Document text
A Berkshire Borner
Sammy spring irt Farmer
and Old Time Fiddler
STATE
NALE OF WORKER
ALLRESS
LATE
SUBc-CT
NIAILE QF INFOPuw,ANT
kii)LRESS
LASSALEUSETTS
ELWARL JCH
PITTSFIED, ii.ASSAQ:hUSETTS
JAZUARY 17, l39
LIVMG LURE
SALLY SPRING
OTIS, LASSCR-USLTTS
Sammy Spring, dirt farmer and old time fiddler
is fifty-six years old, a slim little man, not
much over five feet tall, grey haired and grey
eyed. Around his Otis farm, Sammy is unassuming
and unpretentious on the podium of a dance
hall he is king of all he surveys. Folks
dancing to his music must dance correctly.
iJet the uniniated set fail to follow his calls
and Sammy is down on the dance floor. Tapping
the erring couples with his fiddle bow, he
suggests they watch a more experienced set
and listen carefully to his instructions as
he calls out the intricacies of each number.
o matter how many or how few dances, the program
calls for, Sammy decides on a certain cumber of
rounds and square sets for an evenings entertin-
ment and plays and calls them, ignoring the
program completely.
i2)
A Berkbhire 3orner
Sammy spring _Art Farmer
and Ola Time Fiadler
SIATE LASSAChb&ETTS
NALE OF ,,ORKER EDWARD WELCh
iL) RE -6S PITTSFIELD, MASSAChO6ETTS
DATE JANUARY 17, 109
LIVING LORE
SAIY SPRING
OTIS, -iASSAUhUSETTS
Sammy is ofd Yankee stock. hiS ancestors
settled in the
nearoy town of Sanaisfield where the family
always lived until Sammy came north a few
miles,to utis to live. Sammy's forefathers
were as Sammy says, "dirt farmers like me."
Sammy's work aay garo consists of a
afice-weltakee pair of olue L.enim overalls, a
_grey flannel shirt, old grey faded suit coat,
large rog j and an oversize Oatterea cap,
that sets ooseiy on nis grey head, i44aufalue,_
hI,a.g.ars-Z4i.amftrd=WEAEIIMhiii ar."444z-'
look-
Name Edward E. Welch
Assignment Otis
Title Living Lore Topic
SPraii -- A Berkshire
Id' er Dirt Farmer
Samgy Spring was in the little wooden shack workshop at the rear
of his Otis home, *riving" his patient wife's washing machine. Being
well acquainted with the temper of our Berkshire Yankees, we discussed
washing machines in general, and the Spring washing machine in par-
ticular, for sometime before we introduced the subject of fiddling
and launched a question.
"So you want to know how I coma to take up fiddliul, Well of
course, I started in as a lad going to kitchiu dances. In those days
a fiddler was considered to be, or at least to me seemed to b4 an
important man, and there were several pretty good ones in this part
of the country a Heath feller from Monterey, an Irishman from
Becket and a coon from over Tyringhan way. Of course I was too young
to do much dancing, but not too young to like the way these fellers
fiddled and called. I used to go to the dances with my folks when I
was a kid and I'd sit and listen to the fiddlers callin' out the sets
all evenint. 14en I gat the most of then down good I bought a fiddle
from the coon from Tyringhan with some money I eerned)and started
in to learn for myself. I took a couple of lessons from Heath over in
Monterey and after awhile got so I could play preety good.
"It wasn't long before I was playing for dances mebbe a couple
of years or so. Of course, I got most of the work in Sandisfield and
Otis. I got so good that some of the other fellers got kinds jealous.
Some one of them sent me a letter telling me I'd better quit or there'd
Name Edward E. Welch Assignment Otia
Title Living Lore
Topic Spring A Berkshire
or and Dirt Farmer
be some trouble; but I kept right on and ndhins ever come of it.
"Well, about then I married Ella May and a few years later my
first baby came along; Martin Van Buren, named after my father. We
had an old organ at the house and when he was only a little tyke
Martin learned to play chords on it. When he was old enough, I'd
take him on the handle bars of my bicycle to the dances and have him
play for me. Soon afterive began to get jobs, over in Tolland and
down Colebrook way. Then Bill Hall from over in Tolland joined up
with us. Bill played banjo. The three of us ran dances bathe Otis
Town Hall. We didn't make much at first, but we had a whale of a lit
of fun.
