Volume 7 , Issue 40

Tripping the Light Fantastics...

"Thomas L. Joy, (1850-1920), publisher of the Centralia Sentinel, in the May 19, 1914 issue of that paper, wrote an absorbing account of dancing in early Centralia. Grandpa and Grandma did not have the movies; the churches were never opened except on Sundays and prayer meeting night, the opera house was the town hall where theaters, dances, and speakings, were held, and the theater companies were few and far between, youngsters were not expected to be so extravagant as to go more than two nights when there was a week-stand company―that's about all the opera there was, excepting the home talent affairs, mostly on the order of tableaus. School debates and spelling matches were a big attraction and the annual picnic of the strongest church in the community was an occasion remembered from one year to another. "Grandma and Grandpa knew nothing of the tango and like dances, and none of the dance movements ever created any unfavorable comment, except from the church members; dancing was denounced as much in those days by the preacher as it is today. Our young people, who today enjoy tripping the light fantastic, may have an idea they have it over. Grandpa and Grandma and Father and Mother, too, but they are mistaken. The old-time dances or balls were big money-makers; every society had to have one and picked up more money in one night than can be made inthree now. The round dances were none too popular, for they required real dancing, but the square dances called everyone to the floor; the rule then was that every third dance was a square dance. The callers of the earliest, days were artists and some of them considered poets; the best of them always sang their calls and helped at keeping time more than did the music, for the old time fiddler often made as much noise with his foot as with his violin....." -- www.larrett.com/GeorgeRoss/LightFantastics.htm   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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