Page 41 - With Alex Currie, Frenchvale

ISSUE : Issue 73

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1998/6/1

My tunes--my air--I can play with a note player today--a reel or jig or anything. And there's not one particle of difference. If it's any difference, I've got more vari? ation to it than the note player. I can push more pep to it, eh? That's the only difference. That's what gets them. You play some of these reels--they're only stamping their feet back and forth, there's no gold- am time. I play a reel, I keep the time with my feet, 'd that works a hundred per? cent. It just gives you a lift. (Thinking about your mother, you must have been hearing her jig tunes when you were a baby.) Yes, I was just a young kid, 10, 11 years old. (I mean, even before she was teaching you. Did she ever jig for people to dance?) Oh, yeah. Oh, she was a good dancer herself. I'd see her catching the back of the chair like that when she was about 91. Yeah, get the back of the chair with her two hands. She'd jig the tune for herself and she'd dance it. Just as slick as if you had a fiddle. I often watched her dance. My God, she was as light as a feather, you know. And my father was a good dancer. Many's the time in the evenings you know, they'd get playing the pipes in the house. He'd get up and dance. "Now, Jane," he said-- that was my mother's name--"Jane, you'll get up." "I can't do as good as you," she'd say. By geez, when she'd get up, he wouldn't open his mouth, if she was better or not. She was light, you know, oh, light. I'll never forget it. And my sisters and brothers, they're all good dancers, every one of them. I could dance a little bit myself, but now I Ross RUDDERHAM PLUMBING & HEATING • VENTILATION SYSTEMS SPECIALIZING IN DEPENDABLE PACK-O-MATIC FURNACES Replacements also available in any make of furnace! Sales & service for world famous .._ _ T .. • ~ -' , ''~ . L. I 443 Coxheath Road Buderus Cast Iron sydney,nsbirisi coal, wood and oil fired furnaces ' Phone 562-3455 • Fax 562-6621 Its a crime what an amateur will do to a perfectly simple print joh Get the pros touch M I T E D HO. Box KKl 180 Townsend Street. Sydney, Nova SciOda MP 6|7 Phone 902-564-8245 Of 902-53M665 F>x902-5??-2040 sconA So MUCH. So CLOSE. So call for your FREE vacation planning kit today'. Call today and we'll help you plan your best summer ever. Get all the details about the spe? cial guests playing at the Canso Stan Rogers Folk It's just one of our hundreds of Celebrate our Music festivals! Need accommodations? We can help there, too. Just tell us your price range, we'll find you a room. Come kick up your heels and celebrate Acadian culture, heritage and cuisine. Join us for Aci'imi 'Hl'f July 4-5, in Grand Pre. And for foot-stomping fun there s the Yarmouth Bluegrass Jamboree June 26-28. Call to find out how to get tickets. In fact, you can call us any time, from anywhere for any reason. We're your source for information about restaurants, golf courses, kids' activities, museums, theatre performances and more. So call today with your holiday questions. We'll get you an answer, and a ffCC vacation planning kit, including a copy of our 368 page Nova Scotia Doer's and DREAMER'S GUIDE! 1-800-565-0000 Ask for Operator #15 http://explore, gov. ns. ca 41

Cape Breton's Magazine