The Stories That I Want To Know But Can't Speak Of

GREAT STORIES THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN TOLD - DUE TO FEAR OF BEING MOCKED, OR WORSE - BEING PUT IN THE STOCKADE

SOMETIMES, THERE ARE REASONS FOR HOLDING SECRETS.

THE REASON FOR WRITING THIS WEEK'S TOMES ABOUT HISTORICAL SANITIZING "FOR THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY," IS THAT IT VERY MUCH IMPACTS ON THE WAY THE POPULATION REACTS. WHILE IT IS PREPOSTEROUS TO THINK THAT WE'RE UNIQUE IN THIS REGARD, THE PROBLEM OVER TIME, IS THAT CITIZENS COME TO APPRECIATE WHAT CAN AND CAN NOT BE STATED PUBLICLY WITHOUT RIDICULE. EACH COMMUNITY HAS ITS COMFORT ZONE, AND ITS TABOO ITEMS, OFTEN FOR HISTORICAL REASONS. AND IT KIND OF GETS PASSED DOWN THROUGH GENERATIONS, ABOUT THE TOLERATION FOR CERTAIN ELEMENTS OF TRUTH. THERE ARE STORIES THAT I HAVE BEEN AFFORDED, AS AN HISTORIAN, THAT HAVE SHAKEN ME TO THE CORE, ABOUT WHAT HAS BEEN CONCEALED HERE FOR DECADES…..NOT SPECIFIC TO JUST ONE TOWN. MATERIAL THAT I CAN POSSESS AS HEARSAY, BUT NOT AS THE PRINTED RECORD. I WOULD ONLY BE PERPETUATING SOMETHING HURTFUL UPON COMMUNITIES, WHO SHOULDN'T BE PUNISHED BECAUSE OF WHAT SOME INDIVIDUALS DID, OR FOR SOME CRIME THAT WAS COMMITTED, THAT NEVER MADE IT TO THE COURTS.

HERE'S HOW THAT WORKS. WHEN I BEGAN WORKING AS A REPORTER FOR THE LOCAL PRESS, BACK IN THE WINTER OF 1979, I BEGAN, AT THE SAME TIME, A LENGTHY APPRENTICESHIP WITH NUMEROUS HISTORICAL TUTORS, WHO SHOWED ME THE ROPES. WHAT THEY SHARED WITH ME WAS A LITTLE BIT MORE THAN I HAD REALLY UNDERSTOOD, WHEN I THOUGHT HISTORY WAS A GOOD FIELD TO COMPANION AS A FLEDGLING WRITER. WHAT HAPPENED, ALMOST IMMEDIATELY, IS THAT I WAS ENTRUSTED WITH INFORMATION THAT I HAD TO KNOW, APPRECIATE, AND CONCEAL. WHAT MADE THIS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE, WAS THE FACT I WAS ALSO EDITOR OF SEVERAL NEWSPAPERS THROUGH THE 1980'S, AND ANY ONE OF THESE TOLD-IN-CONFIDENCE STORIES COULD HAVE NOT ONLY MADE THE FRONT PAGES, BUT QUALIFIED FOR SOME OF THE DAILIES. YUP, I HAD A LOT OF POOP, AS THEY SAY, ON THE REGION I WAS COVERING FOR THE PRESS, AND RESPONSIBLY HANDLING IN REGARDS TO HISTORICAL REPRESENTATION. IF YOU HAVE ANY KNOWLEDGE OF THE MAGICIAN'S CODE, AND THE PENALTY FOR REVEALING THE SECRETS OF TRICKS, YOU MAY APPRECIATE THAT HISTORIANS HAVE SOMEWHAT SIMILAR SECRETS, THAT THEY FREQUENTLY ARE CALLED TO LOCK AWAY FROM PUBLIC SCRUTINY. AS FAR AS BEING A REPORTER, I HAD TO GO OFF-THE-RECORD HUNDREDS OF TIMES TO GET INFORMATION FOR STORIES…..AND PROTECT SOURCES OF MAJOR STORIES. IT GOT PRETTY HARRY DOING THIS BUT IT'S PART OF THE PROFESSION.

HERE'S A SMALL EXAMPLE. I WAS TALKING TO AN OLDTIMER ONE DAY, AND WHEN HE FOUND OUT WHO I WAS, AND ADMITTED TO READING SOME OF MY LOCAL HISTORY FEATURES, HE OFFERED UP, QUITE VOLUNTARILY, THAT HE KNEW FOR FACT, THAT DECEASED PAUPERS IN HIS COMMUNITY, WHEN THERE WAS AN OUTBREAK OF SOME MAJOR ILLNESS, WERE STUFFED, IN MULTIPLES, INTO WOODEN RAIN BARRELS, AND BURIED IN "PAUPER'S FIELD," UPRIGHT, TO ALLOW FOR MORE SIDE-BY-SIDE BURIALS. NOW HE NEVER BLINKED WHEN HE TOLD ME THE STORY, AND I COULDN'T IMAGINE SOMEONE MAKING UP SUCH A TALE OUT OF THE BLUE, BUT IT DID CATCH ME OFF-GUARD. IT WAS A GREAT STORY TO FOLLOW-UP, AND THERE WAS MORE TO IT THAT I STILL CAN'T REVEAL, AND IT WOULD HAVE A POTENTIALLY NATIONAL AUDIENCE IF I DID. I WOULD GET JUICY TIDBITS LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME. NOT QUITE AS VISUALLY DRAMATIC, BUT SOME GREAT STUFF THAT THERE WAS NO WAY OF PRESENTING, WITHOUT CONSIDERABLE COLLATERAL DAMAGE. NOW LET'S BE CLEAR. THESE STORIES WERE NOT RELEVANT TO A CURRENT EVENT. THEY WEREN'T MATTERS OF "BREAKING NEWS," OR EVEN COLD CASES, WHERE I WAS INFORMED ABOUT A PERPETRATOR OF A SERIOUS CRIME. LOTS OF SUGGESTIVE CONVERSATIONS AND ALLEGATIONS BUT NO CONFESSIONALS THAT WOULD INCRIMINATE A MURDERER OR SUCH. I REMEMBER ONE YOUNG WOMAN APPROACHING ME ABOUT THE DEATH OF A FAMILY MEMBER, QUITE A FEW YEARS EARLIER, AND WHILE I SAT IN THE LIBRARY, SHE UNLOADED A HUGE BURDEN ON ME……ABOUT HER CONVICTION A MURDERER HAD ESCAPED JUSTICE. ALTHOUGH THERE WERE NO NAMES ATTACHED, IT WAS ALLUDED TO, THAT MORE THAN ONE PERSON NEW ABOUT WHAT HAD HAPPENED….BUT HAD NEVER COME FORWARD WITH THE INFORMATION. SHE DIDN'T EXPECT ME TO WRITE A STORY ABOUT IT, OR HELP HER WITH RESEARCH, BUT I DID FEEL FOR HER, AT THAT MOMENT, BECAUSE FRANKLY, I KNEW THE STORY WELL, AND I'D ALWAYS FELT THE SAME. I WAS PAST MY RABID NEWSPAPER DAYS AT THE TIME, BUT I WISH I COULD HAVE HELPED HER WITH SOME INFORMATION. ALL I HAD WERE UNFOUNDED ALLEGATIONS. GARDEN VARIETY GOSSIP. NOTHING SOLID.

