August (Punch) Timpe 90th Birthday

Before the advent (1920s) of broadcast radio, if you wanted music, you had to make it yourself. This clip is from a VHS recording of my Uncle's 90th Birthday party in North Dakota. He is the one on the fiddle at the right of the group. Today we can get a virtuoso to play with the push of a button. (Something only Royalty could do before our time.) He was born in a day when you had to make your own music. What you see here is the end of an era that lasted thousands of years: friends and neighbors making their own music.