The Dime Social

    

No TV. No electronics. Nothing open late except a saloon. What can you do to have fun outside of your own family circle? What is acceptable for ladies? What could help raise a little money for good causes?

     Enter the dime social. 

     This was something everyone was familiar with, from the 1870s up until about World War I. Churches, fraternal organizations, and temperance groups regularly held these inexpensive fundraisers, some once a month, that also provided wholesome entertainment in even the smallest towns. The dimes added up to buy church organs, refurbish a parlor at an I.O.O.F. Hall, to buy books for a library, and later to support the American Red Cross. In Modesto, California, a “very poor school district” was able to build a “much needed” fence around the school, and to fix up the stable for the students’ horses, all from dime socials. People constantly saw notices in the paper “cordially inviting” the public to this “fun”-raiser. 

     So imagine again no electronics, no sports after dark, and no restaurants to gather in. What were people doing at these dime socials? There were always refreshments, of course, but for a dime, they were light - coffee and cake, or coffee and a sandwich. 

     How does an evening of listening to your neighbors performing readings, “declamations”  and reciting poetry sound? Declamation was the art of delivering speeches in dramatic fashion, with “proper” hand gestures and articulation. It was much admired and could hold people spellbound. The Good Templars, a temperance group, always worked in a temperance talk. 

     This was usually accompanied by musical selections on the piano and a solo or two. In Akron, Ohio, the Sons of Temperance had their brass band perform. But remember, this was a treat because the only time you could hear music was when it was played live.

      There were also plays performed by “home talent” - again, your neighbors and friends, with titles like “Mrs. Wiggs and the Cabbage Patch,” or perhaps a scene performed from Shakespeare or Charles Dickens’ works. Free sleigh rides were offered at one event.     

     Parlor games were very popular in the nineteenth century, so charades were mentioned. In Harper, Kansas in 1887 readers were assured that “every latest parlor game” had been played. At and after the turn of the century, there were more mentions of a few different “entertainments.” In Ponca City, Oklahoma, the Daughters of Rebeccas (a female offshoot of the International Order of Oddfellows) featured a crokinole game. Crokinole is a board game played on a round wooden board in which players flick discs, a sort of tabletop-sized combination of shuffleboard and curling. They raised $14 in one night towards the refurbishing of the lodge parlor.

     As the World War I years approached, parlor games, songs and readings continued to be the most common form of fun. But there were new diversions. In Enterprise, Kansas, 75 women attended a dime social where they sewed tea towels for the Red Cross. In DeSoto, Kansas, the Royal Neighbors of America were especially successful at getting people to pay a dime for a good cause and some fun. At one 1917 meeting they started by taking snapshots of all 86 guests. This was 86 people in a town with a population of about 250. They sang “America,” recited the Lord’s Prayer, then readings were interspersed by music played on a “graphophone.” How exciting that must have been!  At another of their socials, they took turns reading jokes. The meeting featured contests, and a game in which men and women were partnered up to eat strawberries and cake together. The women hid behind a door and took turns stretching out their hands. The men had to guess whose hand it was.  

    The last mention of a dime social I saw in a Kansas newspaper was in Coldwater, Kansas in 1919; the Epworth League, a young adult Methodist group, was still offering parlor games, songs and readings. In Coffeyville, Kansas, the last mention I saw was in 1914. 

     A dime bought a lot less by then than in 1870, of course. There was a lot of competition for one’s amusement. The dime social had run its course.   

Copyright Andrea Auclair © 2023