HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1961-08-24, Page 6Where We Were
When Visitors Coiled
Sumner visiting • usually ec-
etlrs while we are away •summer
visiting, .and it is seustoinery. for
'us to come back to the farm after
R pleasant weekend' and'find:sev-
eral notes under the door.wltich'
say, "Sorry we missed you, will
try again." These ate often sign-
ed with namea that, truly, mean
nothing to us exeept that some-
body from Illinois, Oregon, etc„
was passing -by and carred enough
to make the effort.
Now last weekend' we went
down . to Vinalhaven, which is
known as "Maine's most enchant-
ing island," and had a good time,
coming home to find the usual
notes under the door and the
dog, who was left out, inside and
unhappy. He is always unhappy,
either side, but when we are
away he is meant to be out and
unhappy, His zeal and enthusi-
asm for the passing stranger lead
.him to extend the courtesies in
all directions, and he wags to-
ward the door, which is unlock-
ed, until sympathetic and new-
found friends let him in. We have
a neighbor who e0mes to feed
hits when WE are away, and for
a long time he couldn't figure
out how the dog got in. •
So the trip to k%Ilalhay.en was
most enjoyable and was a leek -
see at • en interesting history
whiee has run its course. •In the
wide mouth of the Penobscot
River, about Midway of the
Maine eoast, the earliest visitors
— long before Celuatbus — found
numerous sightly iS'ands which
have had a • cm—tenuous history
ever since; Riany of them were
rendoeveue spots for fisheries,
and :till are,
Ft: out. and 'tined to be-
come a fameee l,eaaon for the
18th oimtur.% shin ing, was Mat-
inieu.s, around which ch the ground -
fish to d and the lobster had
his sweetest haunt. Inward from
Mati:ticus, but still in the swell
of iee open ocean, were the Ha-
ven tslands — North Haven and
Vine taw en, and the cluster of
smaiier islands about them. Some
are :here rocks thrusting from the
tide Vinalhaven has 20 square
miles. The Havens, once known
as the Fox Islands, are rightly
named, for when a greasy south-
erly sits on the ocean and the
dispc_sed fishing fleet needs a
harbor, the lee shores of these
4slands offer shelter. Sometimes
ithe tight little harbor at Vinal-
haven will be so filled with one
kind and another of fishing ves-
feels that you can walk all over
it, from deck to deck, -
Recently Maine instituted a
gtate-subsidized ferry service to
l�oone of the outer islands, and a
fairly large boat, the Everett Lib -
Bride's Bouquet
811
Flowers for the bride. She'll
(4herish them for years on linens
ISO they brighten her home.
It's fascinating to stitch flow-
ers in gay colors. Suitable for
towels, bed linens, scarves. Pat-
tern 811: transfer of 6 motifs
41e x 12 ,e inches.
Send THIRTY - FIVE CENTS
(stamps cannot be accepted, use
postal note for safety) for this
pattern to Laura Wheeler, Box
1, 123 Eighteenth St, New Tor-
onto, Onl. Print plainly PAT-
TERN NUMBER, your NAME
and ADDRESS.
Send now for our exciting, new
1961 Needlecraft Catalog, Over
125 Designs to crochet, knit,
sew, embroider, quilt, weave —
fashions, hom.efurnishings, toys,-
gifts, bazaar hits. Plus FREE
instructions for six Omar': veil,
caps, Hurry, send 250 now!
3SSRUE 33 — 1961.
by, makes the run from Hoek -
land to Vinalhaven in an hour
and twenty-five minutes. Slnee
they carry automobiles this has
strengthened. Vinalhaven's • eon -
only as a summer resort, but it
has been a new convenience
much appreciated by the thous-
and coastal people who make
their, year-round home there.
There is a telephone cable to
the island; they have a diesel
power plant --• so the ferry is the
completion of their conveniences,
and they have the extra value
of living in one of the prettiest
places in the world,
Well, back a hundred years or
so the fisheries economy of this
island was bolstered by the open-
ing oe quarries. The granite base
of the island prompted an ac-
tivity that led to great wealth.
Scarcely a metropolitan building
of any consequenee took shape
but quarry masters back on Vin-
alhaven were shaping the stones,
Not only did the Vinalhaven gra
nite make beautiful buildings,
but it has artistic qualities and
was suited for statues and mem-
orials, The island had a skyline
of derrick masts and guy -cables,
and to the community were at-
tracted Swedes, Scots, Italians
who had skills either in raising
the stones or in shaping them
afterward, The high -spot was
about 1890.