When I'd get called out to research a news story, or feature article, or just pursue a matter of local history, on my own time, I got a lot of other material that was always quite unexpected, but welcome. I was sworn to secrecy a lot, in those days, and here's the thing. Some would argue, "I would rather not have known this information." I'm not of this ilk. The more I know, and can use as background information, the better I can approach difficult research, and complicated story-lines. Even though I'm not going to put these sensitive stories onto the front page of any local newspaper, or even incorporate in the features I write for several feature publications, it doesn't mean I'm not going to use what I do know, to balance my stories accordingly, and be suspicious of details that may arise from contradictory background information. We have had hundreds of people phone our home, over the years, and even tell these same stories to Suzanne, who has been my co-researcher on numerous historical jags. So she has had to take the same oath. What you tell us in confidence will be guarded, and never revealed. But if this knowledge, means that I can navigate down some murky corridor, a little more securely, without tripping over something in the way, I will use every detail to my advantage. No apology.

This may seem very contradictory, and of this, there's no way of explaining it, that it won't seem what's "good for the goose, is good for the gander." On one hand, I don't like the suppression of the truth, especially with government, but on the other, I understand the need to protect those who have provided important information…..with the idea, it will explain what, by normal course, can't be explained. Having these inside stories, which can get very cumbersome as knowledge, and worrying at times, has enabled me to better appreciate history, politics, the local economy, cultural matters, and criminal activity. I might not be able to write what I know, but it comes in awfully handy in a crisis situation. I want to understand every detail of a story. I can't afford to be confused, or half-ass about my research. I need to know that I'm bang-on, or I leave myself at risk. While I don't do much investigative reporting any more, I watch as other reporters do engage, and many times, I wish they would call, and ask my advice. Not that I would reveal deep, dark secrets or anything, but I know where the shoals are…..and that, at the very least, might stop a shipwreck. I don't get asked a lot of these questions, and there are a lot of shipwrecks, that frankly could have been prevented.

There have been times when I have offered local politicians a little sage advice. Not because I'm trying to get anything in return, or suck up to get a tax break. I had enough experience, in my own reporting heyday, to know a little bit about pitfalls and the ones they're heading for. I don't know what it is, or why it's preferable to go into things blindly, but my criticism of politicians generally, is that they look at people like me, as frightening critics, who only want blood-letting. If they were to accept help, from a citizen advisor…..hell, they'd know the locations of the shoals. I have tried so hard, to help my community representatives, know what crisis lies ahead. Not because I'm super intelligent, but because I've reported on many parallel circumstances in other municipalities, where mistakes and lost protocols have had dire consequence. Our elected officials have an attitude, that, "I'll find that fire when I touch it." The on-the-job thing. Trial and error. But it seems so redundant, to have to continually make the same mistakes, because of the stubborn perspective….."I'm pretty smart as it is." As they say, if I had a nickel for every politician who had that attitude, and then stuck his or her foot right in the middle of controversy, I could afford that long overdue retirement…..even before 67.

The question to you now, and was to me then, "Can you handle the truth?" Will it make you wiser, if you know the facts? Could it be used as a significant resource, to enable you to make better decisions. A police officer asked me that one day. Can you handle it Mr. Currie? "What," I naively asked. "There are some photographs you might be interested in seeing," which was part of a crime investigation our paper was reporting on. I knew there had to be something beyond the obvious, as crime scene photos weren't a rarity in our line of work. Well sir, I had a real eye-opening experience. It seems a murder victim was reading the page in the local newspaper, containing my weekly column….such that he landed on it, after the fatal blow…..and this is what an eventual jury would see as crime scene evidence. Yes, I was a little flabbergasted, you could say, but just the same, I'm glad I agreed to see them. There is the irony that possibly my only reader was thusly now deceased.

We all have our "secrets" we shall hold to our respective graves. The only reason I might have more than you, is that two professions I've enjoyed in my life, have inspired folks to "spill their guts," but only about ten percent of what they have confessed, can never be used because of the extreme sensitivity of the information. I don't know why these people, many of them senior citizens, have trusted me…..unless it is my kind aura (my wife says I possess), or their unfettered unloading of personal burdens, that have been weighing on the conscience; sort of like a premature "near-death-bed confessional," but like good gossip, I've been a sponge for information, good or bad, because it all has a place, well beyond the purposes of sensational stories and banked, bold headlines.

Many reporters can't tell the whole story. They want to, but the injury it would cause, must always be measured against the gain…..and there is more to life than newspaper sales and front page bylines.

Join me tomorrow for a ghost chat…..and why it can be injurious to talk about the wee beasties, hobgoblins, and assorted apparitions you've seen. Or is that scene changing these days? Find out in my next blog. Thanks for joining me today. See you soon.

Homestead Grants, Bring Us Your Poor

THE PROPANGANDA OF 1871 - THE HOMESTEADER TRAP - DISHONESTY? OR TWISTING THE TRUTH?

SO WHAT GOT THE BALL ROLLING IN OUR DISTRICT? SPECULATION AND THE POOR!

