Transcript

File: macdougalljim06-oh-gettingstarted_M.mp3

Speakers:

JM – Jim MacDougall

KP – Curator Ken Pelman

KP: Now how did you get started playing?

JM: Well again, that's another story (laughs). My father was very strict with the B He had a violin and it wasn't a toy, that was something special, eh. There was one morning he had to go to Summerside, and of course in them days to go to Summerside you had to get up, and hitch a horse, put him in a sleigh, and drive two miles to Richmond and get on the train to the bus to go down to Summerside. So anyway , this morning he get up, hitched the horse and the sleigh, went up over the hill which was about a half mile from home, and once he went over the hill I knew he couldn't come back too quick. And my mother had a big wash out, she was taking it out to the clothes line, and I knew by the size of it she was going to be out there for a while (laughs). So I pulled out my father's fiddle and started playing on it, and by Gosh I was gettin' a few little things on it. So I kept pickin' at it and pickin' at it. So at dinnertime one of my brothers come in, my older brother. And I said, “You know I had my father's fiddle out this morning, and I was pickin' a few tunes out on it. He said, “You were?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Let's hear it." So I knew I had somebody to back me up (laughs). So back in the living room, I got this fiddle out and I started playing it, and he thought it was just great. And I had a sister that was two years younger and she could play the pump organ some, so she got on the pump organ and I got on the fiddle, and we started playin' two or three of those tunes, eh. So that night when my father come home, my older brother he said, “Why don't you go and get the fiddle,” he said, “and get…,” my sister’s name was Helen, and he said “and get your sister Helen and you play that.” And I said, “No, my father'd kill me if he ever caught me playing on his fiddle.” “No” he said, “look, I think he'd be tickled pink.” So anyway, we went in the living room; of course there was no lights and no electricity see, and no heat in it, got the fiddle out, and we started playin'. First thing the door opened, and my father stuck his head in and he was just grinnin' from ear to ear (laughter). So that’s how it all came about.