119 Year Old ~ Lye Opus 107 Pipe Organ

The last Lye organ was built in 1954 in Toronto, Ontario. In addition to the 119 year old working Lye organ in Smithville, Ontario, there are sixty scattered among churches in Toronto and others remain in B.C., Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and the Yukon. The Royal Canadian College of Organists has designated the Smithville organ as "one of the only working pump organs of that era."
Born in Crewkeme, Somerset, England, Edward Lye, a cabinet maker, arrived in Canada in 1857. He began his organ building business in 1864 at 18 and 20 St. Alban's Street, Toronto.
Photo: by Lorna

Smithville Presbyterian Church ~ Doors Open

Presbyterians in Smithville, Ontario, proudly opened their doors this weekend. Church organist and archivist, Marlene Penman, was on hand to welcome visitors.

Sunday services are accompanied on an authentic 119 year old Lye Pipe Organ which has been restored and faithfully maintained by three generations of the Denton family.

The horse-drawn carriage was generously provided by Keith Melick of Canborough, Ontario.

Photos: by Lorna

Cayuga-On-The-Grand

Shane Carmichael stands in front of the main office of Canadaville, Louisiana, U.S.A. Shane divides his time between his native Canada and a community housing project developed to give New Orleans evacuees an opportunity to get back on their feet.

The Neat Little Bookshop has been fortunate to have the patronage of many individuals including our friend, Shane Carmichael. The astonishingly simple phrase "Cayuga-On-The-Grand" is one example of Shane's influence. His marketing skills, his gentle nudging ~ and readiness to assist ~ has greatly contributed to our "Quiet Corner where the coffee pot is always on." Thank you, Shane.

Photo: Orleans Star.

Pay-as-You-Go Typewriter

The fashion in which books are written fascinate equally as the book itself. For example, Ray Bradbury pounded out Fahrenheit 451 on a pay-as-you-go typewriter. It was the early fifties before computers.

When he could not write undisturbed in a house with children, he went to the typing room at the UCLA campus. There, on typewriters that we can only imagine, he dropped change into a slot machine and typed madly for nine days. At ten cents a half hour it cost him nine dollars and eighty cents to write his best-seller.

Location. Location. Location.

The Back 40 is two doors away from the Neat Little Bookshop.

For probably different reasons than the marketers have in mind, we chose to locate next door to the best neighbours a bookstore can have.

Bob and Sharon (and Becky in the photo) have contributed greatly to the recent growth and vibrancy of Cayuga Street. Converting a "bar" to a family restaurant has taken the commitment of special individuals.

There are many who would say that Bob's Back 40 is the heartbeat of Cayuga Street. Thanks,Bob.

Photo: by Lorna (Not certain why the Back 40 photo is topsy-turvy.)

A Quiet Corner ~ Cayuga-On-The-Grand

Have you ever thought about the fact that books are sold in shops devoted almost entirely to one commodity ~ books? There are bed and bath shops, bake shops, electronic shops, shoe shops...and on and on. The difference is that all of these items are also easily picked up in department stores. Other than the odd cardboard bin of clearance books, department stores generally don't feature a bookshop.

The customer looking for a book to read, is already thinking of leisure time. The purchasing process has to be pleasurable. In the warmth and comfort of the bookshop atmosphere, the world is left behind. Thoughts are gentler and the pace is slower.

~ Giving Thanks

With our Canadian Thanksgiving behind us and the U.S. coming up, it seems appropriate to honor family-time.

Many questions about the future of reading have been raised with the arrival of computers.

To imagine a world without books is to deny that people are attached to the old familiar form that generations have read to their children. Imagine passing down a copy of Nancy Drew that belonged to you, to your daughter ~ on a Kindle! Imagine the loss of a story before bedtime. Could anyone look back on their childhood and fondly recall gathering around a computer?

In a used bookshop, it remains dear to our hearts that customers constantly ask for nostalgic volumes that have little value other than that it is a book their Mother used to read to them.