Brockville's Historic Criminal Past

I was lucky enough to be included in the dress rehearsal of the Brockville's Historical Criminal Past Walking Tour Tuesday evening. The Brockville Museum (5 Henry Street) will be running this tour every Friday at 3:00  and 7:00 PM beginning Friday, July 1st (Canada Day) until Labour Day.

Katelyn Ressler, from Kerrobert, Saskatchewan, who is studying dramatic arts at St Lawrence College, was hired by the museum for the summer, and she was the one who led us on the tour. This energetic young lady took us on a loop along trails, through parks, and the downtown core, and even through a back alley.  We would stop now and then to be told tales of  murder and mayhem, robbery and burglary.....and yes, apparently there is a difference, which was explained to all of us, in terms we could easily understand and remember.  We even heard how a crime was committed in the early 1800's in order to have a courthouse more centrally located in Brockville instead of where it was in Johnstown at the time.

We've all heard that crime doesn't pay, but the crimes in the Brockville area kept the courthouse busy, and the newspaper in business, which in turn provided jobs for the residents. Perhaps crime does pay after all.  Now this tour can be had for a mere $6 charge, though it's not recommended for children under 10 years of age. It's a great way to spend a lovely summer evening. If you are interested, you should call ahead to reserve a spot.  613-342-4397

I had expected other drama students to pop up along the way to act out the stories, but I'll have to wait for the Spirit Walk in August for that kind of action.  I'm sure that will be great fun, and can hardly wait.

Geocaching Helps Us Find Real Treasures

 It's been a strange summer. Normally we do a lot of geocaching, but this year it was either too wet, or the mosquitoes were in attack mode, or the poison parsnip was everywhere we looked and we didn't want to take the chance of brushing up against that. We did get out a couple of times though.

Yesterday we went to visit friends at their cottage, and picked up a few caches on the way back. Nothing special about any of them. Except for one at a totally unkempt graveyard, they were all along the fence line on the road we were traveling. 

But last time we went out, we discovered a few treasures, and I don't mean the ones they hide in the caches. Just outside of Brockville we found a  beautiful garden that's open to the public. They call it the Garden of Hope and Serenity, and if you visit, you will quickly learn why.  This is someplace we have driven right by many times in the past, without knowing it was there. It was well worth the stop, and I'm sure we will return again in the future. 

Closer to Lyn, on the same day, we made another amazing discovery. Tucked back in the bush, out of sight, is a beautiful waterfall that we would never have even guessed existed, if we had not found it on one of our geocaching treasure hunts. We found ourselves at the top of it, but you can be sure we will go back and find a way into the bottom sometime, as I believe there is a cache down there that we didn't get to.

The waterfall and the garden were both wonderful treasures, and one of the main reasons we love to go geocaching. It's not what you find in the cache, it's what you find along the way. 

Visiting Celebrity

After watching Max Keeping on TV for the past 40 years, I finally got to see him in person this week. Though he has retired from the news desk at CJOH, he has continued to act as the station's ambassador and still makes a good many public appearances.  On this occasion he came to talk to a seniors group in my area, though he arrived close to an hour later than expected.  He did phone to say he was running 20 minutes late, but then he got lost and couldn't find the village where the event was to take place.  Mind you, he's always had a driver until recently, so though he got around to a lot of places, he didn't have to pay particular attention to how to find his way.

All week I wondered what the subject of his talk would be.  Actually, he didn't have a subject, and you could tell the talk was not preplanned.  He came in and apologized for being late, then told us what he had done so far that day, and why it was he arrived later than expected.   He wasn't making excuses, just telling the story.  He then proceeded to tell us what a typical day in his life was like. That led to how he came to be parenting a teenage boy at this stage of life. Then Max told us a bit about CJOH and the people there.  There were a few cute stories about things like how they did the first live broadcasts from railway stations across the area by hooking up to the fibre optics that ran beneath the railway lines, and how poor J.J. Clarke almost drowned in the Saint Lawrence River during a weather forecast in Brockville.  That's not funny, but the way Max told it, we couldn't help but laugh. 

Max touched on his upbringing on The Rock and how, in the boonies, it's necessary for everyone to pull together as a community to look after everyone else. This is why it seems so natural for him to always be involved in so many charities. He's helped raise over 100 million dollars so far, and has even established a charity in his own name, to help out those who would normally fall through the cracks. 

He was finished his talk, and was asked if he would stay for refreshments. He said he had spotted the goodies at the back of the room and had not grown to this size (patting his belly) by turning down desserts.  I'm not at all sure he got any though, as people kept trying to talk to him.  In fact they managed to keep him at the front of the room for several more minutes answering questions. He wears rings on every finger and it took a few minutes just to explain what each of them were. The best one was like an old fashioned TV set, with a diamond embedded on the screen. 

Newfoundlanders are known to be great story tellers, and Max Keeping is no exception.

Canada Day in Eastern Ontario

We had choices to make as there were Canada Day festivities all over the place.  We decided it would be a nice day to spend by the water, so we headed to Brockville for Riverfest.  It's been years since we've done that! We got to town just in time to see the parade.  Honestly, it wasn't any bigger than the one they have in Merrickville, but at least it didn't have as many firetrucks in it. I took a photo of that one year, and managed to get I think  the entire parade in just one frame of my camera. Kemptville has the best parade around these parts. 

The Dock Dogs competition was at Riverfest today.  I've never seen that before, and it was great fun. The dog owners throw something in the pool for the dogs to retrieve.  The rules state that the object must float, be none edible and be retrievable.  The dogs had all kinds of interesting toys to fit the bill.  Some of the dogs had done this before, and knew the routine. Others had never done it before, and thought twice about going off the edge of the platform.  That made things interesting as then the owners had to find a way to get the dog to jump into the water, without actually pushing or pulling them off the dock.  Only one dog flat out refused.  But later in the day, even that one figured out he was missing out on the fun, and jumped off the dock with no hesitation during the second round.  There was a competition to see how far they could jump, another to see how high they could jump, and a third to see how fast they could retrieve something from the far end of the pool.  A good time was had by all.....especially the dogs!

Other things we saw today were a karate demonstration put on by the Brockville Karate Club, various musical performances, and the Wildcat II, a boat that takes people for a wild and speedy ride....but it had some kind of problem and had to come back to shore.  Too bad too as I really wanted to see how fast that thing could go.

There was an area for children that had such things as a petting zoo, a pony ride, facepainting. There was also an area there where the budding artists could make chalk drawings if they wanted to.  Apparently it was not just the kids that were enjoying that.  Too bad all this work will be washed away in the next rain.

We went for a lovely lunch of fish and chips at Buds On The Bay and then went back to the park for another walk around (to wear all that food off) before heading home. 

This evening we went to watch the local firework display.  I feel like I packed the whole weekend into just one day.  I'll be happy to sit around and read for the rest of the weekend......or maybe just sleep.  It was a really great Canada Day this year.