When researching a story the other day, I stumbled across a fascinating exchange from almost 125 years ago between two Glengarry News columnists… both of whom lived on Dunvegan Road. One penned the “Fisk’s Corner” column and resided on or near the present-day Fiske’s Corner crossroads. The other wrote the “Cotton Beaver” column and lived near SS# 2 at the intersection of MacMaster Road and County Road 24.
If you spend any time wandering through the past pages of the News, you soon realize that Glengarry of yesteryear was strongly rooted in a sense of belonging. Back then, communities would coalesce around a school or a cheese factory and proudly report the goings-on from their small neighbourhood in the local paper. For example, the Glengarry News in May of 1897 had ‘County News’ reports from: The Height of Land; Brodie; Gravel Hollow; McCrimmon; Dornie; Fawcett’s Corner; Butter Hollow; Athol, Quigley’s; Pigeon Hill; Unity; Windmill Corner: Camerontown; Munroe’s Mills; Roy’s Corner; Stewart’s Glen; Stygian Avenue; Mongenais; Graham Bridge; and Rosedale. And this compilation doesn’t include ones we still hear from today: Maxville; Williamstown; Greenfield; Dalkeith; Glen Robertson and the like. In case you’re wondering, the word “stygian” means dim, murky, shadowy or gloomy. Not a great name for a community, if you have an eye on real estate values. But back to the tale of friction twixt the two anonymous Dunvegan-area writers.
It all began fairly innocently in the April 30, 1897 issue of the News when the Fisk’s Corner correspondent wrote, “In last week’s issue we noticed that the Cotton Beaver scribe has awakened from his long dreary sleep once more. Let us hear from you again scribe.” A week later, the Cotton Beaver columnist replied, “The Fisk’s Corner correspondent seems to be deeply astonished at hearing from us… we sincerely hope that her surprise is not of such a nature as to bring on a painful rnalady.”
By the end of the month, though, the gloves were off. On May 21st Fisk’s Corner lobbed this grenade, “Though we were grieved at the Cotton Beaver correspondent’s silence we are pleased to know that he is still able to look around and notice a little of what is going on around him, but after his long sleep we think he ought to have more to tell.”
Cotton Beaver returned fire on the 28th. However, you’ll note that he is now referring to his Fiske’s Corner adversary as a man. Whether these gender flips are typos or slights, I’m uncertain. “The very touching interest which the Fisk Corner scribbler displays towards us, is as pathetic to observe as are his efforts to locate your humble scribe… We have not the slightest doubt but that a little rubbing against the world, would enlarge his untutored and bucolic vision… We hope our friend that while you peruse this, the salt tears of grief trickling down your chops may induce you to recall your peremptory farewell, and encourage you to write again, as a little practice may improve your diction and also your common sense.” If they both attended church in Dunvegan the following Sunday, it probably would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall.
Children & Christmas
Talking of the church, Interim moderator Rev. Jim Ferrier has asked me to announce to the Dunvegan community, and beyond, that this coming Sunday, December 12th, Kenyon Presbyterian Church’s Sunday School will be presenting their interpretation of “The Christmas Story” in word and song. For this special program, the Glengarry Girls Choir under the direction of Kim Little will join the young Sunday scholars. Rev. Jim says that all are welcome to attend as the Dunvegan kirk continues its journey through the Advent season. The worship service and program will get under way at 9:30 AM.
Anne Erratum
Steve Merritt called last week to thank me for the “Anne of Dunvegan” item in the November 24th column… and take me to task for a glaring grammatical error. He was right. The sentence “Anne also took lessons from Jack Lenor Larsen at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts where his parents were the founding co-directors” was imprecise. “His parents” should have read “Steve’s parents.” My apologies for any confusion.
How’s them apples?
Last week’s News brought two other responses to my doorstep, the first of which wasn’t a direct result of my column. It was more column-adjacent. Cornwall reader Beatrice Tardif — originally a Stang from Green Valley — called to ask if the over-sized apples featured in the prominent photo on last week’s front page were Wolf River ones, like those I described in detail in the Dunvegan column this past spring. She also wondered why last Wednesday’s photo caption neglected to point out the apple’s probable Wolf River heritage. I agreed with her that the photogenic fruit looked like Wolf River apples. However, I could offer no explanation as to why the captionator failed to draw the connection. Beatrice suggested, tongue in cheek, that he or she probably doesn’t read my column.
Vexillological ratios
The second comment came via email from vexillologist Shashtin Winchester from the 4th of Kenyon. As all fans of the hit TV series Big Bang will know, vexillology is the study of flags. It was only after coming to Canada from her native land, Sweden, that Shastin realized she was a bit obsessed with proper flag etiquette.
I gather the citizenry of Sweden take their flags seriously. In fact, when the time came for Shastin and husband Jim to add a flagpole to their lovely front yard, no run-of-the-mill one would do. They commissioned a single mast nautical flagpole. Typically found in a waterside setting (yacht clubs, marinas and the like), this type features a topmost mast and a yardarm. However, it’s equally at home in a landlubber’s yard and provides ample space to fly the national flag along with additional flags and pennants.
According to Shastin, the half-mast rule in Sweden is to lower the flag one-third the length of the pole. And they have long flagpoles in Sweden. She informs me the norm for residential poles is one or two meters higher than the house.
As Shastin pointed out, today’s Canadian flag, if lowered one flag width from topmast, wouldn’t look right. Our flag’s too narrow and, in her opinion, the flags we fly here are way too small in relation to the height of the flagpole. “They look like a puny postage stamp high up the pole,” she commented. And I agree.
Having grown up in Sweden with a flag that is five units high by eight units wide (5:8), Shastin isn’t comfortable with the 1:2 proportions of the modern Canadian flag. It occurred to me though that our present flag has only been around since 1965. Before then, and during the Second World War, the Canadian Red Ensign was our flag. Its height to width ratio was 5:8… the same as the Swedish flag.
We can’t change our flag’s proportions, except by an act of Parliament. However, we can ensure that the overall size of our flags match the height of the flagpoles upon which they are being flown. And we can adopt an official half-mast standard that doesn’t make us look like a nation of doofuses.
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