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40 Chapter three Music, Dance, and Social Capital Un bal de maison: A House Dance1 In mid-December 1995 I received an invitation from Josephine, a dancer I knew, to a birthday party at Harry’s place, a generously sized farmhouse in Sonoma County, California. The party would start at 2:00 PM on December 30 and food would be provided, so “just come.” I forgot to find out whose birthday it was, and repeated attempts to phone Josephine the night before and that morning failed because the line was always busy. By the time my girlfriend and I show up with a bottle of wine, people have already started eating. I had been to this house once before for a larger, outdoor party and had met our host, a Cajun man in his sixties, at another event, but he can’t place my face. He just waves good-naturedly and tells us to have a good time, not just sit around (meaning, be sure to dance), and to get some food. Two or three of Harry’s adult children are also at this party. On the way in, we also greet Josephine; I ask her whose birthday it is, she says it is a December birthday party for herself, Harry, and a name or two that I do not recognize. “What do you think, I would invite you to someone else’s party?” Josephine and her husband Hank are retirees in their sixties, retired, and live in Stockton , some 120 miles from Sonoma County. Around this time they could be seen frequently at dances all over the Bay Area. The blanket recognition of birthdays of all born in a given month is not unusual. One custom of a few years’ standing is the June Birthday Party, an open-invitation picnic and outdoor dance in Berkeley’s Tilden Park, organized by a dancer whose birthday falls in that month. At some public dances, birthday celebrants for the current month may be called out onto the dance floor so that all may sing “Happy Birthday” led by the band. Someone tells us that the food is in the garage. On our way there I am hailed by Peggy, whom I introduce to my girlfriend. Peggy and her husband Joe are avid dancers (currently taking tango lessons), but she has also decided to try her hand at playing the bass so that she can participate in Cajun jam sessions. Since she has seen me playing the bass at sessions in the past, she is eager to tell me that she has rented an upright bass and to inform me of the progress she has made in practicing Music, Dance, and Social Capital 41 thus far. A bass player in one of the local Cajun bands has made up an instruction book for her on how to play Cajun bass. She and Joe have tickets to see Beausoleil perform in Davis this evening. She hands me a business card that has their names, home address, and phone, with a silhouette of a dancing couple. A buffet is laid out on a table in the middle of a three-car garage with door closed:whiterolls,roastedchicken,whiterice,gravy,beansorblack-eyedpeas,candied carrots, yams, cooked cabbage, potato salad. Bottles of wine with clear plastic cups are on the table, beer and soda outside on the driveway in coolers. Disposable plates and utensils are set out. People sit on various folding and patio chairs up against the wall in the garage, in the house around the kitchen counter (women, mostly), and around the dining room table. Sue and I get our food, find seats at the dining room table, and join the conversation . We introduce ourselves to Alida, one of Harry’s daughters, and her husband Vin. Alida and her siblings are all from Lake Charles; they moved from there when she was twelve and she still speaks with a Cajun accent. She and Vin were last there seventeen years ago, his only trip there, and he says he will never go back. Sue mentions our plans to visit Louisiana in March. Alida indicates that Leticia, also seated at the table, is an expert on where to go. Speaking of her travels to Louisiana, Leticia tells a story of going to the Offshore Lounge in Lawtell with Cheryl and Bobby, a couple from Louisiana who married and settled in California. They had a hard time finding the rural zydeco club, and when they finally got there...

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