Collingwood Elvis Festival

"The truck Elvis drove was a Ford pickup with a carry-back for equipment, and sometimes on his way to pick up or deliver supplies he'd pass the Memphis Recording Service, a small but lucrative sideline to the Sun Record Company, both of which had been founded and were being operated by Sam Phillips...

"The office was full of people wanting to make personal records.  It was a stand-and-wait-your-turn sort of thing.  He came in, said he wanted to make a record.  I told him he'd have to wait and he said okay.  He sat down.  Of course he had his guitar.  They all had their guitars in those days...

"While he was waiting his turn, we had a conversation I had reason to remember for many years afterward, because later I had to tell the story so often.  He said he was a singer.  I said, 'What kind of a singer are you?'  He said, "I sing all kinds.' I said, 'Who do you sound like?' He said, 'I don't sound like nobody.'  I thought, Oh yeah, one of those.  I said, 'Hillbilly?  He said, 'Yeah, I sing hillbilly."  I said, 'Who do you sound like in hillbilly?'  He said, "I don't sound like nobody.'"

~ Marion Keisker, ELVIS by Jerry Hopkins, 1971, Simon and Schuster.

http://www.collingwoodelvisfestival.com/

Among Susanna Moodie's Letters, this one to Richard Bentley, Belleville, April 24, 1865, reflecting the hardship of life in the colonies.

"...The Canadian Government, does not encourage literary talent.  I never heard of it granting a pension to any author, and I did not make any application to it -- for assistance.  One of their public men, Dr. Rolph -- long since dead -- used to say, that Mrs. Moodie, deserved a pension from the British Government for the good that her patriotic songs, did, during the rebellion of - /37.  I hold perhaps, the first place among the female authors residing within the Colony; and my contributions to their periodical literature has always enjoyed great popularity.  But this has not made them, more ready to give my dear husband a small place under the government, to keep us from the Author's fate -- A dry crust and the garret.  My husband is now in Toronto, whither he has gone, to mortgage the few acres we possess..."

p. 214, Susanna Moodie, Letters of a Lifetime, University of Toronto Press, 1985.

"A portion of my own spirit seemed to pass into that little stream.  In its deep wailings and fretful sighs, I fancied myself lamenting for the land I had left for ever; and its restless and impetuous rushings against the stones which choked its passage were mournful types of my own mental struggles against the strange destiny which hemmed me in.  Through the day the stream moaned and travelled on, but, engaged in my novel and distasteful occupations, I heard it not; but whenever my winged thoughts flew homeward, then the voice of the brook spoke deeply and sadly to my heart, and my tears flowed unchecked to its plaintive and harmonious music."

~ Susanna Moodie (1803 - 1885) Roughing it in the Bush, 1852.  Richard Bentley of London, England.


Photo:  Normandale, Ontario.

Consider Discontent w/Current National Debt ~
 In a letter to her friend Richard Bentley in Feb., 1859, Susanna Moodie wrote:


"The Commercial prosperity of the country is just now at a stand still.  The rail roads do not pay.  Numbers of people are out of employment, and half the stores are shut up.  The Colony is bankrupt, and cannot take the benefit of the insolvent act.  Money is not to be had, and no one can live upon credit.  What has occasioned this state of things can only be guessed at.  For my own part, I believe it originates in the general love of dishonest speculation, which pervades all the mercantile ranks.  They have ruined themselves and others in trying to grow rich at the expense of the country.  A general gloom pervades all ranks and the certainty[of] the seat of Government becoming fixed at Ottawa, has put Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec, into the sulks.  The decision of the Queen was so unexpected, so distasteful to the majority of the people, that the expressions of discontent almost amounted to treason, and the choice of Ottawa, was only carried in the house by a majority of five.  A few years will make Ottawa worthy of the royal favor. In natural beauty it far surpasses all its more wealthy rivals, and can be made a noble place with very little trouble.  The Queen showed much taste in picking it, and I have no doubt, that the difficulty of deciding between the three great rival cities was one main object in her decision."

Sad-Iron Collection ~ Reta Melick

~ Susanna Moodie:  Letters of a Lifetime, University of Toronto Press, 1985, p. 187.

Mrs. Moodie wrote about pioneer life in Canada in Roughing it in the Bush, a "glowing narrative of personal incident and suffering. . ." ~ the publishers,  McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1962.

Watching CayugaFest Parade ~



Who is Watching Who?


 http://www.cayugafest.com/

Titanic Cruising Through Cayuga

 

For Those of Us Who Didn't Make It to Church This Week . . .



"Get Your Lemonade at Grand Treats & Treasures"

 

 August is a week away ~ no sign of a new bridge.

All we know is that the lights are pointing in the right direction.  Cayuga Street & Talbot (Hwy. #3)