WENTWORTH - One of the best ways to spend an afternoon is at the Fiddlers’ Do at the Wentworth Recreation Centre on the last Sunday in the month (except December) from 1:30-5:30 p.m.
As one enters the hall, it is evident that this building is a superb place to play music on stage and to dance on the large area of hardwood floor. The musicians on stage, usually led by a fiddler and accompanied by piano, guitars and drums, play old-time music, Don Messer style, and couples are on the floor dancing free-style (not in formalized square dancing groups) to reels, jigs, waltzes, polkas, hop-polkas and fox trots. At times, an accordion or saxophone or banjo or singer will lead. This music has a spiritual and emotional appeal because of its honesty and sincerity: it lifts your soul and makes one glad to be alive. As master of ceremonies, Charles Patriquin says on occasion about the music, “If that doesn’t start your fire, what will?”
The atmosphere in the hall is one of friendship and bonding. Those who come alone can find someone to dance with, and couples are willing to share a partner. Over the years the hall has had people coming from many places in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick: Alma, Amherst, Bass River, Bedford, Camden, Cape Pele, Collingwood, Cook’s Brook, Dartmouth, Debert, Durham, Economy, Eureka, Glenholme, Green Oaks, Halifax, Lantz, Malagash, Moncton, Musquodoboit, New Glasgow, River John, Pictou, Plymouth, Fort Lawrence, Pubnico, River John, Shubenacadie, Sackville (N.B. & N.S.), Stellarton, Stewiacke, Tatamagouche, Truro, Victoria, Wallace, Wentworth, Williamsdale, and Windsor. In the summer, we welcome visitors from across Canada and the United States.
(For the full story, see the March 12 issue of The Citizen)
