Amanuensis Monday ~ The Stories That Should Be Told, Part 35

The following transcription is from a series of recordings my father made in the early 1990s:

I have been thinking about Mr. Claude Enright.  

Back in the early 1930s, they were having a Bud Scott dance.  Bud Scott was a black man who had a band and was quite famous in this part of the country.  The local people in the different little towns would get together and want to have a dance.  The people would get up a pot of money and hire Bud Scott. 

They had a lot of dances in Sicily Island over the years.  The old two-story Woodmen Hall that sat on the corner across from the Methodist Church was where they would have some of the dances.  Dances were held in the upstairs part and in the downstairs.  

I remember going over there with my Grandma Steele one time.  We walked over and went up the back stairs and we could see them all in there dancing.  Grandma Steele was always worried about the building falling down.  It was kind of a rickety old building.   

Teddy Stockman

I remember seeing my Aunt Nita in there and Teddy [Stockman].  Grandma and Grandpa Steele raised Teddy from the time he was just a little boy.  

One night there was a Bud Scott dance taking place in the Woodmen Hall.  Several local folks including my parents went over to Mr. Claude and Mrs. Vivian Enright’s house before the dance. 

I had gone with my parents to Mr. Claude’s house.  My mother took me everywhere.  I suppose they gathered there for refreshments.  Mother had put me on one of the beds when I had fallen asleep.

Bruce A. Edmonds

After a while, they all left and went to the dance up at the Woodmen Hall.  Mr. Claude wasn’t going to the dance so my mother knew it would be alright to leave me there asleep. 

My mother used to tell how they were all at the dance and she looked up and there was Mr. Claude Enright.  She said, “Well where is Son?”  Mr. Claude said, “Oh, he’ll be alright.” I think Mr. Claude had forgotten about me being there at his house, asleep in one of the bedrooms. 

I can just see my mother.  I imagine she was just a flying down that street to Mr. Claude’s house.  I was about four or five years old. 

If I had woke up in that house by myself, it would have been something.  I never woke up so I never knew I had been left there alone.

I remember another night when Bud Scott was playing at the Woodmen Hall.  He and his band were playing in the downstairs part where the pool hall was located. 

Grandma Steele always liked to know what was happening so she and I walked up to the front and stood there looking in the window.  The only people I can remember seeing in the crowd that night were H. P. [Horace] York and Kathryn [Benedict] Smith who was Charlie Smith’s wife. 

Grandma Steele was all upset because Kathryn had just had surgery a few months before and there she was dancing and hopping around with H. P. York. 

I could see Bud Scott and his band in the back of the building.  Bud Scott had a big ole megaphone he was holding up and singing through it.

Clarence "Bud" Scott, Sr.

Alf Jones told me that when Bud Scott came to town for dances, he and his band would stay over at his Aunt Elvira Smith’s house.   Alf said he remembered one time when Bud Scott was there and it was on up toward midnight in the winter time.  

Bud Scott was sitting in front of the fireplace with his shoes off and his feet up close to the fire.  Some of the local white people had gotten up another pot of money and had come over to beg him to play some more.  This apparently happened all the time.  Folks were always wanting to hear him and his band even after the dances were over.

This particular night Bud had already gone to his boarding house.  Alf said Bud told them to let him toast his toes a little more and then he would be back up at the dance to play and sing some more. 

Note:  Parts 1-34 of 'The Stories That Should Be Told' can be found in the Tags List on the right-hand side of the blog.