TRANSCRIPT

JG - James Gibson, interviewee [with Wilma (WM) Morrison present] / LR - Lyn Royce, interviewer [with Natalie (NP) Przybyl present]

JG: ...in those days... Well, of course anything black came from the devil. Okay? The music came from the devil; the dance came from the devil, everything black. So, unfortunately, ehh, the devil is very attractive.

WM: Yeah... To a lot of people... [chuckles]

JG: Okay? And man, there was more white girls amongst the devil than you could shake a stick at! Alright? [laughs] And, of course in them days, the, the... the mixing of the races wasn't quite as compatible, they wasn't quite as... easily done, as...

WM: From both communities...

JG: Yeah.

WM: ...from both the black community...

WM & JG: ...and the white community...

JG: ...wasn't done easily. Since it was the white community that conjured up this devil, thing...

WM: Mhmm.

JG: And, and, and I remember that we had to meet the white girls in, in secretive places, you know what I mean? And, uh, things like that there. And then we'd make sure that we put on, then put on the music. I sure wish white girls could dance better. But they...

WM: [indecipherable] ...don't have rhythm. [NP chuckles; WM to NP] Y'all don't.

JG: I mean, we used to, we tried...

LR: We're getting better, we're improving over time...

JG: We tried like hell. 'Move your hips better. Can't you move your hips like this?' [group laughing in background] '...Eh!? No, no, no, no! That's not the beat; stay on the beat...' and this, 'Don't spoil it, man, the music is good!' [laughs]

WM: And we'd [the black girls] be standing back in the corner laughing at you guys...

JG: I know! I know! Shoot! 'Let them black fools see what they can do with these white girls,' you know what I mean? But I'll tell you one thing: they were game! They never gave up! [group laughs] They never gave up! Okay? And, and that was an attraction for black guys: if you don't give up, you got me baby! [laughs] Okay? So, any rate those were the days, I tell ya... And down Sunnyside?

WM: Yeah...

JG: I u... ah, in those days they used to have, in the evening, you dance 'n your mo...[indecipherable] There was a piece of boardwalk, but the rest was sand where mostly you'd dance. And they were playing...

WM: He's from Toronto.

JG: You remember being out in Sunnyside?

LR: I was too young.

JG: Or you were too young... you were too young. But any rate, there was dancin' down Sunnyside. Ah, and they played Glenn Miller, 'n Artie Shaw... [LR indecipherable] Yeah. So we were well acquainted with Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw, and we would go down there and uh, dance with the white girls - and the black girls; there were some black girls go down there.

WM: Were they allowed to go in there?

JG: Yeah... but we were like, young... uh, there were certain things that you were allowed into, okay? To go into, alright? Because we were of the age where we were mouthy, so that if they say 'Well, you can't come in here,' we'd say 'Why not?' See? Not like...

WM: You might come back with a group... larger group.

JG: Yeah. So... Any rate...