There was a lot of reminiscing going on Saturday at Glendower Hall as the Bedford Historical Research Centre’s annual open house.

“All people are interested in things, it’s just what are they interested in,” said Paul Younge, who was back for another year with his vast collection of farm-related publications.

“All that old stuff is really interesting,” said Coun. Pat Barr. “Like Gramma Barr’s bread and butter pickles recipe.

“If you just read it, you’d think you sliced the onions before you peeled them.”

She said they have a lot of people wanting to donate things, which they appreciate, but “you really need to put it in something.

“We did have a lady organizing the death notices but she died.”

And, she thinks the area was a lot more colourful in the ’50s.

“We had a lot of bootleggers in the area then,” she said.

Perhaps one of the more interesting people for visitors to reminisce with on this day was Gord Sly, president of the Frontenac County Schools Museum and author of Good Old School Days.

“There were more than 100 one-room schools in the County at one time,” he said. “And the museum probably has something from just about all of them.”

He said that legally, kids couldn’t walk more than three miles to school — which accounts for why there were so many of them.

“Most of them were in farm country and there were no buses back then,” he said.

He said that in the ’70s, most of the old schools started closing down and a “bunch of teachers got together” to create the museum and preserve the memories and memorabilia.

Sly had photos from Salem School (Bedford #1) and the Oak Flats school from 1904.

One of the more interesting items on display was an old honey pail.

“That’s what the kids used for lunchboxes,” he said. “They also used old lard pails.”

The 14th annual Frontenac Heritage Festival was well represented Saturday in Kennebec District.

First of all, there was the annual display from the Kennebec Historical Society at Kennebec Hall featuring the unique tool collection of Martin Hoogstein as well as a recently acquired wooden model of the Nonsuch (explorer Henry Hudson’s ship) built by Nick Zeldenrust and a couple of old baseball scoreboards found in the basement of Kennebec Hall.

Once again the Arden Potters held the Empty Bowls project where buying a bowl of soup or chilli also got you a handcrafted bowl with proceeds going to the Food Bank and the Arden Rink Restoration project.

And speaking of the Rink Restoration project, the Recreation Committee held a bake sale fundraiser. They’ll still take donations too. Call Wanda Harrison at 613-335-3186 for information.

There was also a quilting display and outside, Mike Proctor, Bob Miller and the Frontenac Blades put on a demonstration of pioneer living and tomahawk throwing.

Over on Kennebec Lake, the lake association’s annual event got off to a bit of a rough start when Terry Kennedy took a spill on the ice while, ironically, spreading sand on the plowed walkway. Then, it was announced that a planned ice rescue demonstration under the bridge had to be cancelled as district fire chief Jeff Matson, who was organizing the demonstration, was called away to be present at the birth of his grandson.

But, as more and more people started showing up, things worked out just fine.

“This was our best one ever,” said one of the organizers, Judy Kennedy. “There were about 110 people and many of them were new faces.

“We’re getting a turnover on the lake and it was good to see a lot of kids and dogs.

“And all the food was gone.”

Matson family patriarch Glen loves preserving history and so, for the third straight year, he opened up the farm in Arden for a Family Fun Day, with all sorts of demonstrations, wilderness skill games, and horse-drawn wagon rides.

“We’ve got a lot of old stuff here,” he said Sunday, after sawing through a log with an old two-man saw. “You see that wagon made out of logs? We got that 40 years ago and it was old then.”

But preservation of history isn’t the only motivation for the clan.

“I just cook,” said Betty Matson. “Isn’t it a beautiful day?”

When asked why she does it, she was quick to respond however.

“It’s so good to see all the kids running around having a good time,” she said. “It’s great to have all the families together having fun.”

She said she expects they’ll do it all again next year, probably doing all the same things they did this year and the year before that.

“It depends on the weather,” she said. “We’ll just go with the flow.

One display that drew a crowd was the Frontenac-Addington Trappers Association, who will be celebrating their 40th anniversary April 15 at the community centre in Flinton.

