Q.S.R. NUD*IST Power version, revision 4.0. Licensee: History Department. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++ Text search for 'dances' 'dances' +++ Searching document int.Mrs OB, Mrs ZR, int 3... SB: WHAT ABOUT THINGS LIKE DANCES? 1388 SB: DID YOU YOURSELVES GO TO ANY DANCES WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG? TO OTHER CHURCH DANCES FOR EXAMPLE? 1394 ZR: No we didn't bother till we went to work and then we went to DANCES. 1396 SB: OK. RIGHT. SO WHEN YOU WERE A TEENAGER OLGA, WOULD YOU GO OUT AS A TEENAGER? OUT, SAY, TO DANCES OR TO TOWN? 1414 SB: SO YOU WOULDN'T GO TO FOR EXAMPLE THE PRESBYTERIAN DANCES? 1426 +++ 5 text units out of 1816, = 0.28% +++ Searching document intJ B... *MC: APART FROM DOING THINGS LIKE GOING ON PICNICS AND HAVING SINGING EVENINGS DID THEY EVER GO TO DANCES OR TO THE FILMS? 105 +++ 1 text unit out of 777, = 0.13% +++ Searching document int.Mrs JB... MC: OK. WAS THAT - SO IT WASN'T ONE OF THE DANCES THAT WERE HELD AROUND.... 185 +++ 1 text unit out of 572, = 0.17% +++ Searching document int.Mrs RB, & Whitty, J... MB: We had the 'Amaco' [indistinct] up at St Josephs. It was sort of a Catholic group of young ones. We were there. And there were Club DANCES. 193 SB: MONDAY NIGHT DANCES AT ST JOSEPHS. 199 +++ 2 text units out of 1278, = 0.16% +++ Searching document int.Caird, Myrtle... MC: Well I played basketball and I went to DANCES. I used to love dancing. I think that just about Ð helped around the house. Of course you always had to do that in those days. Visiting relations. I think that was about our lot. But of course see I was at basketball practice about two nights a week and then playing on Saturdays. Working Saturday morning. So you didn't get. 598 MEG: DANCES WERE VERY FREQUENT THEN, WEREN'T THEY. 600 MEG: SO DO YOU THINK IT WOULD BE REASONABLE TO SAY THAT YOU WERE PROBABLY GOING TO THREE DANCES A WEEK? 668 MC: Oh yes. Sometimes the Early Settlers. Then there used to be the Macandrew Road DANCES and the St Kilda dances. You could go out every night of the week if you wanted to but I wasn't allowed. 670 MEG: WHAT DID THE MEN WEAR TO THE DANCES? 732 MC: Oh I loved the movies. I'd go in the afternoons. Saturday afternoon. I'm talking about not so much when I was in my teens going to DANCES but before that I loved the movies. 742 +++ 6 text units out of 1197, = 0.50% +++ Searching document int.Crossan, Phyllis... PC: We used to go to DANCES four or five times a week. I still would go a lot if I had a husband to go dancing with. They take you in when you're single, no problem whatsoever. But after they get married then they've got a sore leg or something. But I love it. I used to go away off there or we'd go to the pictures, that sort of thing. There were so many dances in those days. We had so much to pick and choose from. On a wet night Ð we used to wear long frocks in those days you see Ð you'd hitch your frock up, you'd have your evening shoes wrapped up in a parcel under your arm, and off you'd go flatstick to the tram. You'd get the tram into town. 255 MC: HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU WERE GOING TO THE DANCES? 257 PC: I suppose I was about 16. But I used to go to DANCES earlier than that with my mother. My father didn't dance. He had two left feet as he used to say. But Mum used to love it and there were friends of ours who used to go to a dance, a monthly dance up at the ??. Mum had taught me to dance in our kitchen. We used to roll the rugs up in those days, push the table into the corner and put the chair up on the top of it. Mum learnt me to dance in our kitchen. Of course as I say I loved it so I used to go off with them you see. I had the time of my life. 259 MC: RIGHT. SO WHEN YOU STARTED GOING OUT TO DANCES ON YOUR OWN AT 16 WHO DID YOU GO WITH? 265 PC: Well you went on your own and met up with your girlfriends in the DANCES. There'd be about five of us from Dreavers. We used to all go together. The girls all sat round there in the hall and the boys stood at the door. They'd eye you all over and decide which one they'd get to ask. A mad rush. But they haven't changed very much really. They still stand at the door and look around. 267 PC: Yes. Well there's so few DANCES now. Graham, that's my youngest son, he said to me one time before he was married 'I envy you and the things that you did in your young days. For us there's nothing.' They started some dances at the East Taieri Presbyterian Sunday School and he was out there with his friend one night and these chaps came round and for no reason at all punched his friend in the face and broke his front teeth. Now they had to close that dance down. This was years ago. All this sort of thing. Another night he went to a football do in Green Island and we know the fellow involved, he was pretty rough and he had a few other ones with him. He came up and punched Graham. He was just sitting talking to his friends. You just don't know what's going to happen these days. 271 MC: HOW WERE THE DANCES RUN? 277 *MC: IT IS A BIT DIFFERENT. SO APART FROM THE DANCES, WHAT OTHER KINDS OF THINGS DID YOU DO? 285 PC: Well it would be depending on the DANCES. If we didn't go to dances then we'd go to the pictures. Quite often I'd be dressmaking for outsiders and my time was all taken up. I didn't have any spare time. There was always something to do. If it wasn't that it was helping in the house doing your little chores and so forth. 295 +++ 9 text units out of 431, = 2.1% +++ Searching document int.Delargey, Edward J.... SB: YEAH. IT MIGHT BE DANCES OR SPORTS TEAMS OR ANY CATHOLIC ACTIVITIES? 328 SB: DID YOU EVER GO TO A LOT OF THINGS LIKE DANCES, WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG? 420 SB: RIGHT. DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN ANY CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTIVITIES WHEN YOU WERE A TEENAGER OR SOMETHING? DID THEY HAVE ROMAN CATHOLIC DANCES? YOU NEVER WENT TO THEM DID YOU? 428 +++ 3 text units out of 1354, = 0.22% +++ Searching document int.Mr BD... BD: Mmm. She used to play for DANCES as well, (80). 753 *MC: DID YOU GO OUT TO DANCES OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT. WERE THERE TIMES WHEN YOU WERE DOWN IN DUNEDIN WHEN YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO WORK AND YOU WOULD GO OUT AND DO SOMETHING SPECIAL? 755 BD: We never went to DANCES and those days but I used to go to all the dances in Enfield in those days. Four of us married because my sister would play for them and she used to play a bar round. 757 MC: WERE DANCES SOMETHING THAT UNMARRIED PEOPLE WENT TO RATHER THAN MARRIED PEOPLE? 759 MC: DANCES. WAS IT MAINLY UNMARRIED PEOPLE WHO WENT TO THEM? 763 BD: Yeah, the DANCES used to have a sit down supper and all this sort of thing, school dances, just school stories and all that sort of thing. By the way, they had a school jubilee about six months ago. 769 BD: The hall was the main place where you met most people. (MC: RIGHT.) They used to have a spinister's ball and a bachelor's ball and school DANCES and all this sort of thing. There was always something on. 847 +++ 7 text units out of 987, = 0.71% +++ Searching document int.Mrs MD... *MC: NOW, WHAT DID YOU DO FOR FUN WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP, DID YOU GO OUT TO DANCES OR TO THE FILM OR - WHAT KIND OF THINGS DID PEOPLE DO THEN? 2244 MD: They went out to DANCES. 2246 MC: MAINLY THEY WENT OUT TO DANCES? 2248 MD: But it really is. It 's really for [indistinct] I don 't know. They, they barely touched your knees, at the DANCES you could see all the girls ' pretty garters above their knee. 2280 MC: WHEN YOU WERE GOING TO WORK AND OUT TO DANCES AND THINGS LIKE THAT, HOW WERE YOU TRAVELLING, WERE YOU WALKING OR WERE YOU USING THE TRAM? 2332 +++ 5 text units out of 2484, = 0.20% +++ Searching document int.Duncan, Dorothy... MC: DID YOU EVER GO OUT TO ANY OF THE DANCES THAT WERE BEING HELD AROUND DUNEDIN? 255 MC: RIGHT. HOW WERE THE DANCES SEEN BY THEM DO YOU THINK? 