Photo: staff at PRPS from 1976/77

Staff, students and former students gathered at Perth Road Public School on October 13 to celebrate its 40-year anniversary and four decades of the school’s history in the community.

Classrooms were set up highlighting the history at the school and students were invited to unearth artifacts from the school archives, many of which were incorporated into various displays around the school. As part of a student-driven project, the school’s grade eight students created videos that were showcased at the event. Grade eight teacher Cindy Harvey said, “This was the perfect project for the older students at the school since they really had a chance to look into the history of the school and to see how it has changed over the decades. As part of the introduction to history, I like to teach the students about artifacts and archives, how they are handled, what they mean and what they can learn from them. This project fit that perfectly and the students really took to it and were totally self-driven.”

Retired teacher Doug Farquar, who now works in radio at Queen’s University, instructed the grade eight students in interviewing, camera and video techniques, which aided them in their video project.

The students also interviewed staff and former students at the school.

Photo: Brad and Christina Aylesworth with sons Blake and Owen at the 40th Anniversary celebration at Perth Road PS on October 13

Christina Aylesworth, who along with her husband is a former student at the school, has been teaching at the school for 12 years. She is also the mother of two young students at the school and recalled how family has always been an important part of the school’s philosophy. “I'm definitely a product of this school, which for me has always felt like one big family. That and the fact that the school has always promoted community collaboration are the memories that stick with me most and are the ideas that we continue to promote here at Perth Road. We have a great parent council here at the school, many of whom were former students, which speaks to how people in the community still want to contribute to the school community”, she said.

Visitors at the anniversary event were invited to choose a coloured leaf corresponding to the decade they attended, which they attached to a large tree painted on a wall in the school library.

Photo: Historical Society members- president Carolyn McCulloch and museum curator Margaret Axford in Cloyne’s Pioneer Museum

The grand opening celebrations at Cloyne's Pioneer and Archive Museum on June 23 attracted history buffs from far and wide to help celebrate its annual re-opening and to make public its fundraising campaign to expand the museum. The day also celebrated the Cloyne & District Historical Society's 40th anniversary as the one and only presenter of the north’s rich logging, mining, tourism and pioneer settlement history.

The event included live entertainment by Randy and Dallas Arney, and the Denbigh band Highway 41, a birthday cake made by Jill Cote, and speeches from the historical society's president, Carolyn McCulloch, and the museum's curator Margaret Axford. As a special treat for the opening, Larry Black of Kashwakamak Lake had on display his original 1952 Korean War jeep.

Long-time society member Margaret Axford, who has been the curator of the Pioneer Museum and its archives since 2000, spoke to me about the original museum that the society, which was then called the Pioneer Club, opened in 1981 in an historic 20 x 30 foot log cabin.

In 2002 the historical society added an addition to the front of the cabin, which increased the museum's floor space threefold and which now highlights many of the artifacts and archives of the area's history. She spoke about some of her favorite artifacts in the museum - one is a corn planter from 1910 that was created by a farmer at home from an old dish pan and the parts of an old plough. “I love that piece because it’s a rustic, classic piece that really illustrates the idea 'Necessity is the mother of invention'”.

Another archival favorite of Margaret’s is a photograph of Flora MacDonald Denison, owner of the Bon Echo Inn at Mazinaw Lake, which opened in 1899 and burned down in 1936. The inn catered to wealthy visitors, who came by train to Kaladar and rode by stagecoach up Highway 41 to the bottom end of Mazinaw Lake, where they boarded a launch that took them to the inn.

She also told me about a historic letter written by Major Booth, the English gentleman who started the Salvation Army. Sent from England to Louise Snider, the letter from Booth encourages Snider to continue her work setting up a Salvation Army Corps in Cloyne. “We've had people come here from the Salvation Army's head office to see and read that letter.” Axford said.

She also spoke of a recently restored doll made in Germany between 1890 and 1910, which belonged to a local child, Ora Wickware. Ora's parents at one time owned Grant's store, which still operates today across the street from the museum.