THOMAS MCMURRAY WAS A DECENT SORT. NOT A GREAT BUSINESSMAN, BUT A HUSTLER. A GREAT OPTIMIST. THE KIND OF "IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME," KIND OF ENTREPRENEUR. SEEMED TO BE IN A HURRY TO BUILD A "TOWN OF BRACEBRIDGE" BEFORE THE HAMLET WAS EVEN INCHING TOWARD VILLAGE STATUS. HIS SETTLERS' GUIDE BOOK, PUBLISHED IN 1871, ENTITLED "MUSKOKA AND PARRY SOUND," IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DISTRICT BOOKS WE POSSESS AS A REGION. I WAS GIVEN A COPY BY MY MOTHER-IN-LAW, HARRIET STRIPP (NEE SHEA), WHO HAD BEEN GIVEN HER FATHER'S BOOK, WHEN HE PASSED AWAY. HE WAS JOHN SHEA, OF UFFORD, AND HE HAD ONCE BEEN A CLERK AT WATT TOWNSHIP, IN MUSKOKA LAKES. I AM PLEASED TO OWN IT, BECAUSE IT PUTS ME CLOSER, YOU SEE, TO THE GUY WHO HELPED MISLEAD A LOT OF UNSUSPECTING SETTLERS TO THEIR HOMESTEAD DISASTERS. DON'T GET ME WRONG. THOMAS MCMURRAY WAS AN IMPORTANT BUSINESSMAN IN BRACEBRIDGE. BUT HE HAD CONFLICTS, PARTICULARLY WHEN HE AUTHORED THIS PARTICULAR BOOK, THAT WAS AIMED AT POTENTIAL AND INCOMING HOMESTEADERS…..AND WAS HEAVILY BIASED, BUT HE DIDN'T WANT READERS TO THINK SO. HE FOOLED A LOT OF HISTORIANS OVER THE YEARS BUT NOT ME. THE MORE FOLKS HE ATTRACTED TO BRACEBRIDGE AND MUSKOKA, THE BETTER HIS BUSINESS MIGHT FARE. NOW I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY COPIES OF THIS BOOK WERE PRODUCED AS A FIRST EDITION. I DON'T SUSPECT THERE WERE THOUSANDS PRINTED, BUT I CAN'T SAY THIS FOR SURE. NONE THE LESS, HE STILL CONTRADICTS HIMSELF WITH THE PARAGRAPH THAT READS:

AS I HAVE NO DESIRE TO EXTOL THE DISTRICT, AND AM ANXIOUS TO GIVE A FAIR AND IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE SETTLEMENT, I SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING CONTROVERSY, SO THAT MY READERS MAY HAVE BOTH SIDES AND DRAW THEIR OWN CONCLUSIONS THERE ON." AS EXTOLLING THE VIRTUES OF THE DISTRICT, HE WAS A CHAMPION. HIS BOOK IS FILLED WITH ROMANTIC POETIC SELECTIONS, THAT CERTAINLY MAKE MUSKOKA SEEM PRETTY CLOSE TO HEAVEN-ON-EARTH. NOW I LIKE HIS WORK, AND THERE ARE ASPECTS OF HIS REPRESENTATION OF THE REGION, THAT DO APPEAL TO THOSE OF US WHO DO FIND MUSKOKA A MORE NORTHERLY WALDEN POND. IT WAS THE DAMAGE HIS BOOK, AND OTHERS SIMILARLY COMPOSED, DID…. WHEN MAKING IT APPEAR A MUCH EASIER TASK, TO ARRIVE HERE AS "THE DOWNTRODDEN," AND IMMEDIATELY START PULLING VEGETABLES OUT OF THE GROUND……THE LOG SHANTIES ALMOST BUILDING THEMSELVES. THE ONLY REASON HIS BOOK DIDN'T INFLUENCE EVEN MORE HOMESTEADERS, IS THAT THEY COULDN'T READ ABOUT WHAT HE WAS TRYING TO SELL.

AS FAR AS FAIR, THE LETTER HE PUBLISHED FROM A NEWSPAPER CALLED THE ST. MARY'S VIDETTE, PRESUMABLY FROM ST. MARY'S, ONTARIO, ISN'T REALLY USED AS A COUNTER POINT, TO THE CLAIMS MCMURRAY MAKES ABOUT THE GOOD LIFE IN MUSKOKA….BUT RATHER, WAS USED AS A PLATFORM, FROM WHICH TO MOUNT AN EDITORIAL MASSACRE, OF THE LETTER WRITER AND THE NEWSPAPER FOR THEIR INACCURACIES. IN THE BOOK, THE REPRINTED LETTER IS ENTITLED "A BLACK PICTURE," AND OFFERS SOME SUBSTANTIAL REASONS WHY AND HOW LAND AGENTS AND SPECULATORS, HAD GROSSLY MISREPRESENTED THE ADVANTAGES OF FARMSTEADING IN THE MUSKOKA REGION. THIS IS IMPORTANT, BUT USUALLY NEGLECTED, BUT IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN HOW IT ALL BEGAN HERE…..AND POVERTY WAS SEEDED IN THIS PERIOD, THIS IS WHERE WE HAVE TO BEGIN. IN MY MANY YEARS DELVING INTO, AND WRITING ABOUT MUSKOKA HISTORY, THIS LETTER IS BANG-ON, BUT MCMURRAY WASN'T GOING TO LET IT GO UNCHALLENGED. HE TURNS THE ARGUMENT AROUND AND USES IT TO BOLSTER HIS OWN HUGELY BIASED POSITION.

