TC1998-1070 Interview with Alberta Gagné

TC1998-1070 Interview with Alberta Gagné

Interview of Alberta Gagné by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.

VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.

Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center

fra

eng

vfc1998-0007_tc1998-1070

sound cassette (analog)

Martha Pellerin Collection/VFC1998-0007
Alberta Gagné/TC1998-1070



INTERVIEWER: MARTHA PELLERIN (MP)
CAROL DELANEY (CD)
lNTERVIEWEES: ALBERTA GAGNE (AG)
NORMAND GAGNE (NG)
MRS NORMAND GAGNE (X)
LAURIE ANNE GAGNE (LG)
PLACE: HIGHGATE. VERMONT
DATE: JANUARY 9, 1995




AG: ... I was 62. 63 then. in 86... it’s quite a while. I never sing too much, you know. My voice isn't very good now.

X: Ça fait plus longtemps que çà... Ça fait combien de temps que vot' mari est mort?

AG: Y est mort en 66.

X: See. I told you. It was a long time ago... do you want flavored tea or just plain tea. I've got honey. I've got peppermint, I’ve got orange... cinnamon?

AG: Whatever you want to get rid of.

X: Plenty of lemon

NG: Whatever you want to get rid of. I’m not a tea man.

X: I’ll give plenty of...

NG: Ça prend du caféine et du nicotine.

X: Prendriez-vous une tasse de thé, ma tante?

AG: Non. j'cré ben.

X: Non...

MP: Alberta. Could you tell me when you were born and...

AG: I was born in 1908. 11 of June.

MP: Where was that?

AG: In Roxton Falls. Canada.

MP: Roxton?

NG: Ya. R-O-X-T-O-N.
D’où que les Gagné viennent. Not' origine est là nous aut’.

AG: C'est a Roxton Falls.

MP: Oh ya, that's where all of your family, all the Gagné's...

NG: Ouin…pis nous aut' les Laroches. Ça venait tu du même coin ?

AG: Oui...

NG: Tout du même coin.

AG: J'tais une Laroche avant.

MP: So, your...your...

NG: Maiden name...

MP: Your maiden name is Laroche.

AG: Ya Laroche.

MP: Laroche and Gagné came from the Roxton Falls area.

NG: Ya

AG: Ya

MP: Where is that near?

NG: Ok. If you’re going, you've been to Granby. If you’ve been to Granby before...

AG: About 20 miles...

NG: Um...about 20 miles. Granby, northeast de Granby... between Valcourt, Quebec. You probably know about where that is. because Bombardier is there...

AG: Oui.

MP: (laughing)

NG: ...it’s about half way, between Valcourt and Granby.

MP: How many people were in your family when you were growing up, brothers and sisters?

AG: We were...we were 12 in all but I lost one of my brothers when he was young, he was only one year and a half. We were still 11. The others all died.

NG: Big family, the Gagné we were 13.

MP: 13?

NG: My dad and ma tante’s husband were brothers.

AG: They were 13 living, and you were 16 in your family.

NG: 16. I thought we were 15.

AG: 16. My husband always told me, you were the 16th one. He was the
youngest one.

MP: Wow. So you're the youngest? From your family?

AG: No not me, I have a sister, she still living and, let’s see. She's the only one we have left, there’s nobody else now.

X: You only have...Béa is the only one left.

AG: Béa is the baby...

X: Oh yeah?

AG: ...of the family, she’s the youngest one.

MP: There’s just the 2 of you, 2 sisters, you and Béatrice are the survivors of your family so far?

AG: Yeah the only one, we lost a brother last year. I guess or a year and a half ago, 2 years ago

NG: Ça va faire un an et demi.

AG: We were only three, now we’re only 2.

NG: That on the Gagné's side. On my dad’s side there’s no
more.

MP: Were you... were you married in Canada? in Quebec or
here?

AG: Non. I was married in Vermont.

MP: You were?

AG: Highgate center, Vermont.

MP: So, when did you come to Vermont.

AG: I was five-years-old when my father and mother move to Vermont so...

NG: She was born in 19...

MP: She was born in 1908.

NG: 1913.

CD: So it was a farm?

AG: Yeah. it was a farm. my father had come... I had an uncle, Joseph-Arthur. Him and my father had come to find a farm, you know? He come over there with my uncle and he found that farm. He sold all, everything he had over there in Canada. The farm was, he had in Canada, he let my uncle Isaï stay there. Supposed to be bought...

NG: A quelle place, à quelle ferme dans Highgate vous étiez dans c'temps-là?

AG: A Highgate? au coin là...

NG: Mon oncle Henri? Ouin?

AG: C’est là qu'on a mové. Pour commencer...

NG: ...C’est là.

MP: Where is that? su'l coin.

NG: It’s about three four miles where we are.

MP: It’s not the same farm.

NG: No not our farm, no, no. no. But there was... I didn’t know that but... her brother. Henri Laroche married my aunt...

X: ...Laroche’s father...

NG: ...Laroche’s father, ok. He married my father’s sister. Maria.

MP: Ok.

NG: They lived in the corner. What we called the corner it’s the corner that comes back to Highgate.

AG: We were the one that, my father was the one that bought that farm and years that went by; he didn’t work anymore so... I think Henri didn’t buy it right away but ... somebody... my father, he had sold it to us, me and my husband when we got married, but he took it back a year after. He wanted to have somebody there. He hired somebody else so after that, after a few years, Henri got it. He sold it to Henri.

MP: You grew up on that farm?

AG: Ya.

MP: Was that where you lived when you met your husband and got married? Were you still there?

AG: Ya.

MP: In High... Was that Highgate?... At Highgate...

MP: ...That was in Highgate...

AG: ...Highgate...

NG: Same. Over in Highgate Center also.

AG: Ya. My husband used to come and visit with his mother. They came one time over to our house because his mother was cousin to my mother. She come over some time. He was only 13 years old, he played the violin like older people, he played good...

NG: Ya. he was an excellent violinist...

MP: Oh ya?

NG: ...oh ya...

AG: The first time I saw him, then he went to work in Maine...

NG: Ya...

AG: In Sanford. Maine and...

AG: ...he was sixteen years old when he went to Sanford. Maine. He worked there and then one day they used to come to Vermont. They used to come to Henri Laroche, that was his uncle. So...

NG: What year did you get married?

AG: 1926.

NG: It’s the year my father came down...

AG: Ya...

MP: Ah!

NG: ...My dad came down in 1926.

MP: He came down much later, much later than your uncle.

NG: Ya. but... Henri got married about when? with ma tante Maria?

AG: Oh Henri...

NG: Henri went out six times with her, with my aunt. My aunt
lived in Roxton Falls …

AG: Ya.

NG: ... and Henri...

X: Her brother.

NG: ...her brother used to go with the buggy, there was no cars then...

MP: Ya that’s quite a ride...

NG: A buggy from Highgate to Roxton Falls...

MP: My god...

NG: ...that’s 65 miles one way. So you don’t want to court that woman too many moons!


(all laughing)


NG: He decided this is what I want. Ok, this is it.


(all laughing)


AG: They met they were, I think they must have been together a little bit before we moved...

NG: Probably. He knew her...

AG: Continued with her.

NG: T'as le troisième rang, le deuxième rang pis la grand' descente. They’re all farms, all people that were living within, you know like a 3, 4 square mile block where all the roads divide...like my mom and my dad. They met in the blackberry bush...


(all laughing)


NG: ... Between the fence, they go blackberry and they meet.