Marg Axford is excited about the launching of the society’s fundraising campaign to build a second 1400 sq. ft. board & batten addition onto the south end of the building. The 2-year project is expected to cost $90,000. “We are desperate need of more display, archival and storage space,” Axford said.

The society will be applying for funding grants from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the New Horizons Program for seniors, and other private foundations and will be holding various fundraising events, as well as seeking donations from private sources. Margaret stressed the importance of preserving the unique local history in the north “There is no other organization in this area that is preserving the history. I believe very strongly that if we do not preserve and therefore know our history, we are doomed to make all of the same mistakes again. It's important to know where we've come from, a genuine logging community that started from nothing and grew to what it is today.”

The museum also has a wide collection of family histories and genealogies, and staff welcome other family stories from area residents. Anyone interested in sharing a family story with museum staff and/or finding more information about the museum and what it has to offer can visit the society's website at pioneer.mazinaw.on.ca.

The museum is now open 7 days a week from 10am – 4 pm until Labor Day. Admission is free and donations are gratefully accepted. Don't forget to visit the museum's retail store, which offers up many gifts, including "The Oxen and the Axe", a book that highlights the local history of the area.

Photo: Rev. Eric Barr, his wife Phyllis with Rev. Ron Smeaton and his wife Dolores at the 125th Anniversary Service at Sharbot Lake United Church

The wooden pews filled up fast at the United Church in Sharbot for a special ceremony celebrating its 125-year anniversary. Rev. Eric Barr led the service, which included music courtesy of the choir, organist Barb Agnew and guest Sara Lake, and a reading by Sarah Magie. Member of the congregation Dianne Lake spoke about the church’s history based on a history compiled by Allan Miller, Shirley Peruniak and Susan Wing. Lake began by asking the congregation, “Did you hear the bell toll this morning? It is the same bell that tolled 125 years ago to welcome church goers to the new Methodist church in Sharbot Lake.”

The first church was constructed in Sharbot Lake on the site of the present-day Masonic Lodge by Presbyterians in 1880, four years after the K&P railway officially opened. Though there was never an ordained resident minister at the church, students from the Presbyterian Theological College of Queens University were regularly sent out and boarded at the home of Mrs. Melzer Avery (now the post office).

In 1884 a regular Methodist mission was started in Sharbot Lake and records show that the first resident minister appointed was Rev. A.O. Watts. Regular Methodist and Anglican services were held in the building until 1887, when the Methodists built their own church just west of the Sharbot Lake Inn, on land that was donated from the K & P Railway. The lumber for the church was milled at Millies Mill in Oso. The original church was larger than the present United church and every Sunday service included music by a church orchestra and choir.

In 1885 the present day manse was constructed and Rev. Eber Crombie was the first minister to reside there.

The Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches of Canada united in 1925, and it was decided one year later, in 1926, under the leadership of Rev. R. Eagleson, that a new church be built at a cost of $5,000 since the old church on the hill was in need of repair. This is the present day United Church.

It was only much later on, in 1967, that the Parham, Maberly and Sharbot Lake churches became the Centenary Pastoral Church.

Lake finished her history giving thanks to “all who served this church over the last 125 years as ministers, stewards, elders and members.”

Rev. Dr. Ron Smeaton, who served as minister at the church from 1963-1967, gave a message titled “Where the Roads Come Together”. His emphasis was on the idea that “Unity does not imply uniformity.” He recited words form the Gospel of John that read, “There are other sheep I have that are not of this fold and them too I must lead as well.” Smeaton continued, “We need not look like the other sheep, we only have to follow the shepherd. If others follow the shepherd in their own way differently from us, well so be it. In my observation this has not happened yet. And I often wonder why is it that we have to keep repeating the mistakes of the past to everyone’s detriment.” Smeaton ended his message with one of his mottos: “Stand Up, Speak Up, and Shut up” and the idea of having the wisdom to know when to undertake each.

Following the service members of the congregation and the community were invited to share a lunch in the church hall.

