of fact, in those days. And so I think this is the one thing that, I mean, everybody looked forward to was their Saturday night with Don Fields or whoever. You know, it might have been, whatever been.
Pony Boys perform Frankie and Johnny:
Frankie and Johnny were lovers.
Oh, Lordy, how they could love.
Swore to be true to each other.
True as the stars above.
He was her man.
But he done her wrong.
Frankie went down to the corner
Just for a bucket of beer.
Said to the fat bartender,
My lover Johnny been here?
He is my man.
But hes doing me wrong.
I dont want to tell you no stories
I dont want to tell you no lies.
But i saw your lover Johnny
With that girl name Nelly Bly
Hes your man.
But hes doing you wrong.
Lois Carey:
Ah, take it Smokey.
We used to tape a weeks programs in advance. And then wed do the Saturday morning show live. But wed work starting at night when it was cooler and work until two or three o clock in the morning taping a weeks show. So weve spent a lot of happy hours in this, this room .
Frankie and Johnny (cont.):
Frankie went home in a hurry.
Oh, she didnt go there for fun.
She went home to get a hold of
Johnnys shooting gun.
Oh, she shot her man.
Cause he done her wrong.
Oh, this story has no moral.
And this story has no end.
Oh, this story just goes to show you
There aint no good in men.
He was her man.
But he done her wrong.
Chuck Donnelly:
Hey, very good, Lois. I like that song.
Smokey Carey:
Not many around can sing Frankie Johnny like that.
Chuck Donnelly:
Nobody around can do that.
Lois Carey:
Thank you, gentlemen.
Smokey Carey:
We stayed with the pop and the country tunes of the day. And of course, our square dances or plain quadrilles, they used to call them, were very popular. This would be, wed notice that the barn dances, for example, on our round dances, which included the waltzes and the fox trots and polkas, and wed have a lot of folks on the floor. But you get the plain quadrille or the square dance started, and theyd fill it right up, wouldnt they.
Lois Carey:
Oh my the barn dances.
Chuck Donnelly:
You know what I didnt realize then, I mean I realize now that we were going through an era, you know. We might have lived it a little differently....
Smokey Carey:
Right, right.
Lois Carey
Thats very true.
Chuck Donnelly:
But it was and a lot different than it is nowadays.
Lois Carey:
But what amazes me is to think we could pack like Harts Barn eight, nine hundred people in there, and to look at the equipment the kids have today, and think we were doing it with one microphone probably, and maybe one........
Smokey Carey:
A little Maskell amp.
Chuck Donnelly:
A little Maskell amp.
Lois Carey:
A little something about like this.
Chuck Donnelly:
That was it. Stromberg
Lois Carey:
That was it. And that was it. I mean, we carried the whole barn and the people loved it.
Pony Boys play Ragtime Annie:
Chuck Donnelly:
Away we go.
Ragtime Annie (cont.)
Chuck Donnelly:
Kitchen tunks to me were my first getting acquainted with the music, with playing. And Im talking I was 11, 12 years old, and they were having kitchen tunks even. I lived in Burlington at the time, but they had kitchen tunks even on the, you know, somebodys house, Saturday night. Roll up the carpet. Bring your fiddle. Bring your guitar, whatever you play. They had fruit punch and all kinds of food, and, uh. But it was my introduction into the, into this whole music era.
Ragtime Annie (cont.)
Chuck Donnelly:
All right, dear lad.
Smokey Carey
Did I look like a violinist there?
Well, my father used to be a banjo player. And that would be where I got started. I used....The first instrument I played, harmonica. Oh, I appeared at a couple of Grange festivities, things like that with my harmonica, but just kept following it up through. And as Chuck was saying here, the kitchen tunks. I remember where we lived. Oh, we were really out in the country. And there was no... Your plumbing was the outhouse. No electricity, you know. And, but every once in a while Saturday, Saturday night, wed go down to the neighbors. They used to move the kitchen stove right out of the kitchen. Put it on the porch.
Pony Boys play Alabama Jubilee:
Smokey Carey:
Well, at one time, my goodness. Gee whiz. There was Don and the Pony Boys.
Chuck Donnelly:
Jack Carns Kentucky Ramblers at that same time.
Smokey Carey:
They were out of St. Albans, Jack was, yeah. And the Bronco Busters.
Chuck Donnelly:
Bronco Busters
Smokey Carey:
...Were out of St. Albans. They were fine country music, too.
Chuck Donnelly:
All good bands.
Smokey Carey:
Yes, yes.
Chuck Donnelly:
All good musicians.
Lois Carey:
Dusty Miller, Jimmy Miller.
Chuck Donnelly:
Dusty Miller and his brother Jimmy Miller.
Smokey Carey:
Back then it wasnt big money, but yet for the times and all, it wasnt that bad. But the thing just... The bottom started dropping out of the, you know, the barn dances and all, and I guess......
Lois Carey:
I think perhaps thats when it all started, is when the boys had to go in the service, you know.
Smokey Carey:
Around Korea time.
Lois Carey:
And it was hard to get a musician, you know. And then, of course, Don was very tied up with his farm, and I think he sort of wanted to get away from it for a while. And once he did he never actually came back.
Smokey Carey:
But I think people were sort of getting... It was that era, you know, getting away from the barn dances and things, really.
Chuck Donnelly:
It was kind of over. It was going the other way.
Smokey Carey:
It was cycle you know.
Chuck Donnelly:
In Vermont now had you could have bands in bars, and the whole thing had changed. It was a whole new thing coming in now. And it was ....... were on the tail end of it. Elvis was coming on the scene I think at that time, and you know things were changing pretty fast.
