Charivari

From "Lexington" by Mary Wilson and Sharon Y. Asher, published sometime after 1975.

LEXINGTON SAW USED IN
MANY WEDDINGS FOR CHARIVARI

A wedding was not complete In former years in Lexington until the newlyweds were given a Charivari and forced to "treat" their serenaders. These events were always associated with the firing of guns, the ringing of bells, and the hitting of a heavy rod or club against an old saw. The hilarity continued until the groom and bride opened the doors and surrendered themselves to the "fun lovers." The treat was nearly always candy and cigars.

The old saw pictured above came from the sawmill of James Hall in Lexington about 1800 and was used in many charivaris in the Lexington area. James Hall's granddaughter, Mrs. Mae Sharp of Lexington, said, "This old saw made a terrific deafening noise." Mrs. Sharp's brother Frank Hall always kept the old saw for the Charivari.

Frank Campbell, who lived back of his store, was tired of hearing the deafening noise of the saw. One night after a charivari the old saw was left leaning against the Campbell Store. Frank Campbell found it and rolled it into his store and hid it.

Ed Austin, a friend of Mr. Campbell, lived three miles west of Lexington on a farm. When he came to the store the next day, Mr. Campbell asked him to take the old saw and hide it. Mr. Austin hid the saw in his barn and for many years another saw replaced this one at the charivari. The original old saw remained in the barn for many years.

Ed Austin, Frank Campbell and Frank Hall are all deceased now. Today Lee Austin, the son of Ed, owns his father's farm where the saw still can be found.

From Living Rich Lives, sixth in the series "Memories of Hoosier Homemakers", Eleanor Arnold, Editor, 1990.

Were you shivareed?

I certainly was and the worst one that ever happened in Scott County. A man got his eyes blown out. They used dynamite then and all kinds of noisemakers. We weren’t out there with the bunch, but they were setting off some dynamite and Mr. Peacock got in the way of it and got his eyes blown out, and he never did see after that.

Every time I hear of a shivaree, it makes me quiver. They stopped and everybody was screaming and running, trying to get him to a doctor. It just upset everybody so bad that just about ended the shivaree. There wasn’t any more after that.

Opal Whitsett, 84, Scott County

Subj: Charivari
Date: 4/4/99 10:05:44 AM Central Daylight Time
From: HCDoering
To: Rdkone

I live in Gauting, a small city near Munic/Bavaria/Germany.
You are perhaps interested to know, that there exists in Germany, close to Munic in Bavaria a "Charivari-Jazzband".
In Bavaria the "Charivari" is a decorated chain, made of silver. The chain is fixed to the leather-trouser of the typical bavarian dress of men. The chain carries all kind of curiosities like a tooth of the first deer shot by this person or maybe coin, to which special memories are attached etc.
"Charivari" is also a magazin for typical bavarian culture, but stands also for "horrible crying/noise of a cat"
Specially because of the last meaning our jazzband decided for that name more than 20 years ago.
We are all amateurs: a medical doctor, a biologist, 2 engineers, a business-manager and an computer expert.
For 20 years now we play regularly in an old bavarian restaurant in the country close to Munic. A restaurant, where they serve first class bavarian food.
If you want to learn more about our group: http://members.aol.com/charijazz/
...Unfortunately in german, but: with music!!
Through internet we made friends with a jazzband (Toll-House-Jazzband from Columbus/Ohio/USA: http://140.254.14.143/jazz/ )
They were here in Germany in 1997 and we visited them in October 1998. We played also in Indiana, in Indianapolis.

Regards from Munic in Germany
Christian Döring
(Charivari-Jazzband)

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