This Friday, June 15this when the Dunvegan Recreation Association is holding its next Euchre Luncheon.I really hope I’ll see all the regulars — and a few new faces — lining up at the buffet counter to load their plates from stacks of hand-crafted sandwiches, sides of pickles, beets and crispy chips and sinfully sweet desserts. Not to mention, bottomless cups of freshly brewed coffee and tea.Held in the Dunvegan Recreation Hall at 19053 County Road 24, the afternoon of cards and camaraderie is one of the best entertainment values around. Admission is only $5.00, with the event starting at 12:00 and wrapping up around 3:30 PM. Everyone is welcome.
Life in the fast lane
If an ad I came across in the June 14th, 1918 issue of the Glengarry News is any indication, the pace of life one hundred years ago must have been a whole lot faster than I ever imagined. The advertisement reads: “Housekeeper Wanted… Competent elderly lady to take charge of housekeeping for two gentlemen. Duties to commence June 15th. Apply to Drawer 519, Cornwall, Ont.” In other words, the prospective employers expected elderly applicants to mail in their replies to the ad, meet for an interview, pass a reference check and, if chosen as this whirlwind process, start the very next day. You have to wonder, why the rush?
History lost
I finish this truncated column with a cautionary tale that underscores a theme I have espoused many times before: the importance of preserving our historical records in repositories like our wonderful Glengarry Archives.
A century ago… on Saturday, June 22ndto be exact between the hours of 7 AM and 10 PM… every Canadian over the age of 16 (including residents of Dunvegan) was expected to fill out a compulsory registration form at one of 25,000 locations across the county. Failure to do so carried the threat of a maximum fine of $100 and/or a month behind bars. The form contained “a series of questions relative to his or her usefulness for national purposes at the present time.” The objective of the massive survey was to take stock of the country’s human resources. By doing so, it was hoped the National Register would help ease labour difficulties on farms and in industry caused by the Great War.
With the assistance of about 150,000 registrars, nearly five million persons turned out and answered general questions such as name, address, and age, along with specific questions pertaining to their employment history and state of health. In an indication of the importance of farming at the time, the final question on the questionnaireconsisted of eleven subsections that asked everything from how long the respondent had worked on a farm to whether they had experience with tractors and horses.
The data gathered back in June of 1918 no doubt proved extremely valuable to government officials and planners at the time. However, it was also a priceless gift that could have continued giving far into the future. It could have been an exceptionally rich vein of information for today’s genealogists and researchers. Tragically though, the records from this National Registry were thrown on the rubbish heap. And this precious historical snapshot of Canada was lost forever. All that remains today is the occasional 1918 National Registration certificate that turns up on Kijiji and eBay.
-30-