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.