JUST A NOTE OF EXPLANATION. IT IS WIDELY KNOWN THAT FREE LAND GRANTS WERE MISREPRESENTED, AND ARABLE LAND WAS PROMOTED WHERE THERE WAS ONLY A THIN SOIL ON ROCK. THEN THERE WAS THE CASE OF THE FORESTS OF MUSKOKA. THE WETLANDS. THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF WETLAND. NOT GREAT FOR FARMING. ROCKS AND DIFFICULT TERRAIN, WHERE IT WAS BARELY MENTIONED IN GOVERNMENT ADVERTISEMENTS. THE POOREST OF THE POOR WERE BEING SOLICITED FROM EUROPE, AND PROMISED MUCH BETTER ENVIRONMENTAL, AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS THAN WAS THE REALITY ONCE HERE. SO THESE POORLY PREPARED SOULS, WITH YOUNG FAMILIES, WERE SUCKED INTO THE CROSS ATLANTIC TRAVERSE, TRANSPORTED BY RAIL, BACK TO STEAMSHIP, THEN TO HORSE DRAWN WAGONS OVER THE MOST TREACHEROUS ROADS ANYWHERE ON EARTH, AND THEN GIVEN A ROUGH MAP, A SLAP ON THE BACK, (AFTER MERCHANTS SOLD THEM OVER-PRICED PROVISIONS), AND WERE SENT WALKING TO THEIR VERY, VERY RURAL HOMESTEAD ACREAGES. HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS REFUSED TO CHOP ONE TREE, OR ROLL AWAY ONE BOULDER, BEFORE TURNING AROUND AND SEEKING ANOTHER REGION TO SETTLE. WHAT THEY FOUND WAS NOT IN THE HAND-BOOKS. A MAJORITY OF THESE SETTLERS WERE WITHOUT MEANS, AND LOW ON PROVISIONS, AND MANY DID PERISH DUE TO BEING POORLY OUTFITTED TO SURVIVE THE LONG HARSH WINTERS. A COLLECTIVE OF STORY SPINNERS, SOME WORKING ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT, THE STEAMSHIP LINES, AND ASSORTED BUSINESS INTERESTS, MADE THEIR HANDSOME PROFITS, CONVINCING THIS CITY POOR, LOOKING FOR BETTER LIVES, THAT MUSKOKA WAS "GOD'S COUNTRY," AND YOU WOULDN'T STARVE UNDER GOD'S WATCH? WOULD YOU? THOSE WHO PITCHED THE VIRTUES OF MUSKOKA, WERE TELLING PORKIES. BUT WHEN YOU'RE AS DOWNTRODDEN, AND VOID OF HOPE AS THESE POTENTIAL SETTLERS WERE, IT SOUNDED LIKE A WONDERFUL WAY TO START OVER, IN A HEALTHY ENVIRONS, WITH A 100 ACRES OF PARADISE! MCMURRAY WAS PART OF THE PROBLEM. WHAT WAS WRITTEN BELOW IS PRETTY ACCURATE TO WHAT ONE CAN RESEARCH EASILY, ABOUT THE FIRST ROUND OF TRIAL AND ERROR SETTLEMENTS.

ONE MORE THING TO CONSIDER, IS THE FACT THAT IN THE 1880'S, AN AGRICULTURAL COMMISSION REPORT, CONFIRMED THAT SETTLEMENT INITIATIVES IN MUSKOKA, HAD BEEN A LARGELY SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM. WHAT IT POINTED OUT, IN ONLY A FEW PARAGRAPHS, WAS THAT CRAPPY LAND FOR FARMS, WAS ACCEPTED BY DESTITUTE SETTLERS….AS THERE WASN'T ANY OTHER OPTION. SOME DIDN'T HAVE THE RESOURCES TO MOVE AWAY, ONCE THEY ARRIVED HERE. WHAT THE COMMISSION DREW FROM THIS LITTLE EXPERIMENT WITH HUMANITY, WAS THAT IF THEY COULD FOB-OFF BOG-LANDS, HIGHLANDS AND THICK FORESTS, AND HAVE PIONEERS BUILD THE ROADS AND BRIDGES, THEN IT WOULD BE THE TEMPLATE FOR A LOT OF OTHER CRAPPY LAND TO THE NORTH…..THAT ALSO NEEDED SETTLERS TO BUILD THAT CANADIAN DREAM OF INHABITATION COAST TO COAST……..AS WELL AS THE POLITICAL SIDE, OF BEING ABLE TO JUSTIFY THE BUILDING OF THE GREAT LINKAGE OF RAIL LINES FROM THE EAST COAST TO THE WEST. SETTLEMENTS AND AN INCREASING POPULATION, WOULD CONVINCE THE AMERICANS, WE WERE SERIOUS ABOUT CARRYING-ON WHAT WE ESTABLISHED, BY WINNING THE WAR OF 1812. SO THE HOMESTEADERS IN MUSKOKA WERE JUST PART OF THE PLAN, TO SETTLE THE REST OF CANADA. THE RESILIENCE OF THE SETTLERS, TOLD GOVERNMENT CLEARLY, THAT THESE DESPERATE SOULS WOULD TAKE ANYTHING IF IT WAS FREE…..EVEN ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT LANDSCAPES TO FARM. SO WHEN YOU READ THE LETTER BELOW, AND THINK IT RATHER RUDE, OR IGNORANT, REGARDING THE ASSETS OF OUR REGION, REMEMBER THE FACT THAT GOVERNMENT, DIDN'T FEEL BAD WHATSOEVER, MISREPRESENTING THE OPPORTUNITIES OF EMIGRATING TO CANADA……AND CONTINUED TO LIE BECAUSE IT GOT RESULTS. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, DID THEY HAVE A FIGURE FOR "ACCEPTABLE LOSS," ESTIMATING IN ADVANCE HOW MANY SETTLERS COULD DIE, AS A RESULT OF THE PROGRAM, BEFORE THE ISSUE BECAME A STICKY WICKET. IF IT HAD BEEN ANNOUNCED THAT TWO HUNDRED IMMIGRANTS HAD PERISHED IN THE FIRST YEAR, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN BAD FOR BUSINESS. DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL. GOVERNMENT WAS AWARE WHAT THE RISK WAS, TO THESE UNFORTUNATES, BUT THEY HAD A BIGGER PLAN……AN AGENDA THAT WHEN FULFILLED, WOULD BE WORTH THE SACRIFICE.

HERE IS THE PRE-1871 LETTER TO THE EDITOR, OF THE ST. MARY'S NEWSPAPER

"A few days ago, a party of eighteen or twenty farmers from this neighborhood, having read the glowing newspaper accounts of the free grant lands to the north, started on an expedition to Muskoka, to explore the region for themselves, and see whether it would be advisable for them to move thither. On arriving there, they split up into subsections, each detachment taking a particular field. These traversed the most promising townships, examining the soil, consulting the people, taking notes of the landscape, observing the crops, and obtaining all the information possible. After tedious and hopeless wanderings, they one and all returned indignant and disgusted at the imposition of paid agents and rascally speculators; and they declare, in blunt terms, that the idea of its being an agricultural country, is a barefaced piece of imposition, invented by tricky sharks, who are fairly coining money out of the necessities of newcomers. These statements have been corroborated in the main by Messrs. John Rouson, Biddulph Township, Thomas Hughes, George Oliver and Henry Morgan, Nissouri Township, who have just paid our sanctum a visit on their way home from Muskoka.

