Submitted by: agcomm,  Thu Nov 20 09:45:32 1997


Plains Folk:  Wedding Farce
 
Tom Isern, Professor of History   
North Dakota State University
COPYRIGHT 1997 Plains Folk
                                
     A few weeks ago I heard Mike Robinson (NDSU archivist), Ann
Braaten (curator of the Emily Reynolds Costume Collection) and
Tricia Velure (NDSU history graduate student) give a wonderful
talk about the Alba Bales House.  This was the practice house for
home economics students at North Dakota Agricultural College. 
The home ec girls were required to spend time in residence at
Alba Bales House to demonstrate they could be competent
homemakers.  Judging by what alums say, this group living was
sort of a bonding experience.
     They had a fair amount of fun, too, and one particular
episode from 1949 caught my attention--a mock wedding.  The mock
wedding, you see, is a fine old folk custom characteristic of the
northern plains states and the prairie provinces.  Michael Taft,
of Saskatoon, is the folklorist who has done the field work on
mock weddings in the region and published the results in "North
Dakota History."
     A mock wedding is a parody, a bit of folk theater in which
people dress up in ridiculous fashion and go through a ridiculous
ceremony, generally as part of a wedding anniversary observance. 
Often, according to Taft, the mock wedding comes as an
interruption of a banquet toast-and-roast of the anniversary
couple.
     Costume is a big element in the farce.  Men don dresses to
play the female parts, including the bride, and women put on
pants to play the male parts, including the preacher.  The
clergyman reads from a telephone book or a girly magazine.  The
father of the bride often carries a shotgun.
     Another important element in the mock wedding is the vows. 
Taft says, "The mock wedding is one way in which women of the
community can express their ambivalent and conflicting roles as
farm wives . . . .  Women are in charge of the mock wedding in
most communities; one question that interests these women is
'What does it mean to marry a farmer and become a farm wife?'"
     The vows, then, speak for the women.  Generally they are
written especially for the occasion, or at least customized to
fit the couple being parodied.  Frances Wold of Bismarck wrote
one set of vows in which the bride promised to "black his eyes
and bloody his nose and pull his hair and stamp on his toes . . .
and drink his beer and spend his dough and make his life a tale
of woe."  The groom, on the other hand, was to "wash the dishes
and make the bed . . . and wish to heck that you were dead." 
     It's important that the author make the vows fit the people,
place and occasion--that is, localize them--and not just lift
prepared lines.  "To localize the script," writes Taft, "is to
make it meaningful within the context of plains and prairie
agrarian society."
     Back to the Alba Bales House--the occasion marked by the
mock wedding in 1949 was the birthday of one of the resident
girls.  She recalled, "Jeanne wrote the ceremony in verse using
Faye's and fianc Bob's names as principal characters.
     "The groom, 5'2" Meta Lou," said the birthday girl, "wore
tan corduroy trousers with brown tweed jacket, plaid skirt, tan
derby, and a boutonniere of red poppies.  The victorious bride,
Jeanne, chose a simple white broadcloth gown, fully cut, and a
veil of lovely used curtain material cut with a clever jagged
train.  She carried a bouquet of orange carrots and pale green
celery."
     Obviously, these girls were proving themselves not only
competent homemakers but also good community-builders, capable of
managing a regional ritual in good style.
     Just how common were these mock weddings on the northern
plains?  Have you ever organized one?  Does anybody have
photographs or videotape?
                              ###
NDSU Agriculture Communication
Source: Tom Isern (701) 231-8339
Editor: Barry Brissman (701) 231-7866