Don Fields voice:
Anyway were going to say thanks a lot for listening. Dont forget our big dance tonight at North Heartland, and tune in tomorrow, 1:15.
Pony Boys Theme
Announcers voice:
Don Fields and the Pony Boys will be back again tomorrow..........
Lee Jollota sings Your Cheating Heart:
When tears come down, like falling rain
Youll toss around and call my name.
Al Cadorette:
I used to listen to the radio and Don Fields and the Pony Boys is one of them. And we used to go to their dances all over. I dont think theres as many square dance callers as there was then. The old type of square dancing is fading away. And I hate to say it, but there isnt too many of us callers around.
Your Cheating Heart (cont.):
Your cheating heart
Will tell on you.
Lee Jollota:
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. And now were going to introduce someone that probably doesnt need an introduction around here, Mr. Al Cadorette for a square dance. ...Al Cadorette.
Al Cadorette:
Hey, ya, Everybody all warmed up? Want to get going here. If we get this thing all messed up? Whoa, what, just shut off now? I got that one shut off. We got it turned on. Okay, were going to have a little bit of Nellie Gray. Let it go.
Al Cadorette calls Nelly Gray:
Now its eight hands around.
Now its eight hands around with Nellie Gray.
Youre going the wrong way. I want you to go tother way.
Dede da da de la le la da la da la da la da da la da la da.
Now the first young gent, must lead up to the right,
And youll swing with your darling Nelly Gray.
Now youll leave her alone, and lead on to the next,
And youll swing with your darling Nelly Gray.
Now youll lead on to the last, and you balance with the......
Al Cadorette:
Once the gold fiddle opens up and starts getting some calling going, I have no problem getting all the people I want on the floor. Its, its, its life. Its lively. Its a lot of fun. Its just into people, you know. Its...... I, I have no problem. Everywhere I go, I can call square dances. I come down here, well, pretty near every Saturday night, not every Saturday night, but I come down here, a lot of Saturday nights, and the different bands are playing, and Im welcome to go in and call a square dance. And its just.... I just love it.
Nelly Gray (cont.):
Now you leave her alone and lead on to the next.
And you swing with your darling Nelly Gray.
Now youll lead on to the last and you balance with the pass
And swing with darling Nelly Grayhey!
Leave mine alone ..........
Al Cadorette:
When I was just a kid growing up in Northfield, and we used to have the old kitchen junkets. Wed have a good time dance and square dance, and I was ducked back in the corner and watching everybody. I was just a kid.
Nelly Gray (cont.):
De di di de de de dum de di di diddly dum
Now the 3rd young gent......
Al Cadorette:
Square dancing is as far as Im concerned is a lot of fun, and a lot of people done it, and Ive done it all my life, and I enjoy doing it very much. I do it because I love it, and I see the people going out and having a good time, and thats what Im all for. I raised 11 children, and I worked all my life. And my children all were out here square dancing today and they really enjoyed it.
Music is my life. I really enjoy it. Ive done it for all my life. I sang. Ive entertained. And uh... and uh, I just love it.
Chuck Donnelly:
I had some of the best years of my life I realized look back on now, and I was proud to be associated with Don Fields who taught me a lot more than just music over the years, just a lot about living.
Smokey Carey:
Back at that time television wasnt that popular. Drivein movies werent that popular. You didnt have the fast food things or pizza places, the steak houses. So it was one of the heights of entertainment, I guess.
Lois Carey:
I loved every minute of it. I had, we had great fun. And I was one of the boys, you know, definitely, I think They never treated me as a girl or gave me any special... They didnt fan me or do things like that special they, you know, I just enjoyed every minute of it. It was just great. I was, I was a Pony Boy.
Dorotha Parkhurst:
I guess during that time I was sort of a novelty, being able to play the violin and mandolin and/or guitar and the mouth organ. I think they were surprised to see a woman doing this. And I think even today it is unusual.
Eleanor Martin:
If you really like music, it lifts your spirit, and its a sound altogether different. You cannot live in the world without music of some kind. Nobody can.
Wilfred Guilette:
They used to come to my place at night when I was to bed. They wanted fiddlers cause they was having a kitchen junket someplace. So theyd come and ask me if I could go. Sometimes I would Id get up, and Id go and play the fiddle all night.
Ron West:
Players like myself that we, we kind of kept right on playing, playing the fiddle then. To us its, I guess it will always be popular music.
Norman Kennedy:
Theres always some freak to keep it going. And its the freaks in this world that keeps things going, you know. Theyre the goats. The sheep just keep going, never thinking, but the goats, they go where they want. They think for themselves, you know. So I hope theres plenty goats going around singing these old songs for a while yet. Yeah.
Margaret MacArthur:
As I travel around in my orange van and travel out of state and whatnot, I feel like that I could be one of the ancient minstrels, although Im sure they were never women. I think its very fortunate that now women can do these things and travel around and sing, just sort of carry these old songs along and new songs too that are interesting and follow in the same line.
Cordelia Cerasolli:
They shouldnt be forgotten. They should be kep up.
Margaret MacArthur sings Fifty Years Ago:
How wondrous are the changes since 50 years ago?
When girls were woolen dresses and boys were pants of toe.
Boots were made up cow hide and socks of homespun wool.
Children did a half days work before they went to school.
Yes, everything has altered, I cannot tell the cause.
Man is always tampering with natures wondrous laws.
What on earth were coming to, does anybody know?
Everything has changed so much since 50 years ago.
The End
