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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-04-04, Page 15Serving over 2M)DO homes in Listowel, Wingham, Mount Forest, Milverton, Elmira, Palmerston, Harriston, Brussels, Atwgod, ,ManktQn, Millbank, Newton, Clifford, Wallenstein, Drayton, Mooren ,VIVA 11 7 Inesday, April 4, 1984 imam Art fills a good portion of Jim Collyer .s day followig stroke 'Some things sold right away DR. JIM COLLYER with the painting he did of the home where he and his family lived while he practised medicine in Mount Forest from 1961 to 1964. by Lynne Pinnegar DR. COLLYER and his wife Yvonne with two -of the paintings that will be on display at Bookcraft gallery. The black and white swirl is from his "Black period" based on sket- ches he did while in the hospital after his stroke. Mrs. Collyer says her "husband tries anything" when it comes to different mediums and subjects for his art. Elmira Maple Syrup Festival Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year by Kim Dadson The old Elmira Board of Trade probably thought it was going out on a limb 20 years ago when it approved spending the large sum of $600 on advertising for a new project it had decided to undertake. Little could these "forefathers" have guessed what a success that first Maple Syrup Festival would be and that 20 years later, this last ditch effort by the board to in- still interest in the community would still be going strong. Nor would those men have dreamed that within the next 20 years, over a quarter million dollars would be donated to community organizations as a result of the annual one -day event. When the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival 'opens at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 7, it will be celebrating its 20th anniversary and the organizing committee has planned some special events to mark the occasion, , But to return to that "ganddaddy of all, maple syrup festivals" in 1964, imagine the surprise, delight and mixed emotions of or- ganizers when instead of the expected 2,000 visitors, an estimated 10,000 converged on Elmira that day. It was a warm day, recalls Esther Otto, a downtown merchant: Customers at the E. S. Otto -Ltd. department store had "sunburnt noses". And there were lots' store, — the new storehad washroom 'facilities, Mrs. Otto notes with a derisivelaugh. On the mall, women were attempting to keep up with the demand for pancakes which they were making on cook stoves. Some worked for six hours with no break to 46 keep up. In what she now recalls as a futile, attempt to help, Mrs. Otto says staff at the store were cooking pancakes on several electric frying pans which were lined up on the store floor and plugged in every avail- able receptacle. "We would run out with four pancakes in a pan to the women," Mrs. Otto laughs. Hardly a dent in the line-up of thousands waiting for pancakes with /maple syrup. Horses which were pulling trailers of people to sugar uushes became exhausted and were replaced with tractors. What visitors thought of the first Festival is unknown but its a fact that tourists have been returning faithfully to the Festival every year since. Many even come the night before to avoid the heavy traffic on the high- ways leading into Elmira the day of the Fes- tival. In 1969 a couple from Niagara Falls spurned their hometown and honeymoon capital of the world to be married at the Festival. They had set their wedding date March 29 but then discovered it was the date for the Festival. They came to Elmira, stopped at the first church they saw and made ar- rangements to be married. Rev. Baetz of St. Paul's Lutheran Church discovered that the gentleman had all the necessary papers in order so at 4 p.m. he married Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Cain. It is estimated 10,000 came to ,the first Festival, which was planned and organized in less than four months. In 1968, 15,000 pan- cake tickets were sold and crowd estimates in recent years have topped that. A commit- tee meets yeanround organizing the one - day event. The board of trade donated $2,600 to the Association for Mentally Retarded in 1964; last year $31,000, the most ever, was donated to various community organizations. The success story is a tribute to all the volun- teers who plan, organize and work Festival Day. Herb Ainsworth, an Elmira merchant and board of trade member in 1964 has been hon- ored through the years as the maxi who started everything by proposing the Festi- val — yet he.never lived to see the first Fes- tival. He died six days before the big event. At this year's Festival Mrs. Ainsworth will be presented with a plaque commemor- ating her husband's contribution. Other dig- nitaries, including local politicians will take part in opening ceremonies at 9:30 a.m. at Gore Park the day of the Festival. Visitors are invited to watch other special presenta- tions which will,be made to honor the 20th anniversary. The Festival includes a downtown mall closed to traffic, tours of sugar bushes, guid- ed tours of the countryside, an arts and craft show and sale at the high school, a coffee house at the arena, sit down meals at the high school and area churches and,' of course, pancakes with fresh maple syrup in the Winner's Circle Lounge behind the arena. An antique show and sale will be held at Park Manor School. This particular event is also open to the public Friday evening from 6to10p.m. Old MacDonald's Farm is returning to the farmers' shed downtown and will include a Carlsberg mare with foal for the children to see. For tie first time, a Festival dance is be- ing held Saturday'evening at the Commun- ity Centre. Tickets are available from the Sugar Kings Junior B team. General admittance to the Festival is free but there will be a charge to enter certain events, such as the craft show and sale, the antique show and sale and for pancakes. Plan to spend the day in a leisurely fashion as there is lots for the whole family to see. One of the successful goals of the organizing committee through the past 20 years has been to keep the Festival a family oriented occasion. In the early 60s Jim Collyer was a doctor. in Mount Forest with a flourishing family practice and a passion for playing tennis. Twenty years later — two years after a massive stroke from which he figured he was going to die — Dr. Collyer is returning to Mount Forest as an artist. DrY. Collyer's one-man exhibition, of works done primarily as a means of therapy after the stroke in April of 1982, will open Saturday, Apr. 7 at the Bookcraft Gallery on Main Street, Mount Forest. Dr. Collyer has always had an interest in art, but was too busy as a physician to pursue the craft' until the stroke slowed him down. It was during the night on