D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
November
2008
Ranchwoman: Dancehall Days
Page: 2They'd have box suppers at these dances, to raise money. A woman would make a really nice dinner — fried chicken was a big deal back then — fried chicken and maybe some pie or a good cake, and maybe some bread they made. They'd make the dinner, and put it in this decorated box. They'd decorate it all up and make it look really pretty and appealing, so that the men would want to bid on it. The men would start in bidding on these boxes. If one girl wanted a certain cowboy to get her box, she'd tip him off what it looked like so he'd know which one to bid on. Those boxes weren't cheap. I don't know how much they'd go for, but sometimes they'd spend a lot of money if two men were wanting the same box. They were suppers for two, and they'd go off and eat together — the cowboy and the girl, or maybe a husband and a wife. No wonder they got in fights! "Don't you dare buy my wife's box!"
Of course, Granny and Grandpa were into politics back then, so if any men running for office were down in Grant County, they'd see that they got invited to the dance. One time Bruce King was here campaigning, and oh, I was so embarrassed. I went over to visit with him, and guess where he'd sat — right where the dead rat was under the floor! Later, I go, "That was really embarrassing," and Jerry said, "Yeah, but he sure did fire up that cigar pretty soon!" Bruce King treated us as if we were as important as any big guy up in Santa Fe was. But I remember Jeff Bingaman came one time, and he walked up to the concession stand where I was working, and said, "You know, you're not charging near enough for these refreshments." I said, "Well, it really doesn't matter because it's all donated and we make pure profit off it."
Music lifts people's spirits. It just makes them happy, because everybody's having a good time usually. The Mormon pioneers, when they were coming across the plains, music was a very important part of their travel. They walked and worked all day, so at night, you think they'd be dog tired and wouldn't want to dance. But Brigham Young wanted 'em to have the music. They had brass bands, and they'd dance. They danced to the bands and they danced to the fiddle music, and it lifted their spirits and gave them strength to go on the next day on their hard journey.
Our kids were learning to dance, but the boys were scared. They were scared to go ask somebody to dance. So I told 'em I'd pay 'em a dime for every time they asked somebody to dance. Just to kind of bribe 'em a bit and get them used to it. One time, Taylor went to ask a girl to dance and she turned him down. She said, "No, I want to dance with J.L.!" And so that really made all my boys mad, and they just said, "None of us are going to dance with her."
Bless Granny's heart, she loved to dance so much she wanted those boys to know how to dance, because her husband had never learned. She always had those boys out in her garden, teaching them how to dance "Put Your Little Foot." I've got a picture of her dancing with one of our boys when they were little and she had them all snugged up to her and they were dancing. She taught them all how to dance. Most ranch children learned how to dance at an early age in those days.
The very first dance we had at White Signal with the 4-H Club was with Charlie and Rose Whetton, and they had a guy that they got to come with them, so they hauled a piano out to that first dance. Rose got sick, so they weren't able to come anymore, and we were looking for other people to play for the dances, and we got young Joe Delk to come. Forrest Delk had played at many, many dances here at White Signal. Forrest Delk was from over on the Mimbres, and he'd gone to school with Granny, and maybe Grandpa, though I think he was more in Granny's age group. And Forrest Delk had learned to play the fiddle from Ira Schelley, who Grandpa said was the best fiddler in the United States, so he had a very good teacher. Everybody loved Forrest's music.
When our older kids were just starting to play music, we had a colorful character, a man in our community, by the name of Charlie Russell. I knew his mother had played the fiddle, but he was just sitting in a chair all day long with palsy. He couldn't get up, he couldn't move around, he couldn't do anything. I thought maybe it would brighten his day a bit if we went up to play for him. So we did, and he did enjoy it. He enjoyed that music, and our kids got to be blessed by knowing Charlie Russell.
He had a lady staying with him taking care of him and her name was Gracie Willis. We went up there one Christmas and she'd decorated the tree all up for Charlie and had these old Christmas ornaments on it. She wanted to show appreciation to our children for coming to play for him, and she took those ornaments right off the tree, their tree. They didn't have any money, you know, they lived in very humble circumstances. She gave each of our kids an ornament off that tree, and those are very treasured ornaments to our children even yet. There we were, trying to go and help somebody else with our music, and we ended up coming away with a lot more than we brought.
Some of the people Grandpa Jonnie McDonald told me played at the White Signal Community Hall were Meredith Neal, Burt Denton, Ira Schelley, Lon Bradberry, Jim Brown, Jess Hill, Ernest Spencer, Al Barnett, and then they had the Four Wonders orchestra. Grandpa would joke about that — he'd say, "Yeah, they all wondered what the other one was doin'." But they actually were a really good band. R.E. Crooms, he played the saxophone, and then Forrest Delk, and Grandpa said Forrest Delk started his career at White Signal. That was his first paying job.
Granny told me that the band usually got half of the gate. When we had our dances with our 4-H Club we didn't make all that much, so the band didn't get too much. But I got Joe Delk to come out and play for a dance one time. Then we talked Joe McCauley into coming and playing for our dances. So they started coming on a regular basis. Joe played the fiddle, and Jimmy played the guitar, and Bub Graham played the mandolin. And the kids had a cousin, Greg Martin, who would come play the drums. Then once our kids learned enough songs to play for a whole dance, they started playing.
The song that Joe McCauley used to play that I thought was Jerry's and my song was "The Music Box." I loved to dance with Jerry to it. Jerry was an excellent dancer, but dancing a waltz with Jerry is just wonderful! Because he just was beautiful as he danced. It was even beautiful just to watch him dance. And then of course there were the waltzes — the "Tennessee Waltz" is a favorite of all people. Then there were schottisches. Everybody liked to do schottisches, polkas, waltzes, two steps, and put-your-little-foot.
One Christmas a lot of wonderful teenagers from Animas had come up for the dance. Our kids were playing for the dance that night, and I don't know why they did this, but they went up to practice at the Community Hall, and they left their instruments up there. They left everything wide open to the world. Anybody could have walked in and stolen their instruments. But they just came home to eat and go back, and we got a telephone call. Bo answered the telephone, and he told us, "Our instruments are burning up." Because the White Signal Community Hall had caught on fire, and by the time we got up there, it had burned to the ground.