Remembering a more lighthearted past
Jones remembers what he calls a "frolic," a dance in which participants follow instructions. Jones believes that contemporary gatherings are more dangerous than they used to be. "People now, you got out and have a little fun, people want to kill you now," he says.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Johnnie Jones, August 27, 1976. Interview H-0273. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- BRENT GLASS:
-
Now what would be some of the times when your family would… ?
Would you go visiting other families, or people come visit you, or get
together with other neighbors or soforth? Did you have any kind of
parties or things like that?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
Yes, once in a while; yes.
- BRENT GLASS:
-
What would be the occasion for that?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
Well, they'd just get together to eat and mess around and have
a little dancing or something.
- BRENT GLASS:
-
You would have some dancing?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
Yes, had what you might call … way back there they called it a
frolic then: "grab your partner and promenade" and all
that stuff, going around, and banjos and stuff picking.
- BRENT GLASS:
-
Would you have a band there?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
No, just guitars and banjos.
- BRENT GLASS:
-
Guitars and banjos?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
That's right.
- BRENT GLASS:
-
Did anybody in your family play?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
Well, my daddy could play a little bit, and my uncle, he could call the
set. They had a good time. They had a better time than they do now.
- BRENT GLASS:
-
Really?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
Yes sir, they had a whole lot better time than people have now.
- BRENT GLASS:
-
Why?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
I don't know. There just wasn't no fussing and
fighting and cussing and arguing going on; that's the biggest
thing. People now, you go out and have a little fun, people want to kill
you now. See, people didn't do that back then.
- BRENT GLASS:
-
You don't remember many fights over at Pomona or in the
neighborhood?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
No, no. Everybody got along lovely. On the fourth of July,
that's when they had a big time then.
- BRENT GLASS:
-
Over at the plant?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
No, over on the job, up there on the edge of the woods somewhere, with a
big band and big eating and everything, all day long.
- BRENT GLASS:
-
Would the company put that on?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
No, the people put that on. Go off home and get some children and bring
them out there, feed them, and play the band and things. People used to
have a better time than they do now.
- BRENT GLASS:
-
I see. Nobody would get liquored up over there on fourth of July, and get
a little too much liquor in them?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
No.
- BRENT GLASS:
-
Not too much?
- JOHNNIE JONES:
-
If they did it wouldn't be but one or two, and
somebody'd take him home right then and put him to bed. It
wasn't nothing like it is now.