This week’s pride-of-place position goes to the Christmas movie shot at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum this past July. It’s very short notice, but the production (which is now titled Christmas at Maple Creek) will be airing tonight, Wednesday, December 16th, at 8:00 pm on the CTV Drama channel. CTV Drama also has a streaming app, so I suspect the movie will be joining their rotation of Yule-themed flicks as well. So pop a batch of hot-buttered Orville, grab a box of tissues and settle down to watch while romance novelist Diana chooses between Carter the town historian and village blacksmith (the better to show you my muscles, my dear) and her secret crush Greg, the gorgeous cover model. I’m told our little museum looks spectacular all gussied up like this. Decide for yourself tonight.
Christmas eve hot seat
Twelve months ago, the hottest ticket in Dunvegan was to one of the final four performances of Music & Mayhem at the DRA Hall. But as we all know, the world has been turned on its head over the course of the past year. Classes and other meetings of the minds have turned virtual and taken on the appearance of Hollywood Squares, a tic-tac-toe-style television game show that debuted in 1965. And public gatherings such as concert performances, festivals, large weddings and the like are verboten.
So, in this context, what is this December’s hottest ticket? In Dunvegan, it’s one of the socially-distanced seats available at Kenyon Presbyterian Church’s annual Christmas Eve Service on December 24th at 7:00 pm. Rev. Jim Ferrier will be leading the service that will feature special musical performances and readings by the children of the congregation.
Because of Covid-19 restrictions, the church is only allowed to admit 30% of the building’s full capacity rating, which works out to 60 worshippers. So if you’d like to attend this perennial favourite, call Heather McIntosh at 613-527-5579 to reserve your seat(s). While I have no say in the matter, I think the public relations boffos upstairs should arrange for a few fluffy flakes of It’s a Wonderful Life-type snow to flutter down from the heavens as churchgoers in Dunvegan, and across Glengarry, are heading home after their Christmas Eve Service. Just saying.
Online auction a hit
Given how I harped on about it over the last few weeks, I thought you’d be interested in knowing the results the Glengarry Pioneer Museum’s online Christmas Arts & Crafts auction. With the hearty support of the community, the virtual event raised a total of $1,300. Which isn’t too shabby for a small fundraiser that just two volunteers pulled together in a very short time. Of course, it couldn’t have happened without the many generous donations from the talented crafts people in the area… and the countless museum supporters who put their money where their mouth was by bidding on the items. Jennifer Black, museum curator, tells me she was surprised that at least half of the bidders weren’t the usual museum crowd. “There were certainly many who I didn’t know,” Jennifer told me.
I also asked Jennifer if we could expect more virtual auction activity from the museum in the future. (You’ll note that I refrained from using “going forward” here, a pretentious filler phrase politicians and their sycophants use these days in place of “in the future.”) She replied that given the relative ease of putting them together and the decent return they brought in, she and the Board believe they are worth doing again. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty around our events next season, particularly the larger ones,” Jennifer told me, “so an auction, or even two, are definitely on our radar for the 2021 season.”
Jennifer went on to say that they learn new things each time they hold an online auction. For example, they want to look at broadening the types of items up for bid by including services like landscaping or a photography session. Improving the auction’s functionality of user interface was also on Jennifer’s wish list, which I wholeheartedly support. I found the software that was used for this past auction to be painfully slow. When I clicked on an item, it took forever for the listing to appear on screen. This could have been my Internet connection, but the other web sites I frequent were working normally.
By the way, to close the loop on that unique antique silver fork bracelet that I went on and on about, I’m happy to report it found a happy home. Sandra from Hudson placed the winning bid of $30. Congratulations… and thank you for supporting Dunvegan’s wee museum.
Keeping it cool
We talked last week about the importance of ice for Dunvegan area farms in the days before electrification. Regardless of whether they were shipping milk and/or cream to the dairies in Alexandria or Maxville, or the nearest cheese or butter factory, farmers had to cool it down as quickly as possible, and keep it cool, to inhibit bacteria growth. To do this, pre-1940s milk houses — the part of the barn where the fresh milk was stored prior to being taken to market — had a partially sunken tank filled with water to a depth that reached the handles on an eight-gallon milk can. Some very lucky farmers had a spring or small brook nearby that could be redirected to run through the milk house tank and keep the water cool. Most farms though, depended on the blocks of ice, roughly 18 inches wide and 3 feet long, they had cut in the winter and stored in an icehouse adjacent to the milk house.
In this icehouse, the blocks were piled in tiers, with space left between the stacks and the walls of the building. These spaces were then filled with several inches of sawdust as insulation, and the whole pile was covered with a foot or more of sawdust. As needed, the blocks, which sometimes froze together and had to be pried apart with a crowbar, were dragged to the milk house with ice tongs, rinsed with a bucket or two of water to remove any sawdust and dirt, and then lowered into the milk tank. The floor of the milk house was sloped to facilitate drainage, with an opening at the lowest end to let the water out. As reader Ken McEwen (who was born and raised on Kenyon’s 7th Concession) recalls, “Ice cutting, hauling, storing and hauling into the milk house was cold, arduous and sometimes dangerous work.”
So you can imagine his family’s delight when, in 1944, they were finally hooked up to hydro. It’s interesting to note that even before they had a fridge in their house, they installed an electric-powered milk tank. Ken remembers this being a major undertaking involving many thick layers of cork to insulate it. While this eliminated the need to cut, haul and store blocks of ice, the eight-gallon milk can was still king.
Six days a week, regardless of weather or road conditions, the McEwens delivered their milk to Borden’s Dairy in Maxville all year round. And from approximately April to November, they also did a Saturday night milk run as well. The relative convenience of bulk tanks and third party milk transport did not arrive until sometime after Ken McEwen left home in October of 1952.
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