Summerfest Canada Week activities ranged from toddler races to pipe smoking contest to indoor tennis tournament in 1978

Recreation director Terry Bryson reported that "Summerfest Canada Week" in 1978 was a success.. Terry wrote a weekly column in the Chapleau Sentinel.

Terry thanked the Summerfest committee -- Chair Peter Bernier (also chair of the Chapleau Recreation Committee); Denis Desbois (Township Clerk-administrator); Graham Bertrand (recration committee member), and Earle Freeborn (manager of the A.W Moore Arena).

Summerfest got underway after the Chapleau Civic Centre was officially opened on June 28, with the Chapleau Recreation Centre and Cedar Grove Lodge ceremonies held on June 29 and 30, respectively.

Then the activities got underway ranging from toddlers races to pipe smoking to ball tournaments, to an indoor tennis tournament,and of course a parade.

Here are some of the winners and highlights.

In the Toddlers races, Paul Bernier and Heather Lewis were the winners while Alexandra Boucher and Christine Tremblay emerged victorious.

In the 3 to 4 year old race mixed, Shannon Hatfield won. Christine Bujold won the Kick-the-Hoe race, and Connie Bujold was first in the Potato Sack race.

Rene Serre, Wiilliam Memegos

In the Kiddies races, 5 to 6, Glen Harvey (two races), Dana Vaughan, Connie Picody, Dean Harvey (three), Shelly Hughes, all were winners

Michel Babin was the big winner in the 9-10 year old races  with three wins, and Ken Groves won in the 11-12 year old race.

In the Gitls Three Legged race Pam May and Johanna Black won while Dean Harvey and Derek Hatfield took first place.

In the Carling O'Keefe pipe smoking contest George Basylec was first with Guy Martel and Gerald Bernier as runner sup. In horsehoe throwing Chapleau Intermediate A Huskies players dominated with David McMillan and Ted Swanson in first and J.C. Cyr and Doug Prusky in second.

The fire department won the bed race. Team members included Robert Moreau, Harvey Turcotte, Jacques Lafreniere, Ghislain Lafreniere, Richard St Amand, Wally Leigh and Raoul Lemieux.

The first Chapleau indoor tennis tournament was played on the floor of the new A.W. Moore Arena with Heather "Bubby" Hong winning the Ladies title with Carol Telik as runner-up. Tim Morin defeated his brother Allan for the men's title. 

In mixed doubles Fred Welch and Bubby Hong were the winners. 

As I was typing away, out of the mothballs of memory I recalled that I had played the first set of tennis on the indoor court against Carlo Cattarello, president of the Northern Ontario Hockey Association, during the activities with equipment borrowed from Tim Morin. Carlo won!

The very next weekend the Good Brothers with their "joyful music" appeared at the new recreation centre. At the time they were one of Canada's most popular bands. They played packed houses from the Maritimes to British Columbia and the United States.

But they almost didn't make it. The day they were to arrive in Chapleau, it was pouring rain with lots of thunder and lightning. For a time it looked like they would be able to land at the Chapleau Municipal Airport, but late in the afternoon it started to clear up, and the show went on as scheduled. 

Now I think I may go to YouTube and listen to some Good Brothers just for old times sake!  My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Reg Harvey pitching leads Hublit Hotelmen to 1978 Chapleau Fastball League title

Led by the excellent pitching of Reg Harvey, the Hublit Hotelmen emerged as Chapleau Fastball League champions for the second year in a row in 1978,  the Chapleau Sentinel reported.

The Hotelmen defeated the Sportsman Hotelers in "convincing style" four games to one. They "steamrolled to 11-1, 10-2, 5-1 and 11-6 victories while absorbing their loss 9-7".

The Sentinel reported that Hotelmen hitters J.C. Cyr, George Swanson, Bill Pickering and Paul McDonald "incessantly provided clutch hitting" in each game.

Rookies Ron McLoud, Gary Murphy and Rory Edwards provided additional depth to their roster.

"Their performance on the field and at bat proved a decisive factor in the final outcome as they individually rose to the occasion and consistently outplayed many of the oppositions more seasoned veterans."

Defensively Ray Larcher, Andre Cyr, Allan Larcher and Claude Noel were very effective.

The Hotelmen extended thanks to their sponsor Dennis Hublit.

A special thanks was also extended to Jamie Doyle and Dave McMillan for their efforts on behalf of the league during ths season.

All games were played at the ballfield on Pine Street behind the old high school.

As a matter of historical interest, I checked 'Pioneering in Northern Ontario' by Vince Crichton to see where fastball was played in Chapleau's early years. I knew that in 1916, my grandfather Harry Morris was playing on a team called the Young Elephants coached by Father Romeo Gascon, the priest at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church.