-Afterward, cement came into
the picture, and the use of gran-
ite • for edifices declined. There
followed a few decades of pav-
ing -block manufacture, which
was a lowly aftermath for the
grandeur and magnificence of the
real thing, but this dwindled, too,
and today not one of the Vinal-
haven quarries is operating. The
symbol of the era is neatly sum-
med up in a "galamander" which
the town has mounted as a mem-
orial in the little park at the top
of the hill, enclosed in a fence
and duly identified with a paint-
ed sign.
The galamander was a high -
wheeled vehicle for moving slabs
of granite down the winding is-
land roads to the docks. It didnt
carry its load above the axles,
as other vehicles do, but bestrode
the load so it could be hoisted up
underneath and slung, Probably
no vehicle ever had bigger wheels
than a galamander, ar was con-
structed so ruggedly. Oxen drew
it, and it took many yokes to
move some of the prodigious
stones the Vinalhaveners raised.
When the quarries closed the
old fisheries also seemed to taper
off. The community fell away to
its present size, leaving only
those who could do the lobstering'
and make a living in the narrow-
ing economy. To them the ferry
offers something of a new era,
and there is a new hope.
Today anybody on Vinalhaven
who wants anything of granite
is a lucky man. They use the old
quarry dumps freely. Instead of
bricks, residents build their out-
door and indoor fireplaces of re-
jected paving blocks. Also for
steps, terraces, wharves, and
props for mailboxes. Almost
every home has curbing around
the lawn. New cottages are 'build
on granite foundations. And the
island's edge, almost all the way
around, is riprapped with cast=
off slabs and strips and chips of
broken granite.
Furthermore, the Qu 1 1 of
Maine, if anybody knew where,
is littered with shipwrecked gra-
nite from Vinalhaven, for when
an old stone schooner loaded with
paving blocks sprung a leak en
route to Boston or New York,
she would go down like lead and
the crew would take to the boats
and row. There was nothing else
to do, and the sea lane from
Penobscot Bay around Cape Ann
is liberally paved. So, if you
chanced by the farm that week-
end and found us gone, we were
on Vinalhaven looking at a gala-
mander. — By John Gould in
the Christian Science Monitor.
Must Read The Book
Ere You Can Rent
People who wish to live in a
new town being built on the out-
skirts of Madrid must have read
the whole of the novel, "Don
Quixote."
Chief architect Don Fernandez
Shaw says his idea is that the
town, El Toboso, eight miles from
the centre of Madrid, will be a
permanent monument to the
Spanish novelist Cervantes.
In Cervantes' famous novel,
Don Quixote dedicated his deeds
to the maid, Dulcinea del Toboso,
Several of the cafes and res-
taurants in the new town will be
traditional Dan Quixote "Ventas"
and many of the houses will in-
clude features of Cervantin.ian
buildings,
Even the post office and
tobacconists will sell copies of
Don Quixote — in Spanish,
French, English, Italian and Ger-
man.
"Cervantes and Don Quixote
have been our inspiration," says
Don Fernandez, "Therefore, only
residents who have read at least
Don Quixote will be considered."
Questions will be asked to
prove whether applicants really
have read the book?
SMOOTH COASTING — World pursuit bicycle racing champion
Rudi Altis and his bride, Christa, receive an appropriate send-
off from Rudi's colleagues after their Cologne wedding,
✓ -,
ONICt
3 1.
w
1 GERFARM
ewe .d.oLt \e P. Ctatke
Another week gone by and still
the heat and humidity continue.
Our air -conditioner is working
fine but you know, it's one of
those things ... "you can't take
it with you". That is to say there
are always jobs to do that are
out of reach of air -conditioners.
Partner has to spend the most of
two days every week cutting
grass and I must keep pace with
the garden picking peas and
beans and pulling weeds. Mostly
I sit outside preparing vegetables
for the table. So far we have
been able to keep four neighbours
supplied with string beans and
one neighbour has kept us sup-
plied with raspberries. Exchange
is no robbery.
Last week we had plenty to
think about other than the heat.