"Three of these gentlemen have themselves travelled through eleven townships, and affirm one and the same story. The soil is nearly all sand and rock, with an occasional spot of clay, while limestone was found in only one small place. The best land, a specimen of which was shown us, is a red sort of sand clay. The water is, for the most part, of the color of strong lye, embittered by balsam and pine roots. Throughout these eleven townships there were about half-a-dozen loads of wheat raised. People who have settled there for seven years past, grow nothing but potatoes - which are really splendid and come up in double the profusion we see them in Perth or Middlesex. The timber is good, and there is a prodigious lumbering business in the prospective. Pine and birch are very plentiful, but maple and beech are seldom observed. The residents are chiefly emigrants from English cities, who know nothing of farming, and are easily victimized by the Government agents and private adventurers. It is pitiable to see the shifts they are put to in some cases, broken-heartedness visible upon their features, and the utter wretchedness of their lives. In many cases the remnants of luxury add a kind of ghastly significance to the scene - silk dresses, faded and torn - the remnants of fine carpets, and other mementoes of an easy and comfortable existence among friends in the old country. In short, the narrative accords with the exclamation of one of these returned farmers; 'It is the most desperate country a white man ever set his foot on with a notion of settling.' Some of them say they wouldn't take the whole of Muskoka as a gift, if they had to pay the penalty of living out of its soil; and that starvation and rags will haunt the dwelling of settlers as long as they exist.

"Of course, we know nothing of these things from our own personal knowledge, but it strikes us that there has been a good deal of studied misrepresentation in favor of these lands from time to to time. Our informants may, in their present state of mind, look at the black side of the picture; but it may do good to people to learn that it has a black side. We desire to see every part of Canada turned to good account, but if a section is fitted only for timber and game, it is worse than useless to inveigle farmers into it, in the Quixotic efforts of making it an agricultural country."

"The above seems almost too ludicrous to answer," wrote Thomas McMurray in response. He wrote a considerable retort, but again from a position of conflict of interest…..as he was a businessman who stood to gain because of the growing prosperity and settlement of the region.

Authorities honestly, had little concern, just because some settlers perished in their humble little cabins. It didn't really matter much if they froze to death, starved to death, worked themselves to death, or died of frustration. One day, when development moves further into the hinterland, onto these old homesteads, the earth movers will uncover many of these gravesites. If work and the elements didn't kill them, a wide assortment of diseases would. When I see the romantic, sentimental interpretations, of the pioneer period in Muskoka, one recent video series in particular, I just can't watch or read these accounts, without a. gagging, and b. pondering why it is so difficult to cross reference as part of logical, scholarly research…..such that the observations above, might instill a writer or film maker to delve a little further. There's no whimsy about this period in our history. Yet almost every modern day attempt to capture this period, for the benefit of today's audience, is so ridiculously attached to the pretty picture, of what it must have been like, at hearthside, in those beautiful, rustic cabins. Right on! This is what I was referring to in a previous blog, about the history lesson William Dawson LeSueur thought he should give Stephen Leacock, when the revered author started penning the popular history of Canada. "The Peoples' History of Canada." The one with the rounded edges so no one got hurt by it. LeSueur, who believed in the critical approach to such important things as history, would rather have quit a project, because of editorial constraints, than leave a good history to seed. He looked at hundreds of sources of information before making an assessment. His was the "actual" perspective, not the "popular" version. I write this often folks, but I am so proud that we have an association with Dr. LeSueur, who named our post offices in Gravenhurst and Bracebridge, in 1862 and 1864 respectively. A smart dude, who didn't conceal the truth, or muddle reality, but insisted on clarity, with whatever he happened to be writing about. This former postal authority, civil servant in pioneer Canada, was a literary critic in high standing, his reviews of books revered by major publications in his time, and he became by accomplishment, one of Canada's most respected early historians. Yup, and he named our towns. But don't expect to much fanfare about this, although there was a mention in the most recent Gravenhurst history, composed by Cecil Porter….and released in the fall of 2011.

You won't find much ink dedicated to this "Black Picture," as presented in McMurray's book. Well, if McMurray trashed the letter in his book, seems fitting that every other historian to use the book as reference, did pretty much the same. But as I've pointed out previously, it just doesn't matter whether it is taken seriously, or not, all these years later, because it was reality during those dreadful years. Trying to carve out farmsteads from thick Muskoka bush. Ignorance isn't going to change the realities of history. There were success stories. Survivors. There are citizens of this community today, who have roots in those precarious homestead farms, and have a right to speak about what they know of good times and adversity, as faced by their kin-folk.

It's abundantly clear, most historians in the past hundred years, couldn't spare a lot of time, calculating just how many pioneers died, as a direct result of the risky lifestyle, immersed in an inhospitable, harsh environment, with so many agricultural limitations. Why is that number not of significance to local museums and historical societies…..to local heritage video makers and authors, who time and again give us the sanitized version of events……without even the slightest sense of the humanity that suffered so greatly, trying to survive against horrific odds. Poverty, alcoholism, half-starvation, illness due to inadequate diets, and injury sustained on the homestead, and in the logging operations…..where they had to work in the winter months, in order to make enough money to buy seed for next year's harvest. When I read stories about economic disparity in our region, and find some new half-ass, under-researched over-view of Muskoka's history in this regard, I try my best not to over-react, and "smoke 'em" with a cruel letter to the editor. I can't tell you how many letters I would have to write in a year, to correct the misunderstandings and almost purposeful misrepresentations of social / economic history. I want to make them understand how poverty is our provenance in this region……and we didn't just get this way in a couple of years. The hangover from those pioneer days never really disappeared, and was extended through family generations….although some critics would find this hard to believe. It began as a rural tragedy and it has continued to be a recurring situation for many rural families, still finding it impossible to homestead in modern times.

Muskoka is a jewel. It is a wonderful place to live. But if you plan to live here year round, and you are still "a million dollars shy of being a millionaire," you may find this region, still, after all these years, a difficult place to live affordably and work profitably. Some circumstances don't change no matter what year is printed on the calendar.

There are still folks fudging the facts. Those of authority who feel it is best not to reveal too much, in case we might object or rebel……or toss their sorry behinds out of office. I'm a career writer, so I know how to pitch a slight mistruth to make something look better than it is. I remember a publisher asking me to write a nasty editorial about a councillor I happened to respect, and I outrightly refused to do his dirty work. Well he didn't like my insubordination, but there is no way I could have slanted an editorial, based on someone else's opinion, with nary a fibre of fact to corroborate the assertion. It happens lots out there, and I'm glad my editorial days are long over. But I still watch in my community here, for those who try to manipulate the press, to meet their agenda. There are quite a few Thomas McMurray's lurking about, and I react accordingly, as an historian must. I can live with fact. Researched material from reliable sources. Not hearsay. Not because it's the bent someone has, who feels compelled to shape history the way they see fit.

