I was born here in St.Henri, and I was baptised in this church. And the minister at that time was Reverend Este. Is Doctor Reverend Este now. And we had our Sunday school right here. Everything started here for me and I grew from here teaching dancing. And my career grew from here and I now teach for McGill. So it was a step up. But the beginning was here. And we had on this very stage, it wasn’t as beautiful as it is now, but we did our concerts here and we raised money for the church, all the proceeds went to the church. And usually a yearly event. Every year. In here. And we had the dancers that I taught and we had musicians like the very famous Oliver Jones. I know he was part of this church. And everything was in here.
At that time, the employment of my father was a porter. At that time of employment, you’re a porter. That’s it. My brothers, one of my brothers also…not a porter, at that education was better, he became a conductor on the railroad. And we had a family of nine. At that time, it wasn’t surprising to 9, 10, 11, 12 children. Even the housing, you’ll find we had three stories, in one house. And now you have an apartment building. So, at that time, my father was determined that I was going to get an education. I was the youngest in the family, no one went to high school. Because you couldn’t afford it! Simple as that. But, I went to Montreal High. On University Street. It’s right across from McGill. At that time as a matter of fact, the high school they were building [was] part of McGill. And so I grew up, I graduated from Montreal High School. And from there I took a trade as a steamfitter, at the CPR. It’s a five year trade, as a steamfitter. And from there I started dancing. But the dancing was in this church. I started dancing through the church. I had classes on the stage and some of my students went on, just taking dancing classes and…but I continued. I’m still teaching. And as a matter of fact, teaching, I’m affiliated with McGill.
I believe from the beginning it’s like now, I’m 84 and I have what’s a very important exercise program. I don’t follow TV or all that stuff, I created my own program, you know? I’m a Gemini, you know? [laughs] And, Yeah, yeah. Nine o’clock I’m up, and I do a, oh, complete body exercise, loosen up, and after I lay down and I push weights, 30 pounds over my head and that you know. It’s a regular thing. [...] I walk a little bit, and I still teach dancing.
I started dancing at the church when I was about 12 years old. And we had some children coming in there and one thing you had to understand, my father hated that. He hated this dancing business because he figured out of nine children, nobody graduated from high school. So I was the youngest, and had to. So, what happened is that my father at the time, like I said he worked on the railroad and he went to Vancouver, at that time it took about six days. I don’t know what it is now but at that time you had to go by train. It took six days there. And now he stayed over…and now, a day, and he came back. So he was gone for about 16 days in the month. That’s when I danced. Now, we think as kids our parents don’t know what we’re doing. They know everything, they know everything. Don’t they, they know everything. But, we live in a house not too far, on Greene Avenue. I used to climb down from the second story, on a pipe built with gas piping, find my tap shoes in a shed, and go dance. I had to climb back up the pipe into my bedroom window to go to sleep. I don’t know why, I don’t know why, it was just something, I just had to dance. And I was teaching for seven years. I lived in a house with artists that actually danced at Rockheads’s Paradise. And so that time they showed me a few things, you know, and I liked it very much and I continued from there. And I couldn’t take dancing lessons because, first of all, my father didn’t care about it, and secondly, we had no money. I was born in the depression years. 1933, there were no jobs, there was no money, there was nothing and you couldn’t afford education and at nine, I went to Montreal High School, was the only one in the family that graduated then I went on to take my trade. I’m a steamfitter. All the locomotives that you see going there, I did the steam, the airbrake system. And no engine went without my signature to prove that the braking system was correct. So I had a really good education and a good trade but I always wanted to dance. Always wanted to dance, [and] I'm still dancing now.
So, I stayed there for 70 years. Now, what happened, I had trouble with my leg, so for a year and a half I wasn’t able to dance. I’m just getting back now. But everything evolved from here.
The Jones family. Some of the people here know me. I taught their children and Reverend Este, I knew him personally. He sat in our Sunday school class down here. And he encouraged me, he encouraged me very much. And I think, not I think, all the encouragement came from the church. We did concerts to raise money for the church. And it grew from there.
Reverend Este has been important obviously because Reverend Este was a minister but he also had just interest in you. General things, people. You didn’t have to be a millionaire, you just had to be a person. If you wanted to do something, he would encourage you. So that was the key for me. I think I got all my inspiration from here, yeah.
I taught at a class at the UNIA I had classes there and at the Community Centre, I had classes there years ago, still teaching at the UNIA, and from there we did a lot of benefit shows for hospitals and we were always raising money for something. Because that’s how I got my success, by people helping me. So that was our key. And we’re still doing it, yep.
Family History in Montreal
[...]My father wasn’t a man to sit down and talk about history, you know? He wasn’t, first of all. Secondly, my mother died when I was very young. As a matter of fact, it still disturbs me up to today. I cant remember my mother, you know. I just found her birth certificate and then we know where she died, but I found just by accident papers, found out she died here in Montreal. And they were from the West Indies, you know? Barbados. And it’s like…you’re born, you have a family but you’re alone. You get this. Because you have a big family, you can have a big family, but if your family isn’t together as a family, everyone goes in different directions. What everyone does, you really don’t know, you know? [Now] well, I’m the only one that’s alive. Stepbrothers not the same thing as a regular family, they’re all died.
T.V. : So, you were raised by your dad alone?
C.G. : Yeah, yeah.
T.V. : How did you manage it if he was moving to Vancouver and back, who took care of you?