There was •President Kennedy's
stern warningof dangers involv-
ing the Berlin crisis and the Brit-
ish government's austerity pro-
gramme. Looked at casually one
might think neither would af-
fect Canadians too much. But
that is a mistake. Repercussions
are bound to be felt over here
before too long. In fact we are
wondering about a few things
right now. Our next door neigh-
bour, a young married man with
two small children, is an Ameri-
can citizen. His category in the
reserve is Class 4.A, which
means he can be recalled for ser-
vice any time up to November 1.
and even after that if
there should be a serious blow-
up,
My nephew Klemi has other
worries. He has gone to England
for a year to study music. He
saved what he thought would
be enough money to see' him
through — that is for tuition and
living expenses. But that was be-
fore this austerity programme
came into force. Now we are
wondering ... will he have to cut
short his studies and return to
Canada — where his position is
being held open for him — or will
he be able to supplement his in-
come by teaching music in Eng-
land?
Then there is Partner's sister.
A week before the austerity pro-
gramme was made public we got
a'letter saying she was planning
to pay us a short visit early in
October. Now we are wondering
if she will be afraid to spend the
necessary money since the in-
creased cost of living is bound to
be an extra drain on her income.
So you see what I mean — we
may not live in the same country
where government changes are
taking place but yet we soon find
our destinies are interwoven one
with another.
And in Canada , , already
there is talk • of an increase 'In
the proposed number of "fall -out
shelters" that are likely to be
built, particularly in and around
big cities. And of course there
is supposed to be a step-up in
civil defence. Well, if there is
one thing that gives me the
creeps it is the thought of get-
ting into a fall -out shelter. Just
to hear it mentioned gives me
claustrophobia. I would rather
take my chance in own home.
In England, during the first war,
I never once spent a night in the
cellar but I had plenty of friends
who made a practice of doing just
that immediately following an
air-raid alarm. One man, who
didn't have a basement, decided
to go to a neighbour's for safety.
His own house wasn't hit but he
was killed crossing the road! So
you see, while trying to escape
danger you may run into it.
Here is something a little on
the lighter side. Young friends
of ours could hardly wait for
Daddy's three-week holiday to
begin so they could get away
to their summer cottage. Yester-
day, after six days away, they
name back home! Daddy was
regretting the wasted time —
Time that he could put to good
advantage working on a house-
boat he is building in his own
backyard. So, they packed up,
bag and baggage, and now he is
out in the full sun working on
his beloved boat. The children
appeared pleased to be home too.
They were running around as if
they had been let loose from
somewhere. I can't see Dee and
her family returning before they
have to. But then Art hasn't a
boat to work on. I think there
might be a few arguments if he
had.
Yesterday we saw something
else — that didn't amuse us a
bit. Land being cleared for a
new clover -leaf at the Queen E.
and No. 10. You never saw such
destruction on what was once
a country estate. Beautiful old
shade trees, probably dating back
to pioneer days, tall, majestic and
stately, have already fallen to the
saw and the axe. Isn't it terrible
to think of the wholesale slaugh-
ter that is perpetrated in the
name of progress? The estate just
mentioned is now up for sale.
Why wouldn't it be? Probably
the owners can't bear to live
there with their fine old home de-
nuded of its trees.
Kicked lipstclirs
With Due Reverence
The chain of a Knight of the
Garter draped over his rented,
ermine -trimmed scarlet robes,
Britain's brand-new Ear] of
Avon — formerly Sir Anthony
Eden, formerly Prime Minister—
made the neophyte's traditional
three bows to "Woolsack," the
Speaker's seat in the house of
Lords. The ceremony over, Lord
Avon's fellow peers welcomed
him with warm cries of "Hear!
Hear!"—the nearest thing to an
ovation permitted in the staid
old Lords' chamber. Avon admit-
ted he was deeply moved, but
disavowed any plans for resum-
ing political life on a vigorous
scale, He said to newsmen: "I
shall only be an occasional vis-
itor."
Not o Road For
Big City Divers
Seen from the air, the road
that runs up the valley must look
like a slender fish spine from
which the attached side -lanes
grow in parallels, no, two quite
alike. A few miles up the valley a
Pane opens as bravely as ours.
The sandy entranee extends only
until the road turns beyond a
thicket and is lost in a mowing
where hay glintsand ruffles un-
der the wind. Only a depression
grown more to clover than to
timothy reveals where the road
had been.. This line of sparser
green leads to a heap of founda-
tion stones and scattered chim-
ney brick, surrounded by a bog-
gy area where the spring that
once flowed into a kitchen cistern
now spills over the ground, The
forest rings, the fields, There is
silence and a sense of isolation as
if this were a sacred spot — hal-
lowed ground from which the
trespasser steals away on tiptoe.