I don't expect you to believe what I have written because it seems factual-enough to make the grade. I don't ever mind being challenged to prove a point, or defend a position, as long as the challenger has taken the time to read and research counterpoint, before firing attack missiles at me. Point is, we need to know more about our community, from many more points of view, in order to understand what it all represents. You can't possibly understand the history of Gravenhurst or Muskoka, without knowledge of this "Black Picture," I have just presented…….simply because it's considered an inconvenient, messy, unfortunate, paradise-damaging-truth.

The way we began those pioneering years in Muskoka, isn't the direct link or cause to what some amongst us still suffer with today. But when we look at how we have coped, and survived as a permanent population, there is lingering evidence of that grass-roots, social / economic resourcefulness, that many revisionists wouldn't take five minutes to consider as part of our legacy…..before tossing it out as irrelevant. Well, I'm telling you, it is relevant. Toss me away if you think I deserve it!

Thank you so much for joining me for this little retrospective. Please join me again soon.

Distortions, Errors in Reporting, Errors in History

MUSKOKA'S SOCIAL HERITAGE - WE'VE READ THE KINDER VERSION

"THE ROUGH AND TUMBLE, AND THE DRUNKEN - IT WASN'T SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE HISTORY FOR PRINT

VERSIONS OF THE WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. INTERPRETATIONS OF EVENTS. THE VESTED INTEREST'S PERSPECTIVE. THE CONFLICT OF INTEREST POINT OF VIEW. SOME TIMES I WONDER IF HARD NEWS, BASED ON FACT, HAS MUCH USE ANY MORE…..AT LEAST OUTSIDE THE COURTS. JUST WHEN I THINK IT WAS SO MUCH WORSE A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, WHEN SMALL TOWN NEWSPAPERS DIDN'T LET FACT GET IN THE WAY OF A REALLY GOOD STORY.…, I WILL WATCH SOME NEWS REPORT ON THE TELEVISION, HEAR IT ON THE RADIO OR READ IT IN THE NEWSPAPER……AND FEEL AS IF I'VE JUST HAD A STROKE. THE INFORMATION DOESN'T JIVE WITH WHAT I'VE UNDERSTOOD PREVIOUSLY AS FACT. IT HAPPENS A LOT, AND AS SOMEONE WHO STILL HAS A REPORTER'S PENCHANT FOR FACT-GATHERING, I'VE GOT TO TELL YOU, TELLING PORKIES SEEMS TO BE ACCEPTED PRACTICE….. THE NEW NORMAL FARE……ESPECIALLY LIBERTIES TAKEN WITH WHAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE NEWS STORIES AND NOT OPINION PIECES. I WAS TAUGHT HOW TO WRITE A RESPONSIBLE NEWS STORY, BASED ON THE GATHERING OF FACT. MY OPINION DIDN'T COUNT. I WAS THE SCRIBE NOT THE EDITOR. NOT THE COLUMNIST. WE THINK THIS STUFF ONLY HAPPENS IN OTHER COUNTRIES, WHERE GOVERNMENT DICTATES THE RELEVANT TRUTH. WELL, TRUTH IS, THERE ARE A LOT OF DIVERSIONS TO FACT PRESENTATION THESE DAYS, AND I FIND IT VERY DISCOURAGING. NOW IF YOU'RE AN UP-AND-COMING HISTORIAN, AND YOU PLAN ON USING PRINT MEDIA AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION, YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO CROSS REFERENCE LIKE MAD, ALL OVER THE PLACE, TO GET A CLEAR PERSPECTIVE. A LOT OF LOCAL HISTORY TEXTS, HERE IN MUSKOKA (AND MANY OTHER REGIONAL HISTORIES IN CANADA), WERE SIGNIFICANTLY BASED ON WHAT THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER WAS PASSING OFF AS FACT. IF AND WHEN THEY WERE WRONG, JUST AS THEIR OPINION WAS FREQUENTLY CONTRARY TO FACT, OR POLITICALLY BIASED, THE MISTAKES AND DISTORTIONS GET PASSED ON THROUGH HISTORICAL RECORD UNABATED. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN CAREFUL TO CROSS-REFERENCE ACCOUNTS OF MAJOR EVENTS, THAT WERE COVERED BY THESE OLD PAPERS, AND THERE ARE LOTS OF DISCREPANCIES TO FILTER OUT. I'VE HAD MANY HOBBY AND FAMILY HISTORIANS THRUST THESE NEWSPAPER VERSIONS AT ME……TO SUPPORT A THEORY, OR BOLSTER A NEW PERSPECTIVE. IT'S AWFULLY HARD TO EXPLAIN JUST HOW CRAPPY SOME NEWSPAPERS WERE AT PRESENTING THE TRUTH. THEY WERE OKAY RAISING POLITICAL FLAGS BUT THEIR COMMITMENT TO FACT WAS….."WE DID THE BEST WE COULD." I CAN'T SPEAK FOR THE READERS FIFTY YEARS AGO, BUT IT'S IS A PAIN IN THE ASS TODAY, WHEN WE DELVE BACK AND FIND MAJOR REPORTING ERRORS, AND FIND MANY LIBERTIES THAT WERE TAKEN. YES, BECAUSE OF THIS, HISTORY IS LIKELY TO BE DISTORTED BECAUSE THE RELIANCE ON NEWSPAPERS WAS MUCH TOO HEAVY.

IT IS UNACCEPTABLE TO GENERALIZE THAT A MAJORITY OF PUBLISHED MUSKOKA HISTORIES, ARE SANITIZED VERSIONS OF WHAT REALLY HAPPENED HERE, SINCE THE LATE 1850'S. I DON'T HAVE A PROPER COUNT. BUT LET'S JUST SAY, THAT A LOT OF ACCEPTED-AS-ACCURATE LOCAL HISTORIES, ARE PRETTY MUCH VOID OF THE RAW SOCIAL REALITIES, AND RESULTING CALAMATIES THAT, ONE MIGHT SUPPOSE, SHONE TOO BRIGHT A LIGHT ON TOWN CURRENT EVENTS. DISPLAYED A SIDE OF OUR REGION'S POPULATION, SOME HISTORIANS THOUGHT WOULD BE UNFLATTERING TO THE COMMUNITY'S REPUTATION. IT DOESN'T MEAN BAD STUFF DIDN'T HAPPEN. IT WAS JUST BYPASSED AS INCONVENIENT TRUTHS. UNCHRISTIAN-LIKE BEHAVIOR. SHOULD AN EDITOR HAVE REPORTED ON BAD MANNERS, INSTEAD OF THE SOCIAL NOTICES, IT MIGHT WELL HAVE DOMINATED THE FEW PAGES OF PRINT THAT WERE PUBLISHED WEEKLY. THE CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES AND CRIME STATISTICS FROM ANOTHER ERA? POVERTY? WHERE DOES IT FIT IN? IF IT'S MENTIONED AT ALL, IT'S A TINY PORTION OF THE MEAGRE SOCIAL ACTUALITY THAT WAS PRINTED. WHAT WAS CONTROLLING THE PRESS? WELL, YOU NAME IT! RELIGIOUS AFFILIATIONS, POLITICS, FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS, AND CULTURAL SITUATIONS.