263 *MC: OK. WHEN YOU WERE WORKING, WERE YOU THE EXCEPTION IN AS MUCH AS MOST OF THE OTHER GIRLS WOULD GO TO THE DANCES? 572 +++ 3 text units out of 645, = 0.47% +++ Searching document int.Miss DF. & Miss GB.... GB: Oh, yes, yes. Saturday night. You didn 't go out every day of the week, you had your special nights for going out, and we would go to the DANCES, and my husband was an athletic coach and he, he 'd run when he was younger in the Caversham Harriers and they had a lot of entertainment, dances and one thing and another, and we were, were always there, and enjoyed it. Went, we went to a lot of balls, there was a grocer 's ball then, and uhm, yes - 1411 DF: And school DANCES and - 1417 MC: WHEN I HEAR HOW MANY DANCES THERE USED TO BE I 'M INCLINED TO AGREE WITH YOU. IT SOUNDS LIKE PEOPLE HAD A GREAT DEAL OF FUN. 1425 DF: To the Caversham School DANCES. 1449 GB: Our father used to go up to the Caversham School DANCES. 1451 *MC: NOW, YOU 'VE TALKED TO ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THINGS LIKE THE DANCES AND THE SATURDAY NIGHTS AT HOME WITH FAMILY FRIENDS COMING AROUND. WHAT WERE THE OTHER THINGS THAT YOU DID WHEN, YOU KNOW, AFTER YOU LEFT SCHOOL FOR, FOR FUN. WHAT KIND OF THINGS DID PEOPLE DO THEN? 1829 MC: AND THE DANCES, THE DANCES, THE OLD PUPILS ' DANCES IN CAVERSHAM, WOULD THE CHINESE EX-PUPILS GO TO THEM AS WELL? 2525 +++ 7 text units out of 2747, = 0.25% +++ Searching document int.Fraser, Pat... *MC: DID YOU DO THINGS LIKE GO OUT TO DANCES MUCH? 501 MC: NOW WE WERE TALKING ABOUT DANCES. HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU STARTED GOING OUT TO THINGS LIKE DANCES? 509 MC: EIGHTEEN. NOW WHAT WAS IT THAT MADE THE DANCES A NICE THING TO DO? 513 MC: RIGHT, OK. WHO WOULD PROVIDE THE MUSIC AT ONE OF THOSE DANCES? 565 MRS BARR: At the DANCES. 571 MC: SO WHEN DID YOU STOP GOING TO THE DANCES? 575 CF: But after we were married we didn't go regularly to DANCES. 585 MC: RIGHT. DO YOU THINK GENERALLY SPEAKING THAT THAT WAS TYPICAL. THAT THE DANCES TENDED TO BE UNMARRIED PEOPLE? 591 CF: Certain DANCES, yes. Like there were Burns Club for instance. They were mainly young and old. 593 +++ 9 text units out of 1086, = 0.83% +++ Searching document int.Mrs MG... *MC: DID YOU EVER GO TO DANCES? 306 MG: Not much. Very strict household, ours. My father had probably seen an awful lot of life with people having babies that shouldn't and that sort of thing round his district. We never went unless the boy was approved. They had no school DANCES at Archerfield I remember. I went to Tech and there was a social once and I can remember a boy in the orchestra asked me. I don't know where he came from and I don't even remember his name. My father didn't know who he was and he wouldn't let me go. I thought that was hard because if he wanted to make sure then he could have taken me in the car, dropped me there and picked me up. 308 We had a social at Training College but there were hardly any men because they were all away at the war. We had what we called the flatfooted bespectacled youth that was left. Three sections of girls to one of boys. So in a way the war did a lot of damage to our youth at a time when people would be going to DANCES and things. Any boyfriend you had would have gone to the war or something. 309 +++ 3 text units out of 484, = 0.62% +++ Searching document int.Mrs RG... RG: Why did we shift? Well the family were growing up and going out to DANCES. It was a matter of getting home late at night on the last trams and that sort of thing. then too my eldest sister died in 1921. She was just 21. I think the family felt unsettled after that too. 43 RG: No. I played bridge quite a bit in my youth, in my teenage because it was sort of, well a lot of people played, well everybody played cards. But I think my sisters, I don't remember them going out to play cards. I remember them going out to DANCES because it was quite a fuss if they were going to dancing. But I don't remember actually what their pastimes otherwise were. But I daresay it was playing cards. It might have been whist or 500 in their time. 359 MC: NOW DID PEOPLE GO TO DANCES MUCH WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG? MC: WHAT KIND OF DANCES WOULD YOU LEARN? 715 MC: NOW WE WERE TALKING ABOUT DANCES AND DANCE CLASSES AND CAN YOU TELL ME WHICH DANCES YOU WENT TO? WAS THERE A REGULAR DANCE THAT YOU ATTENDED MAYBE ON A SATURDAY NIGHT? 743 RG: Supper, yes. Sit down supper at a big ball. They used to hold DANCES down in what is now the Early Settlers Hall. It was the part that was the Museum. What did they call it? You know the Early Settlers Hall was what did they call it? There was another hall attached to it and we used to have a lot of dances in that. Of course during the war years, especially the 14Ð18 war, not that I went to the dances then but my sisters went to dances raising money for different things. 761 MC: RIGHT, RIGHT. I'VE HEARD THAT THERE WERE DANCES IN THE TOWN HALL. 763 RG: Yes. Those were the big DANCES. 765 MC: AND SO WHEN YOU WERE GOING TO THE DANCES BY THEN I SUPPOSE THE FAMILY LIVED IN HIGH STREET? 823 RG: By the time I was going to DANCES, yes. 825 RG: No. By that time the boys had motorcars. By the time I was going to DANCES. If they didn't have motorcars they had their fathers' cars and were allowed their fathers' cars. But that was why we shifted, one of the reasons why we shifted from St Clair because that meant it was too far for the boys to see the girls home. They'd then have to walk back to goodness knows where. 829 MC: RIGHT. RIGHT. BECAUSE WAS IT THE CASE THAT WHEN YOUR OLDER SISTERS WERE GOING TO DANCES THE BOYS THEN DIDN'T HAVE CARS AS OFTEN? 831 RG: Once I was engaged I think perhaps I got a bit more liberties than otherwise. But no, I think generally speaking I don't think many of the DANCES went on actually the dance itself wouldn't go on, but how long you took to come home was your business. 857 MC: HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU STARTED GOING TO THE DANCES? 859 RG: Certainly not as young as they go today like you know there's 14, 15Ð years old seem to get out to DANCES these days. And your parents always had to know where you were going and who you were going with. 869 RG: At least I don't think I gave you that impression. I don't know what. I can't think of anything. No. I belonged to a junior political party. It was Mr Forbes. What party was that? Away back when I was a teenager. But I think it was mainly because they had DANCES every month or something like that. Social. But there was a group of us and we all went along together. 1024 MC: WHAT KIND OF ACTIVITIES APART FROM THE DANCES DID BELONGING TO A POLITICAL PARTY ENTAIL? 1026 +++ 17 text units out of 1829, = 0.93% +++ Searching document int.Grimmett, Bert... MC: WHAT WERE THE SOCIALS? WERE THEY DANCES OR - 119 BG: Yes - when you look on back on them now it 's laughable, you know, a bit childish, one of those sort of games they used to play ... oh, heck. Oh, it was kids ' stuff, really. And - but they didn 't have DANCES, because my wife 's family were Baptists, they frowned on dancing. [indistinct] So - and the Presbyterians were the same, in those days, but we had fairly good social evenings, you know, everybody was wound up and after - we went to a few and you were sort of let into the elite of the people that - to come on out and have a drink. A few [indistinct] out in the toilets. Oh, lot of fun. 121 MC: WERE THERE DANCES HELD ELSEWHERE IN THE CITY? 131 +++ 3 text units out of 694, = 0.43% +++ Searching document int.Grimmett, Bert (2)... MC: WHAT WERE THE SOCIALS? WERE THEY DANCES OR - 256 And - but they didn't have DANCES because my wife's family were 261 MC: WERE THERE DANCES HELD ELSEWHERE IN THE CITY? 290 +++ 3 text units out of 1407, = 0.21% +++ Searching document int.Mrs MH... MH: Really got to know one another. We used to go to all the DANCES. 