AG: That’s one way of doing it.

X: They never went blackberry after that.


(still all laughing)


NG: They came after, quite a bit after but ... was uncle Emile down at that time? Was he back?

AG: Non...

NG: He came after?

AG: Ya. when we got married, Emile was living in Sanford and he came to Highgate and while we had the farm. He was helping out; he stayed, we had a big room and another room for a bed, you know. We had a big room. We took that for the kitchen. He has his kitchen. I had my kitchen. It was a big house there at the corner... and my kitchen...

MP: Emile is your...

NG: Brother.

MP: ...your brother?

NG: He passed away long time ago...

AG: My brother in law...

MP: Of all...

AG: ...my husband brother

X: Her husband brother.

MP: Ok, Ok, now. of all of the, let's see, of your... of your father’s family, there were how many?

NG: 11...

AG: Of my father’s family, there was 11.

NG: ...les Laroche.

AG: You mean, you mean me, my brothers and my...

MP: No... your father...

AG: Ah my father...

MP: ...your aunts and uncles?

AG: Uh there were a big family too...

MP: How many of them came to, came down to the States?

AG: They all went down...

MP: How many came down to live, how many moved here? Your, you came down here with your father, with your mother and father when you were five-years-old?

AG: Ya... some. some of my uncles had come to Fall River, they come to live in Fall River and ... there's another town...

X: A lot of them back then...

AG: ... They were working in mills there, you know?

NG: They worked part time.

MP: That was fairly common thing that was going on at that time...

NG: At that time. my mom and her two sisters lived where Roxton, my grandad Letourne send the girls down to pick up some money in the winter time...

AG: In the mills.

NG: ...They bring it back in the Spring time too, to keep to farm going. They were really survival farm: they didn’t make any money with this.

AG: They didn’t make much on those farms...

NG: My dad and mon oncle Arthur. Mon oncle Batiste, in the winter time, my mom took care of the cows and the horses and raised the little ones and my dad would go to les chantiers...

MP: Chantier means...

NG: Lumber camps...

MP: ...ah yes.

NG: la hache pas de scie mécanique...

MP: ...

AG: ...my mother...

NG: Three brothers together and they leaved after the New Year, les Rois, they go. they do their hunting and they supplied the deer meat for the winter and the rabbit they catched, how don’t know how many rabbit and aux fêtes, at Christmas, the New Years, especially New Years, then and Les Rois, that was very important to them. But after that, le bois, they take for the Lumber camps. they come back à la drave that when they took the wood lumber to the river, send it to the mills. At that time they come back and start their farms.

Y: Two years in a row, the three brothers...

AG: He had only two or three kids then, my father would go to the chantiers and

AG: That's the only way they could make money. That was far...

NG: A dollar a day...

AG: ...my mother was alone with the three kids...

NG: Thirty dollars a month.

MP: When your mother had more children did your father still do that? You said when he went there were three...

AG:

MP:

AG:

CD: Did you see on TV...

AG: ...My mother said she hated to be alone with the kids...

NG: Comme les filles de Caleb...

CD: Ya did you see that?

NG: ... Some of this I missed and recorded with the VCR.

X:

CD: I watched them both... I recorded...

NG: Now, since last week, it’s on on Tuesday night.

MP: Ok, so what year did you get married again? tell me?

AG: In 1926.

MP: In 1926, and how many children did you have?

AG: 15.

MP: You had 15 children?

AG: Ya...


(all laughing)


MP: Were you farming too?

AG: We farmed for a while, we went to Newport, New Hampshire too, when my husband was in the mills over there.

NG: In Sanford, Maine

AG: ...Because my husband, he didn’t like the farms too much. He didn’t have good luck on the farms and we staying in Newport for 12 years...

MP: Newport, New Hampshire?

AG: At the end I was working too. I worked in a coat shop over there in Newport during World War II there we went to work in Windsor, Vemont. We had to travel from Newport to Windsor, Vermont. It was only about 20 miles, to a machine shop, my husband worked in a machine shop for a while...

MP: Ah ya...

AG: We were making better money so we put the money on our house so we had a house we had to offer to put the money on the house. (coughing) then after (coughing) after the war was over when I was, I got laid off, we hired only during the war, the women, but my husband stopped going too. He went back to the mills to work at the mills. Me too, I went to work at the mills with him. I didn’t work with him, he worked days, I worked nights.

MP: (laughing) Were you done have your children? (laughing) Did you have a chance to travel, did you travel to Quebec to visit relatives when you were married?

AG: Ya... after we were in town and in the cities we were making very good we had a car and would go to Vermont. We would go to Canada for a week, my husband had two weeks vacation.

MP: What did the relatives in Quebec think about you guys being here in the United States?

AG: I guessed they liked it. (all laughing)

MP: They never said much about it?

AG: No they were glad to see us when we went to visit them, and we had a lot of fun.

NG: Ya.

MP: Ya?...

AG: Every time we went to Canada...

MP: ... Ya what would you do?

AG: Oh, we’d sing...

MP: Ya...

AG: We’d sing, there were a lot of musicians, they played music. Sometimes we danced square dance, you know...

MP: ...in the house?

AG: ...out in the kitchen.

MP: Were they a lot of musicians in your family? What kind of instruments?

AG: Well. euh...you mean my kids?

MP: No, when you went to Quebec, when you visited your family...

AG: Mostly violin players...

NG: The accordion.

AG: ...the accordion...

MP: ...the accordion too...

AG: ...the guitar too. it was mostly...

NG: ...soirée maison.

AG: We’d bring our daughters with us when... she’d played the guitar... they were young when they started playing the guitar...

MP: Ok. . .

AG: Laurie Ann and Teresa. my oldest daughter was Teresa, they used to play together and sing together.

NG: Ma tante’s children, they’re all either singers or instruments player, everyone.

MP: No kidding, all fifteen.

AG: Well, there's three little boys that died, young.

MP: There were twelve that grew to be adults.

AG: The oldest daughter she died, must be, ten years now. I don’t know, she was forty... she was forty-six going on forty-seven when she died...

MP: That’s young.

AG: ...she died of cancer.

MP:

AG: The others are quite healthy...

MP: So...

AG: I have eleven living now.

MP: They all live around here?

AG: Non, they live in Springfield, Mass. Ludlow, Mass, Mass...

MP: In New England? They’re in New England?

AG: Oh ya, in Massachusetts.

MP: You have one in Florida?

NG: Ya.

AG: I have two in Florida.

Y: T'en as deux?

AG: David...

NG: Oh David is there.

AG: ...Eddy, Edward is the one that plays all kinds of music.

NG: He plays very well.

MP: He’s a professional musician?

NG: That’s it, that’s it, perfect.

AG: ...He did that all his life. You used to go play, join a band and play music.

MP: What would you consider to be important events in your life?

AG: When I raised my family.

MP: Were they special occasion that, that euh, that euh come in your memory...

AG: There are a lot that come to memory, I remember Teresa and Laurie Ann played together. They’d sing good, they went to an amateur contest, and they won. They went to 2 or 3 and they always won...

MP: Oh wow ...

AG: ...They harmonized together, they sang harmonizing and they were, they would sing pretty good and euh… after. after they, I remember one time, we were, we go to the ... some kind of a ranch, every aftern...every Sunday afternoon, there was that ranch and there was a band that played there, they hired my daughters to play… There was one guy, his name was Jules Latulipe, he was a Gagné too and Jules Latulipe he used to, you know. He used to sing all kinds of funny thing...

