The Citizen, 2018-05-17, Page 12PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2018.
Used book sale marks 40 years in operation
40 years of pies
While the Blyth Festival Used Book Sale had humble beginnings, starting as an addition to an
antique and craft show proposed by Rob Tetu, the book sale, featuring locally famous pies,
has been a staple of the Blyth calendar for years. Above, Lynda McGregor, who was involved
in the first sale and still volunteers with the group 40 years later, is shown making pies for the
event. (File photo)
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Last week's Blyth Festival used
book sale raised more than $7,000
for the theatre group, making the
40th annual iteration of the event a
success.
The book sale started as a smaller
part of a larger event, according to
long-time volunteer and former
Blyth Festival board member Lynda
McGregor who has been involved in
the sale since day one.
The event started when then -board
member and local artist Rob Tetu
proposed an antique and craft show,
something he felt would prove to be
a good fundraiser for the
organization.
As the mother of a two-year-old at
that point, McGregor said she was at
home, which gave her some time to
help Tetu organize the event, which
was held on the floor of the arena.
Susan McLean, a board member
and part of the family that owned
McLean Publishing, said she had
used books that could be sold
through the event and a table was set
up to accommodate that at the event.
Another board member, which
may have been Susan Howson
according to McGregor, suggested
setting up a bake table "as a little
extra".
"I'm not sure if it was the first year
or the following year, but we had a
great rhubarb crop," she said. "My
mother-in-law made rhubarb custard
pies that I've always thought were
good, so I made some and brought
them in."
Rhubarb pie has always been a
staple of the sale, McGregor
explained, because people seem to
love them and, financially, they're an
easy project to tackle, which is of
paramount importance for a
fundraiser.
The second year of the event saw
McGregor pregnant, so she wasn't
able to help as much, leaving Tetu to
take command of the event, she said.
After that second year, however, the
volunteers looked at the project and
the only profitable components were
the bake table and the book sale.
"The antiques and crafts just
weren't turning a profit," she said.
"We let them go and decided to
focus on the book sale and the bake
table."
McGregor said she believed the
third year of the event was when it
was moved to Memorial Hall, which
helped to illustrate the cause
supported by the book sale. That
year, the north addition to the hall
was the target of the fundraising,
including the change rooms and
accessible washroom.
McGregor said that Marian
Doucette took over the event after
that and, having worked in a library,
The backbone of the event
The Blyth Festival Used Book Sale fundraiser has brought in bibliophiles for the last 40 years
since it was first conceived as part of a larger event. The book sale has stood the test of time,
markings its 40th iteration earlier this month, when it raised approximately $7,000 for the
Festival. (File photo)
she was a natural choice for the
position.
"Her mother Verna helped dust the
books and sort them and Marian was
in charge of the sale for years,"
McGregor said. "She added guest
speakers, like Timothy Findley one
year."
McGregor said that most of her
memories of the event revolve
around the people involved, like
Alice Munro and her husband
Gerald Fremlin, who she remembers
as wonderful volunteers, especially
once the sale was done.
"They would open a window and
just start to pitch the boxes of books
outside to get them out of the
building," she said. "During the
1980s, we tried to keep the books
year-to-year. We used an old
schoolhouse in Morris [Township] to
store them"
McGregor said that, even with
great volunteers like Munro and
Fremlin, there was difficulty in
maintaining that kind of collection.
"The amount of human power to
sort, store, box, unpack and clean the
books was immense," she said. "It
became difficult as time went on"
Eventually, it was decided that
books not sold would go to
other book sales or groups
that would welcome them. This
year, for example, the books
NORTH
HURON
Notice is hereby given that the 2018 Township of North
Huron Budget will be considered on Tuesday, May 22,
2018 at 7:00 p.m. in the North Huron Council Chambers,
274 Josephine Street, Wingham, ON
were donated to local thrift stores.
In the early 1980s, McGregor said
the group began baking the pies on
site instead of having volunteers
cook the pies in their home. The
tradition continues today.
"The smell of the pies baking
brought people in off the street," she
said.
While the pies are the longest -
standing tradition as far as baked
goods go, there have been many
other foodstuffs sold at the used
book sale over the year, including
miniature pies which were
introduced this year. In the 1980s,
however, there were sandwiches.
Volunteers prepared ham, egg
salad and tuna sandwiches and, like
many aspects of the Festival, those
sandwiches were a product of
community spirit.
"Don Scrimgeour donated the
ham," McGregor said. "I could just
walk up to him and he would have
ham delivered. Lois van Vliet always
made the eggs, and had them
chopped and ready the day of the
event. I bet I wouldn't have even
needed to call her to have her show
up with her eggs"
Thanks to the great people
involved like Scrimgeour and van
Vliet, McGregor says she doesn't
remember the long hours preparing
Continued on page 17
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