Vince wrote that the first athletic field was located where the YMCA was eventually located  (now where the liquor store is) but in 1908 when it was built, it was moved to a new site on Grey Street North.

Apparently it was on east side of the street and north of the cemetery. It extended over to what is now Connaught Street as there were no buildings in the area at that time.

Then about 1925, the area was divided into lots for homes, and the next location was across the river in the golf course area. This area did not prove successful as it was difficult to access so during the depression it was located on the playground behind Chapleau Public School.

In the 1940s,  it was moved to the grounds behind the old Chapleau High School, and that is where the 1978 fastball title was decided, although the high school had been moved to "the hill" in 1966, and the Chapleau Civic Centre opened on the school site in 1978.

Thanks to Raymond Larcher for the details on the fastball championship. My email is mj.morris@live.ca



 

Chapleau Public Library celebrates 35 years in civic centre after several location moves throughout its history since 1887

N. Ont library rep, Renee Cecile, Lt Gov McGibbon, husband 

When Pauline McGibbon, then the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, visited Chapleau to officially open the Chapleau Civic Centre, 35 years ago on June 28, 1978, she was impressed with the library included in the building.

"One can judge the stature of a town or village by the extent of its library," the lieutenant-governor said in her remarks as she toured the library accompanied by Mrs. Renee Cecile, chair of the library board; Estelle Morin, the librarian, and board members. 

It was also a special occasion for Mrs. Cecile who was presented an achievement scroll by George L. Evans, a board member and deputy reeve of Chapleau in 1978. In 2012, the library was named the George L. Evans Library in his honour.

The scroll to Mrs. Cecile said it was in recognition of her "untiring devotion" to library service in Chapleau. She had served as a board member since it was established in the late 1950s. Her granddaughter Lisa also presented her with a bouquet of red roses.

A library was on the minds of Chapleau's early citizens by 1887, two years after the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the founding of the community.

Mechanics institute

In his book 'Pioneering in Northern Ontario', Vince Crichton wrote that a meeting was held in the CPR restaurant on December 13, 1887 with the purpose of forming a "Reading Club or Library". The first library appears to have been in a room at the Royal Hotel, but it burned down and by 1889 land had been obtained from the CPR for the construction of a Mechanics Institute built on a site across from the Bridgeview Motel on Birch Street.

According to Wikepedia, mechanics' institutes,  the first one established in Edinburgh, Scotland  contained inspirational and vocational reading matter, for a small rental fee. Later popular non-fiction and fiction books were added to these collections in the library section. Other services were also provided.

The Mechanics Institute was a described as an "elaborate structure", for the times and included the library, a reading room, a hall and space for oganizations to meet in a two-storey building. By the end of 1890, the library had 178 members and 894 volumes. It cost $621.02 to build.

By 1895, ladies had become active members,and in 1899 when J.B. Dexter was president of the institute 200 new books were purchased bringing the total number of volumes to 1408 of which 1201 were taken out over the previous year.

Disaster struck in 1910 when the Mechanics Institute burned down resulting in a total loss not only of all the library holdings but municipal records too as it had also become the Town Hall after Chapleau was incorporated as a municipality in 1901.

After G.B. Nicholson and his wife Charlotte built St. John's Memorial Hall in memory of their son Lorne and all the Chapleau men who had been killed in World War I, a library was located there but it appears that interest waned for a number of years. Mr. Nicholson was the first reeve of Chapleau. St. John's Memorial Hall is now the Legion Hall.

At some point, it was relocated to a small room in the Town Hall which later became the reeve's office.

However, in 1957 led by Marion Hueston, a movement was launched to establish "a real public library" for Chapleau, according to an article by Margaret Costello.

Vince Crichton wrote that a better site was needed and William Austin agreed to provide one in the building once called "tenement row" on Birch Street where the Bargain Shop is now located. A.L. Morse of Sheppard and Morse Lumber Company donated all the white pine for shelving while the Chapleau Rotary Club bought and laid all the new linoleum flooring while Nick Coreau and J.M. 'Jack' Shoup took charge of erecting the shelves. It opened in April 1958.

First board members were Mrs. Hueston, Mrs. Cecile, Margaret Costello, Mrs. William Burrows and Vince Crichton.

The new board was warned not to be discouraged because "maybe the library idea would not catch on like wildfire" and it may take five years to be accepted. Within two years the library had 1200 members and housed more than 4800 books. It did catch on!

By 1965, the location again had to be moved as Cecil Smith had bought the property and needed it to build a new Stedmans store. 

Town Hall

Back to the Town Hall it went but this time to the auditorium the site of many plays, concerts, meetings as well as a coutroom but hardly used for anything by the 1960s. For several years only the floor space was used but as its membership grew, more was required.

