Nebraska Dance Calls - series 2
This is the second in a series of three booklets of square dance calls collected in Nebraska in the late 1930s. As with other booklets in the series, the authors provide background information about the different callers, most of whom learned to call from parents or grandparents going back to the 1800s.
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"Towns were few and far between in those days and settlers had the natural urge to get together in groups, a long intensified by their isolation, which, during periods of deep snow or heavy rains made it difficult or impossible to make trips for any great distance. So the practice arose of using first one and then another prairie soddy, though in some sections the pioneers met in barns or machine sheds. Often the "guests" would gather without prearrangement, owing to lack of communication facilities, and prepare to "water down" the dirt floor for the dance. At other times, when more elaborate preparations were made, rough wooden boards would be laid on the ground in the open or a crudely built barn would be used, from which the horses and cows had not been removed. The caller and fiddler (often the same man) would begin, positions would be taken, and the dance would be on.
"Among the dances the quadrille, better known as the square dance, was one of the most popular. The callers used variations of calls brought to this State by the emigrants, and occasionally composed calls of their own. Many callers could conduct a dance an entire evening without repeating the same call.
"Mr. DeHart, a pioneer who lived near Central City, says that the dance in these early days was not always so joyous. There were times when another element, fleas, would enter the dance. The fleas seemed to know that the prairie ladies were at a disadvantage to "crack 'em." In spite of their tiny size, they had bites like hot pincers and were often the cause of wild activity. Some of the girls, in retaliation, became expert flea crackers."
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"Towns were few and far between in those days and settlers had the natural urge to get together in groups, a long intensified by their isolation, which, during periods of deep snow or heavy rains made it difficult or impossible to make trips for any great distance. So the practice arose of using first one and then another prairie soddy, though in some sections the pioneers met in barns or machine sheds. Often the "guests" would gather without prearrangement, owing to lack of communication facilities, and prepare to "water down" the dirt floor for the dance. At other times, when more elaborate preparations were made, rough wooden boards would be laid on the ground in the open or a crudely built barn would be used, from which the horses and cows had not been removed. The caller and fiddler (often the same man) would begin, positions would be taken, and the dance would be on.
"Among the dances the quadrille, better known as the square dance, was one of the most popular. The callers used variations of calls brought to this State by the emigrants, and occasionally composed calls of their own. Many callers could conduct a dance an entire evening without repeating the same call.
"Mr. DeHart, a pioneer who lived near Central City, says that the dance in these early days was not always so joyous. There were times when another element, fleas, would enter the dance. The fleas seemed to know that the prairie ladies were at a disadvantage to "crack 'em." In spite of their tiny size, they had bites like hot pincers and were often the cause of wild activity. Some of the girls, in retaliation, became expert flea crackers."