Jim Hopkins Remembers The Neighbourhood Dance Parties Of The 1940s
Detailed recollections of dancing in central Ontario in the 1940s, including neighborhood house parties, dancing at larger halls, and teaching square dance in schools. In other regions, these house parties might be called kitchen junkets, hops, frolics, or tunks.
Compare Ralph Page's detailed look at a kitchen junket in New Hampshire.
Here's a taste of Hopkins and his memories:
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Every once in a while, one family in the neighbourhood would host a party, which was truly a special occasion. “There would only be a few parties each year, maybe two or three in the fall and two or three more in the spring. Everyone had so much work to do in the summer that there wouldn’t be any parties. You’d be house bound all winter and you’d get sick of putting wood in the stove to stay warm—stoking the stove, taking all the pipes down and cleaning them out so they didn’t take fire.”
By the 1940s, many families had an automobile and homes were starting to be connected to the electrical grid—which gave then new freedoms that would not have been possible in the era of horse and wagon and coal oil lamps. It was a lot of work to care for a team of horses and hitch them up whenever families travelled—and likewise it was laborious to keep the lamps filled, carry them around clean the glass so they produced light. These new conveniences allowed the house parties of the 1940s to be the joyous occasions they were. “I don’t remember any house parties where we had horses—a farmer wouldn’t have anywhere to keep all the horses during the party, if people had brought their teams. All the parties that I remember were in a house where the host had electricity. It would be pretty hard to house party when everyone had to use a lantern—and they were liable to start a fire.”
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Since websites come and go, we've also added the article as a separate item to SDHP in the form of a PDF file.
Subjects: Northern / Ottawa Valley, Northeast - general, General - Dance and Culture
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: Dancing Feet of Ontario |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Ontario Traditional Music Library - Dance |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Square Dancing in Sudbury, Ontario |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Canadian Olde Tyme Square Dance Association |
| This Item | is related to | Item: The Rural Square Dance in the Northeastern United States: A Continuity of Tradition |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Take a Little Peek - Jerry Goodwin |
| Item: Jim Hopkins Remembers The Neighbourhood Dance Parties Of The 1940s | is related to | This Item |
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Compare Ralph Page's detailed look at a kitchen junket in New Hampshire.
Here's a taste of Hopkins and his memories:
---
Every once in a while, one family in the neighbourhood would host a party, which was truly a special occasion. “There would only be a few parties each year, maybe two or three in the fall and two or three more in the spring. Everyone had so much work to do in the summer that there wouldn’t be any parties. You’d be house bound all winter and you’d get sick of putting wood in the stove to stay warm—stoking the stove, taking all the pipes down and cleaning them out so they didn’t take fire.”
By the 1940s, many families had an automobile and homes were starting to be connected to the electrical grid—which gave then new freedoms that would not have been possible in the era of horse and wagon and coal oil lamps. It was a lot of work to care for a team of horses and hitch them up whenever families travelled—and likewise it was laborious to keep the lamps filled, carry them around clean the glass so they produced light. These new conveniences allowed the house parties of the 1940s to be the joyous occasions they were. “I don’t remember any house parties where we had horses—a farmer wouldn’t have anywhere to keep all the horses during the party, if people had brought their teams. All the parties that I remember were in a house where the host had electricity. It would be pretty hard to house party when everyone had to use a lantern—and they were liable to start a fire.”
---
Since websites come and go, we've also added the article as a separate item to SDHP in the form of a PDF file.