| Existing comment:
Eventually, Commissioner Andrew Gerrard broke the colour division at the Town Hall by inviting black people to the dance for whites. The musicians in those times -- Kitchener; James Thomas; Charlie Bantick -- played fiddles, guitars, drums, grater (a fork rubbed across perforated metal) and the chac chac. Said Otto Watler: "When I came to rememberance we played marbles, of course, and we'd get the metal bands from old oil drums and make a 'swifter' which we would roll down the road and race one another -- you'd run yourself to death." |