MP: Where was this ranch?

AG: That was between Manchester and Nashua...

MP: Ah, in New Hampshire.

AG: I think it was the Lone Star Ranch. I almost forgot.

MP: Were there songs that were most common to your family? Were there songs that you could count on every soirée that song was sung, somebody in your family would sing that song.

AG: Oh ya... they used to sing cowboy song…

MP: Oh ya?

NG: Western song, country...

AG: Gene Autry...

MP: Ah, in English?

AG: Roy Rogers.

NG: The girls...

MP: There very much into that country western.

AG: Ya.

MP: How about with your family, when you went to Quebec with your husband, when you went to Quebec to visit your family with your husband...

AG: Well, We’d sing in French...

MP: What kind of song did you sing?

AG: Ah...

MP: Were there some special, some special French songs that were sung...

MP: ...Were sung...

NG: ...Vous chantez le plus souvent quand vous avez vos soirées. Vous avez quelqu'un...

X: Vous avez la celle que vous chantiez, tout' les deux. Vous et Béatrice...

AG: ...Dans mon berceau...

X: Oui mais c'est une chanson, un est le gars pis l'autre est la femme...

NG: Ça c'tait beau.

MP: C'est lequel çà. what’s that one...

AG: D'où viens-tu Mam’zelle? Oh ! bonjour donc Mam'zelle d'où venez-vous donc ? Je viens de Lowell et vous mon garçon ?

NG: Her sister act. one as the male and one as the female and they...

MP: It’s Béatrice and you, you used to sing this song together?

AG: Ya. we...

MP: At the soirée?

NG: Ya

AG: We used to sing often together and we knew a lot of songs. I remember in Newport, New Hampshire, one night, me and Béatrice. They were living across the street from us. We started singing, early in the evening and she’d sing a song and I’d sing one, and she’d sing one, I’d sing one... I guess it was 1 o’clock and we had sang...

NG:

AG: ... My voice was much better then that it is now. Now my voice is not very good, I used to have a good voice.

MP: And you'd sing all night?

AG: Oh ya, certain night we’d sit. we would sit and sing to find out how long we could go.


(all laughing)


NG:

MP: Who won?... is there a song that you would consider your song. Is there a song that we just heard this song, that you and your sister sang all the time? But is there a song that is especially yours, that people said, that people would expect you to sing?

AG: I sang "among my souvenirs" in French. I sing this, two verses. Among my souvenirs and, when I sang with Laurie-Ann "Lorsque dans mon berceau" I sang that whit Laurie-Ann. I sang that pretty often.

MP: I would ask you for that one, was is it again?

AG: "Lorsque dans mon berceau", that's “my cradle days” in
French.


(BEGIN SINGING)

Title: A. Lorsque dans mon berceau

Lorsque dans mon berceau
Vous me chantiez dodo
J'étais alors un tout petit enfant
Qui vous a causé bien des tourments ...

(END SINGING)


MP: Neat. That’s beautiful. Could you sing that song for us?

AG: I will sing a song for you...if I can... Laurie-Ann will probably come...

MP: Does she know that one?

NG: Ya, ya they sing together ....

MP: Ah. that would be good...

NG:

AG: l know a lot of nice songs.

MP: And you can remember all the words.

AG: Ya. oh well, most of them; I remember those when I was sixty years old, sixty-two, sixty-three. If I look at the titles. I wrote the titles over here.

MP: When you were sixty years old, you wrote down all of these words? How many songs do you have in your book?

AG: 99, 100.

MP: Wow... that's your index. (laughing)

AG: It just says what page it is...Some of them from men, mostly... my brother used to sing, I used to learn these songs...

MP: So these songs are not just your songs but songs that your family sang?

AG: Songs was for man mostly ... my brothers used to know a lot of songs... I didn’t have any hard time to learn a song. It was easy for me to learn a song so I learned a lot of things; my brothers and I ...

MP: So which one do you want to sing for us?

X: L'avez-vous trouvée "Dans mon berceau“? Ou, est-ce vous attendez Laurie-Ann?

AG: J'sais pas si j'devrais attendre pour elle.

X: Ben chantez en un' autre en attendant.

NG: Ouin, mais qu’ (quand) Laurie-Ann arrive, vous faite la chanson
ensemble.

AG:

(BEGIN SINGING)

Title: B. Marie Calumet

Derrière chez-nous y a un champ de pois
Derrière chez-nous y a un champ de pois
J’en cueille deux j'en mange trois

En passant par les épinettes
Marie Calumet a perdu sa roulette
En passant tout le long du bois
Y a quelqu'un qu'a trouvé çà.

J'en mange deux j'en mange trois
J'en mange deux j'en mange trois
J'ai été malade au lit trois mois

En passant par les épinettes
Marie Calumet a perdu sa roulette
En passant tout le long du bois
Y a quelqu'un qu'a trouvé çà.

J'ai été malade au lit trois mois
J'ai été malade au lit trois mois
Tous mes parents venaient me voir

En passant par les épinettes
Marie Calumet a perdu sa roulette
En passant tout le long du bois
Y a quelqu'un qu'a trouvé çà.

Tous mes parents venaient me voir
Tous mes parents venaient me voir
Mais celle que j'aime ne venait pas

En passant par les épinettes
Marie Calumet a perdu sa roulette
En passant tout le long du bois
Y a quelqu'un qu'a trouvé çà.

Mais celle que j'aime ne venait pas
Mais celle que j'aime ne venait pas
Je l'aperçois venir là-bas

En passant par les épinettes
Marie Calumet a perdu sa roulette
En passant tout le long du bois
Y a quelqu'un qu'a trouvé çà.

Je l'aperçois venir là-bas
Je l'aperçois venir là-bas
Dans sa main droite tient un gant blanc

En passant par les épinettes
Marie Calumet a perdu sa roulette
En passant tout le long du bois
Y a quelqu'un qu'a trouvé çà.

Dans sa main droite tient un gant blanc
Dans sa main droite tient un gant blanc
Toutes nos amours y sont dedans

En passant par les épinettes
Marie Calumet a perdu sa roulette
En passant tout le long du bois
Y a quelqu'un qu'a trouvé çà.


(END SINGING)


(applauding)

MP: Bravo. Une belle voix.

NG: Ah oui...

MP: Ah oui...

NG: ...See what I said, she’s got a good rythm.

MP: Ya...belle voix...

AG: That song I learn it with my sister Blanche, she had taken it from... it's a newer song, she had heard it on the radio, she lived in .... she had learned it... some French songs, some French people were singing French songs on the program, radio and she learned that one so I learned it from her. lt's a song, the refrain is different then what we used to sing that I knew for a long time. Le refrain est différent. C'est un refrain nouveau.

MP: You find that often, there's a lot of versions to each song, sont pas toutes pareilles.

NG: Non.

AG: Non sont pas toutes pareilles.

NG: Some of the words are changed, the songs. The tune is the same but the words have changed...

MP: Ya.

AG: Une chanson que ta mère à chantait. C'est...


(BEGIN SINGING)

Title: D. Unknown

Vient avec moi pour fêter le printemps
Nous cueillerons des lilas et des fleurs
Ne vois-tu pas que de fleurs demi-closes
Et le brillant sur ton front de vingt ans.

