I think that this is historically interesting, because in those days, the
commencement balls were very important, they were great social events
and here was I, a little Yankee girl, just seventeen, knowing how to
dance and
Page 2 loving it and so forth, but not knowing
anybody at all, came to Chapel Hill. Kemp Davis, that was what he was
called, made up my card. There were five dances in two days. An
afternoon, an evening and the next day, a late morning, an afternoon and
then a ballroom that lasted until the sun came in the window. He had
asked other girls, he took me to one of the five dances. He probably had
his special girl, although he wasn't engaged at the time, he didn't
marry for some time, and he asked his best friends to take me to the
other dances. They made out the cards, they gave me a bunch of ballroom
cards with the dances numbered, one, two, three. They started off with a
"lead" dance, then a "break" and a "general". For the lead, your partner
found you, he knew where to come. So, for the lead, you went out with
your partner and had sort of a grand march and then broke up for other
dancing. For the break, people could break in on you, it was the only
dance that they could, which made it very nice for the boy with his
girl, who didn't want to be broken in on all the time. Which is what
happened later on and really in a sense broke up the dances. I just
watched it happen, but that's another story. Then for the general, you
just danced with your partner, but you didn't break. And I just had the
time of my life, I enjoyed it thoroughly. The dances were held in the
Commons, on the edge of the . . . well, about where Phillips Hall is
now. They were just off the campus, because you couldn't have dancing,
well, you couldn't have a ballroom right on the campus in those
days.