STAFF WRITERS
MIRBOO North is a community that loves to kick up its heels – from the Italian Festa to the Mirboo North Winterfest, Christmas in the ‘Boo, and the popular monthly Mirboo North Market, there’s always a good reason to come together and have a good time.
This is not a new concept for the fun-loving locals, in fact, Mirboo North’s 5 Square Ball has been running for 77 years!
The town held this year’s 5 Square Ball recently, welcoming another good turnout.
The 5-Square Ball was originally formed in 1948 by a group of Mirboo North businessmen looking for a means of entertaining friends and clients.
The founding group of decided that each member should invite five guests to join them on their table.
The 5 Square Ball has maintained much of that tradition, although the event now welcomes women members and table holders are not exclusively businesspeople. One thing that hasn’t changed is the anticipation that accompanies the lead up to the ball. It is without doubt one of the social highlights of the year in Mirboo North.
The premise of the event remains the same – it’s held on the third Friday night in October and accommodates 25 tables of the table holder plus five guests. There are welcome drinks, a three-course meal, big live band and lots of dancing.
This year, local go-getters Kylie Cannizzo and Sarah Prime had been on a mission to gather and document the history of this amazing event. They spent hours poring through documents at the Mirboo North Historical Society, gathering invitations, dresses and accessories from yesteryear – even interviewing guests of the 5 Square Ball some 50 years ago.
Kylie and Sarah had the absolute pleasure of spending an afternoon with Mary Carter, who along with her husband, Wally, were icons of the 5 Square Ball. Mary and Wally were table holders for around 50 years, and the dup loved hearing her stories of balls.
In days gone by, the band did not stop until 3am and it was commonplace for the party to carry on until not long before milking time. Nobody got a sleep in, someone had to go and get the cows in. Bacon and eggs were organised in advance so that breakfast was on hand no matter where people ended up.
One of Kylie and Sarah’s favourite stories was the year The Hawking Brothers, a band from the USA who played with Johnny Cash and June Carter, were secured for the ball.
The local home economic teachers were reached, and Forms 2-4 put in charge of catering and waitressing so that money could be diverted to pay for the band. Then, when it came time for the music to end, a hat was passed around and enough was collected to keep the music going for another couple of hours.
