This past week, the “Glengarry Curse” came to within a hair’s breadth of sending the Dunvegan museum’s season finale to the trash bin. A week ago today, I received notice that only 12 people had signed up for their When Worlds Collide paranormal event and that cancellation was a very real possibility. Organizers had run into a well-documented tendency in Glengarry: to leave registering for or buying tickets to an event to the very last minute. It’s a bit like playing a game of “box office chicken” with local impresarios. Amazingly, over the course of the next few days, registrations soared to 41. And some folks just showed up on Saturday night to see if they could register at the door. “I even had someone call Sunday,” Jennifer Black told me. “They wondered if we had anything planned around Halloween.” After all the hard work that museum volunteer Mary-Tim Hare and her husband Gord invested organizing the event and stage dressing the Star Inn, Trapper’s Cabin and Big Beaver School House, it must have been gratifying to hit the ‘sold out’ mark.
Jennifer reports that one of the most popular attractions was the Victorian séance presentation that examined the popular Spiritualism movement that arose in the mid 19thcentury and lasted until the 1920s. And the belief one could communicate with the spirit world was not a radical notion at this time. Queen Victoria, Abraham Lincoln and William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s tenth prime minister, all attended séances in an attempt to connect with their dead loved ones. In fact, Mackenzie King was such a strong believer that he had a secret séance room in his home. His former residence in Ottawa is now a museum and it’s well worth a visit. As Saturday’s presenter pointed out, the strong desire to believe led to a lot of trickery in Victorian times… from levitating tables, ringing bells and eerie sounds to mediums who would go into trances.
A totally different Halloween experience from the typical ‘jump-out and scare’ fare on offer elsewhere, the Glengarry Pioneer Museum’s When Worlds Collide event proved to be an engaging change of pace. Bytown Paranormal Investigators let people try their hand at ghost hunting, using modern ghost-busting equipment. Participants were enthralled by ghost stories told around a roaring bonfire. And a Halloween-themed bake table and eerie arts display was a tremendous success. “We sold most of the baking,” Jennifer recounted in an email, “and a bit more on Sunday while I was at the museum for a couple hours.”
Many thanks to coordinator, Mary-Tim Hare, Bytown Paranormal, the Clarence/Rockland Ghostbusters, all those who donated items for the bake sale and art display and the many other volunteers who made the Saturday evening a reality.
Great pumpkin visits Dunvegan
While we’re in the Halloween mindset, don’t forget that tomorrow (i.e., Thursday, October 31st) is when Dunvegan Recreation holds it annual Community Halloween Party. If you’re looking for a family-friendly spot to spend a few bewitching hours, I strongly recommend you and your costume-clad kids head for 19053 County Road 24. The spook fest gets under way at 6:30 PM and is completely free. Furthermore, it’s open to one and all. You need not hail from Dunvegan proper. You just need a Dunvegan frame of mind.
Even ‘cooler’ little hall
I’m biased, but I think the Dunvegan Recreation community hall is one of the best around. Not too big, not too small, with a wonderful little stage and great acoustics. And to provide better access, this past summer the DRA completed the installation of a brand new ramp, an automatic door and an improved washroom. But that’s not all. In a few weeks, local HVAC specialists will be installing air conditioning. It’s sort of like a birthday gift for the building that will turn 100 on the 23rd of December. From this time forth, people wishing to hold wedding receptions, birthday parties, musical concerts and the like during the sweltering days of June, July and August will be able to do so in chilled-air comfort at the DRA Hall in Dunvegan. If you’d like to book a summer slot before the rush, contact Vivian Franklin at 613-527-3242. Or you can email her at: vivianirenefranklin@gmail.com.
Uber septic system finally sold
One of the most expensive septic systems in North Glengarry — built entirely at taxpayer expense over the course of a couple of years — has finally been sold. In addition to the system’s big ugly hump, the new owner also gets the land on which it sits. Located on the corner of Alice Street and Dunvegan Road, this over-sized lot was home to a square log house built well over a century ago. Known as the Lacombe House from 2000 until its demolition in September of 2014, the property’s condition followed the inevitable downward path of entropy. It was also the raison d’être behind fruitless ‘community standards’ complaints and frequent visits by the OPP. Now that the property has been sold, neighbours near and far are holding their breath. Will it be home to a wonderful new addition to the hamlet; someone who respects the community and wishes to contribute to its well being? Or will it become yet another North Glengarry metal magnet that, seemingly overnight, attracts huge quantities of rusting vehicles and unsightly transport containers? Detritus to which the Township will turn a blind eye. I’ve sealed my guess in an envelope to be opened a year from today.
MacMillan Memorial Library
Wendy MacLeod (who grew up on Murray Street in Dunvegan in the 80s and 90s and is still active in the Kenyon Presbyterian Church) sent me news of this past Sunday’s special service. Officiated by Rev. Jim Ferrier and Heather McIntosh, Clerk of Session, the congregation witnessed the dedication of the MacMillan Memorial Library.
Rev. Dr. Donald Neil MacMillan was raised in the Finch area before leaving home to study at McGill University and Presbyterian College. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh, with a PhD in Theology and was ordained and inducted to Kenyon Presbyterian Church on July 4, 1935. He ministered here in Dunvegan until 1959… except for most of the Second World War when he served as Chaplain with the Royal Canadian Air Force.
In 1959, Dr. MacMillan accepted a position as the Chair of Systematic Theology in the Presbyterian College. In 1973, after a sabbatical year spent studying in Geneva, Switzerland, he returned to the College as Acting Principal, a position he held until his retirement in 1978. Ever the scholar, Dr. MacMillan published a book entitled The Kirk in Glengarry in 1984.
In June 2002, Dr. MacMillan donated his books and papers to Kenyon Manse Library. And one year later, the collection was catalogued and stamped by then Student Minister, Ms. Brynn Carson as well as Elders Catherine Anne Gauthier and Evelyn MacQueen led by Annabelle Hartrick, Clerk of Session. When the Manse was sold in 2010, the collection was relocated to the upper floor of the Dunvegan church.
Dr. MacMillan died on July 20, 2003 at the age of 94. In her email to me, Wendy stressed how honoured and blessed the members of the church in Dunvegan feel that Dr. MacMillan chose Kenyon Presbyterian to be the steward of his life’s work.
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