THE CENTAURIAN EFFECT

 ....from chapter 2

  “ Come to the party with me, where music was treated like fractions:  reduced to it’s lowest common denominator”

                                                Party ingredients: (established by the Centaurs 1962)

      *  Music…James Brown’s “I lost someone” and Gene Chandlers “Rainbow 65”, Stevie Wonders’ “Finger tips”

      *  Party duration-9: 30 until

         Let the party begin. People will start to come promptly at 9:30 and they will line themselves along the walls like little flowers without any assistance from the host. Stevie is playing as the rooms start to fill. Eventually someone will break the ice, certainty when you start to play one of the primes. Continue to alternate the two prime records, then break with the Stevie tune about once per hour. By 11:00 PM you will be at full capacity, and there will probably be no need to play the Steve Wonder record anymore.  If the room becomes to warm at that time, turn off the lights for twenty minute intervals. Do not attempt to replenish any depleted refreshments. Continue with the above procedures until about 3:30a.m.if you have a party using these ingredients, you will have an unforgettable musical experience. This party format was the quintessential standard for at least two of the greatest rival social clubs of all times in Richmond Virginia. The club I was in was called the Centaurs, and was identified by a large cloth patch of a Centaur with a drawn bow and arrow and stars representing the Constellation Centaurus that was prominently displayed on our casual jackets. We had a mighty membership of six; plus or minus one person..

                                                             CENTAURS'  PATCH

    Our main rivals were called the Hearts, who eventually evolved into the Imperial Hearts, when their membership reached an astronomical figure that escapes me now, but the number was about 25 to 30 members. I’ll be careful not to give them to much credit, because we thought this was one of the strategies they used to stack their parties. The Hearts were a crafty lot, and tried every trick in the book to out do the centaurs with their parties, including having the parties with members’ who had larger houses, out-of-doors, candle lights staked in the ground, etc they also tended to have more elaborate food and refreshments. A larger variety of music was also played. Eventually some of the members became involved in playing instruments, which was the ultimate thing at that time. They also use various jackets with their emblems attached on the rear and a smaller pocket emblem on the front. I think their patches were a display of a set of playing cards, of course in the suite of hearts. I must admit their jackets were “ bad”, and played a big part in their ability to attract members. Most social clubs at that time were composed of males, although there were several female counter parts about town.  Some of the female groups associated themselves with the male clubs, and were sub-sequentially called “Sister Clubs”. Certainly the Hearts had a sister club, but the name escapes me now. It really didn’t matter anyway, because the Centaurs had the real magic combination to pull off the parties that stuck with you until we threw the next one.

This is about music. All these people, the times, the location the rivalry of the parties and dances depended on and evolved around the music, it was extremely important. We competed ferociously with the parties and dances, one week it would be the Hearts, the next week it was the Centaurs. We made hand-made posters and flyers and distributed them in specific areas of town and school. We would spend the time in between events wearing our various club outfits, sometimes our casual jackets with uniform pants, and on certain days we would wear our dress uniforms, gray dress pants or khakis with a dark blue blazer and tie, optional. The hearts would wear similar garb on their display days. Neither group knew when the other would be displaying. This was all friendly competition, and we occasionally would share party dates and information with each other. We would go to each other’s parties and dances and help one another with advertising certain events. Many of my regular friends were in the Hearts club. But we were careful not to share certain official inter-club info with each other, when we met at different venues, i.e., Boy scouts, church events, and chance meetings, etc.

These clubs were formed primarily as a way to raise money for everything, including basic living expenses club operations, fund raising events, etc. We ere young teens, yet we were well aware of how to organize and run a club. We had specific rules, some of them were very strict you could be fined for certain infractions, from poor conduct in public, not having your shoes shined, to being late for meetings, etc. We paid club dues that were kept in a savings account. Most of the money was used to host parties and dances that were held in a local dance hall. This money also allowed us to keep up with the latest music. It was all about the music. These rival events continued through our high school years, and culminated with bus excursions to the beach and to “The March on Washington”

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