The organization that has single-handedly preserved the rich history of the past along the Highway 41 corridor, from the Aboriginal past to the logging, mining and settlement history right through to the development of the tourist industry and life on the lakes, is turning 40 this year.

The Pioneer Cub was established in 1972, and has been preserving the stories of community elders in print and through artefacts ever since. Now incorporated as the Cloyne and District Historical Society and based at the Pioneer museum, some of the long line of former directors of the organization will be on hand on June 21 to mark the opening of the museum for the 2012 season, and to kick off the fund raising campaign for a 1,400 square foot addition to the building that will be built to accommodate the ever expanding collection of historical material from local sources.

Festivities will get underway at 11:30 on Saturday June 21. In addition to tours of the collection, musical performers will be on hand to perform in the pavilion in the park on the site in Cloyne near the library and the Barrie Hall (across the road from North Addington Education Centre). Joe Grant, formerly of Tanglefoot, will perform, as will Eleanor Duncan and Gary Ferguson. There will also be a special performance by Dallas Arney.

Opening ceremonies are slated for 1:00, followed by cake. The event will wrap up at 2:30 and the museum, and the fund raising campaign, will then be officially open for 2012.

Photo: Sharbot Lake PS student hard at work on the Cornerstone Project.

With Sharbot Lake Public School facing closure after next year, grade 5-6 teacher Aaron West decided that something should be done to commemorate the history of the school.

He was successful in an application to the Limestone Learning Foundation for an I-pad and a MacBook computer, which his students are putting to use this month gathering an oral history of the school for inclusion on a website that will be dedicated to what he is calling the Cornerstone Project.

“The students are going to be recording their own memories of the time they have spent here, both through digital video and audio recordings, as well as through written submissions that will be included on the site,” said Aaron West. “It will not only be an opportunity for them to share their memories, it will also give them some experience using digital technology and work on creating a website.”

In addition to collecting the memories of current students, Mr. West’s grade 5-6 class is also putting a call out to former students, teachers and staff from the Shabot Lake Public School to come forward with their own stories. This can be done through written submissions, physical or digital photographs, or other means.

“SLPS alumni are also welcome to come in and tell their stories directly, and the students will record them using the I-pad technology,” said West. “We can handle all sorts of different submissions, and will build out the site to accommodate whatever comes in.”

Anyone interested in making a submission is invited to contact the school directly at 613-279-2103, and ask for either Aaron West or Sarah Andre.

In the early 1970s, what we now call urban refugees were starting to land in Frontenac and Western Lanark County. They were young, they wore their hair long, and the local community probably didn’t know what exactly to make of them. But the newcomers proved more resilient than many thought they would be, and they were accepted, over time.

Sometime early in 1974, Oskar Graf, a luthier from Berlin, Germany by way of Toronto, who had built a home on the Clarendon Road after buying a piece of land a few year earlier, called a meeting to see if there was enough interest to organize a music festival on his property.

“We filled the house, which was a good sign,” he recalled when interviewed over the phone last week, just after the end of the 40th Blue Skies Festival. “Some of the usual suspects were there. I remember the Hales from Arden were, and the folks from Lothlorien near Ompah, and John Moffat from Brooke Valley and some others.”

A decision was made at the meeting to hold a festival on the August long weekend. “We thought it might be a one-off,” said Graf, “but it sort of took off. From those beginnings the festival was a group run event. It was never my thing; there were always a bunch of us working on it.””

Forty years later, on the Saturday night of this year’s festival, which annually draws somewhere over 2,500 people with no publicity budget whatsoever, some footage from that first festival was shown on a screen on the festival stage at dusk, as Oskar looked on from next to the stage.

One of the familiar elements to the footage was a square dance, called by Stan Dueck, who continued to call the square dance at the festival for at least another 30 years. The band was led by local fiddler Kenny Jackson of McDonalds Corners, and although there were only a few squares as compared to the dozens that danced this year on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, it looked much the same. The only discernable difference was that in the 1974 film the men were almost all shirtless, and were wearing jeans. There was not a pair of shorts in sight. The demographics of the festival were also different. Most of the people in the film were in their 20s and 30s, with young children in tow.