Écoute la belle les oiseaux fidèles
Qui chantent toujours les refrains de nos beaux jours
Ils disent que pour plaire Dieu mit sur la terre
Les fleurs pour charmer et des coeurs pour aimer

Le rossignol fait retentir les airs
Le chant joyeux, les roses mélodieuses
Le ruisseau coule à travers des prairies
Fait revenir les longs froids de l'hiver.

Écoute la belle les oiseaux fidèles
Qui chantent toujours les refrains de nos beaux jours
Ils disent que pour plaire Dieu mit sur la terre
Les fleurs pour charmer et des cœurs pour aimer

Quand le vent cessera de souffler
Que les mers cesseront de couler
Que les oiseaux cesseront de chanter
Moi la belle je cesserai de t'aimer

Écoute la belle les oiseaux fidèles
Qui chantent toujours les refrains de nos beaux jours
Ils disent que pour plaire Dieu mit sur la terre
Les fleurs pour charmer et des cœurs pour aimer

(END SINGING)

MP: That’s beautiful.

AG: That's three verses. Ya his mother was a good singer.

MP: Oh ya.

AG: She had a nice voice...

NG: They did a duet together too sometimes...

AG: Your father, too. Aimé aussi sing this.

NG: ... they used to call, my dad used to call. Five brothers that call . La danse, des balais vous rappelez-vous la fois qu'on avait été chez Rolland: la grosse soirée de la famille Gagné.

AG: Oui, j'm'en rappelle.

NG: Mon oncle, toi, ton mari, y jouait du violon. y avait Ovila Provencher pis….. sur l'accordéon, pis y’avait papa, Lucien, mon oncle Hubert, Arthur, Émile puis l'autre qui était là...

X: Baptiste

NG: ...Baptiste. C'tait cinq frères, y’avait mis. Dans cuisine, y avait mis des balais, five brothers. I was 16 years old. I remember that like it was yesterday. J'avais 16 ans dans l'temps mais on était là... Mon oncle Émile vivait dans l’temps... Oh! we had a good time.

MP: What year was this?

NG: I was 16, I was born in 32 so 32, 42, 48.

MP: Right after the war...

NG: ... 48, 1948. They were all there, all the brothers
except one was there…

AG: They all like, they all like fun, they all...

NG: ... ya...
AG: ...they all like.
NG: ...les familles. ça tout', there was the bear hug, you know. your sweetheart, sincere. That real, not make believe.

AG: All got along together...

NG: Even today, I go to Canada. I mean, we go fifteen times a year, we go back and
forth there's no, there's no, to me there’s no frontier, there's no custom. I feel at
home there. Just in time for duet, we were waiting for you for that.

LG: This cold weather, I have to get my breath.

AG: Like me, someday I can't sing at all because I have something in my throat.

NG: But is good to have your memory, you two.

AG: I have a good memory for my age...

(all talking at the same time)

NG: There were many singers and instuments within the family, they made their own, they had their own soirée. Just the family.

AG: Every night we used to meet together, every night we used to sing and dance and I’d sing too.

NG: When we came up for vacation time, we go to Canada, when we go to Canada, we more or less farmed all week. We would go once or twice to be with them, with the other brothers and sisters there. So we would be there together again. We would stop here and make the rounds. There was, she had three brothers here and the Gagné's, they’re married within the family, had three, four. They would go one place or another. l remember that, barn dance, we all had barn dances.

LG: l wasn't here for your barn dances.

NG: You were here when uncle built his barn, you were here then...

LG: Non...

NG: ...You’re sure

LG: ...non. I wasn’t there...
NG: ...you’re sure...
LG: ...I’m positive.

LG: I went to a couple of barn dances they had in Georgia. That was the only place I went.

LG: Non. we weren’t living here at the time.


(tape stopped and started again)


MP: I travel around New England and visit with Franco-Americans and gather oral histories and songs and I hope to someday publish some of this information to just let future generation know what Franco-Americans are all about in this day and age and...

LG: l knew that you sang and you went around.


(tape stopped and started again)


AG: ...they showed me, it’s a long song and I remember that there was somebody that came one night at home and they made me sing that song; I couldn’t sing it. I still know the song, I still remember.

LG: Like me, I remember all the songs that I sang when I started school, even the first song I ever sang in school.

AG: You just like to sing.

X: Have her sing that song she sang at five-years-old.

MP: I was just going to say, would you mind? Would you mind to sing it?

AG: I don't mind...

MP: This is a song you learned when you were five-years-old from?...

AG: ...my mother…. So you want to play your guitar?

LG: I don’t know... which song is it?


(all laughing)


LG: l’ll pick you up somewhere...


(still laughing)


AG: She can record any song.

MP: Just for the take of the recording. We’re now joined by Laurie-Ann Gagné which is... Laurie-Ann, are you the oldest?

LG: I’m the oldest now, my older sister passed away. She and I used to sing together...

MP: Your mom was telling us stories about that, you’re the second...

LG: Now I’m the oldest, I was the second.

AG: Was that the Lone Star Ranch that we used to bring you to sing?

MP: It was. she was telling us about Sunday afternoon...

LG: My brother Joe tells me that we sang there once and we introduced him to, now I can’t think of his name...

AG: Jo Latulipe?

LG: No... he was there. The singer there that passed away, in his car. he was drunk...

NG: Hank Williams.

LG: Ya Hank Williams.

MP: Ah really...

LG: Ya ....

MP: He was a country singer

LG: I don’t remember that. I don’t remember him being Hank Williams but my sister and I were, in the back. ...

MP:

LG: ... we practice out back, they had these cabins and anyways, we went out front after and we introduce to Hank Williams to Joe, you, and daddy.

MP: He was singing...

LG: I was so young I don't really... this is something I wish I recall and I don’t. I was nervous singing that was bad enough ....


(all laughing)


LG: I was only thirteen at the time... What’s that song now.

AG:

(BEGIN SINGING)

Title: A. Trois jeunes faucheurs s’en allaient en fauchant

Trois jeunes faucheurs s'en aillaient en fauchant

(Alberta singing with Laurie-Anne playing the guitar)

Trois jeunes faucheurs s'en allaient en fauchant
Trois jeunes faucheurs s'en allaient en fauchant
Ils rencontrèrent trois jeunes dames, je suis jeune
J'entends la voix qui retentit, je suis jeune et jolie

Ils rencontrèrent trois jeunes dames
Ils rencontrairent trois jeunes dames
La plus jeune elle avait un enfant, je suis jeune
J'entend la voix qui retentit, je suis jeune et jolie

La plus jeune elle avait un enfant
La plus jeune elle avait un enfant
Dedans la mer, elle l’a jeté, je suis jeune
J'entend la voix qui retentit, je suis jeune et jolie

Dedans la mer, elle l'a jeté
Dedans la mer, elle l'a jeté
Le jeune enfant s'est mis à parler, je suis jeune
J'entends la voix qui retentit, je suis jeune et jolie

Le jeune enfant s'est mis à parler
Le jeune enfant s'est mis à parler
Moi j'suis sauvé, vous êtes damnée, je suis jeune
J'entend la voix qui retentit, je suis jeune et jolie

Moi j'suis sauvé vous êtes damnée
Moi j'suis sauvé vous êtes damnée
Oh ! mon enfant qui est-ce qui te l’a dit, je suis jeune
J'entends la voix qui retentit, je suis jeune et jolie

Au mon enfant qui est-ce qui te l’a dit
Au mon enfant qui est-ce qui te l’a dit
Ce sont trois anges du paradis. je suis jeune
J'entends la voix qui retentit, je suis jeune et jolie

