The Brussels Post, 1976-07-14, Page 3Wipe your youY
A hearty
Welcome
is extended
to the
Chubb Family
New Owners of
Cranbrook General Store!.
• Fl?0AA, THE STAFF
ON HOIST. D ..REAL ESTATE LTD.
Mitchell Office
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USE POST WANT-ADS
nit,BRUSSELS POST- JULY 14i. 1976
ock, Thynne remembers decades of
laying his fiddle across Canada
across Canada and in the United
States knew him as "The Kansas
•
Ralph Pearson used to take the
kids and Mrs. Nichol took over
from him about five years ago.
Mrs. Nichol accompanied one
bus load when lessons started this
year and Edith Pipe the other bus
and now parents have taken over
accompanying their kids on the
buses.
Lessons cost each child $10, $8
for the classes, $.50 to try their
test and the rest goes to help pay
for the bus, "just a drop in the
bucket really," Mrs. Nichol says.
Lessons continue until July 23.
(by John Miner)
years ago many people
...••••••
(Continued from Page 1)
Brussels kids "graduating" from
the swimming program s A
number of last year's senior
swimmers took their bronze
awards at Vanastra during the
winter, she said.
The Legion and Lions
sponsored swimming lessons
have been going on for perhaps
20 years, Mrs. Nichol estimated,
almost since the Lions pool in
Seaforth has been in operation.
Several years ago the •Brussels
students started going to the
Howick pool which has warmer
water than Seaforth's and where
there seems to be more chance for
the students to advance,
according to Mrs. Nichol.
Farmer" or "Canada's. Only
Singing Violinist". In Brussels,
his hometown, he was known
simply as Jack Thynne, the man
who could play the fiddle and sing
at the ,same time.
Today, although "The Kansas
FA rmer" no longer hits the road
each spring, Jack Thynne, 79,
still calls Brussels his home. Now
living in the Callander Nursing
Home, he is able to look back on a
peculiar career that stretched
across decades and thousands of
miles.
Jack got his first start in the
music business when a school
teacher from Bluevale paid him to
play for a school concert.
"I remember this guy gave me
five dollars to play the first night.
I thought I had the world by the
tail," said Mr.Thynne. It all came
naturally to me, I've never had a
lesson in my life."
When he was 18, Jack decided
to start playing and singing full
time despite objections from his
parents.
"They didn't like it at all, but
they found out for once I was
right," said Jack.
At first there was little money
in it with a two hour show
sometimes only bringing him 20
cents, says Jack. In the beginning
he played at local halls, but as his
popularity grew he got requests
to travel further afield.
"They used to write me and ask
me to go certain places and that's
where I went," he said.
In time Jack was singing and
fiddling his way right across
Canada, from one town hall to the
next. Some summers would find
him playing for audiences in the
Maritimes, while others would
find him on the fair circuit in
British Columbia or Colorado.
"I used to stay two nights in
one town. I always gave them two
shows, one each night.
Sometimes when the crowds got
so big, I had to put on two shows
in one night so everyone could get
in," said Jack.
Mr. Thynne picked up the
name of "The Kansas Farmer"
one time when he was playing in
the States.
"This fair secretary said 'What
are we going to call you?'. Well I
said I didn't know, so he wrote
down "The Kansas Farmer". I
copywrited the name as I was the
only one who could use it. I used
the name in both Canada and the
United States," he said.
Every winter, with the
exception of One, Mr. Thyrine
returned home to his wife and
family in Brussels.
never saw my family during
the summer and I was always
glad to get home in the winter. I
always was home before
Christmas, except the one year
when I stayed out in
Newfoundland", he said.
The best audiences were the
ones in Nlanitoba, according to
Jack.
"They'd think nothing of going
75 miles to a show," he said.
But Ontario was still his
favorite stomping ground.
"I was always partial to
Ontario. I was born here, and I
grew up here. I understood the
people and they understood me,"
he said.
Playing in town halls and at
county fairs during the twenties
and thirties right up through to
the sixties, one would think Mr..
Thynne would have had his share
of trouble, but Jack says that he
only ran into trouble once.
"It was out in the Maritimes. A
bunch were there for a fight and
they fought it out, but I kept
playing. That was the only time I
had any actual trouble. I always
used to keep playing without a
break and never gave them time
to start anything," he said.
Jack mainly played by himself
before audiences, although once
in a while he might have another
man playing on stage with him.
However, for one nine year period
he had 'the Jackson family of
Brussels play with local
performances.
In the winter when business
slowed up and there were no fairs
to play at, Mr. Thynne would rent
local halls himself and put on his
own show. However, he always
preferred to be sponsored by
someone as there was less worry,
he said.
"I used to be booked up for a
year ahead," he said.
Mr. Thynne fondly remembers
one time when he came into a
town and found that Guy
Lombardo was playing the same
night. "I said, 'Guy Lombardo
don't scare me'. I went downtown
and played around different
places and that night I had 700
people at my show and Guy
Lombardo only had 400. I had 300
more than Guy Lombardo," he
said.
In all the years that Mr. Thynne
played, he only had t' wo fiddles.
The first one he payed $7.50 for
and used it until a drunk fell on it
and broke it. The second fiddle he
still h as.
"Why I paid a whole lot more
for that second one," he said with
a smile. "All of ten dollars. I
never had a very dear fiddle."
"One time I was playing at
some town and this guy came up
to me and said 'I want you to see
my violin, I think I have a better
fiddle than you'. I said. 'How
much do you think I paid for it?'
`Not a dollar over $800' he said. I
went and tried his fiddle, but
there sure wasn't any thousand
dollars difference."
Mr.Thynne is especially proud
of the last concert he ever played.
"It was in Brussels. Brussels
was a good playing place. I could
always fill the hall when I came
home. A t the last show, the
farewell show, I turned more
people away than I could get in
the hall. I was very proud that
night."
Brussels own Jack Thynne in his heyday
102 kids swimming
Forty