Mrs. Doris Marchioni, the librarian in 1973 explained the situation to Maggie Costello. Mrs. Marchioni said it was a matter of not enough room for all a real library needs -- not enough room for books, for sufficient tables for those who may be doing research or just to read, let alone proper facilities for the staff to work comfortably, and finally storage.

The library staff was moved on to the stage, while new bookshelves lined the walls, reading tables were added, and according to Maggie Costello, "...everything looks much more inviting, brighter and lighter and there's much more breathing space."

When the township council decided to proceed with the civic centre, the library board became enthusiastic partners in the project, and on June 28, 2013, will officially celebrate 35 years in the same location.

FOLLOWING UP

Frances (Jardine) Corston, now Lundquist added some information to my column on curling. She recalled her husband Henry mostly called by his nickname "Chicken" telling her that "the Corston men used their horse Billy to haul gravel from the gravel pit on their farm to level the ground for the new curling rink.  They ran out of money at some point and got the necessary funds from Chief Simon Cheez of the Ojibway people, with the understanding that native girls could curl..These girls were the Pirie girls, Mrs Barty. Mrs Fortunato. Mrs  Perfetto and Mrs Jack Green..I assume they must have agreed as they got the money,,,however..the women never did get to curl.....Mr. Corston in the picture was one of the rinks called the Half Ton Rink, because of their size...." Thanks Frances.

Thanks to Michael McMullen for research assistance.

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Lieutenant Governor Pauline McGibbon officially opens Chapleau Civic Centre in June 1978, and Ernie Gilbert holds protective umbrella during sudden downpour

Lieutenant Governor Pauline McGibbon officially opened the Chapleau Civic Centre 32 years ago on June 28, 1978, a rare moment in the life of a community to have the official representative of Her Majesty the Queen in Ontario pay a visit.
The next day, Cedar Grove Lodge for Senior Citizens was officially opened by Hon. Rene Brunelle, provincial secretary for resources development, and to complete the openings, the ribbon was cut by Robert Eaton, MPP, at the Chapleau Recreation Centre on behalf of Ontario Premier William Davis on June 30.

Accompanied by her husband Donald, Mrs. McGibbon inspected honour guards of the Chapleau Air Cadet Squadron under the command of Lt. Gary Groulx, and Branch No. 5 of the Royal Canadian Legion, accompanied by Jim Lane and Legion president Henry Therriault.

Cpl. Anita Memegos of the air cadets presented the Lieutenant Governor with a bouquet of flowers. Ken Russell led in the singing of O Canada and God Save the Queen, while the flag was raised by Legion member Boyd Beacock and John Way-White played Reveille.

After being escorted to the platform, Master of Ceremonies Deputy Reeve George L. Evans called on the band of the Air Cadet Squadron to play the vice regal salute.

Following prayers led by Rev. William Ivey, Father Laurent  Dube and Rev. Carson Duquette, Mrs. McGibbon cut the ribbon to officially open the civic centre. She then proceeded to tour the civic centre.

As an aside, during the official outdoor opening ceremonies there was a sudden downpour but Executive Assistant to the Reeve Eileen McCrea, prepared for any emergency, quickly provided umbrellas, and Councillor Ernie Gilbert was given the task of protecting the Lieutenant-Governor from the rain. Eileen co-ordinated all the official openings.

During her tour of the civic centre, Mrs. McGibbon, while in the library, commented that "One can judge the stature of a town or village by the extent of its library." She was greeted in the library by board chair Mrs. Renee Cecile, librarian Estelle Morin and the staff and board members.

At the Fire Hall she was welcomed by Fire Chief Ad Andrews, and while there presented 30 year service certificates to Chief Andrews, Deputy Chief Frank Coulter and Raoul Lemieux Sr.

She then proceeded to visit Cedar Grove Lodge, the museum and the recreation centre with Councillors Robert Lafreniere and Ernie Gilbert as tour guides and drivers for the official party.

Upon arrival at the Legion Hall for a luncheon, the Lieutenant Governor was met by branch president Henry Therriault and Ladies Auxiliary president Thelma Therriault. Her Honour placed a wreath on the newly rededicated cenotaph.

The Chapleau Sentinel reported that it was a delightful lunch prepared by a "gourmet chef." The luncheon was under the direction of Mrs. Dorleen Collings ably assisted by her team from the Legion auxiliary.

Mrs. McGibbon also had the opportunity to chat with Catherine Remus and Ann Thompson, who had been exchange students under the Rotary Club program. She also met Frank Cranston, Chapleau's last survivor of World War I.

On behalf of the citizens of Chapleau I presented the Lieutenant Governor with a plate designed and made by Northern Pottery, a Chapleau industry.The platinum plate was unique as it had been designed specifically for this occasion. (For new readers, I was the Reeve (Mayor) of Chapleau at the time.)