Ce sont trois anges du paradis
Ce sont trois anges du paradis
Quelle couleur sont ces trois anges-là, je suis jeune
J'entends la voix qui retentit, je suis jeune et jolie

Quelle couleur sont ces trois anges-là ?
Quelle couleur sont ces trois anges-là ?
Y’en a un blanc et l'autre gris, je suis jeune
J'entends la voix qui retentit, je suis jeune et jolie

Y’en a un blanc et l'autre gris
Y’en a un blanc et l'autre gris
Et l'autre qui r'semble à Jésus Christ, je suis jeune
J'entend la voix qui retentit, je suis jeune et jolie

Et l'autre qui r'semble à Jésus Christ
Et l'autre qui r'semble à Jésus Christ
Viens mon enfant je vais te tirer, je suis jeune
J’entends la voix qui retentit, je suis jeune et jolie

Viens mon enfant je vais te tirer
Viens mon enfant je vais te tirer
Oh ! non ma mère il est trop tard, je suis jeune
J'entends la voix qui retentit, je suis jeune et jolie

(END SINGING)

(everybody applauding)

NG: C'est beau çà. C'est beau. C'est une belle belle chanson.

NG: Now she was five-years-old, you were born in 1909...

X: 8.

AG: 1908.

NG: ...1908, that was in 1913.

MP: Oh ya.

NG: That particular one.

MP: You heard it?

NG: Non. First...

MP: First time you…

NG: Mais c’est beau.

AG: C'est une complainte. La femme, la mère de l'enfant le Jette à l'eau pour qui se noye (noie), y s'est mis à parler. Un enfant qui parlait pas, y s'est mis à parler pis a y’a demandé qui est ce qui avait là. C'est une complainte çà. Ben là à voulait le tirer de d‘dans l'eau, l'ôter de l'eau mais y’a dit que c'était trop tard...

NG: Trop tard...

AG: Y en avait des complaintes, j'en sais pas gros. Well... when I heard that song, I was five years old. I remember we had some company there and we had me sing
it. I was sitting in a high chair...

(all laughing)

AG: The priest, father Gauthier had come to that, to see us, you know, with all the others from the village. J'sais ben qu'y avait un monsieur Beaulieu qui était venu, j'm'en rappelle pas tout de leur nom, y était...


[END CASSETTE ONE, SIDE A]

[BEGIN CASSETTE ONE, SIDE B]


Y: La chanson que vous chantiez avec Laurie-Ann, qu’on attendait que Laurie-Ann arrive chantez-la donc celle-là.

AG: Ange de mon berceau? Y a deux, y a deux couplets à çà je pense.

MP: You two sing this song together ...

LG: She sings...

MP: At all the soirées.

LG: Every time we come here.

MP: Ya.

Y: Ya.

LG: She wants to sing it, usually she sings in French. And I sing the English version.

MP: Uh! wow! Isn’t that nice.

AG:

(BEGIN SINGING)

Title: A. Ange de mon berceau

Que de joie et de bonheur
Je ressens dans mon coeur
De me voir aujourd'hui près de vous
Mère chérie je voudrais de ma vie...
je vous dois de ma vie
tous les instants les plus doux...

Lorsque dans mon berceau
Vous me chantiez dodo
Je n'étais alors qu'un tout petit enfant
Qui vous a causé bien des tourments
Et j'ai dû sans le vouloir
Faire blanchir vos cheveux noirs
Ah! je voudrais un jour
Vous rendre un peu d'amour
Ange de mon berceau

Si les mamans pouvaient
Comment elles le voudraient
Garder leurs bébés toujours petits
Les voir grandir et puis un jour partir
C'est leur plus cruel souci.

Lorsque dans mon berceau
Vous me chantiez dodo
Je n'étais alors qu'un tout petit enfant
Qui vous a causé bien des tourments
Et j'ai dû sans le vouloir
Faire blanchir vos cheveux noirs
Ah ! je voudrais un jour
Vous rendre un peu d'amour
Ange de mon berceau.

Si les mamans pouvaient
Comment elles le voudraient
Garder leurs bébés toujours petits
Les voir grandir et puis un jour partir
C’est leur plus cruel souci.

Lorsque dans mon berceau
vous me chantiez dodo
Je n'étais alors qu'un tout petit enfant
Qui vous a causé bien des tourments
Et j'ai dû sans le vouloir
Faire blanchir vos cheveux noirs
Ah! je voudrais qu'un jour
Vous rendre un peu d'amour
Ange de mon berceau.

All of my cradle days
I needed you always
Since I was a baby upon your knee
You sacrifice everything for me
I took the gold from your head
and put the silver threads there
I don't know anyway
I could ever repay
All of my cradle days.

(END SINGING)


Y: That’s pretty.

MP: That brings tears to my eyes, that’s beautiful.

Y: People would come over and they’ve heard that over the years, they still, they still want to hear it...

MP: They request it.

AG: I can remember, one of my uncle and aunt, comes at our house after supper, we had sang a few song and they sang that song. I sang that song and my aunt, she always wanted me to sing it every time she'd come. Ma tante Maria, she liked that song. I sang it a lot of times.

Y:

MP: What about a fun song. Do you have a funny one?

AG: We have a lot of funny ones.

Y: (laughing)

LG: Just unfold a few pages.

AG: Grand-père Noé? Do I do that ?

(all laughing)

AG: My voice feels funny, I will have a hard time.

(BEGIN SINGING)

Title: A. Grand-père Noé

C'est notre grand-père Noé, patriarche et digne
C’est lui qui nous a enseigné à planter la vigne
ll s'est fait faire un gros bateau
C'était pour se promener sur l'eau
Ce fut son son son ce fut re re re
Ce fut son ce fut re ce fut son refuge
Pendant le déluge

Quand la mer rouge a paru à la troupe noire
Les Israelites ont cru qu'il fallait la boire
Moïse qui était le plus fin
Il dit ce n'est pas du vin
Il la pas pas pas il la sa sa sa
Il la pas il la sa il la passa toute
Sans en prendre une goutte

C'est au fond d'mon verre de vin
Que j 'y trouve la gloire
Prend ton verre et moi le mien ami y nous faut boire
A la santé de Nicolas
Tu boiras ou bien tu crèveras
Je bois du du du je bois du bras bras
Je bois du je bois bras
Je bois du bras gauche
C'est ça qui m'réchauffe

(END SINGING)


(all laughing)

AG: Ça c'est une des chansons à Émile.

Y:

AG: …ton frère chantait ça itou

MP: peux-tu expliquer ça en Anglais aussi pour la cassette for my recording.

Y: That song there?

MP: Can you say a little bit in English for the recording?

(all laughing)

AG: That will be pretty hard to do. (laughing)

LG: It’s about Noah, isn't it?

AG: It’s about grandpa Noah.

Y: Trying to build a boat I guess...

AG: C'est lui qui nous a enseigné à planter la vigne, he showed us how to plant the vine, grape vine. He made himself a big boat. Y s'est fait faire un gros bateau.
It was for the deluge, he had made a, it’s a...

Y: It’s about Noah’s ark, really.

AG: It’s about Noah’s ark... and the other verse is about quand la mer rouge a paru, la mer rouge a paru...

Y: ah oui...

AG: ...à la troupe noire. Les Israelites y croyait qui fallait boire. Moise, Moise était plus fin, il n'a pas bu, il les a tout' payer la traite pis lui y' n'a pas bu.

