HISTORIANS CAN BEFUDDLE THEMSELVES LOOKING TO THE PAST FOR ANSWERS

I don’t regret having had a strong background in history. I sometimes wonder however, if I’ve spent too much time mired in historical pursuits, and research, for my own good. Friends and associates of mine, get frustrated by precedent-citing and event-retelling as a matter of general conversation. As I’ve written about before, historians don’t get invited out much. My boys are hobby music historians but they’re having too much fun to think about the consequences of one-upmanship at social engagements. They have more of a gathering huddled around them, reminiscing about my era of music, than I’d have talking to the same group about attending the actual concerts being discussed. Which proves that my repertoire of stories is told with much less enthusiasm for some reason. Those concerts were just things to do......to fill the void between hockey and school. To my boys, they must have been legendary events, according to the enthusiasm they place upon them......as junior historians speaking to their contemporaries.

History is one of those areas of interest that has led, as well, to a lifetime of antique hunting, which of course has spun-off wildly, and thoroughly, totally influencing my wife and sons.....to my own likeness. Now that’s a scary assessment! Although we have different interests in old stuff generally, they have built lives that feed-off history. For Andrew and Robert it has meant a full immersion in music. The fact their great-grandfather was a violinist when not building homes, and their kin on the other side, were homestead guitarists with considerable talent, is of course part of the equation but certainly only a minor influence, on budding careers in the music industry. The fact I toured with a school band in England, back in 1974, isn’t mentioned......so don’t ask. It seems playing a (brass) baritone wasn’t cool back then or now.

The fact that our whole family lives day-in and day-out in respective museums of our desired composition, with a print archives at our beck and call, does rank us amongst the curious and otherwise strange of civilization. For the most part, we don’t really think about it.....we just live it day to day, until for some reason an issue or project pops up unexpectedly that tickles our fancy to get involved. What we get involved in usually touches, in some way, on a point(s) of heritage. We don’t jump on bandwagons as a rule, because we’ve had our share of unfortunate and unceremonious dismounts, when things didn’t work out the way we had supposed. We aren’t historical purists by any means but we are sticklers none the less!

We tend to see the patina of history even when there’s nothing tangible in sight, other than a visualization of what we might like to see. I can look down the main street of Gravenhurst and rekindle images of an entire community history, and imagine what it may look like in the future. When someone asks me what I’m daydreaming about, heck, a modest explanation simply wouldn’t do. When I hear a lot of criticism about the town, and the main street commercial artery, I can’t help wonder if there was as much negative banter in 1929-30 as there is today, or whether it was a lesser issue in 1914 to 1918, or from 1940 to 1945, during the war years. What was the talk on the main street then? How did merchants get along with each other in those years.....what about in the Victorian years when a South Muskoka village had grown into a town, showing so much promise? Whether there were as many philosophical debates about the local economy or politics back then or not, I see it all as a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme. I think this town is on the verge of a great revival, and no matter how many disagreements I might have with local policy makers, and business movers-and-shakers, I return to the reality that history has shown there has been a lot of talent and ingenuity in this town, just as there is now. And while it’s true we can trip-up on negativity, it’s not to suggest critical assessment is a wasted exercise. It’s the constructive aspect of the critical approach to anything however, that is most beneficial to the history of us all. It’s the hammering together of ideas and objectives. We have run into a strange hiatus however, that at times seems as if we are precariously balanced, on a sort of pinnacle of time, with a nervous feeling of doom that no matter which way we teeter down, toward one direction or another, it won’t be the result of us leaning to that side as a preference. I suppose it’s a case of pre-dooming us to fail. This of course is more of a twinge of expectation about the trials and tribulations of this new-reality economy, than prevailing fact. Whatever strategies allowed us to survive through many other gloomy decades of lesser economy, has a practicality to the present......and an adaptability for the future. If we survived then, we shall survive now. Prosperity is pretty much at our discretion, and of our creation, but will it ever make us the proud and fulfilled community we should be after all these trials yet successes?