Nowadays Blue Skies is an all ages affair, with children a few weeks old being cared for by brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents on site.

“The other thing you might have noticed in the film was that at the top of the hill, watching the music, there were a number of local people who came out to see what was going on. That’s the same way it is now,” said Oskar Graf, “we’ve always had pretty good support from the local community, and the local council."

In the early years the festival was free and food was sold at “ridiculously low prices - you know - 15 cents for a cheese sandwich,” Oskar said, “and there was a 70s spirit to it; you know, we thought back then that we could change the world.”

Although Blue Skies and other events like it have not quite changed the world, the festival has made a real difference in the surrounding communities. The ripple effect of Blue Skies has affected communities as far-flung as Perth, Elphin/McDonalds Corners, Maberly and Verona, and down to Kingston as well. It is these connections that were influential in the founding of other festivals, groups and events as diverse as the Verona Festival and the Stewart Park Music Festival in Perth.

On an official level, Blue Skies in the Community has subsidised musical education in local schools for many years, and has been partly responsible for the renaissance of the local fiddling tradition. The Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra, now 14 years old and larger than ever, has itself spun off at least two other fiddling groups.

Over the years the festival grew, and by the late 1980s a major concern that has pre-occupied organisers ever since had come to the fore: how to handle the fact that more people want to come, and camp out at Blue Skies than can be accommodated in a limited site that is accessed by1.5-lane gravel road.

Through it all the festival has maintained a few basic tenets. It is entirely volunteer run, and there are no commercial vendors at the festival, and no craft booths at all.

“When we first talked about the festival we kind of wanted the crafts-people, and I am one of them, to have a week off from selling,” Oskar Graf said, “and besides we didn’t see that a little festival like ours would be much of a market.”

This policy has been kept up, and there are still no commercial interests at play at Blue Skies. The amount and organization of volunteer labour is extensive. There are up to 40 areas that are separately organisd, from garbage/recycling to sanitation to food preparation, security, parking, first aid, holistic and music workshops and more.

The festival is organized by a very large group of people, and although there is a core group who live locally, there are now many people involved who come from outside the area.

Another aspect of Blue Skies that sets it apart from other music festivals is the egalitarian policy towards paying musicians, the only people who do make money from the festival. Instead of spending a large amount of the festival’s budget on one or two high profile acts, each musician, from headline to side players, are paid the same amount.

Because the festival is basically sold out in advance, the musical director has a fair bit of freedom when it comes to programming. This has enabled Blue Skies to bring in music from around the world in addition to the folk, blues/jazz and Quebecois music that the Blue Skies audience expects to see and hear each year.

Oskar Graf sold the festival site to the charitable corporation that officially runs the festival about a decade ago but he still participates in the many meetings that take place each year in advance of the festival (in Blue Skies tradition, all decisions are made by consensus) and still puts in time preparing the site.

“When I look at it after all this time, I can say that Blue Skies has made me a much richer man than I would have been otherwise. Without Blue Skies I might just be a crotchety old man living in the woods making guitars. I have gained a lot from all the people I have worked with on the festival, and from everything that the festival has brought about over the years,” he said.

The original Royal Canadian Legion was formed in 1945 by returning veterans from World War 2 and was called the North Frontenac Legion. Between 1945 and 1983 Legion meetings were held at available homes, halls and the Kennebec Community Centre, just down the road from the present location.

The first president of the Legion in Arden was Harry Alexander, followed by Claude Parks,
Charlie Parker and Bert Brown. Fred Hugh, was president from 1948 to 1955, and Howard Jackson served as treasurer for numerous years. Another active participant back then was Edward Wilkes

The current Legion was developed in 1981 and 1982, with the official opening taking place in May 1983. At that time it was still known as the North Frontenac Legion but in 1985 the name was changed to Branch #334, Gordon Gaylord Branch. It was thought at that time it was the only Legion branch named after a living veteran.