"You know in those old days, 'specially over at the East Otis
Tavern, we used to play for chicken pie suppers. That is, it was a
combination affair, that cost a dollar apiece, fifty cants for the
supper and fifty cents for the dance. Well atthose suppers you could
have all you wanted to eat. Course, chicken pie was the main dish,
but that wasn't all. They would have home-made pies and cakes, home-
made butter, pickles, cheese, cookies, well jest about every, kind of
home-made food you could imagine. Tea, coffee and home-made doughnuts,
but no hard stuff. These dances used to last all night long. We even
played at one that ran three nights in a row. Those used to be darn
good times. No rough stuff nor anything wrong either. Whole families
would attend, out for a good time and they sure had it.
Name Edward E. .elch Assignment Otis
Title Living Lore
Topic Sammy Sprir A
Berkshire Fiddler and
Dirt Farmer
By that time they all were pretty much liquored up. Couldn't dance
right if they wanted to. Well I tried to get them going right, but
I guess they had too much to drink and they felt kinda coltish. So
I warned them once for all. Toldthem if they wa'n't going to dance
the proper way I would pack up and go home. Well they didn't lissen
to reason, so I told them all what I thought of them, and got out.
Ain't no sense a-foolin' round with folks like thp.t. Nobody is a
goin' to monkey like that with me. If they want to dance the sets
proper I'll play all night. But if they want to monkey -shine around
they'd better git an organ -grinder. My Ochestry ain't no monkeys
fer anybody I don't care how high and mighty they be...,
"They was a tirae I was playing down in Connecticut pretty regular
one night a week. The manager of the place got some high falutin'
notions in his head. Wouldn't let the folks dance unless they wore a
coat. Well, business began to drop off. Mind you most of these folks
that went to this place werepeople that followed me wherever I played
publicly. They'd came to ma and tell me if they couldn't dance with
their coats off they wouldn't come any more. Well I went to the
manager and tried to tell hin in a nice way but he wouldn't listen
to me. Well I didn't say no thin more to him but got right back up
ont he platform and told them folks to go ahead and take off their
coays and if anyone said they douIdn't dance that way, I would pack
up and git home.
Base Edward E. Welch
Eitle Living Lore
Assignment Otis
Topic S Sp-- A Berkshire
J'idd r and -Dirt Fanner
*Well I guess that fixed things once and fer all. Now what harm
is they to dancing with your coat off. They's more crime committed
by men wearing coats than there is by men with coats off, I reckon.
You take on a warm summer night and dance a couple of sets with your
coat on and you get pretty well warmed up. Well, if you want to go
outside and cool off you're bound to ketch a cold. On the other hand
if you take your coat off and dance awhile and want to cool off, you
can go outside and put your coat on and you won't ketch cold.
"Reminds me of the time that the state trooper came into the dance
hall up in Otis Center. The folks were dancin' without coats and these
cops came in and told everyone they either put ontheir coats or they
would be no dancint. Well that got ma riled. I told off those cops
and don't you fergit it. And they got out too. Nobody's goin' to tell
me how to run my dances. I run them and they ain't nobody mania'
Sammy Spring.
"I've played fer some of the nicest folks in the country. We
went over to Mrs. Anne Hyde Choates over in Springfield, New York once
and played fer the best of New York's s'ciety, real 'ris
ate. We
were treated like the rest of the guests. Had butlers and maids waitin'
on us hand and foot. They even invited us to stay at their house all
night. Now them is real folks, ain't they?
"Most every year I go down to Bastin to play at the Girl Scouts
Convention at Hotel Statler. Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt has been there
Name Edward E. delch.
Title Living Lore
Assignment Otis
Topic S- tin Sprig A, Berkshire
Fidd er and Dirt Farmer
several times. She's a real nice person, friendly and real neighborly.
Nothin high and mighty about her. So long as these Roosevelts stay in
the White House, I guess the country is safe enough and in the hands of
the right kind of folks.
'Bout once a week now I go down to the Westchester County Work
Shop to play._ We all have a real good time down there, too. These
folks are right smart interested in real oldtime square dancing. I
don't think they're making much money; but we alwelys get paid. And it
won't be long before we'll be crowdin, them in because they's a lot of
new c omers every night we go down.
"You know I've played at the Dance -Internationale at the Rainbow
Room at Rockefeller Center in New York. That was an affair where folks
from all nations put on their native dances. Jest Martin and me played
at that one and I guess we kind of stole the show. We played at the
Hotel Pennsylvania the same time and made a hit there.
"Now at places like that we find the folks are really interested
in the old-fashioned square dance. They don't monkey around like the
folks did at that Yacht Club. They do as I tell them, and dance right.
"I honestly think that old time dancing is coming back. For in-
stance there are several groups that are learning these square sets.
Take in Springfield for instance. They have a group of yoringsters down
there, Girl Scouts that can do all the squares like real old timers.