Frequently, this historical comparison stuff does get our family into hot water......because we are either ridiculously optimistic, or painfully naive, that a knowledge of history and its precedents will always adjust the balance of things to come. And be gratefully received by others. We most recently had a couple of ideas we wanted to share with a local group, planning a major event. It was a well thought-out, thoroughly critiqued, and bashed about mercilessly, for hours and hours...... to rid it of anything remotely frivolous before we made a presentation. When we heard back from our friends, our idea, awkwardly stuck in the fatty tissue of tradition and history, proved our own blind faith that history should influence the present, was more of a burden and anxiety to others, than a blessing of found prosperity.

Just because we have more than a passive relationship with history, it doesn’t mean we can see through brick walls, or have modern day solutions based on problems experienced in the past. Of course, some experts do possess this capability. What we see in our hometown, is a general distancing and disinterest in the history that put us on the map in the first place. There’s a lot more to town history than architectural landmarks. There’s a social / cultural legacy that has been obscured by a fundamental and continuing failure, to ensure the continuation of local traditions, and the preservation of characteristics that made Gravenhurst different from Bracebridge, Huntsville or any other community in the whole darn world. Some traditions have received so little political interest until frankly, for some, they’re too far gone to save......and you can’t even hear an “Oops, sorry” being uttered from town hall.

When Andrew and Robert opened-up their music business, in the former digs of the Muskoka Theatre, in Gravenhurst, they immediately began researching its history.......providing guests with running commentaries on its former use and the celebrities that used to visit......such as Stomping Tom Connors, who actually played the stage during a former Winter Carnival event. They delight meeting former patrons who used to attend the Theatre and they have enjoyed the parallels of the entertainment / music business with their own eclectic surroundings. The only thing better than running a music shop in an old theatre would be to re-open the Muskoka Theatre, as it was, because we need it! We all need to take a look at those musty old postcards and photographs of the main street from years past, and recognize clearly that if it could flourish over so many decades of world turmoil, war and Depression, it can revive with the same fortitude today.......that any historian knows existed in the citizenry, of once, as it still does today....despite the nagging feeling nothing will ever bring back the glory years. Strangely, one can surmise these same predictions were bandied about in coffee and barber shops, on the post office steps, in the corridors of town hall, and on the mainstreet a century ago, with the same concern about economic survival in the future......if things were to continue this way.

As history enthusiasts one has to be a realist first. It is of course an occupational hazard, to be overly enthusiastic about the possibilities of finding future town builders, who will revitalize and recondition, according to the will of the historical dreamer......possibly even looking at those old time archive photographs and souvenir postcards, in expectation that the past might again collide with the future, in the time-honored pursuit of winning economics.

Whenever we talk about the promotion and re-animation of old traditions in this town, we offer an opening apology.....that as historians generally, we always possess the kind of respect, whether in music or decor, neighborliness or event, business or politics, that neatly maintains one foot in yesteryear, one foot in the present. It is a profoundly silly walk into the future but we’re stalwart believers that some things never change, despite the will of the modernists......who by the way wouldn’t exist in philosophy without a history to feed from.

Some of our friends, it’s true and understandable, find us a tad obsessed. They have become unsure and somewhat afraid of our intrusion, that might set their rigid protocols awry. When we look forward to all the traditions we’d like to renew in this town, well, we recognize mistrust and suspicion might prevail. Afterall, we were originally from Bracebridge. But we also know when to walk away from projects and objectives when we sense a tricky negotiation, and simply try a different approach sometime later. Never though, at the expense of dropping a good idea, simply because a temporary obstacle presents.

For the many good musical mates, the boys have made in this town, we have dozens of future plans and aspirations, we’re itching to launch.......admittedly our failing may be, we’re faithfully committed to that old way of doing things......when a good idea had a head of steam, like an old and trustworthy locomotive that just wouldn’t quit. And there was a cow catcher on the engine for the obstacle in front.