Every July 4th, Father Paul Dumais of the Portland diocese of Maine, offers free pizza, ice cream and an old-time barn dance for ALL members of the community. Jay is an old mill town on the Androscoggin River but the mills are gone, and a good portion of the residents, many of whom are of Franco-American heritage whose ancestors came to work in the mills, have found themselves scrambling. Father Paul is not only keeping the old community together but building new community as times change.

I’ve had the honor to be part of this celebration for the last 3 years, joined by one of Maine’s best kept traditional music secrets, Don and Cindy Roy. (Don helped Fr. Paul build the wood fired brick pizza oven too!)

It was 90 degrees outside and not much better inside, but we had dancers, mostly kids and young adults. If you looked on the sidelines, though, there were a few Meme’s doing Quebecois foot-tapping. I apologize for the unsteady video which was taken by ME while I was calling. I chose the Virginia Reel because it’s fun and even more fun if you make right/left mistakes (hah hah). Note, though how the dance smooths out as it progresses. Enjoy!