As times change, so do the functions, uses and commitments of both the Legion and all its members. The membership has fluctuated through the years from a high of 427 to a low of 123. Current membership stands at 155, which is hoped to be a stepping stone to a goal of 200 by 2015. Members are definitely wanted!

A sign of responding to local needs was the decision by the Legion to open a small grocery store on the premises. The idea of a store was started by the "Friends of Arden". It is open to all; you do not have to be a member to purchase grocery items, and although the Legion is no "Wal-Mart" or "Target", it is unique. Where else can a person have a relaxing beverage while shopping? No big city store can offer that! Store hours are noon to close Tuesday through Sunday.

Our Legion hosts numerous events, all open to the public, all reasonably priced, and all held in a friendly, comfortable atmosphere, such as a New Year’s Levy; Fishing Contest & Fish Fry; ATV Rally, Chili Cook-off; Bass Derby & Fish Fry; Chicken BBQ, Duck Race; Pig & Corn Roast; Car Rally; Remembrance Day; Deer Contest & Hunter’s Ball; Children's Christmas Party and New Year’s Eve Party. Throughout the year there are also various dart tournaments, breakfasts, bake sales, cake auctions, raffles, meat draws and steak suppers.

Since January 2011 the fundraising committee has raised $8,000 for roof repairs; $2500 for kitchen renovations, purchased a new television set, vacuum cleaner, replaced the ceiling in the central dart room, and purchased an awning for outdoor BBQ events.

The latest venture is to raise $4,950 by issuing redeemable shares at $50 each to repair water damage to both ceilings and floors. Shares earn interest at 6% per annum, repayment to start in mid-September 2013 and the target is 4 shares per month being repaid. The same idea was used on the roof and repayment took only 10 months instead of the scheduled 40. All participants should feel very proud to have helped. At this time, over 50 ceiling shares have either been paid for or committed to, so don't be shy; you can still join the club! Call the Legion at 335-2737.

The Ladies' Auxiliary is active as well and all monies raised by the auxiliary are used for local community activities, covering various sporting events and donations to worthy causes.

Other programs supported by Branch #334 consist of helping administer the Legion Villa in Kingston. This is a home for all seniors, not just veterans, and contributions to help cover costs come from all Legion branches within the area.

Our local C.A.R.E. program, started in 2006, is another source of funds for local families in time of need. Branch #334, along with the C.A.R.E. Committee and Ladies Auxiliary raise funds by holding the annual Duck Race, a summer sewer tournament, Christmas tree Angel donations and raffles throughout the year. Other funds are raised by generous donations from community members.

All Legions are very involved in the November Remembrance Day Services and Poppy Campaigns. Branch #334 is no exception. We host up to 60 serving military each November 11th and without a doubt, the hospitality given them, plus the food all donated by local ladies is second to none.

Within Arden, our Legion is one of the few remaining hubs of activity and would be sorely missed if not there. All help within the Legion is strictly volunteer. Our current members can all feel a sense of accomplishment at what has been built so far and we can all hope for bigger and better things for the future. If anyone is thinking of being a member or has a suggestion for improvements, please call 613-335-3664

On July 19, Gwen Leonard celebrated her 100th birthday, surrounded by her large family at the Arbour Heights Long Term Care Residence in Kingston.

She is in a wheelchair much of the time now, mostly for her balance, but she can still get around pretty well and she continues to live an active life.

Gwen Leonard spent her first 93 years, with one relatively short exception, in her home town of Hartington, and before leaving the village in 2006 to enter a nursing home, she presented some reminiscences of life in Hartington to the Harrowsmith Women’s Institute.

She talked about the origin of her farm, much of which is still run by her son Bob.

“My great grandfather, William Campsall, came to the area in 1817 … He purchased the farm on the north side of Boyce Road from a man by the name of Clow … In the early 1870’s the CPR railroad leased land from the farm, just east of Boyce Road, for 99 years to build the railroad. The train became known as the Kick and Push.”

