You
misjudge my age – I’m 39
by
Robert LaFrance
About an hour and a half ago I was
walking down our front driveway when I heard a metallic noise behind me. It was
two brass monkeys, and were they ever in distress!
It has truly been cold enough to freeze
the ears, or whatever, off a brass monkey and I had the proof lying on my
driveway.
As an old Arctic hand, I should be
able to handle the cold a lot more easily than I have been. I look out the
window from my heat-pump heated living room and see very few examples of
humanity out there.
What’s going on anyway? I looked
over meteorological records for the past ten years and in each of those years
this time of year was, compared to now, like Puerto Rico except for the
hurricane damage. I don’t want to wish my life away, but holy freud, when is
April going to get here?
***********************
On to another story, one of my
favourites, and this was one I heard from my late father-in-law Lloyd Morton.
The names have been changed to protect my bank account from lawsuits.
One day in the 1940s or perhaps
1950s, Lloyd stopped at a house in Bon Accord and was chatting with a farmer
named McJinson who told him that the day before he had harvested his oats and
barley and ended up with 25 bags of oats and 10 bags of barley. “But,” said
McJinson, “when you and I went to town yesterday somebody helped themself to 10
bags of oats. I think I know who it was too, but I am not going to mention the
theft to anyone.” Lloyd swore (as much as he ever swore) not to say a word
either.
In early December there was a bit of
a get-together at Burns Hall. Lloyd and McJinson were standing in a circle with
two other farmers named Mondeer and Atkinson. They covered all sorts of
subjects, and after a while they got talking about last fall’s harvest. “Did
you ever find out who stole your oats?” said Mondeer.
“I just did,” McJinson told him.
*************************
I have mentioned before in these
pages how much I admire the Perth Elks for all the many decades of community
service it has done since the early 1950s when it was formed. I talked for
hours over the years with the late Sewell Shaw who died last year just missing
his 100th birthday and if you want an example of someone with a
prodigious memory, Sewell was he. Look on my Facebook page ‘Old Photos of
Victoria County’ (over 4040 members) for lots more history of the village.
Walking recently on the Perth (east)
side of Perth-Andover, I took note as I have dozens of times before of the
places where businesses flourished back then. About two decades ago Sewell did
an interview with the late Vaughan DeMerchant about the village of Perth – as
it was then called until 1966 when it merged with Andover – and what buildings
were there.
The majority of people now living in
the area would not remember seeing a whole line of businesses located on the
river bank as well as the other side of Perth Main Street and the back streets.
“There were eleven grocery store on the Perth side of the river at one time,”
Sewell told me once. Along that riverbank there was a newspaper printing shop,
a Chinese restaurant, a drug store, two harness shops, two or three grocery
stores – name something, no brothels please.
Our family used to come from Tilley to Perth on
Saturday, either during the day or, less likely, in the early evening and shop
for necessities. The only vehicle we had in the early 1950s was a 1952
International truck with a gravel hauling body that father used when working on
Tobique Narrows Dam. One day he forgot to put it in gear and we all landed down
in the river which was about a foot deep. I don’t know how we got out but here
I am.
Amid all this sort of thing Perth Elks was going
strong but I had never heard of it until I joined in 1978. Since then I’ve
learned that the Elks gives thousand of dollars every year to needy people,
like those who have just lost their home to fire, or who can’t afford to buy a
hearing aid for their child. The meeting held about three weeks ago saw the
club give $200 to the SVHS graduating class and lend their kitchen to the class
for two fundraising meals. I was accidentally at both of them and stuffed my
face.
The reason I mention
all this is to say thanks to Perth Elks, a service club I have been a member of
for many decades, although not since 1953. Come on! I’m only 39!-end-
No comments:
Post a Comment