LG: Moses is passing the wine, he wasn’t drinking it.

AG: He passed the wine to everybody, they thought it was wine, it was red, it was the Red Sea, water from the Red Sea.

MP: It was just water. Are we tiring you out?

AG: Non, non.

Y: She loves to do that, she loves to do that.

AG: I love to sing, even though I don't sing good now; my voice is much lower, when I was younger, my voice was nice.

LG: Mine has gone done a couple of octaves...

MP: Ah really? so you were soprano?

LG: I used to... I could sing either high or low it didn’t matter. A few years back I caught a bad cold and after that, boy, I couldn’t hit that high C anymore...

Y:

LG: Once I do that then I’m all done for the night.

Y: You keep that for the last.

AG: That’s hard...

Y: ...

MP: It’s a strain for your voice.

LG: It’s probably one thing that has ruined my voice.

Y: She did all the time.

MP: What were they country songs?

LG: Ya, country songs. That's what I sing mostly, country songs. I sang in church, let's see, I sang at wedding. I had to learn six new songs, you know, they were love songs. I was able to sing, I’ve got the recording of them, during practice I had recorded it so I could learn the words, one song I didn't even know, I neve heard it before so I had to, I had to tape it, so...

MP: Laurie-Anne could you tell me a little bit about your life growing up? You grew up here in Highgate.

LG: No. I grew up in Newport, New Hampshire.

MP: Ah, that’s right, I can't believe I did that, we just spent all this time talking about Newport, New Hampshire, here one am talking... You were born in Newport?

LG: I was born in Vermont, I was born in pepere Laroche’s house.

AG: Ya, she was born in Vermont,...

MP: Ah, ok.

LG: I was born the day after...

Y: The house right around the corner...

MP: Right the one we were talking about..

LG: ... my father and my mother were moving back here from Michigan, I was born the day after they got here. So I was almost a car baby...

AG: I almost had her on the way.

MP: Oh wow Michigan.

LG: I almost didn't have a State but I could come out of...

(all laughing)

Y: She was close to being born in Caughnawaga area...

MP: No kidding.

Y: The Indians would deliver.

AG: We chose to move back, in was for a year in a half...

LG: In Michigan

AG: ...it was in Michigan...

LG: Newport

AG: ...Newport, Michigan..

MP: Really!

AG: And, we talked about moving back and my sister was living over there so she said, can you wait another two weeks, so I said I don’t want to have my baby on the way. I still had a month to go, so we waited another two weeks, they wanted to come the same time as us, my older sister and I waited and we went on the road, there was a lot of fog, you know, and they were, they were in front of us in their car, just a little ways in front of us. All of a sudden, we get to the place we saw the car on the edge of the road, you know and dans le fossé, accotté y avait comme un...

Y: Des guardrails …

AG: Non. C’était comme un… la machine était de même, accotée, personne grouillait, on est arrêté là, m'a arrêté, on a arrêté les machines, c'est une machine qui a été pour les repasser pis un truck s'en venait, ça fait que ça se trouvait à se ranger trop dans le bord, y on prit le fossé. Ça m'a énervé c'est effrayant, ça fait que, a (elle) voulait que j'attende que leur machine soit réparée; j'ai dit non, j'attends pu, on est parti. Moi et mon mari, on s'est envenu. on est arrivé le soir vers 5 heures. J'ai été me coucher à 10 heures du soir. J'tais fatiguée un peu, pas trop. C'est loin çà le Michigan...

Y: Oui. c'est loin...

AG: ...lendemain, 3 heures du matin, j'commence à avoir des crampes puis mes eaux on crevées. Mon frère a été chercher docteur puis elle est venue au monde à midi.

MP: A midi.

Y: Dans le temps, dans le temps de revenir au Vermont.

MP: T'étais pas pressée toi.

(all laughing)

AG: J'sais pas si j'avais pu faire çà encore, j'pense pas.

MP: Pas asteur

LG: Thank God for that.

(laughing)

MP: So Laurie-Anne what can you tell me about your schooling and what it was like to live in Newport, were they other French kids there.

LG: No, there was Greeks and Fins and the only other French people that we knew was, my aunt had move over there and then my...

Y: Across the road...

LG: ... my uncle Wilfred had, his wife had passed away here in Vermont, so he brought his kids with him and my mother took care of all those kids along with us while he was working. He came back here or something...

AG: Ya. he came back.

LG: ... anyways, we used to get laughed at because we were French, you know, they would say "we can't play with you because you’re French... "

(laughing)

LG: ...so I would say I can’t play with you because you’re Greek.

(laughing)

AG: That’s smart enough.

LG: I was very shy, very bashful.

MP: Did you speak English when you went to school?

LG: When I went to school. l didn't know how to speak English very much. I guess I learned it and then I didn’t speak French anymore; once we were there, you know. I went to school fourteen years. I went, I graduated in the 8th grade at a Newport school and…

AG: She started working when she was young.

LG: ... I start my first job was in the laundry. I was barely fourteen I guess, and we didn't go to highschool so then, you know. we had a good childhood because it was a music family. My father used to bring us to these Franco-American Club and the Moose Club and I don’t know the Forester Club. We used to have to sing, you know, my sister and I.

MP: So those Clubs, they were in Newport?

LG: Those were in Newport, New Hampshire.

MP: So they were Francos there?

LG: Ya but the people, very few people that we knew talk French. You must have known a few.

AG: A few.

MP: Granger, l don't know. Once you move to an English town, you don’t use your French anymore.

AG: Mostly English...

LG: I was still young when we first move there. you know,and I started school when I was going on seven-years-old. Because my birthday came at the wrong time so I couldn’t, I was like a year behind, I still passed a, you know, by the time I got to the 8th grade, I had the highest honors in English when I started school. I didn’t know what the teacher was talking about...

(laughing)

AG: We used to speak French at home...

LG: We talked French at home so, but, gradually, it was all English and then, we started, we listen to the radio of course my father liked country music. We played music sometimes, he bring a bunch of people home, he’d wake us up in the middle of the night to get up and sing...

MP: Join the party.

LG: ...ya, so we’d had to sing and once in a while, like one time I went to a clam bake, this one I remember because I had these cowboy boots that they had got me and my mother, my sister and I, each had a nice little outfit, the skirt and the volero and nice blouse and…

AG: I could sew

LG: ... My father played, bought me a guitar after he knew that I could play, I used to sneak my sister’s, when she was gone, l take her guitar and l had that book that she learned with...

LG: ... So when they found that I could play, they bought me this guitar. All of my fingers used to get all really wore out because, they weren’t like now. you know, they were hard to play. Anyways, we had to go and sing. I sang at a clam bake. This is where they had...

MP: In Maine...

LG: ...in New Hampshire, we're still in New Hampshire. Everybody come over and they ask me to sing a song so I’d sing it you know and they would put money in my boots, I had about twenty-eight dollars in my boots when I went home.

MP: Wow.

(all laughing)

MP: No kidding.

LG: ...they paid me to sing.

MP: How old were you then?

LG: I must have been twelve...

MP: Is that right?

AG: Twenty-eight dollars then...

MP: Ya sure, that was a lot of money...

AG: Ya.

MP: That’s a lot of money...Were you singing along, or with your sister at that time?

LG: At that time I was singing alone.

MP: Ya.