We went down there just once and took a set from Otis to show them how
Name Edward E. Welch Assignment Otis
Title Living Lore
Topic Sammy Sprig A Berk-
shire Fiddler and Dirt
Paroler
to dance and they caught right on to it. You know they's some sense
to square dancin'. Why I rather see younguns dance that way then to
try to do that crazy jitterbug stuff. Ain't no sense to it at all.
Jumpin round like crazy loons or monkeys trying to climb atree, that
ain't dancin'. They aint no sense to it.
"Well, I guess I'd better be gittin this washing machine fixed up,
or Ella May will be wautin, to know what's holdin' me up. It took a lot
of head work to figger this machine out. Oh I don't mean me. I mean
the feller that made this up.
"I see fiddling hasn't prevented you from being mechanically -minded,
Sammy".
"Good land, you don't think I'm just a fiddler, do you. That's
only my side -line. I'm really a plain dirt fanner and an old-time
saw mill man. Up to the last few years I used to do fanning on a big
scale, that is big for this part of the country. Then when the sawmills
began to do a good business I got.a job with one outfit as a fireman
and later became an engineer. Course I worked at saw mills off and on
all my life. My father had one and I worked with him as a boy so I
know a leetle about it.
"It was when the World War came along that the sawmills really
got revived here in Otis. Why school boys used to earn thirty-five
dollars a week during vacation time onthe mills. They worked as
swapers, markers and did about everything but the actual sawing. That
was a man's job.
Name Edward W. Welch Assignment Otis
Title Living Lore
Topic Seaway Spring A Berkshire
Fiddler and Dirt Farmer
"There are s till some mighty good sawyers still in town. Take
Frank Werden for instance, and then there's Amos Witter. Two of the
best sawyers in the country. They know the game from A to Izzard.
"Otis was a prosperous town in war days. The young lads were
dressed aswell as any city chap too. Why they used to think that young
Ruben Cowell over in East Otis was a regular dude. He owned more silk
shirts and suits than anyone. Spent all his earnings on. clothes. Most
all the boys owned cars and used to drive around,the county like helions.
People had so much money they didn't know enough to put some in the
banks. Mebbe it's just as well.
"I don't do as much rennin' as I used to. I've only five cows
seventeen pigs and of course I raise enough vegetables for the family.
I also got a fine sugar bush.
"A sugar busht"
"Didn't you never hear what a sugar bush is? Well it's a nice
stand of sugar maples. When the sap begins to run in the early spring
we go out and tap the trees and take the sap to boil dawn to syrup and
sugar. Most everybody in this part of the country owns their own sugar
house.
"Did you ever go to a sugar eat? Well now, that's too bad. You
certainly missed something. Well we usually hold the sugar eat at the
church. We take enough sap that's just about right to make was. The
wax is a sort of gummy stuff that rises to the top when yaa're Winn'
sugar. That is just before it hardens into the sugar. Folks get a plate
full of snow and then the wax is ladled out of the bitlers on to the
Name Edward E• Welch Assignment Otis
Title Living Lore
Topic Sanity SprinA A Berkshire
Fiddler and Diri, Farmer
snow and when it hardens a might, you eat it.
"Sure you might get sugar sick, tut ttwon't hurt you none. You
might feel bad for ay or two, b ut ttwon't kill you. Never heard
of anyone dying from it. Better get back to this machine.
"All your jobs must keep you pretty busy, Sammy."
"We -11, they do and they don't. I got them figgered out so they
ain't so bad. I always worked on my farm during the daytime and fiddled
at night. The days I worked in the sawmills, I worked from five o'clock
in the morning 'til dusk at night. Then I'd go home, wash up, have my
supper, milk ten or twelve cows, feed the stock, fill up the wood box
and take Martin onthe handle bars of my bicycle and ride off to a
kitchen dance to play until about four in the morning. Course that
wouldn't be every night in the week. But itwould be two or three nights
a week. Folks used to be pretty much put out when I wouldn't get to these
affairs until about ten o'clock. But once I got to fiddlin' and a-callin'
eN
they'd soon forget allabout it.
"I've worked hard, played hard and had a darned good time in my
life. I ain't made much money and I'm still a young man --goin, on
fifty-six. I like to see folks a dancin, the old square sets. Some-
thing wholesome about it. You know you tell a lot about folks watchinl
them dance. Folks that like to dance the good old dances you'll find
are pretty apt to be reliable. I hate like the dickens to see those
nice youngsters of today trying to ape monkeys. It jest don't seam right
somehow. Here is how I figger it all out. You'll always find real
folk aldoing the real things worthwhile, and the artificial folks takin'
-10
None Edward E. Welch
Title Living Lore
Assignment Otis
Topic awing A Berkshire
Pith er and Dirt termer
to artificial things and that's all there is to that".
[IThe quick tones of Ella May inquiring as to the state of the
washing machine ended our conversation for the day.)