More Thoughts of Wingham

I am sure you are all familiar with this very central crossroads.  It is pretty much the same now as then except for the traffic lights.  I have also shown an early 1900’s thumbnail of the Bank of Hamilton in the bottom right hand corner - not a lot of difference for all those years.  Not very far up the hill to the left is St Paul’s where I went to church  (no it wasn’t named after Paul Bennett)  and just a short hop down Centre St is our last house.  Just up the angled road (originally called Diagonal Rd) in the centre of the image is the Bowling Alley and Ice rink.  I did a stint at the bowling alley for a couple of nights but I was so slow they had to let me go -  I only realised at the very end, that instead of trying to hold the pin lever down with my hand, I should have put my feet on it and saved at least half the time.  Idiot. We used to visit the Ice Rink many times.  It was directly opposite the Wild’s who we visited frequently (they were my godparents)  And more of less opposite John Merkely’s big house right next to the Wild’s”  I was always jealous of his TV,  he had a much better aerial than ours which was looking directly over the prairie, and it didn’t freeze up solid like ours did in the winter.  I also used to go to the Ice Rink for Hockey practice and games especially when I was bumming around with Pete Carmicael. The main centre of attraction is the central area.  To the immediate left we had Alexander’s hardware.  Paul and i used to build model aeroplanes  (to be honest, Paul was the expert - I used to do more watching)   to display in the store and it was a superb excuse to try and catch a glimpse of Sylvia.  Just around the corner is Paul’s Dad’s Hydro store/office.  It was so hot one day we argued with a local that it was hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk.  He said it wasn’t so we did and we succeeded with a little help from  a magnifying lens

Just over the road is the red brick bank building.  Paul and I spent many an afternoon there waiting for the Toronto newspapers.  Often in 3 foot of snow.  While we were there we used to chat with the insomniac just down the diagonal road and we made great friends with a stray dog - we called him Patch.  For  a laugh one day we taught him how to pick up a doormat and drop it off at the cenotaph.  Great wheeze.  The next morning, on a trip to the bank corner we found that Patch had collected ALL the doormats from the immediate area and deposited them at the cenotaph.  There must have been 25-30 doormats.  Took us some time to find their real homes.

 Brian Rider

Scouting

Brian Rider's recent scouting photo inspired me to finish this project (see photo below)that has been on the back burner for years

I just finished putting it together this morning.Note the purple patrol colors on the left I forget what we were called.i am missing the coveted Queen Scout badge and gold cord and the many proficienty badges we had fun earning.

The chrome belt buckle is a German one I traded with a a young scout I met in Cologne Germany when I lived there for a short time in 1963. Scouting was one of the best things I ever did, It taught me many good things,like help other people at all times, how to light a fire,tie knots. I remember being terrified of the "beach bums"at Camp Martyn at Inverhuron and lining up for dose of Epsom salts every morning. Archie Gowanlock was the great white chief then. I remember one night when it was dark we were led along a sandy path to a clearing where a huge wood pyre had been set up we were told to be very quiet, then the Great White Chief raised his arms a asked for fire from the heavens and sure enough it shot out of the sky from nowhere and hit the pyre and bit burst into flame,wow, I'll never forget that moment in time. How did it happen? Well earlier in the day the leaders had strung a wire from the fire pit up into a nearby tree where one of them was hiding when we came in,when Archie raised his arms, that was the cue for the guy in the tree,he sent a can stuffed with a rag doused in lighter fluid down the wire which hit the Lighter fluid soaked pyre and poof, It truly was magic! They were good days. I feel so sorry for the kids today with their heads stuck into their phones,computers,electronic games. We were outside most of the time.

Bob McIntyre