Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1983-07-27, Page 6Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, July 27, 1983—Page 6 LUCKNO.#W *SENTINEL "The Sepoy Town" Established 1873 THOMAS A. I'HOMPSON - Advertising Manager SHARON J. 1)11-11 - Editor PAT LIVINGSI'ON - Office Manager JOAN HELM - Compositor MERLE ELLIOTT - Typesetter Business and Editorial Office telephone 528-2822 Mailing Address P 0 Box 400. Lucknow, NOG 2H0 Second C I..ss Mail Registration Number 0847 Subscription rate, $15.25 per year in advance Senior Citizen rate, $12.75 per year in advance U.S.A. and Foreign, $38.00 per year in advance Sr. Cit. U.S.A. and Foreign, $36.00 per year in advance BL,JE RIBBON AWARD 198 w:. Commend a Block Parent The Lucknow Block Parent Program has received of- ficial recognition by Lucknow Village Council who recognized the Lucknow Block Parent Association at their June meeting. Lucknow Council offered its support to the program by purchasing the posts to erect four signs at the entrances to Lucknow announcing that our village is pro- tected by the Block Parent Program. The familiar red and white signs offer assurance to parents and children in a society where violence to children is increasing. Parents in Lucknow no longer believe that because we are a small rural community our children are safe from molesters or harrassment by incidents of inde- cent exposure. We may be a small society but within our society we have every cross-section of the large metropolitan societies. More mothers work and their children must walk home from school. The children in our village do become ill or can be hurt while playing in the neighbourhood or walking home and occasionally, there are incidents where older children bully the smaller ones. In each of these situations the Block Parent can assist the child. The Block Parent program is a way of providing pro- tection and a safe haven for children who find themselves sick, or hurt, or in trouble, at a time when their own parents aren't around to take care of them. There is one problem with the Lucknow Block Parent pro- gram. Our Block Parents say they sometimes find it dif- ficult to remember to put the sign away when they are not at home or are unavailable. They forget they are Block Parents because, fortunately no child has ever found it necessary to come to their home for help. A common problem among Block Parent Associations is the loss of interest in the program because children have not found it necessary to come for help. But this is the best reinforcement for the program. It shows that the program is working. With the new signs posted at the entrances to our village, the program will work even better. Motorists passing through our village will see that the village is protected by the program and our children are being watched. Anyone passing through who would bring harm to the children of Lucknow will know that, even in our rural community, we know of the harm that can come to children and we have taken steps to prevent it. Our Block Parents are an important community resource. Commend a Block Parent for taking this respon- sibility. Take an interest in the protection of our com- munity's children. redtrees McConnell • sisters and family This- picture of the five McConnell sisters }and their family was takern'at the time of the 1910 reunion in Lucknow. Mr. and Mrs. Hugh John Blake, nee'Sus- an McConnell, lived in Luck - now where Mr. and Mrs. Fred Anderson later lived around 1965 and Mrs. Charlie (Anne) Anderson lives now. Standing left to right are Myrtle Blake, Mrs. B.F. Comfort, St. Catharines; Hugh John Blake; Harold Blake; David McConnell, South Africa with baby Mac Gibson in his arms; Henry Gallagher; Sidney Gibson, Stratford; William McConnell of Kincardine and later Dungannon; Elizabeth Gallagher; seated, left to right, five sisters, Elizabeth, Mrs. Jim Durnin, Saskat- chewan; Susan, Mrs. Hugh John Blake; Jenny, Mrs. Jim Gallagher, Toronto; Bar- bara, Mrs. Charles Tate, Saskatchewan; Tina, Mrs. Sidney Gibson, Stratford; Lottie Gibson, Mrs. William McConnell; children seated in the front, from the left, Ted Durnin, Regina, Saskatchewan; Alma Blake, Mrs. D.S. Fines, Toronto; Barbara Gibson, Mrs. Henry Johnston, Stratford; Sidney Gibson, Stratford; Jean Gibson, Mrs. Walter McKenzie, Detroit; Cecil Blake, Dungannon. by don campbell The seemingly endless expanse of bush which once covered the southern regions of Upper Canada has disap- peared forever. It is hard to imagine that in the year 1844, some thirty or forty miles north of Toronto was a vast wilderness where creatures of the wild were abundant and the white man was but a frail interloper into a strange and lonely environment. At the end of November, the little community of Redtrees battled relentlessly with the forces of nature. As long as men could withstand the frigid temperatures in clothes which belonged to another climate, the sound of axe meeting tree could be heard echoing from the small clearings. There were few human sounds otherwise, except for the in- termittent ringing of the blacksmith's anvil and once a week, the bell from that fateful ship "Mavis" which called the immigrants to worship. In the evenings, there were just a few yellow glows from the rough win- dows of scattered cabins to tell of man's presence. Sometimes the face of the moon penetrated the clouds above the Caledon Hills and invited the eerie calls of timber wolves to break the silence. The silver light revealed the stark nakedness of the maple trees, standing forlorn upon a thin carpet of snow. They appeared like ghostly sentinels guarding the memory of a lush green summer and they shivered in the north-west wind. During the daytime, and whilst the men wt•rked relentlessly at their tasks, the pioneer women prepared for the long winter. In many ways, the early snow aided the settlers. Game abounded in the bush and their tracks were clearly visible. Sometimes men took precious time off to go out and hunt for food to stock their underground storages. There was no fear that the meat would deteriorate. The natural deep freeze arrived early that year. Chippy Chisholm was an active and industrious man, but like so many men approaching the end of life, he foolishly imagined he could do all the things which he did in his youth. One day, in spite of the protests from his wife, Lizzy, he took an old Brown Bess musket, and with little more than bread and cheese to sustain him, he went out into the bush to find himself a deer. "Dinna fash yesel," he told his wife. "Chippy'll be back afore dark and we'll both hae fresh venison to fill our bellies come the morn." In spite of her fears, Elizabeth Chisholm had great confidence in her man. He was a stubborn, cheerful and loveable character who would never admit that any task was too great. But deep inside she had a fear that the bush beyond the immediate vicinity of Redtrees was too formidable for his aging body. In the afternoon, an unexpected blizzard came to Redtrees. The wind and snow were so intense that it was impossible to see more than a few feet from the cabin. Elizabeth would have gone to find help to search for Chippy, but she had lived long enough in the bush to know that in such a wild ter- rain, even in a few hundred yards, the most experienced person can lose all sense of direction. To be lost under such conditions could be disastrous. As the day drew on without any sign of the snow abating, she tried to put her fears on one side and act as nor- mally as possible. As usual she prepared Chippy's supper. There was salt pork, bread and potatoes. To a woman alone in. a cabin and cut off from her neighbours by a vicious storm, it was only natural that many morbid thoughts and anxieties came quickly to mind. She built the fire so that it filled the cabin with a warm Smokey atmosphere, and the flames flickered streaks of light across the wall and over the cherished belong- ings of her husband. ' As the night wore on and Chippy had still not returned, she rocked in the chair which he had fashioned with his own hands, and stroked the arm rests lovingly. Occasionally she rose from her seat and peered through the win- dow, hoping that the storm would soon blow itself out and she could go and tell Neil MacCrimmon of her fears. Elizabeth Chisholm did not know how long she rocked in the chair before she succumbed to sleep. When she awoke, the fire no longer burned in the hearth, the candle had ex- tinguished and she was alone in the dark.