I CAN REMEMBER, AS AN EDITOR, BEING ACCOSTED BY A GENTLEMAN, RECITING THE PROTOCOLS OF HIS PARTICULAR SERVICE CLUB, AND ALL THE REASONS I SHOULDN'T HAVE RUN A NEWS STORY, HE HAD AN INTEREST IN, ON OUR FRONT PAGE THAT WEEK. FUNNY THING, HE DIDN'T BLAME ME AS MUCH AS MY BOSS. HE THREW THE SHREDDED FRONT PAGE OVER HIS HEAD……WHILE I TRIED TO GET MY CHIN OFF MY CHEST. IN FACT, OUR WHOLE EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT HAD DEMANDED THE STORY BE TREATED AS A MAJOR POLICE EVENT OF THE WEEK, AND MAKE IT TO PRINT AS WRITTEN. THEY AGREED BUT IF MEMORY SERVES, IT WAS A RELUCTANT APPROVAL. THE OFFENDED GENT FELT WE SHOULD HAVE TREATED HIM DIFFERENTLY, YOU SEE, BECAUSE OF AN AFFILIATION. IF WE HADN'T STOOD OUR GROUND ON THIS, I WOULD HAVE HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO RESIGN. BY THE WAY, OUTSIDE OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND THE HUMANE SOCIETY, I REFUSED TO BELONG TO ANY SERVICE CLUB, POLITICAL PARTY OR FRATERNAL ORGANIZATION, BECAUSE OF THE POTENTIAL OF FUTURE CONFLICTS OF INTEREST. I WAS ASKED TO JOIN MANY ORGANIZATIONS BUT MOST OF THEM WOULD HAVE GOTTEN IN THE WAY OF FAIR REPRESENTATION OF THE NEWS OF THE DAY. I DID JOIN A POLITICAL PARTY, AFTER I HAD REMOVED MYSELF FROM THE NEWS ROOM STAFF, WORKING THEN AS A FEATURE WRITER. I DIDN'T WRITE A SINGLE WORD ABOUT POLITICS.

HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF SANITIZING HISTORY. FROM THE TIME I ARRIVED IN BRACEBRIDGE, IN ABOUT 1966, IF SOMEONE SAID TO ME, "HEY, WE'RE GOING DOWN TO N_____ HOLLOW," I KNEW THAT MEANT, WE WERE GOING TO BE HEADING DOWN TO JUBILEE PARK TO PLAY BASEBALL. I KNEW THAT USING THE RACIALLY DEROGATORY NAME WAS WRONG, BUT THAT'S THE WAY THE LOCALS OF THE DAY, REFERRED TO THIS "HOLLOW" AREA OF THE TOWN. IN FACT, IN THE MID-1980'S, WHEN WE BOUGHT AN OLD TANNERY-ERA HOUSE, ON ONTARIO STREET, SOMEONE I WAS TALKING TO ABOUT REAL ESTATE SAID, "SO, YOU'RE MOVING TO N______ HOLLOW." NEVER ONCE HEARD IT REFERRED TO IN THIS WAY, THAT IT WASN'T STARTLING, EVEN AS A TEENAGER, BUT DESPITE WHAT I MIGHT HAVE FELT, OR HOW I UNDERSTOOD IT TO BE WRONG, AND INSENSITIVE, THAT'S WHAT IT WAS KNOWN AS FOR MANY, MANY YEARS IN LOCAL HISTORY. WILL YOU FIND IT REFERENCED IN ANY OF THE LOCAL HISTORIES? IT IF IS, THAT HISTORY WOULD HAVE BEEN PENNED LONG BEFORE THE 1960'S, AND I SIMPLY HAVEN'T READ IT. IS IT POSSIBLE THE REFERENCE WAS CONTAINED IN NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS? IT'S UNLIKELY. I'M SURE CITIZENS WOULDN'T HAVE ETCHED IT ONTO A SIGN OR ANYTHING PERMANENT, BUT FOR THE FOLKS OF DARKER SKIN, WHO WORKED IN THE TANNERY INDUSTRY, IN THE HOLLOW, BORDERED BY THE MUSKOKA RIVER, AND WHO RESIDED IN THAT NEIGHBORHOOD, WITH DESCENDANTS STILL IN THE COMMUNITY TODAY, IT MUST HAVE BEEN PARTICULARLY UNCOMFORTABLE FOR QUITE A NUMBER OF YEARS. THEY KNEW WHAT IT MEANT, AND THE FACT IT WAS A CONTINUAL REFERENCE, IN CANDID CONVERSATION, MEANS THERE WASN'T ANY REAL SENSE OF URGENCY DISASSOCIATING, WHAT HAD BECOME, BY THEN, A WELL ENTRENCHED LOCAL TRADITION…..AS WRONG AS IT WAS.

EVEN TODAY THERE IS GREAT RELUCTANCE TO TALK OR WRITE ABOUT THESE INSENSITIVITIES OF THE PAST. BUT JUST BECAUSE WE DON'T WANT TO ADMIT TO THEM, HAS NO DIMINISHING CAPACITY, TO ERASE, OR SANITIZE IT FROM HISTORICAL FACT. IN FAIRNESS, MOST COMMUNITY HISTORIES WERE COMPOSED IN THIS FASHION. AGAIN, AS MUCH TO SUGGEST, IF WE DON'T VALIDATE IT IN PRINT, IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. SO WHAT IF IT DID? IS IT TIME TO LOOK AT THE SOCIAL / CULTURAL / RELIGIOUS INEQUALITIES WE IMPOSED, AS A SOCIETY, ON FELLOW CITIZENS, AND REMIND OURSELVES OF THE TRULY REMARKABLE QUALITIES OF MAKING AMENDS……EVEN AFTER ALL THIS TIME. YET SOME CRITICS NOW, WILL SAY TO ME, WITH CONSIDERABLE CONTEMPT….."WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DREDGE THIS UP ABOUT US!" AS IF I HAD LEFT IT ALONE, AND NOT REPRINTED THE REFERENCE, WOULD HAVE KEPT THE GENIE IN THE BOTTLE A LITTLE WHILE LONGER.