Following the departure of Mrs. McGibbon, there was another celebration at the Chapleau Public Library. The highlight of the gathering was the presentation of an achievement scroll to Mrs. Cecile by George Evans. It read as follows: "The Board of the Chapleau Public Library, in recognition of her untiring devotion to library service in Chapleau, presented this plaque to honour Mrs. Rene Cecile, member of the Board since its inception in 1959." Her granddaughter Lisa presented her with a bouquet of red roses.

Harry Pellow, then of Neish Owen Rowland and Roy was the principal architect for the Chapleau Civic Centre. Harry is a member of a pioneer Chapleau family.

Next week: Canada Week 1978 continued with openings, Don Harron, Catherine McKinnon, Foster Hewitt and King Clancy. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Harry Pellow recalls enthusiasm at 'critical pitch' during Chapleau road hockey games of the Fifties

Butch at CHS Reunion 2012

By Harry "Butch" Pellow

I only recall the famous strip between Birch and Cedar but I did play on the pond on the back river once or twice. Both times I froze my toes and fingers and decided that it was too cold for me.

But on Aberdeen Street it was warmer and much closer to home to play road hockey. Frequently, snow piles were pretty high; often stained with dog urine and rarely without many deep holes in them where the pucks had been lost and had been recovered either by probing sticks or urgent kicks from various team players.

Players were randomly gathered either by purposeful visits to the destination or picked up on the way by. The skill level was indeterminate but the enthusiasm was always at a critical pitch.

Frequently the more proficient and sometimes the more senior amongst us effected a team selection process which created a lop-sided weighting of skill and ability resulting in long periods hen goals were only scored from one direction. By the way, I was not one of the more senior amongst us if you know what I mean.

Sometimes the call of nature shortened the attention span but then there was always the back of Schroeder's porch, Evan's barn or Mcleod's hedge available for relief. Not infrequently if the call was more urgent there would be knocks on adjacent doors (usually Evans or Schroeder’s) asking for use of the facilities but this was rare because it could have called an end to the game if dinner was seen to be on the table.

There were several constants including Mike Morris, Bill McLeod, Ken Schroeder, Jim Evans, Butch Pellow, Charlie White and Buddy Swanson. Down the block and around the corner players would be attracted by the shouting or previously having been invited to bolster a losing run. They included Tony Telik, Joey Steen, Mansel Riley, Mark Boulard, Tommy Jordan, Tim Goodwin (yes even that far away), and Gunner Collins and and and………………

Games usually started immediately after school and lingered well after the merchant families parents arrived home from work. Some evenings that was quite late. Generally speaking though darkness imposed a limitation and there were very few lights on the street to create a safe level of illumination. Especially low in fact as I remember because once the puck was lost, it remained lost until the next morning. In the absence of a puck there were alternative missiles however including a half size can of Carnation milk, Klick or Spam cans, other similar sized items from the nearest garbage bin, frozen ice balls, horse dung in various states of compression (frozen or not) and now and then, even gloves, shoes or rubbers.

Skates were never worn, we were generally wearing pretty warm jackets and they became sweaty, only the goalies wore pads, many wore hockey gloves and as often as not the sticks were retreads or broken.

I recall MIlton Schroeder often calling ".. Kinny, get in here for dinner", Zita arranging for communication to Jim for the same purpose and I was always under threat of 'no dinner' if I didn't know enough to come in from the cold.

Mcleod, Evans, Schroeder and I even think Mike Morris took turns in net. Mike later took up officiating as we know. The rest of us barrelled along the snow tracks left by the sleighs and the infrequent car or truck and now and then would do our best to shovel a somewhat level playing surface that would quickly become snowed over or covered in disturbed snow bank residue after searches were made for lost pucks. To say there was no contact would be an untruth. The reality was that all of us endured pain masked by the cold, many bruises, black eyes and very sore fingers. It was fun but it was rough and it was dangerous.

Once inside of course it wasn't easy to get back out again on school nights although it was different story on weekends when the games started immediately after hockey practice on Saturday mornings and continued until it was Hockey Night in Canada. Sundays were generally a replay of Saturday with the added flare of one or other of us posing as a "best player" from last night's game or attempting to interpret Foster Hewitt's description of a play that until the late fifty's was as exciting as it could get without a picture. Even when TV arrived it was grey and snowy on Doctor Young's cable line or and we relied on Foster Hewitt or Danny Gallivan to bring it all to life.

Note: Harry "Butch" Pellow, was born and raised in Chapleau, Ontario, a member of one of the community's pioneer families. He founded Pellow + Associates Architects Inc., of Toronto, in 1978. Harry was the architect for the Chapleau General Hospital, Chapleau Recreation Centre, Chapleau Civic Centre, Cedar Grove Lodge for Senior Citizens and the golf club house in Chapleau.