271 MC: WERE THERE MANY DANCES HELD? 273 +++ 2 text units out of 389, = 0.51% +++ Searching document int.Hall, Frederick... +++ Searching document int.Harris, Bill & Frances... FH: And we used to go out to DANCES and parties, so it used to be about - there was about eight of us all together, and we sort of kept that group. 924 WH: - but we did go to a lot of DANCES. 2056 MC: MMM. NOW THESE DANCES, HOW OFTEN WERE THEY HELD? 2106 WH: - and then they used to have one at the Fire Brigade hall, the Fire Station in Castle Street, they used to run DANCES there and of course there were lots of other halls but the Town Hall of course it was one of the biggest dances in Australasia. It was always packed on a Saturday night. They'd come from everywhere for that. 2118 MC: MMM, MMM. AND WERE THERE LOTS OF LITTLE DANCES BEING RUN? 2120 WH: Oh yes, yes. See a lot of the Lodges had their, ran their DANCES. Like Forresters Lodge and, ah, there was, you know, there was South Dunedin hall and the one at Forbury Corner here where the Waterloo is, was a hall where they used to have dances. 2122 MC: RIGHT. AND HOW MANY DANCES MRS HARRIS DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD GO TO, IN A WEEK SAY. 2124 WH: But that was always a form of entertainment, was your DANCES. 2140 +++ 8 text units out of 4112, = 0.19% +++ Searching document int.Harrison, Ellen... MC: WOULD YOU GO TO FILMS TOGETHER OR DANCES? 304 Ah boys, and we used to go to DANCES. The, there was a place called the Marigold, Marigold something or other over at Andersons Bay and they seemed to run regular dances more of the type of thing like a tennis club dance or a netball dance or something like that. And then there was the tea kiosk which was very, very popular before the war and um and they used to hold quite a number of University parties there too. And then of course Cargills Castle was the place to go. 311 EH: When? This would be from about 1937. It was probably going before that but from 1936, 35 perhaps. There would be regular Saturday night DANCES up there with Harry McClatchies band. It was a beautiful dance floor, it was a sprung floor, they always used to have nice suppers and things, but it was a wretched road to get to, it was very, very narrow and rocky and muddy, but once you got there it was fine. 319 MC: DID YOU GO TO DANCES? 361 MC: DID YOU GO TO MANY DANCES? 365 EH: Yes, but not at that age. We used to have school DANCES. Always in capping week the students would be invited up to the school and I'd been looking forward to this, um, I was boarding at the school at the time and this particular year the students were invited up and I was, I caught some sort of bug and the treatment was um a quarter of cup of castor oil, followed by a quarter of a cup of orange juice, and I was so ill after that, I'd been sick before but I was ill after that, I didn't get the opportunity to dance with those boys. 367 EH: Well I went to a girls school you see so that um no we didn't have anything like that. At University we used to, we used to have the various faculty's would have a ball. I think it would probably be, it wouldn't be around capping time, it may have been round capping time but it was always something quite large in the Town Hall. The first ball of the year was always the Charity Ball when the Bishop used to receive the debutantes and then all the other sort of balls used to followed on from that so it would probably, yes it might have been round about capping time. There would be the Medical Ball, the Dental Ball and the Commerce Ball and all those things. I've got a lot of photos of the DANCES and things then but I don't know where they are are the moment, they're buried under something. 371 EH: Well not on my, not from me but the boys used to um used to smuggle the drink in because with six o'clock closing you see, there was a lot of restrictions but they used to bring in bottles labelled ginger ale which wasn't ginger ale. I know they used to get up to those sorts of tricks. (MC: MMM) But no, they were always very well organised and very well run. Some of the bigger balls, they always started off with this march, the Grand Old Duke of York, have you seen that? Mmmm and this always seemed to get things going but um, I never liked the square DANCES where they played, the boys would wind things up to such a degree that you couldn't keep your feet on the ground. 377 +++ 8 text units out of 596, = 1.3% +++ Searching document int.Ingram, C.W.N.... CI:On the spot. They'd come around and they would know, they asked me about my shanghai and he says "where have you got it hidden" and I didn't know he was only guessing. And he said "now break that thing up and never let me see it again" and just walked on. But they handled everything. There was trouble at the freezing works and one man had the whole thing terrorised and he could fight this fellow, he worked at the freezing works and he used to stir up trouble at the Saturday night DANCES. Everybody was frightened of him. He really had the district terrorised so they sent out one constable from town, he came from Takanui in Central Otago, Two brothers - they were legends in their own time, So he went down there and he asked for this chap and they said "he's not here" and he said "tell him I'm looking for him". So the fellow came looking for him and he said "so you're the one who has been causing the trouble. Alright, its you and I for it". And he took off his uniform~coat and helmet and they had a real set to. I believe it was a real donnybrook. But the policeman won and there was no more trouble. You see there is no arrests. 1147 +++ 1 text unit out of 1385, = 0.07% +++ Searching document int.Isaac, Bill & Alice... BI: Well, no, they had a ladies' lodge and men's lodge. But they'd visit each other. And they had DANCES, they had competitions. 559 MC: RIGHT. DID YOU GO TO OTHER DANCES AS WELL? 839 AI: Oh yes, we did. I went to hockey DANCES too and then there was the Town Hall dance which some went too. I didn't go to that very much because we mostly just went to the church things. (MC: RIGHT) We learnt to dance at the evenings, we had evenings and we learnt to dance, then we went and practised it Ðwhat we learned. 841 BI: No, you'd have your learning and we'd have ours. It was a shambles. We learn to dance together at DANCES. 855 AI: At DANCES, yes. 857 AI: But then we had enough DANCES so that they could practice together quite a bit. (MC: RIGHT) We had a dance once a month or something like that. We used to dance sets. The Lancers and the Quadrilles and all those sort of things and we weren't allowed to make a noise because, you know, there was a lot of noise about those. You'd lift your hands up and you'd to shhh, that's what we used to have to do because it was a Saturday night and we didn't want to disturb the neighbours roundabout. There were neighbours living right next to the church down in, what's it called now, Pencarrow Street isn't it. No, not Pencarrow, the one (BI: Eastbourne...) Eastbourne Street. (...Eastbourne and Baker Street) 867 MC: RIGHT. YES, SOME OF THOSE DANCES WHERE PEOPLE CAN GET VERY NOISY DOING THEM, CAN'T THEY? 869 MC: NOW, WHAT TIME WOULD THOSE DANCES END? 881 AI: We always had supper. (BI: oh yes) They always had supper in those days, didn't use to cost the earth to get either but in the end they gave up church DANCES down there I believe because there was too much drink being bought to them. 891 AI: Ah, some years ago now. I remember somebody saying about that, had DANCES hadn't they. (BI: yes, they did) Was that when our children went, 20 odd years ago now. Our ones are all their 40s now. 895 AI: They didn't have DANCES at the Presbyterian Church. They had social evenings, but they didn't have dances. They used to like to come to our ones. 905 *MC: RIGHT, OK. NOW, APART FROM GOING TO THE DANCES, WHAT KIND OF THINGS WOULD YOU BE DOING FOR FUN WHEN YOU WERE JUST PAST SCHOOL AND BEGINNING TO WORK, OR YOU KNOW IN YOUR LATER YEARS AT SCHOOL? 