LG: My sister had, she had gone to Nashua, New Hampshire to... to... I don’t know we came back from Nashua. I went with her for a summer we stayed with my grandfather Laroche and we were boarding there and we, we’d hitch a ride with this other ... the band would play on the radio so we would sing with the radio in
Keene. They picked us up in Nashua and they had this coupe. They raised the back of the thing...

MP: Oh ya...

LG: ... and there we were with the one guitar, at the time I didn’t have a guitar, the one guitar. One rumble, it was a trunk...we were sitting in the trunk with the trunk open. Here we go going through Manchester to go to sing on the radio...

MP: Oh gosh...

LG: ... We sang three or four times on the radio there and we were singing every Sunday at the Lone Star Ranch which was between Manchester and Nashua. It was nothing they paid us. I think they gave us five dollars to sing on the radio so we were not making much money and my sister got a job...

AG: There was no too too many people that went there either. That’s why he probably couldn’t...

LG: Teresa got a job in the mill over there and I had to sit around and our one bedroom all day long and all evening until she came home. It was not a very good life for a teenager.

(laughing)

LG: I went back home, she, she bought me a ticket and she had a job so she was all set, she bought me a train ticket and I went back home to Newport.

MP: That’s how you ended up singing by yourself that day.

LG: Ya.

MP: Ya.

LG: Ya so... we...I still have a picture that was taken of us standing next to a horse. We had the outfits on my mother had made us and, you know, we looked pretty
neat.

(laughing)

LG: Then I started singing with my other sister. we all could sing just that... after three songs, she got married and we started singing Rita and I, and later on we all get married somehow. we were married and now when we get together we still sing, we don’t sing together until we get together.

MP: Ya.

Y: Was it two years ago...

LG: Ya,two years ago.

Y:

LG: Tony’s got a very soft voice and her voice doesn’t carry and when I sing I got a whole back of my voice and can sing without the mic and she still would be softer than me...

MP: Uh dear.

LG: Rita sings, she and I .... she and I sing when we go see my brother in Florida, my brother Eddy that we’re proud of. He’s got his one man band and when we go there, we get up and we sing. People always asking when we want to go back.

MP: Do you remember trip to Quebec when you were a kid?

LG: No the first time I went to Canada is when I started going out with Rita and that was like in 1948 or 49. I never been to Canada so I was eighteen, I think...

AG: We never brouth you to Canada with us?

LG: Not that I remember. You brought me when l was a little girl, too small to remember.

AG: You used to stay….

LG: No but that was, that was when we came to uncle Henry’s in the beginning. we didn’t go to Canada...

AG: I know we stayed there...you didn’t want to come with us, you wanted to stay with Henri

Y: We stay...

AG:

Y: Y’allait vous r’joindre chez Batiste ou chez mon’oncle Arthur …

MP: From Newport New Hampshire, the kids would stay up here...

Y:

MP: In Vermont...

Y: Jo, nous aut' on y allait ensemble, Jo

LG: I was eighteen when, the first time I went to mon oncle Baptiste.

MP: To Quebec. So you grew up singing and learning songs from your mom. Can you remember the last, the first song...

LG: The first song, I didn’t learn any songs from my mother maybe a couple of French one that I picked but it was mostly the country and western that we sang. My sister would write... we’d listen to the radio and she’d write first line. I’d write the second one and she’d write the third one...As she’s writing...

MP: That’s how you got the words...

LG: ...That’s how we got the words of the song.


(BEGIN SINGING)

Title: D. Unknown

Ma tante avait un beau chapeau
Ma tante avait un beau chapeau

Ma tante avait un beau chapeau
Ma tante avait un beau chapeau

Un beau chapeau

Un beau chapeau

et pis oui oui oui

et pis oui oui oui

et pis encore ouiiii
et pis encore ouiiii

(refrain)

Yep Yep Yep tire mon billet vous ne m’attendez guère
Yep Yep Yep tire mon billet vous ne m'attendez pas

Yep Yep Yep tire mon billet vous ne m'attendez guère
Yep Yep Yep tire mon billet vous ne m’attendez pas

Ma tante avait une belle blouse (bis)

Ma tante avait une belle blouse (bis)
Une belle blouse

Une belle blouse

Un beau chapeau

Un beau chapeau

et pis oui oui oui

et pis oui oui oui

et pis encore ouiiii

et pis encore ouiiii


(refrain)

Ma tante avait une belle jupe (bis)

Ma tante avait une belle jupe (bis)

Une belle jupe

Une belle jupe

Une belle blouse

Une belle blouse

Un beau chapeau

Un beau chapeau

et pis oui oui oui

et pis oui oui oui

et pis encore ouiii

et pis encore ouiii

(refrain)

Ma tante avait des belles culottes (bis)

Ma tante avait des belles culottes (bis)

Des belles culottes

des belles culottes

Une belle jupe

Une belle jupe

Une belle blouse

Une belle blouse

Un beau chapeau

un beau chapeau

et pis oui oui oui

et pis oui oui oui

et pis encore ouiii

et pis encore ouiii


(refrain)


(Begin singing)

Title: B. Bonheur de se revoir

Bonheur de se revoir
Après des jours d'absence
Quel regard, quelle absence
Quel magique pouvoir
Si je soufrais, je mets ma confiance
Bonheur de se revoir
Bonheur de se revoir
Oh! Qu’il est doux de se revoir!

Le voilà c'est bien lui
La voilà c'est bien elle
Quel regard, quelle absence
Quel magique pouvoir
On prend la main
L'amour tendre et cruelle
Bonheur de se revoir
Bonheur de se revoir
Oh! qu'il est doux de se revoir!

On se redit des mots
Qui charmera l'absence
Sur le même gazon
Je viens encore m'asseoir
Et dans la paix, je mets ma confiance
Bonheur de se revoir
Bonheur de se revoir
Oh ! qu'il est doux de se revoir!



brin d'amour elle sourlt tous les jours
du bonheur dans les yeux
Car elle aimait un beau gars qui y avait dit tout bas
Tâchons donc d'être heureux tous les deux.
Un baiser
.... un brin d'amour

(END SINGING)


(BEGIN SINGING)

Title: A. La Pitoune (Little different from the version of Madame Bolduc-Mary travers)


La Pitoune ça c'est une belle fille
Pas trop grosse pis pas trop p'tite
La Pitoune ça c'est une belle fille
Hourra! pour la Pitoune

Elle joue du banjo Paparalatourelalirelire
Elle joue du banjo Paparalatourelalirelire
Elle joue du banjo Paparalatourelalirelire
Hourra pour la Pitoune
Hourra pour la Pitoune

Un Jour la Pitoune s'est mis à crier
Une grosse guêpe venait de la piquer
Juste une place que je n'peux pas vous nommer
Ah! la pauvre Pitoune

Elle joue du banjo Paparalatourelalirelire
Elle joue du banjo Paparalatourelalirelire
Elle joue du banjo Paparalatourelalirelire
Hourra pour la Pitoune
Hourra pour la Pitoune

Un jour le garçon du voisin
Voit la Pitoune dans son jardin
ll lui envoie des becs avec sa main
Ah! la belle Pitoune

Elle joue du banjo Paparalatourelalirelire
Elle joue du banjo Paparalatourelalirelire
Elle joue du banjo Paparalatourelalirelire
Hourra ! pour la Pitoune
Hourra pour la Pitoune

Un jour qu'elle était à danser
La Pitoune s'est enfargée
Sur son p'tit nez elle a tombé
Ah! la pauvre Pitoune

