I’ve Danced My Life Away

I Danced All the Time

My father Frank had an orchestra called Alexander’s Ragtime Orchestra. I never did dance to his orchestra because he didn’t play after I was old enough. My sister Celia used to play for him, played the piano for him and his orchestra quite often. She played very well.

He was a blacksmith, a ship’s blacksmith. He used to make anchors and all that, and he had his shop down where the public landing is now. At one time he worked on the largest anchor that had ever been made. My great-uncle Ezekiel was the first steamship operator on the West Coast! Usually my father had a helper, but he did most of it himself, and then at night he played in his orchestra. Sometimes he had five people, sometimes seven, and at one time he told my husband that he had 31 engagements in the month of August one year. That means he worked 10 hours in the blacksmith shop and then he played music.

He could play anything. He was a clarinetist; saxophone hadn’t come in then. That came in about the time he retired from doing music. He was a very fine musician, and he organized the band in town and bought the uniforms and the music and everything. I remember those big sheets of music used to come from Ditson’s in Boston, and at that time there was a little bandstand down between, well, the end of Mechanic Street that comes out Elm Street, you know, Arey Hill square there, and they had the bandstand down there. That’s where they used to play.

ED: How often would they play?
FS: Oh, probably every Sunday, I don’t know-whenever they could. They played and passed the hat around! That was the current thing to do.

My mother taught us how to dance. She was a beautiful dancer, and she taught all of us girls in the kitchen. We had a Victrola that we used to play, and she saw to it that we danced. Oh, and also, on Saturday afternoon, Ruth and I used to go down on Willow Street to the place next to where we were born. They had extended the ell of the house and made a little dance hall and everyone went! Oh, everyone went dancing down at Silas Heal’s! He had a hurdy-gurdy and used to wind it. Every once in a while it would stall and squeal, but we had a good time. After a while it stalled and squealed so much that he had it electrified. On Saturday afternoon they had square dance lessons there for the children; I think we paid 50 cents. Silas Heal’s wife and his daughter used to teach us, so we learned to do all the old-fashioned dances-the schottische, the one-step, the quadrilles, and waltz quadrilles and all kinds of things. Of course we had to waltz - everybody waltzed then. Old Zip Coon - we used to do that, and the Virginia Reel, and well, we had a rounded education. I used to dance the one-step with Bill Hodson. He’s still alive as a matter of fact. He lived up at 63 Washington for a long time until he became blind and all, but he was a good one-step dancer, and he always chose me. We one-stepped around the hall - I was thrilled to dance with him. He was blond and handsome, and he never danced with anyone else.

It wasn’t a very big hall, but we had a wonderful, wonderful time. We used to dance at the KP Hall too - that’s down where the movie place is now - and the Oddfellows Hall up over the Opera House, and at the Masons, and at-what was the name? The Pythian sisters? What was that organization? I can’t remember.

There were the Rebeccas and the Oddfellows and the Masons. The Masons had a dance usually once a month, and they sometimes had supper or coffee or something. Mr. Calder always made the coffee. He had three daughters who were in my school with me - Elizabeth, Catherine, and Marian. And we used to dance at the Cleveland Hall, you know where that is? Up over where David Dickey was-it was up, way up in that building.

BD: -across from what was the 5 & Dime. There’s a new store there. We went up those stairs on Mechanic Street.

We always had good orchestras. There were a number of good orchestras around here, and everybody danced. That was the thing to do - dancing. And my family were all dancers. We all danced. The Grange Hall - we used to go up there to dance - and the Opera House, of course. Once a year they had the Businessmen’s Ball, which was really lovely. You’ve probably heard about that. All the ladies went in evening dresses, and the men who had tuxedos wore them. Some had cutaway coats and they wore those! It was a very elegant thing, and my father used to play there a lot. The Firemen’s Ball was a big event held the week of February 22nd. Billy Dean had an orchestra afterwards and he filled in after my father didn’t play anymore.

We used to dance at the Oakland Park, you know where Howard Dearborn’s place is down there? They have cabins down there now. That was a big hall, and it was one that they could put the windows up, you know, in the summer, and we would dance there. They only danced in the summer down there because there was no heat. But that was a good thing, and they had one of those shiny balls at the top that used go around. That was fun.

We danced everywhere. We not only danced in Camden, but we went even as far as Monroe and everywhere! Whoever had a car would load it up with the dancers and away we’d go! The girls never went with boys, ever. They always went by themselves and danced with everybody. It was the thing to do and as far as I can remember there was no drinking, ever, and no smoking. There were some good orchestras. There was a nice one from Rockland; Hal Marsh had a beautiful orchestra. In fact, he was one of my father’s players in his orchestra.