925 MC: WHAT KIND OF THINGS DID YOU DO MRS ISAAC, APART FROM THE CHURCH DANCES THAT WE'VE TALKED ABOUT, FOR FUN? 953 +++ 13 text units out of 1601, = 0.81% +++ Searching document int.Jeffries, Margaret... MC: MMM. RIGHT. I 'M GOING TO BE ASKING YOU SOME MORE ABOUT DANCES LATER, SO - 285 MJ: I think Daphne met Jim, that 's my sister-in-law, met uhm, Jim because - Daphne lived at Ravensbourne, Jim lived in Port and I think they met on the train. They used to go up on the train to work. Or DANCES, things like that. My sister Nancy how did she met Allen? I don 't know. Whether that it was because she played cricket and he played cricket. Was that how - I can 't remember that. Yes. And Ivy and Walter, they met at a scout dance. He was in the scouts and Ivy used to love dancing, and Doris and Drew met through the Baptist Church at Caversham, Drew used to go there, and Doris would go there for bible class, Girls Brigade. She met Drew there. Uhm, Lex met Olive when they up at the bible training institute in Auckland, they, they did their training together, and Doug met Doreen at a St. Kilda dance, and Ann met John through the Scottish Country dancing. 483 MJ: Oh, how about that. We 'd go out to the beach, go to the DANCES, go to the pictures. Go to town on a Friday night, perhaps look in the shops, but this was no hanging around the streets. Go to the pictures - mind you, we had, even though I was working and perhaps sixteen or seventeen, we had to be home as soon as the pictures finished, we were - that didn 't mean, mean to say we couldn 't have a boyfriend on the way home, but no, and we had - still asked dad, you know, if we could go to the dance. 691 MC: WHEN DID YOU START GOING TO DANCES. APART FROM THAT FIRST ONE THAT YOU WENT TO WHEN YOU WERE FOURTEEN? 693 MJ: And - cause at MacAndrew Road we would tear up MacAndrew - eh, Helena Street, get the tram and get off at our stop, up we 'd go up the hill, and I never ever abused that, never. Every Saturday night, and then there 's DANCES in the middle of the week and perhaps we 'd go there. It was good. 715 MC: MMM. MMM. HOW MANY DANCES A WEEK DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN GOING TO? 717 MC: WHO WOULD YOU NORMALLY GO TO THE DANCES WITH? 745 MC: OK. WAS THAT HOW MOST PEOPLE WENT TO THE DANCES, THEY 'D GO WITH A FRIEND, OR THEY 'D GO IN A LARGE GROUP OR? 757 MJ: When I was in St. John we used to have rosters too to go and do the supper. And you used to love to go out there, because we could all eat. They, they had big long tables, and we had to put out saucers at so many places, and you got two sandwiches and two cakes, they were - and then you got your tea afterwards there, and by the time - we 'd do that and stand around there and we 'd get DANCES and have to be back into the kitchen again. To the supper room. 799 MC: MMM. WHAT HAPPENED ... WHEN YOU GOT MARRIED. DID YOU GO ON GOING TO THE DANCES? 853 MC: WHAT WAS THE KIND OF UPPER AGE RANGE OF PEOPLE WHO WENT TO THE DANCES? 861 MJ: Oh, there used to be a lot of DANCES in those days. The fire station used to have one, St. John 's, down there, St. Kilda, and then Joe Brown started up the Town Hall Dance. Yes. 871 *MC: MMM. WHEN YOU WERE A BIT OLDER AND WORKING, GOING OUT DANCES, WHERE DID YOU GET THE DRESSES? 1323 MC: DID YOU - WERE, WERE THE FRIEND, THAT YOU WENT OUT TO DANCES WITH, WOULD YOU EVER KIND OF BORROW ONE OF HER DRESSES TO WEAR IF YOU PARTICULARLY LIKED IT? 1331 MC: DID YOU GO OUT TO DANCES AND THINGS WHILE YOU WERE UP THERE? 1355 +++ 15 text units out of 1427, = 1.1% +++ Searching document int.Mrs HJ... SB: MMM. WHAT WAS THE VIEW OF THE CHURCH WITH REGARD TO SAY GOING TO THE MOVIES AND GOING TO DANCES AND THINGS? 1018 HJ: Oh, well, DANCES were out as far as we were concerned growing up, but no, not movies, but you had - 1020 +++ 2 text units out of 1579, = 0.13% +++ Searching document int.Jones, Joyce... JJ: I don't know. With our bikes we'd go on bike rides. Pack little picnics and ride down to Company Bay or down that way round the bays out to Brighton. Used to go up the river in the boats at Brighton. The films, the pictures and DANCES when I got old enough and was allowed to go to dances. You'd go two or three times a week to the dances. 225 MC: WHERE WERE THE DANCES? 227 MC: AND YOU'D GO TO TWO OR THREE DANCES A WEEK. 231 MC: WHAT WERE THE THINGS THAT YOUR PARENTS MIGHT HAVE BEEN CONCERNED ABOUT WITH LETTING YOU GO TO DANCES? 243 JJ: I don't think they worried about that really. Our father would come with us sometimes. He loved coming down to the Macandrew Road DANCES. 245 MC: WAS IT THE SAME GROUP OF ABOUT SEVEN FRIENDS THAT YOU WENT ON PICNICS WITH AND WALKS WITH AND WENT TO DANCES WITH? 255 JJ: Through the DANCES. I used to go to the dances and one of the men in the band, he and his wife lived with my husband's mother and father. 871 JJ: Well we used to follow the one dance band around. One of the men in that dance band was my husband's brotherÐinÐlaw. He told him to come out to the DANCES. He was a shy boy and he made him come out to the dances and introduced him to me and that was the finish of him. 879 JJ: My husband and I? Pictures on a Saturday or a Friday night. Pictures on a Friday night probably. And the DANCES on the Saturday. He was an outdoor chap. He liked going out tramping Silver Peaks. That wasn't my thing at all. But he liked to go to Evansdale with a crowd of his friends. They would shoot rabbits. They would go out on a Friday night in an old car and shoot out at Evansdale. 883 JJ: No not really. Not then, no. Although we all still went to the same DANCES. We still mixed. 899 JJ: But we didn't go out with one another the same but we were all at the same DANCES. 903 MC: SO WOULD YOU GO TO DANCES WITH HIM? 905 JJ: There'd be DANCES. Would there be films? I wouldn't know about films then. 1099 JJ: They went to each other's houses. When one got married they all would go to the house. Probably like a kitchen evening type of thing. They had all those things. And there'd beDANCES. 1103 MC: DID SHE TELL YOU ABOUT THE DANCES? 1105 JJ: Yes, in his later life he was. He worked at Shacklocks. He used to play the fiddle as it was called in those days for the DANCES. He liked that. I don't know when he joined the Brethren. He just got terribly strict and the girls had to tow the line. But the boys were allowed out. 1127 +++ 16 text units out of 1269, = 1.3% +++ Searching document int.Jory, Rita & Wellman, Louise... We used to go out there for holidays and that, which we did. We had this one big gramophone out there and we took a lot of these records out there. Of course we used to have DANCES in the big kitchen with the gramophone going. We had a lovely time. But they got lost. 727 MC: RIGHT. DID YOU EVER GO TO DANCES? 839 RJ: School friends and, I don't know. I went to Anderson's Bay. We went to a lot of DANCES. They put on dances at the school. Incidentally Caversham ran a dance every Saturday night to get funds for something. I can't remember what the funds were. Father was always on the door. I used to tag along and have a lovely time. 861 I particularly remember a frock I had. I couldn't tell you to this day where I got it. I'm sure my mother didn't approve of it. It was beautiful green georgette and it was beaded. It had silver beads all over. At that time strangely enough with the fashion of short dresses way up above your knee that must have been the 1920s, mustn't it? Must have been the 1920s. I had this frock and I just thought I was Christmas. I've never forgotten. It was my first really glamorous one. But they had lovely DANCES then at the Caversham School gymnasium. The old school, not the new one. 863 MC: SO DO YOU THINK A LOT OF YOUR GIRLFRIENDS MET THEIR HUSBANDS AT THE DANCES? 873 LW: We used to go to DANCES out there too. 883 MC: HOW WERE YOU CHAPERONED AT THE DANCES? 885 RJ: We used to do the seat DANCES. The boys would swing you off your feet you know like the lancers and drills. 