Elle joue du banjo Paparalatourelalirelire
Elle joue du banjo Paparalatourelalirelire
Elle joue du banjo Paparalatourelalirelire
Hourra! pour la Pitoune
Hourra! pour la Pitoune

(END SINGING)



[END CASSETTE ONE, SIDE B]

[BEGIN CASSETTE TWO, SIDE A]



(BEGIN SINGING)

Title: (Unknown)

Aujourd'hui comme vous savez j'suis la mère de quinze enfants
Et moi qui viens d'avoir tout juste cinquante ans
Comme c'est toutes des filles que j'ai ça m'coûte cher en bedeau!
Pour leur donner ce qu'il leur faut
Je m'arrache la laine sur l'dos
C'est des toilettes c'est des chapeaux
C'est des bottines avec des talons hauts
Oh! Bonne femme, Oh ! bonne femme, j'en ai plus qu'il m'en faut
C'est des bas de soie l'été, l'hiver
Plus ils sont longs plus ça coûte cher
Pauvre bonne, femme, pauvre bonne femme, j'en vois presque plus clair

Et puis quand vient l'jour de l'an
Leur faut toute un manteau, en mouton de Perse ou d'Afghan
Enfin tout c'qui a de plus beau
Tandis que moi tout ce qu'on me donnera
Pour mes étrennes c'est une paire de bas
Pauvre bonne femme, pauvre bonne femme. C’t'encore moi qui paiera.
Je ne peux pas les empêcher d'avoir des distractions
Y en a qui sont d'âge de recevoir les garçons
Comme elles sont pas pour rester vieilles filles tant qu'elles vivront
J'aime bien mieux comme de raison qu'elles s'amusent à la maison

Et quand vient le soir, les cavaliers
Y en a partout de la cave au grenier
Pauvre bonne femme, pauvre bonne femme, moi j'm'assis dans l'escalier
Y en a des noirs, y en a des blonde
Y en a des courts. y en a des longs
Pauvre bonne femme, pauvre bonne femme, Y en a plein la maison
Et puis quand arrive le temps de s'en aller chez eux
Ils commencent par ficher l'camp quand y sont ben décidés
Tandis que moi, j'me casse le cou.
Assis dans l'coin à cogner des clous.
Pauvre bonne fremme,pauvre bonne femme, j'changerais job pour trente sous

(END SINGING)

(BEGIN SINGING)

Title: A. J’allais voir les filles j’avais pas 15 ans

J'allais voir les filles j'avais pas quinze ans
J'allais voir les filles j'avais pas quinze ans
J'allais voir les filles j'avais pas quinze ans
J’allais voir les filles j'avais pas quinze ans
Pour les embrasser j'montais su' un p'tit banc

Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier
Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier

Pour les embrasser j'montais su' un 'tit banc
Pour les embrasser j'montais su' un 'tit banc
Pour les embrasser j'montais su' un p'tit banc
Pour les embrasser j'montais su' un p'tit banc
J'aperçus ma mère avec un bâton

Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier
Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier

J'aperçus ma mère avec un bâton
J'aperçus ma mère avec un bâton
J'aperçus ma mère avec un bâton
J'aperçus ma mère avec un bâton
Marche à maison mon crapaud d'enfant

Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier
Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier

Marche à maison mon crapaud d'enfant
Marche à maison mon crapaud d'enfant
Marche à maison mon crapaud d'enfant
Marche à maison mon crapaud d'enfant
Tu iras voir les filles quand t'auras trente ans

Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier
Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier

Tu iras voir les filles quand t'auras trente ans
Tu iras voir les filles quand t'auras trente ans
Tu iras voir les filles quand t'auras trente ans
Tu iras voir les filles quand t'auras trente ans
Je me suis marié j'avais quarante ans

Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier
Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier


Je me suis marié j'avais quarante ans
Je me suis marié j'avais quarante ans
Je me suis marié j'avais quarante ans
Je me suis marié j'avais quarante ans
Au bout d'un an, j'avais quatr' enfants

Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier
Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier

Au bout d'un an j'avais quatr' enfants
Au bout d'un an j'avais quatr' enfants
Au bout d'un an j'avais quatr' enfants
Au bout d'un an j'avais quatr' enfants
Mon père m’a dit ça c'est écœurant

Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier
Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier

Mon père m’a dit ça c'est écœurant
Mon père m’a dit ça c'est écœurant
Mon père a dit ça c'est écœurant
Mon père a dit ça c'est écœurant
À mon âge t’en faisais autant

Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier
Ça commence à s'étendre dans les bras pis dans les jambes
Ça commence à s'étendre tout le mois d'janvier

(END SINGING)

(BEGIN SINGING)

Title: B. I Went to the market (Lyrics: Gilles Vigneault, music: Gilles Vigneault, Gaston Rochon)

Je m’en vais au marché mon panier pendu au bras (BIS)
(I went to the market mon panier pendu au bras)
I want some apple combien les vendez-vous ?
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez guère
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez pas
(repeat the last 2 lines)

I want some apple combien les vendez-vous ? (BIS)
A dollar a dozen combien en voulez-vous ?
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez guère
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez pas
(repeat the last 2 lines)

A dollar a dozen combien en voulez-vous (BIS)
I'Il take one dozen le bonhomme vous les paiera
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez guère
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez pas
(repeat the last 2 lines)

I'Il take one dozen le bonhomme vous les paiera (BIS)
I went at home le bonhomme y était pas
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez guère
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez pas
(repeat the last 2 lines)

I went at home le bonhomme y était pas (BIS)
I went upstair le bonhomme y était là
I love you mais Monsieur vous m'aimez guère
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez pas
(repeat the last 2 lines)

I went upstairs le bonhomme y était là (BIS)
I want the money non tu n'en aura pas
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez guère
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez pas
(repeat the last 2 lines)

I want the money non tu n'en aura pas (BIS)
I looked in the pocket book l'argent y en avait pas
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez guère
I love you non Monsieur vous m'aimez pas
(repeat the last 2 lines)

(END SINGING)


(BEGIN SINGING)

Title: D. unkwown

C'est au marché d'Bonsecours ou j'ai connu un jour
La fille de St-Francis de St-Léon
Qui vendait d'la saucisse pis des cortons

Comme j'étais beau garçon elle me fit d'la façon
Elle m'invita bien poliment
D'aller veiller chez eux dans l'troisième rang

Le grand jour arrivé me voilà bien stocké
J'avais mis ma bougrine, mon beau chapeau
Pour aller voir Caroline dans mon berleau

J'arrive tout' frileux, le bout du nez morveux
J'accroche ma vieille jument près du perron
En m'disant v'la l'moment plante toi Polion

J'arrive à la cuisine j'aperçois Caroline
En belle matinée garnie d’rubans
Qui était après s’bercer bien tranquillement

Bonjour Monsieur Polion je trouvais l'temps bien long
Prenez-vous une chaise, assoyez-vous
Mettez-vous à votre aise tout comme chez vous

Le bonhomme tout en façon tout' suite sort la boisson
Chauf' les amours, Polion, car c'est l'bon temps
Quand j'étais jeune garçon, j'en faisais autant

Nous nous sommes amusés la veillée s’est passée
Et pour le premier soir bien tendrement
On a changé d’mouchoir en soupirant

Nous nous sommes mariés, les années ont passé
Et depuis quarante ans qu'on aime toujours
A s'rapp’ler des bons temps de nos premiers amours

(END SINGING)

[END CASSETTE TWO, SIDE A]

[END RECORDING]