Transcript

File: gotellhugh-oh-gettingstarted_quitting_M.mp3

Speaker:

HG – Hugh Gotell

KP: Curator Ken Perlman

HG: Well my dad played, the violin. He played at, we used to have concerts, once a year there, St. Patrick's concerts: 17th of March. And they had a little orchestra there and they played and that was about the only time that we'd really have a fiddle in the house, really. And you'd have to go and borrow a fiddle because that was Depression days, and uh, he'd borrow a violin and go and play and that's when I first got the idea, I guess. So after the thing'd be over, you wouldn't have to take the fiddle back maybe for, oh a few weeks or somethin'. So I'd kind of get on the good side of him and he'd show me a few things and it started out from there, really.

KP: What kind of things did he show you?

HG: Oh, I'd try to watch his fingers, where they went on the strings and things like that. I got interested and finally I learned to play a little bit and then he'd give the fiddle back and - We did have an old violin at home, it was a pretty rugged old thing. But there was a few strings on it, but we had no bow. So, my father worked in a lumber factory there in Georgetown and he used to bring home little pieces of hardwood. So I'd make my own bow out of white thread, white thread and rosin on it. So you can imagine my mother had a hell of a job keepin' white thread on the go, eh? Be a little bow about that long [indicates about 6"] and that'd do the trick. You'd get a sound out of the fiddle...oh, and I played on that for--till we were able to get somethin' goin' there. I think I was 16, though, before my dad got the first fiddle for me. I think he sent to Eaton's store for it. And I remember the whole thing, fiddle and bow, the whole bit there cost fifteen dollars and ninety-five cents. But from there on, I got into playin' for dances and weddings and stuff like that. And then, of course, the old War came and that kind of put a damper on things for a while. Then I give it up. I took it with me on the ship and had it overseas with me. The ship's company, most of them were from Ontario and the West, there. And I don't think they appreciated the Island style of music because every time I'd take the fiddle out there'd be some awful moans and groans, so at he last of it I didn't bother too much. But anyway, we didn't have time, then, anyway. It wasn't a good situation to take the fiddle out. Well you weren't in the mood, that's for sure. You can appreciate that. I played a little bit, after I came back, for dances. And then, I got married - '52 I think it was, and worked away then a lot. So, it was more or less we moved from one place to the other. We weren't settled down and I didn't follow it up for a while. Until later years, perhaps in the '70's or somethin'. I Picked it up again. But I don't know. I don't play very much: justst for my own enjoyment.