The Goderich Signal-Star, 1987-07-22, Page 45Community :;;'=;:
SECTION
Something for
everyone at
Goderich festival
Once again this year's Festival of Arts
and Crafts was a big success, with over
5,000 people wandering "through Cour-
thouse Park, according to organizer Patti
Rean. _.._----_.__.. _._.....___. _....... _
The show attracted trades people from
across Ontario. There were 121• displays
ranging from wood artifacts, paintings,
and ceramic figurines, to macrame items,
stained glass, and sand creations. This
year a limitation was put on during the
registration so that there would riot be
more than three booths of the same craft.
This kept repetition of crafts to a
minimum.
The exhibitors were treated to a fish fry
and beverages upon their arrival in town.,
Mayor Eileen Palmer and festival co-
ordinator Patti Rean welcomed them.
Mary Durkee -Dittrich, a painter from
St. Catherines, Ontario, said this was her
fifth year participating in the Goderich
festival. She displays her creations all
over Ontario and the United States, but
says she particularly enjoys Goderich
because the people are "so nice", and the
organizers are very generous and do a
superj9i . °
Registered under the name dfTl nofty
Creation, Marily Barker, of Willowdale,
said the • organizers recruited her. three
years ago and has enjoyed every year she
has been here. This is a good traffic area
and the people are great, says Barker.
New Hamburg's Ross Blackshaw said he
plans on taking a year off from teaching
elementary school which will give him
time to sell his wooden banks full time.
This is his second year at Goderich and he
said he looks forward to returning again
next year. The festival also gives him time
to go camping with his family.
Rean said overall the festival turned out
very well. She said there may be changes
next year but could not elaborate at this
time.
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WILLIAM
THOMAS
The night
The Rubber
Band broke up
On Saturday, June 13 at precisely 3:•45
a.m. The Rubber Band snapped and went
skittering off into oblivion over Niagara
Falls, Ontario.
Stretched too far, its elasticity aging,
the Band wrapped itself tightly around
one grand finale then burst on cue,, never
to be heard from again.
After 15 years as Niagara's most
popular and versatile band and more
than 2000 performances from the
Sheraton Brock to the Royal York and
most church halls in between - June 13
was the night the music died for Bobby
( Keep's Rubber Band.
And what a night it was. The crowd
was huge, the band was at their best and
the cause was purely charitable. •
Cystic fibrosis is an incurable killer
disease that attacks and destroys the
lungs and digestive system of one in
;every 1800 Canadian babies. C.F.
jcTiildren are normal iii every way except
they're dying on the inside and by age
twelve the disease puts a lock on their
dives, an agonizing downhill deteriora-
tion from that point on.
Well on this night, . at the Optimist
# Yquth Hall out on Dorchester Road, Bob-
by and the boys - Dontees, Curt, Candler,
°Chris Wright, Derrick Simon - raised a
little hell and lot of cash in delivering one
swift kick in the assault on cystic
fibrosis. The Rubber Band jumped, jam-
med and danced their way to $24,000
($18,055.02 after food and drink ex-
penses), all of which went directly to
Toronto Sick Children's Hospital which is
leading Canada and the world in the fight
to find the killer gene.
"Prior to the 1980's, the chance of fin-
ding a cure was the same as trying to find
a house, anywhere in the world, without
being given an address," says Dr.
Buekweed of Sick Kid's. "Today, it's like
looking for the same house in a
;subdivision."
In one big bash, they're lost as a group.
The Rubber Band may have given Dr.
Buekweed and his researchers the name
of a street or a lot number in the hunt for
the healing house.
It was a night of unmitigated magic; ,
an event defined • by the new word
"synergy" where all energies are focus-
ed and syncronized by a common bond.
There were little men in bow ties and big
girls in halter tops and pretty much
every sampling of hornonity in between.
There were old men in britches, young
girls . with battery-operated flashing
sunglasses and guys who built a nine -
story castle out of empty OV cans. And
there were kids with cystic fibrosis.
In a thirsty erowd of over 1500 in a hall
built for 1000, there was not so.much as a
discouraging word let alone a pushing
match or a fight. It floated, the night did,
like a corked bottle on a calm sea with a
vital message inside.
And The Rubber Band played on. The
name is absolutely apropos for they can
sound as brassy as Chicago or as down
country as Charlie Daniels while track-
ing off Island songs better ,than you'll'
hear in Bimini.
The much -longer -than -expected crowd
fit into the hall alrighfr but there was no
dance floor . left. So large doors were
flung open and as the warm summer
breeze blew through the hall - the crowd
trickled outside forming the pavement
into a dance floor. They danced on tables,
they jumped on the stage and theykicked •
their way between the tables in a chorus
line of rythm.
They came from every part of the
Niagara Peninsula and as Bobby Keep
shouted out the names of towns, long
time fans of The Rubber Band jumped
out of their seats to applaud and whistle.
"Dunnville!" ... and a table of eight
houted and hollered, present and ac-
counted for.
"Welland!" and three tables burst into
noisy self -gratification. "We'd like to
dedicate this next song to Welland" an-
nounced Keep "a cultural tributed to the
town by the. canal:" And then they played
the Beer Barrel Polka. Yes, e'en at
events based on charity and goodwill,
Welland takes a ribbing.
And all of this happening in Niagara
Falls, the town Oscar Wilde visited on his
honeymoon and thereafter referred to it
as the second biggest disappointment in
marriage.
The night had but one dull moment. If
you ever want to bring a runaway train 9f
a party to a screeching, lurching halt -
just ask the mayor to say a few words.
Somebody mentioned that the key to the
city that was presented to Bobby Keep
also opened the front door down at the
Chamber of Horrors Museum but I'm not
so sure that's true.
The Rubber Band has disbanded
because Bobby Keep has moved to
Saskatoon to pursue a career in sales.
This talented, energetic band leader who
had people singing. and dancing
everywhere but the ceiling is quitting to
sell lumber? In Saskatoon? Bobby - say it
ain't so. Bobby - Wayne Newton's
"Danke schoen" is still number one on
the popcharts of Saskatoon. I've been to
Saskatoon, twice. When- they say you
can't hang a man twice for the same
crime, they haven't seen Saskatoon in
February.
Come back Bobby Keep. You made a
mistake! We'll have the grand reunion of
The Rubber Band at the Optimist Hall
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