“We’re here for the heritage aspect of things — pure and simple,” said association president Wilf Deline. “Trapping is the oldest land based business in North America and we’re still here.”

Deline said they’re constantly trying to “educate the public” not only on trapping but primarily on environmental issues.

“We’re the real conservationists here,” he said. “We keep an eye on deer and everything else.

“Who spends more time in the bush than trappers?”

A couple of other things worthy of note at the Farm Fun Day: the skating trail through the bush was really cool, something the economic development people maybe should take a look at and . . . Moose Tongues. t

Derek Matson was serving up the deep-fried, cinnamon and sugar covered dough treats most people would know as beaver tails.

But he explained: “Beaver Tails is a copyrighted franchise, so we can’t call them that.

“These are Moose Tongues.”

Whatever you call them, they sure were tasty.

Family Day at the Frontenac Community Arena grounds has become the largest gathering of people from across South Frontenac each year. Unlike Canada Day, which is a local community celebration.

“One of the things I love most about Family Day is that it is a township wide event,” said Amanda Pantrey, one of the organisers of this year’s celebration of the winter season.

This year’s event features all of the activities that have made Family Day popular, including horse drawn wagon rides, a winter obstacle course, Scandinavian kick sledding, snowshoe races, free skating in the arena, games, a free BBQ courtesy of the township, and free milk courtesy of the Frontenac Dairy Producers.

As an added bonus this year, many local businesses have donated items for a prize basket that will be raffled off at the end of the day. There is no charge to enter the raffle, entrants just need to sign in to get a ticket.

And at 3pm, the South Frontenac Stocksport club will be doing an Ice-stock demonstration in the arena. It will be both a demonstration and an opportunity to try out the sport (bring ice grippers if you can).

It all kicks off at 11am on Monday, the 17th. Come early or be prepared to park along the road as the parking lot fills up early.

The Frontenac Arena is located in Piccadilly, at 4299 Arena Boundary Road, halfway between Verona and Godfrey.

Now in its sixth year, Riverhill Farm just off the River Road in North Frontenac near Ompah has added 20,000 new lights this year, making the grand total on the order of 120,000 lights.

“Walt Disney has deeper pockets than I do,” said owner/operator Greg Ducharme. “We have to move a little slower.”

If you’ve never been, you take the River Road to 1311 Struthadam Road. From there, you can drive around the grounds taking in several different themed areas. Except on Saturdays, of course. On Saturday evenings, it’s foot traffic only for safety’s sake, but you can take the wagon ride. And there’s still one more visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus (Dec. 21 from 5-8 p.m. and there’s hot fresh donuts available and wagon rides every Saturday night. The displays will be open until 9 p.m. every night until Dec. 30.

“I’m still having fun doing this,” Ducharme said. “Some years are more challenging than others.

“With the freeze-thaw cycle this year, the ground’s been soft at times but other than that . . .”

Even if you have been here before, there’s always something different.

“I like to change things around,” he said.

“But I’m the one that does all the work,” said Stephanie Lemke, the self-appointed “designer, social media director and light-putter-upper.”

Presumably, they both get occasional help from Rhonda Lemke.

But, Stephanie appears responsible for the operation’s in-house FM radio station and this year, she drove down to Pennsylvania to retrieve the new wagon for the Saturday night tours.

“It seats 24 comfortably,” she said. “We did plan to use horses to pull it but they turned out to be too expensive.

“But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Horses tend to jerk to a stop and when starting again so pulling the wagon with a tractor tends to be a smoother ride.”

And while the displays are already impressive, including things like the Grinch and Singing Trees, Ducharme is nowhere near done.

“We have people who come every year and some even book private parties,” he said. “And we’re available for businesses to have their Christmas parties.”

To that end, they’ve fixed up the sitting area, making it more comfortable for more people but that’s not the end of his plans.

“We’re already planning for next year,” he said. “And I’m hoping to build a banquet hall for parties that will have lots of windows where you can have your meal while you look out on all the displays.”

