Interview excerpt (AU1998-1070-004)
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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. Aime aussi.
NG: ... they used to call, my dad used to clog. Five brothers that clog . La danse, des balets vous rappelez-yous la fois qu'on avait ete chez Rollahd: la grosse soiree de la famille Gagne.
AG: oui, j'm'en rappelle.
NG: Mon oncle. toi, toh mari, y jouait du violon. y avait Uvila Provencher pi sur l'accordeon, y avait papa, Lucien, mon oncle Hubert. Arthur, Emile puis l'aut' qui etait la...
X: Baptiste
NG: ...Baptiste. C'tait cinq frere, y avait mis. Dans cuisine, y avait mis des balast' five brother. I was 16 years old. I remember that like it was yesterday. J'avais 15 ans dans l'temps mais on etait la... Mon oncle Emile vivait ... 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 brother
except one was there…
AG: They all like, they all like fun, they all...
NG: ... ya...
AG: ...they all like.
NG: ...les familles. ca tout', there was the bear hug, you know. your sweetheart, sincere. That was 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 customs. I just got in and report. I feel at home there. Just in time for duet, we were waiting for you for that.
LG: This old chicken, she ain’t as young as she used to be! 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: It feels good to have a memory, you two.
AG: I have a good memory for my age...
(all talking at the same time)
NG: There were many singers and instruments within the family, they made their own, they had their own soiree. Just the family. Without inviting nobody different.
AG: Every night we used to meet together, every night the kids would get together and 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 Gagne'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 sake of the recording. We’re now joined by Laurie Ann Gagne 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 Latlute?
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 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.
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