The Neat Little Bookshop

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Happy Canada Day. Fly the Maple Leaf Proudly and . . .

Cayuga, ON

Caledonia, ON

O.P.P. Cayuga, ON

Let Us Remember the Hard-Working Men & Women Who Came Before ~

Excerpt from Pauline, A Biography of Pauline Johnson*:

As in 1894, Dominion Day was celebrated with enthusiasm by the Canadian exiles, [Pauline and Walter McRaye in London, England], but since July first was a Sunday, all the festivities took place the following day. There were balls, fetes, garden parties, picnics, dinners, suppers and luncheons. The celebrants entertained each other with tableaux vivants, songs, dances, recitations, speeches and more speeches. Pauline and McRaye attended Lord and Lady Strathcona's Dominion Day party at the Imperial Institute in South Kensington. Both were asked to recite; predictable Pauline gave "Canadian Born," and McRaye gave "When Albani Sang." McRaye then went on to the "Men Only" dinner being given by Lord Strathcona at the Hotel Cecil Strand."

* Betty Keller, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver/Toronto, 1981.

Photos: lbwalker

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Lion Don Young

Lions International ~ Cayuga
Lion Don Removes the Cayuga Signs

Philosophical, Don talks about the passing years

and the end of an era.

Cayuga Lions ~

A Lasting Community Legacy

Cayuga St. at Hwy. # 3

Thank you for all that you do . . .

Friday, June 29, 2012

http://www.voyerr.spaces.msn.com/

Voyageur Jay ~ York, Ontario, Day of 1000 Canoes

Supplies

Photos: Pls click on photos for larger image. lbwalker

Pauline Johnson wrote to her protege, August 2, 1911.

"Dearest little Tommy,
It is only a little note, darling, but I want you to know that I am thinking of you very lovingly, that I am hoping for you all that is good, and happy, and inspiring, and noble, and above all, humanizing. Love is hard to ensnare, hard to appropriate as one's own. I am so sure H. will make you happy if you will only leave yourself gently and sweetly in his hands. You looked so well today, so effectual. I was very proud of my little campmae of years ago, and someway or another I had a certain pride in H. too. He is very real, Tommy dear, very manly, and devoted. Try to make him happy as well as yourself. It is a poor rule that does not swing both ways. Good night dear old girl, and may all the happiness go forth to you that your first girlish idealization longed or wished for ~ and for my part ~ this. . ."
Her signature was blurred with tears. It was the closest she would ever come to expressing her regrets and her longings. For a brief moment she had let down the barriers."

Chiefswood, Home of Pauline Johnson

Betty Keller, Pauline/ A biography of Pauline Johnson, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver, Toronto. 1981

Photo: lbwalker http://www.chiefswood.com/

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Pauline Johnson ~ On Thursday, July 5, at 1:00 p.m.

Reading & Round Table Discussion on poet Pauline Johnson. Join John Passfield and friends in The Neat Little Bookshop for a fascinating study of the Canadian writer and performer.

". . . by the time she was eleven [Pauline} was allowed to go farther from home to explore the reserve. She was fascinated by the the Grand River which bisected the reserve and flowed right past the Johnson's front door.

"On this beautiful river, Pauline was now taught to paddle a canoe by her brothers, who were as skilled as any of their Mohawk neighbours. She soon knew every shallow and rapid on the river and paddled her single-blade canoe "Wildcat" as if she had been born on the water. . .for the rest of her life, canoeing was to be her special love and the means by which she increased her stamina."