891 +++ 8 text units out of 1261, = 0.63% +++ Searching document int.Miss CJ... *MC: DID YOU DO THINGS LIKE GO OUT TO DANCES AT ALL? 623 CJ: No, not very much. Um, I had to be pushed into going to dancing classes at high school. And I think once again it was because of my height. I was always so short. I went to one or two DANCES but not regularly. There was the Town Hall dance in those days and sometimes after Shakespeare Club we would go upstairs and have a look down and see what was going on but that was enough for me. 625 MC: NOW, DO YOU REMEMBER EITHER COMING ACROSS ANY DISAPPROVAL OF DANCES? 627 CJ: Ah, well yes there was instance where somebody wanted to introduce DANCES into our church and there was one elder in particular who really left the church because he didn't want dancing in the church. 629 CJ: Yes, yes, mmm. So yes, I have known of disapproval of DANCES. 637 +++ 5 text units out of 903, = 0.55% +++ Searching document int.Kennedy, James Ronayne... SB: YEAH. DID YOU GO TO DANCES? LIKE . . .? 176 RK: There were occasional DANCES down here in the St Patrick's School Hall. That was years ago. Its no longer there, it was pulled down. But no, at our age, when we were dancing I'd say St Joseph's was the . . . because they had a terrific orchestra. And of course in those days when you danced you also sang. 226 SB: UH-HMM. YEAH. THESE DANCES AT ST JOSEPH'S WOULD THEY BE MAINLY CATHOLIC OR? WHO WENT? 228 RK: But, no, we never thought of drinking and going to DANCES. It's something new! 262 SB: HMM. DID YOUR PARENTS EVER PLACE RESTRICTIONS ON YOU WITH REGARDS GOING TO THE MOVIES, READING BOOKS, READING COMICS, OR GOING TO DANCES - ANY SORT OF RESTRICTIONS? 804 +++ 5 text units out of 925, = 0.54% +++ Searching document int.Kenny, Frances... MC: WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER AND GOING TO THE DANCES BEFORE YOU GOT MARRIED, DID IT BOTHER YOU THEN, WALKING HOME ON YOUR OWN? 405 MC: AND GOING TO THE DANCES TOGETHER AND - 501 MC: RIGHT. OK. DID YOU START GOING TO THE DANCES BEFORE YOU LEFT SCHOOL? 971 MC: OK. WHAT WAS YOUR PARENTS ' ATTITUDE TO THINGS LIKE THE DANCES? 979 MC: WAS IT LIKE THAT FOR ALL THE DANCES? 1011 MC: MMM. OK. DID YOU GO TO THE BIG TOWN HALL DANCES AT ALL? 1015 +++ 6 text units out of 1326, = 0.45%.. +++ Searching document int.Lumb, Janet Stewart... JL: Kaikorai, I should say. So I thought, oh well there will be some boys to dance with. But they didn 't come evidently, I don 't remember, I ... I think that was the story, they didn 't come. Anyway, my future husband came with a married sister. Her husband didn 't dance, so according to him, he was dragged along to this dance. He didn 't want to go either, but he went along. And he asked me for a few DANCES, and ... and he asked to take me home. So that was the beginning of our romance. So we, we lived not very far from one another. Mmm. 211 +++ 1 text unit out of 723, = 0.14% +++ Searching document int.Maher, Hilda... HM: Oh yes, yes. 'Cos DANCES were all the rage in those times. We did dancing nearly [indistinct] every night. 419 MC: WHERE WERE THE DANCES HELD? 429 *MC: WAS THERE MUCH ADULT SUPERVISION AT THESE DANCES? 505 HM: Oh, no, no, no. There was an MC, we'd call an MC the person that would run it and they always had someone on the hall that would sort of scrutinise you know ... . Mind you remember that it was in the depression it was sixpence admission and if you were going with a boy it was really [indistinct] and you used to just say "I'll meet you inside". He couldn't afford to pay for you as well as himself, and umm, it was about the only thing that they could go to, that people could go to join those young ones. But DANCES were very well patronised. 515 *MC: OK. GOING BACK TO BEFORE YOU WERE MARRIED. APART FROM THE DANCES AND THE PICNICS THAT YOU MENTIONED, WE THERE OTHER THINGS THAT YOU DID FOR FUN, OTHER KIND OF LESURE ACTIVITIES? 917 HM: Oh, well we could have been wanting to go or, or met somewhere, or you now, down the Gardens. Woodhaugh used to be a popular place to go and we could get [indistinct] and um perhaps wanting to go to a picnic or something. Some of those places. And um some of the boys that we knew that went to the DANCES, one of them had a old van and used to pick us up sometimes and take us to Brighton for a picnic. Used to push it up Lookout Point roll down (laughs) nicely, push it back up [indistinct] going up (laughs). 1027 *MC: DID YOU FIND THAT, ONCE YOU GOT MARRIED, YOUR SOCIAL LIFE CALMED DOWN A BIT, OR WERE YOU STILL GOING OUT TO THE DANCES REALLY OFTEN? 1033 HM: Oh no, no, no. No we didn't, no. We didn't go to the DANCES then. 1035 MC: AT THE DANCES AND ... 1045 *MC: WHERE DID YOU GET MONEY FOR THINGS LIKE, FOR EVENING DRESSES THAT YOU WORE TO DANCES. IF THEY WERE A GUINEA? 1097 *MC: ONCE YOU GOT MARRIED AND YOU STOPPED GOING OUT TO THE DANCES AND THINGS LIKE THAT, WHAT KIND OF - WHAT WAS YOUR FOCUS THEN? 1317 +++ 11 text units out of 1353, = 0.81% +++ Searching document int.Mr LM... SB: HMM. DID THE CAVERSHAM ASSEMBLY HAVE DANCES LIKE THE PRESBYTERIANS? 339 +++ 1 text unit out of 1842, = 0.05% +++ Searching document int.Maskell part 1... RM: High church at that stage too, the Dean lived next door. I finished up in the choir with the result that I would have three attenDANCES on an Easter Sunday and two attendances other days where you had to get into surplices and collars . 420 RM:He played bowls for a year or two. No. He had his work, family and friends. A good social life. There used to be in the '20s lots of firms balls, DANCES and they would be out every second Saturday. They would go to the [unclear] ball or the A&T Burt ball. 619 +++ 2 text units out of 722, = 0.28% +++ Searching document int.Maskell part 2... RM: No.She would have a drink and they would drink, mentioned that they would go to balls, DANCES .. and drink would be a part of the night out ... they had people in they would have drinks as well as play cards. 208 MW: AND ONCE YOU'D LEARNED HOW TO DANCE WHERE DID YOU GO TO DO THESE DANCES? 550 .. more than monthly, might've been fortnightly DANCES .. you see there 553 RM:That's right. .. And the square DANCES, lancers .. maxina .. 575 RM:In 1931 I would go to the Saturday night DANCES with the people who were probationers and go to college the next year and we would go there as a group. We sort of didn't pair off. 579 MW:SO THESE OTHER DANCES WEREN'T FORMAL? 585 +++ 6 text units out of 743, = 0.81% +++ Searching document int.McCracken, Ken and Velda... *MC: TELL ME HOW - DID YOU GO TO DANCES? 1786 MC: WHICH DANCES WOULD YOU GO TO, IF YOU WEREN 'T GOING TO THINGS LIKE THE TOWN HALL DANCE? 1790 MC: MMM. MMM. OK. ABOUT WHAT AGE WERE YOU WHEN YOU STARTED GOING OUT TO DANCES? 1810 MC: GO OUT TO DANCES? 1830 MC: ONE OF THE OTHER DIFFERENCES THAT I 'VE BECOME AWARE OF IN TALKING TO PEOPLE ABOUT WAS THAT THE DANCES OFTEN SEEMED TO HAVE AN ALCOHOL BAN. 1838 MC: HOW ... WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN - WHY WAS IT THAT YOU WOULDN 'T GO TO THE TOWN HALL DANCES, DO YOU THINK? WAS THAT YOUR DECISION OR WAS IT JUST - 1866 KM: I used to go to DANCES. 1874 MC: RIGHT. HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU STARTED GOING OUT TO DANCES? 1890 MC: YES. AND MAY, YOU SAID SOMETHING EARLIER ABOUT HOW THERE WAS ALCOHOL AT THE DANCES, BUT IT WAS HIDDEN. 1926 +++ 9 text units out of 2590, = 0.35% +++ Searching document int.Melville, Colin... CM: We didn't have DANCES ah, in the church precincts ah, till later. I'm not quite sure whether it was after the war but we had dances ah, that were organised. We used to go, some of the dances were out the Hydro out at St Clair. They got a tea rooms out there now I think, and we went out there had dances and one of the leaders had a basement where we went and had dances and so forth. It was after, I think it was some time after the war that they started to have dances and some of them were very large gatherings. 397 CM: I went, I didn't go often but I know they had DANCES there. 