Henry Alexander Miller and Margaret Ann McCall
Harry and Maggie Miller and their Children Country dances were a social event in rural Canada. People would gather at someone's home, in a barn, or in later years at a hall to socialize, dance and drink, even bringing their children. One person I talked to told the story of how a couple of men who liked to play practical jokes switched the blankets covering all the infants. When it was time to go home the mothers grabbed the baby with the right blanket only to discover later it wasn't her child. I gather it took a while to sort it all out. Music was provided by anyone in the community who could play, a fiddler or two, possibly a piano or harmonica. Dances included the schottische, waltzes, polkas and of course square dancing. When I asked Dad if he ever attended a country dance he enthusiastically responded, "Did I?". By the 1950's dances were held regularly but they still had live music. And of course drinking and with that came fighting. I recall one of...