Given the adjacency of this week’s column to National Fireworks Day, I thought we’d start off with a look at a short essay entitled “My Adopted County” by Agnes Gollan. I came across it while combing through the 1942 Dunvegan Tweedsmuir Village Histories. Mrs. Gollan penned her composition sometime between 1899 and 1911 in response to an essay competition that posed the question: Why do I love Canada? While I’m not sure of the exact date of its genesis, I know the window of opportunity for creating this essay spanned the twelve years at the start of the 20th century. That’s when Agnes and her husband, Rev. Kenneth A. Gollan, lived in the Manse beside Dunvegan’s Kenyon Presbyterian Church. However, if I were to guess, I’d say the contest was held on Dominion Day in 1900. It sounds like a turn-of-the-century kind of celebratory endeavour.
Born in Scotland, Rev. Gollan emigrated to Manitoba, Canada in 1889 in response to a call for Gaelic-speaking students to minister to settlers there. In 1893, he returned to Scotland to take the hand of Agnes MacDonald of Calcutta. Six years later, he accepted a call from Kenyon Church and he and his wife made Dunvegan their home in March of 1899. In his book Historical Sketch of Kenyon Presbyterian Church, Rev. Donald N. MacMillan wrote that Rev. Gollan’s ministry was “marked by a deepening of the spiritual life of the congregation,” as evidenced, in part, by the Gospel Revival Meetings of 1905. Rev. Gollan was also a firm supporter of the temperance movement and “was largely instrumental in driving the licensed bar out of Dunvegan.” While her husband was ministering to his flock and fighting the demon rum, tooth and nail, Agnes Gollan was no doubt actively involved in the Dunvegan Women’s Missionary Society and other community activities. A perfect example is the Dominion Day essay contest where she won second prize. To get you in a patriotic mood, here are a few excerpts from her winning composition. I must forewarn more progressive readers that the following passages contain cultural perspectives from over 100 years ago. In Agnes’s defense, I encourage these readers not to view the past through the lenses of today.
“Though not a real Canuck, I love the fair lady of the snows as much as any Canadian. When I married in Edinburgh a minister from Manitoba, and sailed from Glasgow, how my friends pitied me, bemoaning my folly. When revisiting Scotland six years later, how I pitied them, and longed to return to Canada… Canada is par excellence the land of liberty, fraternity and equality, and these characteristics appeal strongly to me. The three-crossed Union Jack has always been a flag of liberty by which all men as their birthright have been regarded has free and equal… I love Canada for her size. Territory, rivers, mountains, everything is on a grand scale. The views and hearts of the people are large also. There is a wonderfully expansive power in even little log houses on the prairie, where one never feels overcrowded or burdensome, as in many large houses in the Old Country… Is not the beaver on the Canadian flag the emblem of industry? It is one of the best features of Canada that she offers to young people of character, ability and ambition, better opportunities than any country, while she is, as Lord Strathcona says, a country worth working for.”
Huzzah… and Happy Canada Day.
Hook, spin, punch and pearl
The saving grace of knitting, spinning and hooking (rug hooking, that is) is the individuals doing these activities — even if done in a group setting — can abide by the two-meter rule. This means, under Ontario’s phase two reopening guidelines, the Glengarry Pioneer Museum’s “Fibre Friday” get-togethers are back on. Starting this coming Friday, July 3rd, members of the Twistle Guild of Glengarry and the Martintown Wild and Woolly Rug Hookers are invited to a weekly “craft-in” at the museum.
For those Twistle Guild or Wild and Woolly members who have never attended the outdoor event, things get under way around 9:30, I believe. There’s plenty of room under the pavilion for crafters to work on their projects and catch up with each other, while still obeying social distancing strictures. However, under the Covid abatement rules, you must bring your own lawn chair, drinking water and lunch, if you plan on staying for the day.
The two groups will be limited to ten members each, for a total of twenty people. So if you’re interested in attending Dunvegan’s first Fibre Friday of 2020 (or any of the subsequent Fibre Fridays), please contact the president of your group to see there’s a spot available.
Colloquially speaking
In response to my request for colloquialisms, a loyal reader recently suggested I check out Canadian author, Bill Casselman. I wasn’t familiar with his work, so I looked him up on Amazon, and I must admit his book Canadian Sayings: 1,200 Folk Sayings Used by Canadians looks very interesting. I definitely want to get my hands on a copy. Unfortunately, in researching Mr. Casselman, I went one step too far. I checked out his Wikipedia entry and it, in turn, provided a link to his blog. I had hoped the blog would contain some folksy sayings he had recently come across. Instead, I discovered a cesspool of political commentary. It quickly became obvious he adheres to the same bilious model as his opposites on the extreme far, far right… only he substitutes antifa invectives and potentially libellous aspersions of conservative commentators in place of racist slurs and other ignorant comments. Same, same, but different. Pity. Perhaps a reading of Canadian Sayings will soothe my micro-triggered soul.
In the meantime, Terry spotted a wonderful colloquialism in a recent Facebook post from Vivian Franklin. In commenting on the completion of a utilitarian walkway fashioned from concrete paving slabs, she quoted an old farmer who was known to say: “Good from afar. Far from good.” Thank you Vivian.
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