525 CM: Well I think, and one might say one picked it up in a sense. But of course, if they were proper DANCES, the magazine and so forth ah, you know, there were a proper waltz and foxtrots and one steps and what not, [MC: right] you know, they weren't just these shuffle things. 533 +++ 3 text units out of 1096, = 0.27% +++ Searching document int.Mrs LMM '01... MM: Oh yes. They weren't narrow Baptists or anything like that. They were quite --- we were allowed to go to DANCES. Mum had been to --- when she was young she was allowed to go to dances. We went to dances if we wanted to. And some of the others, their parents would have been horrified - in fact Ken Denton's wife, Joyce, she wasn't allowed to go to dances, and she would have loved to have gone. But we were allowed to go. But that was my father's sister, her mother. But no, we were allowed to go. Mum saw nothing wrong with it. She'd been brought up in the country and went to dances, and well, there was nothing wrong with them anyway. As an old lady said: "we're better off at dances than some of these socials". 257 MM: Oh I used to think it was terrible when people knitted on a Sunday. Ha ha. We were talking about Freddy Jones' daughter-in-law they used to sit outside on a Sunday and knit. We thought that was terrible. And you didn't go to the beach on a Sunday. That sort of thing. Lots of church people didn't do that. Didn't go and buy anything on a Sunday either. But we thought that was terrible to knit on a Sunday - now I knit everyday of the week. But no, those sort of things were a bit narrow then. But I can't - some of the ones weren't allowed to go to the Pictures - we were, but they weren't allowed to do that - some of the others weren't allowed to do that. We had a dance at our wedding, well some of them, it was the first dance they'd been to wasn't it? They weren't allowed to go to DANCES before that. But we had one. And even the minister - what would he have been? Was he Methodist? 265 +++ 2 text units out of 961, = 0.21% +++ Searching document int.Mrs LMM '98... LMM: Oh, a lot of the time we did go with the group, you know, if we 'd go - mo - mostly just for walks or go to the pictures or that kind - mostly that sort of thing, oh, on occasion we did DANCES, I was liked but he wasn 't all that enthused, but we used to go occasionally to dances but not a great lot, you know. 273 MC: WHO RAN THE DANCES? 275 +++ 2 text units out of 939, = 0.21% +++ Searching document int.Mr JRMM... +++ Searching document int.Mrs NN... And, oh, yes, we were kept very, very busy, and then Joe Brown started his DANCES, you may have heard of that, they - he got, they ordered the cakes from there, you see, and we were packing dozens and dozens of cakes. We started with a few, and then we were packing and it didn 't - and then it increased and increased, and I was never at any of the dances, but ... there must have been crowds there just the same. 114 MC: AND DID YOU GO DANCES OR - 242 NN: Yes, they used to have, uhm, had DANCES for a while, and ... oh, I can 't remember. My memory is not what is was now. Old age. 314 NN: Fun? Oh, I can 't remember what we did. Oh, we did go to concerts and things, there were a lot of concerts on in those days, and they were good. That, eh ... oh, yes, there were a lot, and DANCES and that sort of thing. Mmm. 546 +++ 4 text units out of 723, = 0.55% +++ Searching document int.Mrs NN... JN: That 's gone now. I think that 's where we 'd more or less meet everybody because it was all DANCES and all that sort of thing and that, it was a wonderful age really. You know, we had lots of fun. 1058 JN: Eh, well, with DANCES they finished right on, on twelve o 'clock exactly, and they used to play, was it Old Ensign, or, or the, the, the Good Save the Queen, I can 't remember, and, and then, and then we went home, so that finished at twelve o 'clock and I had to be home by quarter to one. 1090 MC: AND DANCES? 1124 JN: Oh yes, pictures and DANCES. 1126 JN: That was the majority of it. I think it, it used to be at one time mostly, eh, before you went to DANCES, I think, you know, it would be the pictures on Saturday night, you know - 1130 *MC: MMM. OK. NOW ... I WAS WONDERING, WE HAVE TALKED A BIT ABOUT GOING TO THE PICTURES AND THE DANCES - 1626 JN: Yes, there were different DANCES that were on at the - there were quite a lot of dances on at that time. 1636 JN: I can 't remember the name - there was one around in Moray Place that we used to go to sometimes, and, yes, that would be - or, or any dance that was - there were loads of DANCES, you see, and, yes, and any dance that, you know, somebody 's sort of, you know, some of the girls were going there, and we 'd all go, you know, we go there, and it wasn 't like, like you, you - I don 't know that you can go without a partner nowadays, but, but you could, you could go without a partner, you know, go with the girls, and then, you know, when you, when I look back I think how funny it was, because, you know, the, the men, like - you know what men are like, and they would all stand together and then when the music started and they started at eight o 'clock sharp of course, and, and then they would make a dive for whoever they wanted to dance with, you know, that sort of thing, and then - 1640 *MC: NOW, HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU STARTED GOING TO DANCES? 1664 JN: Well, actually, I was very young, because - I 'd only be about fourteen, because my mother used to help, or the lady next door to us, they sort of ran the DANCES, and, and so my mother used to go and help with the supper and so did this other lady and a lot of others, because we always had a, a lovely supper there, so I used to - so I, I was able to go, because they were there. 1666 MC: DID THEY HELP WITH SPECIFIC DANCES OR JUST ...? 1672 JN: Oh, yes, they, they did all those quadrilles and all those sort of DANCES. 1674 MC: OK. HOW WOULD YOU GET TO AND FROM THE DANCES? 1684 JN: No, not that I know of, not, not that I know - to went - go to DANCES, but I used to have a bike too, at one - I used to bike to work. 1702 MC: RIGHT. UHM ... NOW JUST TO BACKTRACK A WEE BIT, WHAT WAS IT THAT YOU WORE TO DANCES, WAS IT FORMAL DRESS OR..? 1712 JN: That - I don 't think drinks were allowed at the DANCES, I don 't think they were even allowed, but there was always supper and a cup of tea. 1714 +++ 16 text units out of 2248, = 0.71% +++ Searching document int.Norman, Annie... *TB: AHA. OK. DID, DID YOU GO TO MANY DANCES OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT? 115 +++ 1 text unit out of 3011, = 0.03% +++ Searching document int.Mr TR... TR: Oh there's too many hypocrites there. You look at the way they say it and they way they live - it's quite different what they go through and what they talk about. Ron used to sing 'Oh Father ...' --- doesn't matter anyway --- he "goes to church on Sunday, to pray to God to give him strength to hit the kids on Monday." The school teacher or something. Oh, there's plenty of satirical stupid nonsense went on, no question about that. But there was really a reason for disillusion and that between the Wars period because everybody had let these men down, they'd gone to War and they'd suffered, regardless whether they came back physically intact or not, they all suffered, and they came into a society which was about to plunge into Depression. And there was marvelous rejoicing, post-War boom of new songs and DANCES and introduction of cocaine to society in England and the blue-blood people were celebrating in all directions and dancing the Charleston and all kinds of things. But the men who went to the War and came back with or without a pension, came back to practically nothing after that. Nothing - the provision was made of a sort for some of them to get on the farms. The farms were hopeless from the start. So there was that area of desolation and depression anyway, which almost invited the particular events to come. So I don't think that that kind of criticism was all that frequent. But if there was to be anything it would be a cynical kind of a reason - "Oh, you say there's a God. What's He done about things? Can't see much of His hand round here. I can't get much help anyway." 