And while they do enjoy visitors, Ducharme said he’s been known to just enjoy it all by himself.

“Some nights, if I’ve had a rough day, I’ll drive around out here or just take a walk,” he said. “It’s very calming and relaxing.”

For more information, check out Riverhill-Farm-Fine-Food or Ompahlights on Facebook or call 613-470-2896.

While an actual official count of the number of Nativities on display at St. Patrick’s Church last Sunday in Railton may be elusive, suffice it to say there were a lot of them.

“This is the biggest one we’ve ever had,” said Mary Murphy, one of the organizers. “We have a pile of them.”

“There’s more than 600,” said Fr. Bill Steacy. “I counted them.

“They come from all around the world and there’s even one from 1830 that my uncle made.

“Although, I couldn’t tell you where that one is and I might even find it when I get back home today.”

“I think he’s counting the angels in there,” said Murphy. “But we do have a lot of small ones and then there are all the ones from the (four) classes at St. Patrick’s School.

“There’s at least 50 of them alone.”

Murphy’s own collection is more than 100 nativities and they had contributions from other collections as well.

“The Cole Lake crew (who hold 101 Nativities the week before every year) came down and added quite a few,” Murphy said. “This is the first year we’ve had to use the centre table to get everything out.

“There’s so much art in these (and) we even have a couple of doubles — which we seldom do.”

She said they also had contributions from Pauline Hogan, Elizabeth Kellerman and Alice Tippin.

Her favourite though, is a new one that’s not quite finished. The manger is made 150-year-old barn board donated by John and Brenda Lesperance.

“Bill Flynn made it and it’s going outside when it’s done,” she said.

Murphy said although it’s a Catholic Women’s League project, they did have some other help as well.

“We had four high school students who were here for volunteer hours and they were just terrific,” she said. “It’s a CWL project but we had a whole crew.”

The musical variety night held Saturday Nov 16 in BellRock was an evening of contrasts. Instruments ranged from the delicate sounds of handbells to the sweet sounds of flutes . From a the sounds of a strident bagpipe, to that of a gentle harp.

The hit of the night was almost certainly the Limestone Bellringers, conducted by Janet MacDonald. The delicate and magical sound of this group had the audience mesmerised. Honestly, the acoustics in this 150-year old former schoolhouse seemed to be made to best show off the resonance of these bells. Janet explained a few of the techniques and sounds that can be obtained from the instruments and the bellringers demonstrated.

Ian Mackay turned up in full Highland dress and delighted the audience with several medleys on his bagpipes. He educated us on some of the details of his outfit and also on the instrument. And no, we didn’t ask to see what he was wearing under that kilt!

Toute Ensemble, a flute group played a varied selection of music including a piece by Elvis, some swinging blues, a few classical pieces and finished with several Celtic melodies, accompanied in some of these by Merrilyn Barber on her harp.

Merrilyn Barber enchanted the audience with her selections on the harp. She played several traditional folk tunes and some less familiar Christmas carols. The audience was enthralled. The music was wonderful.

Ian finished up the concert, sending us back out to our cold cars at the end of the night with a rousing version of Amazing Grace.

A lovely evening for all who attended. We collected a good selection of items for the food bank and raised some much-needed funds for the maintenance of this special community building.

“A common definition of community is when a group of people with diverse characteristics, who are linked by social ties, who share common perspectives, engage in joint activities making our communities a better place to live. This is what we have going on here today, and we are proud and thankful for those who donate their time and ideas to add to the spirit of Arden.”

Those are the words of Central Frontenac Town Crier Paddy O’Connor in his dedication for the opening of the second annual Arden Family Field Day Saturday at the Ball Park in Arden.

And, O’Connor’s words seemed to sum up what organizer Jordan Chatwin wanted to do with this event.

“Compared to last year, we wanted to expand,” Chatwin said. “We added vendors, a parade, live music (Derek and daughter Cayleigh Matson).

“I think we hit all our markers.”

This year, the parade marked a return of something Arden hasn’t seen in quite awhile.