C.G. : Well we had a housekeeper, you know. Housekeeper comes, we pay the housekeeper. She looked after the family, made them meals, you know. That’s what it is. That’s the way you, you grow. You have no choice! You’re a child, you know…you’re home, you go to school, you call me, do your homework, you know, and, and you grow. Now fortunately, I had no ambitions to steal, I never got in trouble with the law. Education for some reason was important for me, you know and I did a lot on my own. I had to push myself, you know? But I, but I always did it like, through the church, you know? And I went as far as teaching, like I ‘m now for McGill, what could be a bigger honour than that? You know it’s a big honour, you know? And we did TV shows. And I got, I brought awards if you want to see, you know if you’d like to see that.
[showing documents]
C.G. : There’s an award of excellence here. See I don’t like to brag but if you talk to people you’ve got to show evidence of what you do, you know? Now this is a starting, when I was young. That’s when I really started, you know? I’m still good looking like that.
[laughter]
C.G. : And these are the things that we do now, we do shows there now, what is this here? These are pictures, some are my students and teachers. Where did I put that. Oh Yeah.
T.V: Would you mind to comment on this photo?
C.G: Yeah okay, these are some of my students that became teachers in school.
M.G: Wendy Sparks, Juanita Jones and Carolyn Jones.
C.G: And this is my biggest award from Arthur Murray, I was a top student for the year. There’s a lot of stuff, I didn’t bring everything here but this is the main thing you know.
E.H: Do you remember this or where this was?
C.G: We always did benefit shows for the church; we're always raising money. There I was the poorest dancer in town, but money was never key to me you know. And we always did that, and we opened up expo 67, we were there for expo 67. You know La Ronde? I danced in there for a duration of time and did TV, we did it all you know. And 70 years later I’m still doing it.
T.V: I don’t know if this is a silly question but what style of dancing did you do the most?
C.G: Mostly Fred Astaire, you still can’t talk about that because you know the younger generation coming in now, they don’t even know what tap dancing is. You know, I mean it’s like, you have to demonstrate and it’s not as interesting now. Now it went from tap to choreography. Now choreography started a lot with Fred Astaire and Jim Kelly, and what choreography was, they’re doing it now, if you take out the tap and the rest is choreography, that’s all it is.
E.H: So that’s what you’re teaching now, choreography?
C.G: Choreography, I try to sneak in a bit of tap but you see it’s not interesting for students because its toe heel, toe heel, tap, toe heel, cross and kick. They don’t want to go through that you know, they want the movement, they want the slides, and they want the kick and something like that you know.
T.V: What are the first memories you have of the church, when you started to come here and so on?
C.G: I started here just like I started school, in the classroom. And I used to know. I was about 6 years old. I didn’t live far from here, on Green Avenue; you could walk, maybe 5 minutes from here. My parents always came as a family, always as a family, the church was like family you know. And we had Sunday youth school right down here and it started from there you know. It was always raising money for the church. Which we are still doing 70 years later, it was always giving, and that was the theory of everything. You start here, you work here, and you give back here. We're still doing it and here I am today, how many years, 70 years later.
C.G: We walk through the same door, the same hall, the same church, the same stage. The only thing that’s different is that it’s a modern stage you know, the paint is nice. The same stage we used 70 years ago, it’s still there. If you know to do something from the heart and you give, it's forever. I will never be a rich man financially, but here and here (points to heart and mind), I’m a millionaire.
T.V: You said the community in the church helped you a lot in your career, how exactly did it do this?
C.G: Well for example, I was a teacher, I had people that I knew here and I said, I don’t know if you know the name Oliver Jones. He started here, he was here. One of the great pianists now, so we would get together, Oliver, myself, a drummer, dancers, put a show together. Money that was collected through that same door you walked through there, went to the church. Anything we did wasn’t to profit ourselves; it was to give back to the church.
C.G: I don’t know but I said to myself, if I’m going to dance, I want to be a very heathy person. And up to today, I still have that same philosophy; you know I’m 84, I weigh 135 pounds, I weigh every morning. You can’t talk to me, I exercise and lift weights.
M.G: You say to him are you ready for breakfast? Yeah in 5 minutes, an hour later…
C.G: I’m very strict with myself
T.V: How long have you guys been together?
M.G: How long have we been together?
C.G: 54 years.
C.G: [...] I graduated from Montreal high in 11 [grade], two weeks after I made an application for the CPR, and I can say my father made the application. So I get a paper in the mail, saying ok come in to fill in your application. I say an application for what!? My father was a man, you’re going to do this you’re going to do that. It wasn’t would you like to do this, No It didn’t work. My parents are from West Indies Barbados, and they’re quite, how am I going to say, they think ahead. What is best for you, you do okay. So he talked to somebody and got me in to make an application, to work, as a mechanic. I didn’t choose it, so I made the application, and fill it out. They must have liked what I wrote because they called me and I had taken my apprenticeship as a senior, actually my trade, as a steamfitter. All the locomotives that went out is what I worked on. I worked on the air braking system, and that was my job. I did that for almost 5 years. But then, what happened, how I went into dancing is now because they had, one list in Canada. A mechanic list starting from 1 up to how many thousand people. Any one at my trade who had more years then me was called a bump year, and so I got bumped and was out of a job.
T.V: How old were you?
C.G: I was 18, so 5 years later, about 23 or 24. So I was out of the job, but it’s funny how things work. I went into dancing and did a lot of jobs but I came back here and I used that stage and taught dancing on it. From there I went to the city of Montreal, we opened expo 67, I danced at La Ronde and up today I took sick because of my leg. It swelled up, one side swelled up. I’m still recuperating today; I hope to go back next September to teach. But it was just a long line of things happening, came back to the same place.
T.V: You know what they say, things happen for a reason.
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