460 +++ 1 text unit out of 569, = 0.18% +++ Searching document int.Riddell, Beatrice... BR: Would you believe we went to school together but I didn't know him that well at school, I knew who he was at school and he never lived that terribly far, he lived at Forbury Corner and I don't know when school DANCES were on they sort of, the school ones went to school dances that could have been how, I don't know how I really met him that way. 226 BR: I wouldn't have a clue. Going to DANCES and that I suppose would be the most thing. Because there were plenty of dances to go to in those days, not like there are now. 234 MC: WHAT KIND OF THINGS DID COUPLES DO WHEN THEY WERE COURTING THEN? WOULD THEY GO TO DANCES TOGETHER AND..? 236 MC: YOU WENT TO THE DANCES DIDN'T YOU? 328 BR: Oh yes, I went to any of the DANCES. 330 MC: HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU STARTED GOING TO THE DANCES? 332 BR: Well to those sort of DANCES it was just short frocks but if you went to a ball you wore a long frock. 338 BR: No, no. I never remember them going to a dance, never. No. I can't recall DANCES being for the, what would you say, older people but there could have been but we just didn't know anything about it. 562 *MC: WHEN YOU GOT MARRIED, DID YOU STOP DOING THINGS LIKE GOING TO DANCES? 564 BR: The regular one, we did go to DANCES but we sort of just picked the ones we wanted to go to. It was just different dances we would go to, social dances, not social dances but I mean, just different ones we went to. 566 MC: YEAH, YEAH. SO THAT MAYBE THE DANCES TENDED TO BE MORE FOR YOUNG MARRIED COUPLES OR FOR SINGLE PEOPLE THAN FOR PEOPLE WHO HAD BEEN MARRIED A WEE WHILE AND WHO MAYBE HAD ONE OR TWO OR MORE CHILDREN. WOULD THAT BE ACCURATE? 576 BR: Well that would be when we'd go to a DANCES or whatever it was we were invited to go to. 586 MC: WHAT OTHER KINDS OF THINGS MIGHT YOU DO BESIDES THE DANCES? 588 +++ 13 text units out of 600, = 2.2% +++ Searching document int.Rutherford, Mr & Mrs... I: AND WHAT DID YOU DO ON SATURDAY NIGHTS AND THINGS LIKE THAT? WERE THERE DANCES AT ALL? 403 +++ 1 text unit out of 625, = 0.16% +++ Searching document int.Shiel, Gerald... +++ Searching document int.Shiel, Miss... Miss S:We always had friends in. We used to have DANCES, we used to take the carpet up and we had a great big dining room and ... Sunday I think we had 200 one time ... 799 +++ 1 text unit out of 1349, = 0.07% +++ Searching document int.Sidey, Stuart... MC: WOULD YOU ALSO DO THINGS LIKE GO TO DANCES? 333 SS: Oh yes, there were DANCES, there were university dances. I don't ever remember going to Joe Brown's Town Hall Dances, I remember going to dances at Columba College ... I had a girlfriend there, who was in the - a Columba College girl at one stage. Eh ... there was a place called the Brown House at the top of, you know, up North East Valley? 335 MC: TALKING TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE ABOUT DANCES THAT WERE HELD, IT SOUNDS AS THOUGH AT THE MAJORITY OF THEM ALCOHOL WAS QUITE STRICTLY FORBIDDEN, BUT IT'S BEEN SUGGESTED TO ME THAT IT WAS MORE COMMON AT THE UNIVERSITY DANCES THAT AT ANY, AT ANY OF THE OTHERS. WAS THAT YOUR EXPERIENCE? 341 SS: Yes, I think that would be right. You see, in those days all the churches had bible-classes and they all ran DANCES, and of course there was no drink there, and of course Joe Brown's didn't have drinks in the Town Hall, and students used to drink quite a bit, mostly beer, oh, I can remember taking a bottle of... 343 +++ 4 text units out of 807, = 0.50% +++ Searching document int.Smith, Jean... Mrs Smith: No, no but we just, I can't remember when I had my first taste of alcohol at all. Our group just didn't seem to worry about that. We belonged to Bible Class and had Bible Class hops. We looked forward to the Bible Class DANCES and that was really our social activity. (MC: right) And the occasional ball, the Military Balls used to be fun. 385 +++ 1 text unit out of 528, = 0.19% +++ Searching document int.Mrs ZO... *MC: DID YOU EVER GO TO DANCES? 225 Then it got, the screen somehow or other went back up you know and they would have someone playing and they could push the seats aside and they would have a wee bit of a dance you see. And that got so popular that he, that was an all out dance, never mind the pictures you see and then from that, it made him realise that there was a need for it. Although looking at some early things I had on dance halls, what was going on at weekends, the DANCES that used to be on and so he started it at the Town Hall and that was very popular. 237 *MC: WELL THANK YOU FOR THIS, THIS IS EXTREMELY INTERESTING. YOU MENTIONED JUST A WEE WHILE AGO THAT YOU HAD SOME THINGS ABOUT EARLY DANCES. HAVE YOU STILL GOT THOSE? 261 MC: WHAT DID YOU DO ABOUT DRESSES TO WEAR TO THE DANCES? 307 *MC: ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I'M WONDERING ABOUT IS WHEN HE WAS RUNNING THE TOWN HALL DANCES, IF THERE WERE THAT NUMBER OF PEOPLE COMING TO THEM, HE MUST HAVE HAD PLENTY OF MONEY. 353 MC: RIGHT, SO YOU HAD A FULL-TIME JOB DURING THE WEEK AND YOU WERE WORKING SATURDAY NIGHTS AT THE TOWN HALL DANCE (ZS: YES...) AND FOR AWHILE ON SUNDAYS (...YES UP AT THE CASTLE, MMM) AS WELL. OK. AT THE SATURDAY NIGHT DANCES, WHAT WAS IT THAT YOU WERE DOING? 393 ZS: Yes, definitely. As if we couldn't say no. Of course you see we didn't know things then. Never, that four legged, that four lettered word, I'd never heard in my life. And yet strangely enough you know, out at St Clair, as I told you it was quite a nobby area, and yet, some of the families, two or three of these families, and big beautiful homes too, and they used to play around with their brothers. I remember one of them growling because their brother had had an operation, I presume she meant a circumcision, and ah it wasn't nice. And don't you and your brother - no, golly. We couldn't believe our ears. And another lot, they used to have what they called bum DANCES down in the cellar you know, more like bumpity bump business and things like that. But we used to stand there with open mouths. 583 *MC: WHEN YOU MOVED UP TO THIS HOUSE, DID YOU KEEP ON GOING OUT TO DANCES? 607 When he got into the Kaikorai football, it was later on, it would be when Mike was about 12 or so. He said to Herman that there was going to be a meeting over at the football, 'Why don't you go dad?' So Herman went and from then on he was an avid follower of football and ah they used to have DANCES then so, but he was never that fond of it you see and he's one that just trottles along, and turns the corners and trots back again. Whereas to me, the moment the music starts you see, and I would want to do things and he'd get wild, anyway, I had my share of those you know. Always generally working, helping with suppers and things. 611 MC: AND HE WAS ALSO RUNNING THE DANCES FOR A WHILE. 665 +++ 10 text units out of 1071, = 0.93% +++ Searching document int.Sparkes, Shirley... MC: RIGHT. OK. DID YOU EVER GO TO DANCES? 375 +++ 1 text unit out of 471, = 0.21% +++ Searching document int.Mrs MT... SB: DID YOU ALSO ATTEND ANY CHURCH PICNICS OR CAMPS OR DANCES? 1688 MT: No. We never had those. Church DANCES, yes. That's how I met George. Bible class dances they were in those days. Once a month. Each church once a month round the area would hold a Bible class dance. 1690 +++ 2 text units out of 2483, = 0.08% +++ Searching document int.Thorn, Patricia... +++ Searching document int.Mrs MTd... So I stayed there till after the War. We were there while the War was on. We had great projects for making more - we ran DANCES. We all went out together in groups. We had projects for Patriotic Funds. We ran dances and made money. Of course, through the War it was very sad because a lot of them were married to soldiers overseas. Some lost them. We had some happy times there. We were a good group. We used to be perhaps in its day a very rough group. We used to be called the match factory tarts. We all had green smocks. Then I had a royal blue one. We all wore smocks. 