Apr. 26, 1982 that his life was changed. '"There's five days there that I justdon4. ha've:much tinerru fy of,"Dr. Collyer says. On that fateful night, he awoke from a sound sleep needing to go to the bathroom. ' He lay there, in the middle of the night, "and watched a chap coming out of the bathroom. ,. I remember thinking to myself, I wonder what is wrong with that poor man?" The man he saw was himself as he suffered the massive stroke. His wife, Yvonne,- recalls the night dif- ferently. "He didn't make it out of bed. I didn't know anything was the matter until I told him to give back some of the covers. Jim thought he was communicating but he wasn't," she said. He was taken to the hospia? by am- bulance at 3 a.m. "I gave my wife a kiss. I figured it would be our last one," Dr. Collyer says, adding that his diagnosis was that he would be dead in two or three days. "There was little pain, just detachment," he recalls. After the first five days in the hospital he, gained consciousness and found the stroke: had left him paralyzed on the right side, deaf, partially blind and speechless. "There was a pencil beside my bed, so one day I just thought I w.ollld draw and see what would happen," ,he says. "I wrote my name, using my left hand, and found that I could write,with my left hand quite normally. The right hand is still partially paralyzed, and after nearly 50 years of using it ex- clusively, Dr. Collyer now paints with his left hand. The first six paintings he did, using the sketches he had done in the hospital as a basis, are what he calls his "fifth day" work. Done in abstract swirls of black and white — mainly black — they starkly depict his black period when he thought he was dying and the days after regaining con- sciousness when he was totally frustrated. "I was very angry. I could recognize Vonnie ( Yvonne) and I could understand some of the things but I couldn't com- municate," he says. "There is no doubt about it. I considered killing myself." When Dr. Collyer finally accepted that he had had a stroke — that One side of his face drooped and one hand was of not much use, that he had trouble ennunciating words but was able to communicate, that he would probably need a cane to help him walk — he decided to get on with his life. He began Making speech therapy and physiotherapy and switched his passionfor tennis into anoth&r passion he had harbored over the years — art. He enrolled at H. B. Beal Secondary School's art program where he is now a full-time student. "They have a most amazing art school," says the doctor, who took art classes as a youngster and young man. "They have 13 teachers in the art program. Last year, a lot of the time I didn't know what the hell was going on (in the classes) but this year I'll end• up knowing about painting, acrylics, water colors, making prints and etchings. I'm also tal' -rg ceramics and moving into sculpture. In the fall I plan to spend two days a week on sculpture." The artwork he Lias done to date, in a wide variety of mediums. are about 30 to 40 in- ches in size but he i p' ' 'i ,%."•kind on projects as Targe as six by eight feet. "When you have this illness, so to speak, you have to keep busy," Dr. Collyer says. "For about two weeks at Christmas I didn't do much, and I found I was going backwards in the illness." Art fills a good portion of each day for Dr. Collyer. As a young man he 'studied art under the late Selwyn Dewdney. "When I was 13 or 14, I asked Selwyn if I Could be a painter and he never answered: He just looked at me and I assumed he was thinking,. 'Oh God, there's only two making it as artists in London now and this boy thinks he can," Dr. Collyer remembers with a laugh. Since the stroke, however, DTTCollyer rs - thinking in terms of "making it" as an ar- tist..-Last,spring hi't_;at;two cw.a8'bubg:.:at . — University Hospital in London and it has been displayed at several London -area art shows. \ year ago he presented a one-man show at the Lambton County Library at Petrone. Over 300 people attended the opening in less than two hours. "I was amazed, some things sold right away. Maybe I could make a living with art," Dr. Collyer says pensively. He hopes that a number of people will attend the upcoming show's opening in Mount Forest. He and his wife and five children will be present during the af- ternoon, and he hopes to renew a lot of old friendships. The couple's five children are . Geoffrey, Gillian, Martha (who was born when the couple lived in Mount Forest) and twins Jennifer and Susan. "We only had three children when we lived in Mount Forest, now we have five," Dr. Collyer explains, adding that he enjoyed his three-year stint as a doctor in the town a great deal. Among the paintings to be displayed at the Bookcraft Gallery is one he did of the house in which he and his family lived in Mount Forest. He was a member of the recreation committee and along with Rudi Noss organized the first Mount Forest Tennis Club while in town. He also served as presi- dent of both the tennis and badminton clubs, and was ' a member of St. Paul's Anglican Church. Born in Seaforth, Dr. Collyer and his wife now live in London. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario medical school in 1957, following his doctor -father's, footsteps. He interned in Vancouver, spent a year practising in Barrie and then took two years' further training, one in England and one in London. In 1961 he moved to Mount Forest. "I thought they needed a doctor in the area and I thought it was important that we come." He stayed unti11964. Dr. Collyer then moved on to Leamington for three years, and then was asked to go to London's University Hospital to join the • teaching staff of the first Canadian family practice course at St. Joseph's Hospital. "It was when they first started teaching family doctors in medical schools," he recalls. He began practising family medicine again in London, took a two-year contract with an American hospital staffing firm to work in Saudi Arabia "where I enjoyed it more than I expected. We were high in the mountains where the temperature was 100 degrees and we played tennis for two hours every morning." He returned to London and his family practice in 2981. Now, in 1984, his life has taken another turn as his art — and preparing for art shows such as the one in Mount Forest — fill his days. "I guess I just got too busy for art," he says. "Because of the sickness it gave me a chance to do extra things that I never had the time to do before." "Reminiscing ... An Exhibition of Art by Dr. Jim Collyer" is opening at Bookcraft's second floor gallery at 183 Main Street, Mount Forest on Saturday, Apr. 7. Dr. Collyer and his family will be present at the opening from 1;30 to 4:80 p.m. The show will hang until Apr.,27.