When Gwen Campsall was 12 or 13 she began to take the train each day to KCI school in Kingston. The trip took 40 minutes but during parts of the year it also meant changing time zones because Kingston was on Daylight Savings time while the rural areas stuck to Standard Time year round. In grade 10 she started to attend the new high school in Sydenham. She would get to Harrowsmith on the train, and then would ride with Phil Roberts, an undertaker, in his “dead wagon”, which had no windows and was sometimes late because a body had to be delivered first; but she never seemed to mind.

She played piano when she was young and particularly enjoyed playing softball, even if it meant a walk back and forth to Harrowsmith to the ball field.

Hydro came to Hartington in 1929, and Gwen recalls turning on all the lights on the first night.

“We were so excited, but then dad said, ‘If you’re not using the lights, turn them off. History repeats itself.”

Gwen married Keith Leonard, who opened a garage in Hartington in 1936, only to close it four years later when he went to war. After the war, in 1947, Keith opened Leonard Fuels.

“At first it was a garage and lunch counter, and then fuel oils and Case machinery were added,” Gwen recalled. Gwen ran the lunch counter, as well as keeping home for four children, Margaret (Pritchard) Ray, Reg and Bob. The business is still in the family.

Later Gwen worked at Kingston General Hospital, in the kitchen at first, and eventually spent 20 years as a clerk in the pediatric ward.

She was a long-time member of the Harrowsmith Women’s Institute, and was active running the choir and Sunday school at the Hartington United Church for many years until it “was closed, on May 25, 1968 amid much stress and turmoil,” she recounted.

For Gwen the church will always be remembered. She remembers its 50th anniversary in 1923.

“I remember hearing the men talking about how they built the church. In the Harrowsmith Banner afterwards there was a picture and a poem that I have had since I was 9 years of age:

Only a little country church 
By the side of a village street, 
Behind it stands broad fields of grain 
And the meadow still and sweet. 
In simple dignity it stands, 
On Portland’s highest sod, 
That ploughmen turning their rich land, 
May not forget their God."

Her reminiscences concluded: "We have had in Hartington, sad times and good times, but Hartington has been a good place to live for the past 93 years.

Gwen Leonard has 35 grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren, and many of them were with her last week to celebrate her 100th birthday.

Back in late January this year, Bob Taylor of Northbrook was surprised to receive a telephone call from a gentleman in England, Neil Trotter, stating that they were planning a memorial in honour of the crew of the Lancaster Bomber, who were killed in a crash on June 18, 1943, 70 years ago in Scredington, England.

Bob Taylor's father, Flight Sgt. Robert Allen Taylor, was part of that crew, and he perished one week before Bob's birth. He was the sole Canadian on the mission.

Lincolnshire in Eastern England was the headquarters of Bomber Command. Of 6,000 Lancaster Bombers built, 5,000 were shot down or crashed. The life expectancy of a bomber crew was four combat missions Flight Sgt. Taylor was a rear air gunner. He was enclosed in a pivoting rear turret with four fixed weapons shooting 303 bullets. He had completed 50 combat missions and had just returned from a furlough. He volunteered for the training mission in which he was killed.

Neil Trotter was seven at the time of the tragedy, and he saw the Lancaster on fire before it crashed in a field next to his home. He later went on to a career in the Royal Air Force.

Trotter and John Porter, who was one of the few residents to visit the crash scene, both felt the need for a lasting memorial and eventually contacted Scredington Parish Council, with the result that the National Service Association funded the memorial stone.

Bob Taylor arrived in England on June 14 for the ceremony and was hosted by a fabulous couple at a town that coincidentally was named Northbrek (Northbrook), adjacent to Scredington.

On Jun 15, he was driven to his father's grave site at Grantham. He expected only to find his father's grave and place a small Canadian flag on it but was surprised to find out that a formal service of dedication and remembrance had been planned, with dignitaries and an honour guard. Scredington parish church was filled to capacity for the service, after which Taylor had the honour of unveiling the marble memorial stone and also laid a wreath on his father's grave.