106 MT: Down to the beach. I can remember us going away down the valley because there wasn't the traffic the same. We biked a lot and we danced a lot. There was lots of DANCES in those days and of course it only cost you half a crown to go to a dance. There was a dance at Macandrew Road School. We went every Saturday night. Every hall had dances and we went in groups. We had wonderful times. Through the War we had wonderful times. 170 MC: YOU'VE ALREADY TOLD ME THAT, SORRY. DID THE WAY YOU WERE TREATED IN YOUR FAMILY OR IN THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE CHANGE AT ALL WHEN YOU GOT MARRIED? WAS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING A YOUNG WOMAN OUT WORKING AND HAVING A GOOD TIME WITH HER FRIENDS AND GOING TO DANCES AND BEING A YOUNG MARRIED WOMAN? 228 MC: AT DANCES DID MEN AND WOMEN GET INTRODUCED TO EACH OTHER OR COULD YOU JUST KIND OF WALK UP AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF. 240 MT: Yes. He asked me to go to supper. We always had supper at the DANCES there. I said, 'If you'd like to come with our group' which he did and it progressed from there. 246 MC: DID YOU ARRANGE TO MEET AT DANCES AND THINGS LIKE THAT? WHAT KIND OF COURTING RITUALS WERE THERE? 252 MT: It was in those days at the match factory. You all knew the same boys. You all did the same sort of thing, going to DANCES and meeting up with different people. You see there was lots of dances through the week too. Monday night there was Caversham at Holland Hall. There was one at St Kilda and South Dunedin. There was dances everywhere. You could just about be out every night of the week if you liked to dance. 270 MC: WHAT KIND OF AGE RANGE OF PEOPLE WENT TO THE DANCES? 276 MT: From sixteen to perhaps thirty. School committees ran these DANCES for proceeds for the school. They were the elderly group. They wouldn't be much older than thirty. 278 MT: Yes and older. As old as my mother. Their daughters went to the DANCES and all. But you see there was never any liquor allowed at dances in those days. If you smelt of liquor or anything or had liquor you were more or less put out. 286 MC: WERE THERE THINGS THAT YOU DIDN'T DO AT DANCES? 296 MT: Oh yes, they kept a real watch over us. When we ran the DANCES through the war to make money they all came and did the supper, served the supper and helped us and all that sort of thing. 314 Then I had another girlfriend that was the Salvation Army one and we went - they called it torchbearers. This was in the Salvation Army Hall in Dowling Street. It was a social sort of a thing and we loved it. We went every Monday night to that. The other girls all came too. Oh no, it was good. This is when I used to be going to DANCES and that sort of thing. Joan worked at the match factory with us. 652 MT: Well you talk. We used to call this forewoman 'The Old Girl' and when she wasn't about, you know, you would talk, you did things behind her back and talk to them, see Peter was younger than me, I'm sure he was, I don't think he came to our DANCES or anything, I don't remember anyway, but most of the other men were married men, but oh no you just chatted to them. 886 MT: Oh yes, Oh yes we all went to DANCES together. We all went in groups - you always had friends that you could go out with, always. 922 MT: But when we went to DANCES together there would be the group of us that there would be a whole seat of us that worked together that we would go to dances together. 930 MC: MMM. APART FROM THE DANCES WHAT OTHER KINDS OF THINGS DID YOU DO? 932 *MC: JUST TO GO BACK A BIT TO SOMETHING WE WERE TALKING ABOUT IN OUR LAST CONVERSATION WHEN YOU WERE TALKING TO ME ABOUT THE DANCES, CAN YOU REMEMBER THE NAMES OF THE DANCES THAT YOU USED TO DO? 1008 MT: You knew them by, from the music, oh Lancers was another one that was an old one. We didn't do that very much, but Invercargill they still do some of the sets. Ah, foxtrots, quick steps, Canadian Three, Palmer waltz, see we do those still but we do a lot of new ones now too. Canadian Three, did I say that? Yeah. See, sets took a wee while then you had pass on DANCES. Make a big big circle - 1034 MC: SO THAT THESE DANCES WHICH LAST TIME YOU DESCRIBED TO ME AS BEING PUT ON BY SCHOOL COMMITTEES - 1052 MT: Oh yes. See there is a retired musicians' club in Dunedin now and they have the electricity department ran free DANCES down at the South Dunedin Town Hall and there was crowds there and these retired men were young men but they are still playing and they can still play all these dances. 1058 MT: They have that at the Bind Institute, there's a charity dance there. It's been going for a few years, but they have stopped now, and those chaps were older men who'd played for years and years. But see, its a very expensive thing to hire a band now. See, prices have gone up and most of these societies are really having a struggle to pay the bands. But Christchurch has old time DANCES, wonderful ones, but a lot of them just have tapes 'cause there's lots of tapes on lovely old time music. 1062 MC: MMM. SO WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER AND GOING TO THESE DANCES AND WORKING AT THE MATCH FACTORY WERE THE PEOPLE IN THE BANDS ALWAYS MEN? 1068 MC: RIGHT. OK. THATS ALL I NEED TO ASK YOU ABOUT THE DANCES. 1080 +++ 24 text units out of 1216, = 2.0% +++ Searching document int.White, J... MC: WERE YOU GOING TO DANCES MUCH? 889 JW: The DANCES finished at 12 so they didn't linger long. 911 +++ 2 text units out of 1026, = 0.19% +++ Searching document int.Wilkie, John ... +++ Searching document int.Wilkinson, Isabel... MC: WHAT KIND OF THINGS DID PEOPLE DO FOR FUN? DID YOU GO TO DANCES OR? 379 IW: Yes, going to DANCES, play tennis and hockey, or hockey if people wanted to play hockey, tennis, I played a little tennis, eh ... oh, of course people were interested in going to the theatres ... no, I wasn't a very outgoing person so probably I didn't do as much as other people, but there were one or two friends of mine 381 MC: WHERE WERE THE DANCES THAT YOU WOULD GO TO? 391 IW: Well actually, I'm wrong about the, the - well, at the YMCA they used to call a round game, and once a year there was always a, a dance there, down the - which is now the Early Settlers, there was dance - varsity DANCES were held there, there was also then and really more later on after I was married there was the dances in the Savoy building, the Tudor Room, actually very popular on a Thursday night and then, and then a more formal one on the Saturday night. Later on, oh wait a minute now, I can tell you this, I can perhaps give the date better for this, about 19 - about 1955, there was a square-dancing came to Dunedin and one or two square-dancing clubs and a lot of people enjoyed going to those evenings. I think that petered out after a few years. 393 *MC: SO YOU WENT ON GOING OUT TO THE DANCES AFTER YOU GOT MARRIED? 419 +++ 5 text units out of 591, = 0.85% +++ Searching document int.Wilson, Florence... +++ Searching document int.Wilson, Helen... HW: And, eh ... oh, they had DANCES at St. Clair, dances on the Esplanade 841 MC: THESE DANCES AT ST. CLAIR, WHO RAN THEM? 863 MC: OK. DID YOU GO TO DANCES IN OTHER PARTS OF TOWN? 90 HW: Think they did have quite a few lodge DANCES. 909 +++ 4 text units out of 1143, = 0.35% ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++ +++ Results of text search for 'dances' 'dances': ++ Total number of text units found = 309 ++ Finds in 55 documents out of 89 online documents, = 62%. ++ The online documents with finds have a total of 68649 text units, so text units found in these documents = 0.45%. ++ The selected online documents have a total of 95427 text units, so text units found in these documents = 0.32%. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++