While nobody could remember exactly when the last parade in Arden was, Glen Matson offered this: “Not sure when it was but Dorothy Gaylord was reeve and (Bill) Vankoughnet was the member.

“They sat in this very same wagon.”

“This (field day) is just for community spirit,” Chatwin said. “It’s a beautiful place, beautiful people (and) when we get together, we can do beautiful things.

“No one’s getting paid and the scope of it is — the sky’s the limit.”

One thing that has set the Frontenac Frolic apart from similar summer gatherings is the annual Cow Flop Bingo.

For those unfamiliar with the Frolic, it’s an annual summer fundraiser held at Bedford Hall to raise money for the Bobs & Crow Lakes Foundation. It includes things like a silent auction, bake table, used books table, flea market, petting zoo, Little Ray’s Reptiles and displays from the fire department.

For those unfamiliar with the Bingo, here’s the “scoop on the poop” as the association puts it.

A field is divided up into 1,600 squares, with each square assigned a number. Players purchase tickets ($10 each or three for $20).

A cow is led onto the field to graze. When it poops, whoever holds the ticket for the square it poops in, gets $1,800. The second poop nets a ticket holder $900 and a third $500.

Now, for a flop to be “real,” it must be three inches in diameter and it does happen that it lands on a line (in which case the judges determine how the winnings will be split).

That’s pretty much it.

But, there are other things going on as well.

“Our silent auction has some really nice items this year,” said volunteer Mary Seaton, who has overseen the auction for nine years now, since the Frolic began. “We have everything from a chain saw to fine art such as the painting from Kingston artist Jordan Hicks.

“We usually get between 20 and 50 items for the auction and this year, we have 33.”

One new attraction this year was the inclusion of the Boot’n’Bonnet (British) Car Club out of Kingston. As one might expect, this is a club dedicated to MGs and Jaguars, as well as some more obscure brands.

President Ken Morgan said club member Larry Henderson, who owns Green Bay Heritage Cabins on Bobs Lake, talked his compatriots into coming out to the Frolic.

“It can be difficult to get people on a long weekend,” Henderson said. “We left our kids to look after the cabins.”

If you’ve ever been to the Flinton Community Jamboree, chances are you’ve seen Bill White perform. He’s played at every one, sometimes with The White Brothers Classic Country, sometimes with White Pines, his bluegrass band. For the 2019 edition, he played with both.

But as a good Plevna boy, the Flinton Jamboree is something of a ‘home game’ for him.

“It’s as close as I get,” he said. “I was here Day 1 and I don’t think I’ve missed a year (14 years actually).

“I don’t know why (laughs).”

Actually, it was growing up in Plevna that formed his musical roots, during those formative years.

“We had an old radio and at night we could get Wheeling West Virginia,” he said. “When the Beatles played Ed Sullivan, a lot of my friends were talking about it but I never had an interest in rock’n’roll.

“I listened to Mac Wiseman.”

(He actually got to be in Wiseman’s back-up band on two occasions and he mentions it with reverence in his voice.)

He says a song has to mean something to him for him to sing it.

“I’m not a writer,” he said. “But you have to sing a song with conviction.

“And I prefer a story song.”

While he admits to not being much of a rocker, he does excel at classic country and bluegrass.

He really doesn’t have a preference but does acknowledge that each genre is a slightly different headspace.

“With the country band, (which includes brother Murray on electric guitar, Tom Gardiner on electric bass, son Joe on fiddle and Gerry Ratz on drums), we do a lot of (Merle) Haggard,” he said. “Like we do at Little Texas on Sundays. “With the bluegrass, we don’t have drums keeping the beat so I have to do more of that, strumming heavier on guitar, so they’re marching to my time.”

And it all seems to be working.

White and his bands are busy every weekend in the summer and he rattles off a list of up coming gigs to prove it.

But he’ll always have a soft spot for the Flinton Jamboree.

“I’ve had a lot of good times here,” he said. “And I look forward to coming back.

“And, I’m available.”