Village Squire, 1979-05, Page 28represented by actors. One man who did
become an intrical part of the show was
Jimmy Adams a fiddler from Listowel who
provided music with the show. So when
Listowel native Paul Thompson decided to
take The Farm Show on a tour of Britain
this spring, he asked Jimmy to come along.
So at least one local resident will be seen in
Britain in the flesh.
A kind deed can pay dividends. Back in
1977 when Mr. and Mrs. Peter
Hammarstroem, the press secretary to
the Swedish Embassy in Ottawa were in
London to speak at the University of
Western Ontario and Rob Wellan publicity
director of Theatre London was asked if he
could provide tickets on short notice for a
Theatre London production. Whelan not
only got the tickets but took the couple out
for coffee afterward and things went so
well They all sat up until 5 a.m. talking.
The next year when the embassy staff was
off for vacation Mr. WeIlan was asked if he
would like to stay there, which he did since
he wanted somewhere quiet to do some
writing. • Then last fall when the Grand
Theatre was being re -opened, he returned
the favour by asking Swedish Ambassador
Per Anger to be a guest and welcomed him
royally with a limousine to meet him at the
airport and a Swedish flag at the theatre.
The ambassador was impressed by the flair
with which it was carried off and thought
arts organizations back home in Sweden
could learn from Theatre London's
excellence in promotion and audience
building. So a tour was arranged for
Wellan to go over to Sweden to visit 23
theatres. It indeed pays to be nice.
It started as a way to try to make a living
during the Depression and it became a
Goderich tradition. When Peter Zimmer-
man found he had to make his own living in
1930 he went to Tillsonburg where he
bought a 1925 Model T wagon from a
woman, brought it back to Goderich and
modified it into a popcorn and hotdog stand
and for the next 42 years became a familiar
part of summer on The Square. In the old
days he sold popcorn at 10 cents, hot dogs
at 10 cents each or two for 15. By his
retirement in 1972 popcorn was up to 15
cents and hot dogs to 30. When he retired
he took his shop on wheels with him
because he couldn't bear to part with it.
For a couple of years the square was
missing a shop on wheels but then Dirk
Walterbeek bought an old milk truck and
converted it to a hot dog and pop corn
stand. Later when he bought a restaurant
on the square, an employee Laird Eisler
bought the stand and so today part of
Goderich's history is still there on the
Square on a summer evening.
26 Village Squire, May 1979
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