There are obscure lanes which
draw one back again and again
by the charm of some single spot
— a view of Mount Haystack
flowing with the airy blue pe-
culiar to these mountains, a lane
of fine birches, an abandoned
house where lupines• have taken
over the fields, acluster of tame-
z•ocks, orange among the ever-
greens in November, a wood clear
of brush where ferns cast tip a
green light, a beaver dam on a
mountain stream, a house of the
Theodore Roosevelt era built
with balconies and covered with
brown shingles, with sagging
barns and carriage houses Id the
real', the relics of fountains and
summer houses with here and
there an unpruned flowering
shrub in the abandoned gardens.
It was a Henry James, an Edith
Wharton, society that came to
those. Edwardian houses with
their carriages and servants and
hundred trunks and to-do about
such things as getting ice ar fresh
fish. Now the brush edges across
the tennis courts, and bark has
grown over the rings from which
the hammocks were slung. One
feels' no regret at the abandon-
ment of those shingled monstrosi-
ties, writes Lorna Beer in the
' Christian Science Monitor.
The hazards of driving along
the back roads are for the
stranger who comes from urban
areas cross -hatched with super-
highways, to whom speed and
getting the maximum efficiency
out of the car are a code of honor.
High crowns bristling with boul-
ders make a threat for his low -
slung car. The narrow roads are
ditched, and there is no passing
except at the passing places. Re-
cently, jogging'along
e-cently,jogging'along such an ob-
scure rbad in the Jeep, I saw the
flash of a windshield through the
trees beyond the turn, and, know-
ing that byway yard by yard, I
pulled aside by a cow gate and
waited until a cream -colored car,
graceful as a swan, met and pass-
ed. The tanned and exuberant va-
cationers gazed at me with won-
der and pity as if I suffered from
some mountain shyness or rural
timidity.
I have watched many a gallant
driver come splitting up our lane
over mid -summer's corduroy ruts,
in a car built to roll .down Penn-
sylvania Avenue. Such drivers
usually have an arm across the
steering wheel and their heads
to one side in self-conscious ease.
I am not stirred to admiration
for the driver's skill, but to con-
cern for that beautiful mechan-
two which is having its bolts
shaken loose.
Such drivers are urban, un-
learned in the ways of stones,
which can be shot like tiddly-
winks with the weight and effect
of canton balls against the under
parts of a car; and in the Ways
of washboard roads, which can
make the speeding ear shy like a
horse, Chuckholes can appear af-
ter a night of brisk rain, and
come on suddenly they give a
pigeon-toed look to the most
nicely balanced front wheels,
The back lanes have their driv-
ing rules, as rigid as those of the
highway. Once they are learned,
exploring the byways in this
Vermont mountain country re-
wards you with quietness and the
discovery of hidden beauty.
Modern Etiquette
By Anne Ashley
Q, When one has already giv-
en a gift to a newborn baby, and
is then invited to the christening,
is one expected to bring another
gift?
A, No.
Fresh, Easy, Sidon
PRXNTE,D PATTERN
Styled -to -slim and cut for
free and easy action! Nu waist
seams, it's all straight, swift
sewing, Scoop up a special buy
in pretty cotton, and SAVE!
Printed Pattern 4593: Half
Sires • 141, 161/x, 18162, 201/2, 221/2,
241/4. Size 16/ requires 4 yards
39 -inch fabric.
Send FIFTY CENTS (stamps
cannot be accepted, use postal
note for safety) for this pattern.
Please print plainly SIZE, DAME,
ADDRESS, STYLE NUMBER.
Send order to ANNE ADAMS,
Box 1, 123 ,Eighteenth St• New
Toronto, Ont,
The biggest fashion show of
Summer, 1961 pages, pages,
pages of patterns in oar new
Color Catalog. Hurry, send 35e.
SILENT ADVISER — Traffic will have smooth sailing if it fele
lows the silent suggestions of the traffic, pacer. The pacer will
advise motorists along four miles of Mound Road in Warren,
Mich., what speed to drive to make the next green traffic isig-
nal. Pacers in this photo (which, due to lens, makes distances
appear shorter) are 921 feet apart.