Wreaths were also laid in the church for each of the airmen lost. This was followed by a flypast by the Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, dipping their wings in respect.

After the services, Bob Taylor visited the crash site and his chauffeur/chaperone discovered a twisted piece of metal from the crash, which was presented to him.

He also visited the Battle of Britain Museum where many of the vintage aircraft were kept in working order and had the opportunity to board a Lancaster Bomber like the one his father flew in.

It was a truly emotional and memorable experience for Bob Taylor.

In a testament to the fact that Herb Alpert and Herman’s Hermits never go out of style, the Classic Theatre Festival’s season opener on July 13 at 8 pm will be a celebration of 1966, complete with classic cars of the era, an opportunity to dance “The Freddie” and the “Hanky Panky,” and to enjoy the Neil Simon comedy “The Star-Spangled Girl,” set in San Francisco during the middle of that turbulent decade.

“With each opening of one of our shows, we try and take the audience back to the time period in which the play is set, to give them a sense of the look, feel, and sound of the era,” explains Festival Artistic Producer Laurel Smith. “With this show, it is an era that is recognizable to a lot of people because it is during the middle of the rock and roll renaissance, combined with the rapidly changing mores of youth culture, with all the passions and commitments that entails.”

Based this summer at the Full Circle Theatre at 26 Craig Street, the Festival’s opening night will feature a 1966 Thunderbird owned by Barry Splaine and a 1966 Austin-Healey convertible owned by Mike Maloney, among other vehicles expected to be on display.

“When you see these cars, you really get a sense of the style of the mid-60s, and these are the kinds of cars that were on the road a lot when our characters were ‘doing their thing,’” Smith explains.

“The Star-Spangled Girl” is the story of Andy and Norman, two free-thinking magazine writers who are dedicated to changing the world, a not uncommon trait of the 60s generation. Their apartment features a banner that reads “A Remedy for a Sick Society,” a tribute to their magazine, “Fallout,” which analyzes the problems of society and seeks solutions. Their walls are also adorned with icons of the era from actors Julie Christie and Anouk Aimee to pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr., and folk singer Joan Baez.

Close friends since high school, Andy and Norman (played by actors Trevor Pease and Richard Gélinas) eke out a living in an apartment whose rent is perpetually late (something they get away with because Andy ‘entertains’ the outrageous landlady downstairs). Their lives are turned upside down when a conservative southern belle moves in next door, the inimitable Sophie Rauchsmeyer (played by returning Festival actor Kate Gordon). Engaged to a U.S. marine, and dedicated to the red, white and blue, Sophie sets off sparks both romantic and otherwise, as issues such as social change, patriotism and the nature of love are played out.

In typical Neil Simon style, the writing is sharp and funny, the characters inherently lovable, and the story one that could apply to our current daily lives. Indeed, Simon’s show, written almost 50 years ago, could just as easily apply today to the Americans’ red state-blue state divide, in which conservatives and liberals continue to duke it out in elections and congressional debates.

The show’s director, Laurel Smith, reminds audiences that ultimately, the play is about the power of love to transcend differences, a valuable lesson in uncertain times.

“The Star-Spangled Girl,” sponsored by TVCogeco, runs until August 4, Wednesday-Saturday at 8 pm, with 2 pm matinees each Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Each matinee is preceded by a 1:30pm pre-show talk under the trees at the back of the theatre. Folks looking for a bargain can buy a season pass: by purchasing one regular ticket to “The Star-Spangled Girl”, they will receive a 25% discount off the season’s second show, a comedy of madcap marital mayhem, “The Marriage-Go-Round” (running August 9-September 1).

The Festival gratefully acknowledges the support of its season sponsor, Best Western Plus Perth Parkside Inn and Spa, as well as Ottawa Woman Publishing, WPBS, and the Ontario Tourism Event Marketing Partnership Program.

Tickets are available at www.classictheatre.ca and 1-877-283-1283.