I was told by two very reliable sources that last Friday’s Pizza/Crokinole/Taffy event at the Dunvegan Hall was a huge success. Over 50 people showed up for the evening of family fun, the majority of whom were youngsters. (It’s so nice to see that starter families are once again in the ascendancy, after years of a kiddy drought.)
The party kicked off with Kim Raymond and Mona Andre dishing up the stack of hot pizza pies that Sean Burgess had ordered. Dinner done, the crowd got down to the serious business of crokinole play. And while I wasn’t there, I can imagine the din that ten full tables of four players each generated… with the crack of the colliding buttons, the shrieks of delight and the groans of disappointment. When the dust settled, Alyson Graham, Bonnie MacLeod and A.J. Hay emerged as the first, second and third place winners, respectively.
As always, the highlight of the evening was the Taffy Party. Experienced taffymeister, Karine Spheuler, once again oversaw the process whereby golden maple syrup is transformed into sticky ribbons of taffy. Vivian Franklin and Mona Andre ably aided Karine. Event organizers would like to thank the hard-working volunteers who shoveled out the walkways, set up tables and chairs, popped corn and the countless other tasks required to make this event possible. These include: Richard Quesnel, Joe Vrbetic, Tyler Prtichard, A.J. Hay, Caleb Raymond and Ben Williams (who did a great job of riding herd on the tournament).
It’s gratifying to see how this amalgam of three simple ideas has grown into such a popular attraction. And, given that several of Friday’s crokinole enthusiasts sported a young player-in-training on their laps, it’s one that should endure for many years to come.
MacKechnie returns…
…as the focus of an upcoming Glengarry Historical Society presentation being given by David Anderson at the DRA Hall on April 13th at 7:30 PM. Rev. John A. MacKechnie was a clergyman and Gaelic scholar who served at Dunvegan’s Kenyon Presbyterian Church from November 18th, 1971 until June 30th, 1974. He was also an extremely controversial fellow in our small hamlet, back in the days of peace and love.
Much to the chagrin of some, Dunvegan had attracted a number of young folks from the city. As Royce MacGillivray wrote in his Dictionary of Glengarry Biography, “disastrously for his relations with his congregation, he (MacKechnie) became a friend of a group of youngsters in the neighbourhood, who were commonly labeled as ‘hippies’…The outcome, however, of the various causes of discontent which had developed was that he was forced to surrender his Dunvegan pastorate, effective 30 June 1974, less than three years after he arrived.”
While Mr. Anderson’s presentation will focus primarily on MacKechnie’s long and impressive career as a Gaelic scholar, the schism his acceptance of the newcomers caused must be at least acknowledged. The evening will begin with the screening of a short excerpt from “Crossroads at Dunvegan,” a 1974 CBC news program hosted by a very young Mary Lou Finlay. Many of those interviewed have passed on, but the program provides an interesting glimpse of Dunvegan just 43 years ago.
Hosted by the Glengarry Historical Society, this event is open for all to attend. Admission is $5 for GHS members and $10 for non-members. The DRA Hall is located at 19053 County Road 24, just west of the Dunvegan crossroads.
A prisoner’s tale
Back in early December, at one the DRA’s Music & Mayhem performances, I made the acquaintance of Wouter (Walter) Hobé. Mr. Hobé introduced himself as a regular reader of this column and we struck up a conversation as to how he had ended up in this little backwater of Ontario. While his English was excellent, I detected a European accent. So you can imagine my surprise when he told me that he actually came from the Dutch East Indies, or the Republic of Indonesia, as it is now known. His father had emigrated there from Holland in the 1920s and Wouter was born in 1933 in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital.
Nine years later, the Japanese Imperial Army seized the Dutch East Indies and he and his parents were interred in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. While life in captivity was no fun, Wouter’s most difficult time was when he was separated from his family at the age of 11 and sent to a special camp for young boys. There he stayed until British and Gurkha troops under the command of Lord Mountbatten liberated the POW camp.
Like everyone who lived through this global conflict, the war had a major impact on his future life — all the more so because he was so young and impressionable. “It certainly put a stamp on me, as I had four years with no schooling and saw death all around me,” Wouter wrote in an e-mail to me. “I survived, but due to malnutrition, I still have some issues.”
Having lost everything in the war, Wouter’s family returned to Holland. But they were not well received. The government at that time was very socialist and blamed those from the Dutch East Indies for 300 years of colonialism, even though it was the Netherlands that had reaped the benefits. Wouter fulfilled his military service in Holland, but by age 26 he had had enough. “So, in 1959, I came to Canada and have never regretted it,” he wrote. Just three days after his arrival, he landed a job at Dorval airport and worked there until his retirement in 1991.
Wouter has shared his life in Canada with Marie C. Hobé-Dorsman, a young woman he had met on numerous occasions before he emigrated. Wouter returned to Holland to marry and bring her back to Canada. When Wouter retired, the couple bought a farm in Ste. Marthe. There, with the help of a few coyote-hating donkeys, they kept a flock of 75 sheep. Eventually, though, age crept up on them (as it does us all) and they moved to Alexandria. It’s half a world away from Indonesia and a lifetime away from the horrors of the Japanese camps, but Wouter Hobé says he “feels content.”
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