MY POINT IS, AND I DON'T SIDE WITH MANY OTHER HISTORIANS IN OUR REGION, THAT A GREAT QUANTITY OF OUR SOCIAL HISTORY HAS BEEN IGNORED, BECAUSE OF THE SENSE OF URGENCY, TO PAINT OVER THE GRAFFITI WITH THE WHITEWASH OF GENERAL HISTORIC FACT. I WON'T SUGGEST TO YOU WE SUSPEND REGISTERING FACT, OR SETTING IN PLACE, THE BARE BONES HISTORICAL RECORD, TO INSTEAD WRITE ONLY THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF OUR REGION. WHAT I AM MOST DEFINITELY RECOMMENDING, IS THAT A MUCH HIGHER REGARD BE PLACED ON THE VERY REAL ASPECT OF OUR HERITAGE…..THAT IS HUMAN, AND HUMAN NATURE, GOOD AND BAD. YOU CAN NOT UNDERSTAND THE HISTORY OF A TOWN, A REGION, A PROVINCE, A COUNTRY, WITHOUT THE STUDY OF THE PEOPLE WHO BUILT IT, CABIN BY CABIN, HAMLET BY HAMLET, AND ON AND ON. THE PROBLEM, IN A NUTSHELL, IS THAT MOST OF THE RECORDED HISTORY OF OUR TOWNS, WEIGHS VERY HEAVILY ON THE NEWSPAPERS OF THE TIME. WELL, WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS, IS THAT NEWSPAPERS WERE OWNED BY PUBLISHERS WHO HAD THEIR OWN AGENDAS, AND POLITICS, AND DIDN'T ALWAYS TREAT COVERAGE IN A FAIR AND EQUAL WAY. THIS SHOULDN'T BE ANY SURPRISE TO ANYONE WITH EVEN A MINOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE MEDIA. CONSIDER, FOR EXAMPLE, ESPECIALLY DURING THIS HUGE, CURRENT CONFLICT, IN THE CITY OF TORONTO, IF AN HISTORIAN MANY YEARS DOWN THE ROAD, WAS TO OPT TO TAKE AS GOSPEL, THE TORONTO SUN, AS THE TRUEST RECORD OF THE ROB FORD ADMINISTRATION. OR, ON THE OTHER PAGE, USE ONLY THE TORONTO STAR, AS THE PRIMARY SOURCE OF INFORMATION, TO FORMULATE AN OVERVIEW OF JUST WHAT WAS GOING ON IN 2012, IN THE CITY OF TORONTO…..REGARDING TRANSIT FOR EXAMPLE.

TO BORROW AGAIN FROM THE LEGACY THAT WAS LEFT BY DR. WILLIAM DAWSON LESUEUR, WHO NAMED BOTH GRAVENHURST AND BRACEBRIDGE POST OFFICES, IN 1862 AND 1864 RESPECTIVELY, (AS A FEDERAL EMPLOYEE WITH THE POSTAL DEPARTMENT), THIS SOON TO BE RECOGNIZED CANADIAN HISTORIAN……WOULD HAVE OF COURSE, TAKEN BOTH NEWSPAPERS, AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT WAS PRINTED, TO ESTABLISH THE RAW DETAILS OF THE PERIOD. HE WOULD HAVE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT THE WIDELY DIVERSE OPINIONS OF BOTH PUBLICATIONS, AND FROM OTHER PRINT SOURCES, AND THEN CONDUCTED HIS OWN INVESTIGATION……TALKING TO PEOPLE CLOSE TO THE DEBATE…..CLOSE TO THE HISTORY THAT WAS BEING ETCHED INTO PRINT, PAGE BY PAGE. HIS OVERVIEW WOULD HAVE BEEN THE RESULT OF INTENSIVE SCRUTINY, JUST AS HE BATTLED MACKENZIE KING, ABOUT THE DEBUNKING OF HIS ANCESTOR, WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE'S ROLE IN THE REBELLION OF UPPER CANADA. KING WAS NOT PLEASED AT ALL, ABOUT THIS PESKY HISTORIAN, MUCKING IN HIS FAMILY'S BUSINESS. LESUEUR HAD INFORMATION TO DISPROVE ALL THE OTHER BIOGRAPHIES THAT HAD AFFORDED MACKENZIE CREDIT HE DIDN'T DESERVE. IN LESUEUR'S WELL VERSED OPINION, THE REBELLION WOULD HAVE OCCURRED EVEN WITHOUT THE "FIREBRAND," MACKENZIE……AND WITH A LOT LESS DEBACLE. HE DIDN'T FIND MACKENZIE'S LEADERSHIP PARTICULARLY STELLAR. SO TO GET EVEN FOR LESUEUR'S STUBBORNESS, AND REFUSAL TO MODIFY THE STORY, KING USED MONEY AND INFLUENCE TO BLOCK THE PUBLICATION OF WHAT IS TODAY A GENERALLY ACCEPTED REFERENCE OF MACKENZIE……BUT BOTH KING AND LESUEUR WERE DEAD WHEN THE BOOK WAS FINALLY PUBLISHED. SCHOLARS HAVE UPDATED LESUEUR'S BOOK, AS THEY SHOULD HAVE, BUT AS FAR AS THE DANGER OF COUNTER-POINT, KING BLOCKED ACCURACY AND HONEST INTERPRETATION BECAUSE HE FELT LIKE IT! HARDLY THE REASON TO SUPRESS THE PUBLICATION OF A WELL-RESEARCHED AND COMPETENTLY WRITTEN HISTORY.

As I wrote about in yesterday's blog, we have some tough realities to face in the future, when historians get a little bit more room to roam, without fearing they will be ostracized for uncovering some of the truths that have been methodically buried for all these decades. There are hundreds of examples of community events being half-reported, such that yes, the stories have made the press all right, but as far as investigative reporting, important follow-ups have been purposely ignored. Suspicious deaths that many folks suspected as murder that were never fully investigated. Crimes committed by the social elite that somehow missed the full authority of the law. Even in my time, I can recall a local death that was highly suspicious and demanded much greater research than was ever afforded the case, regarded evermore as death by misadventure. How many news reports do you think there were, about the harboring of alleged American draft dodgers, holed-up at the Bracebridge monastery, of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, during the years of the Vietnam War. Whether they were there or not, and I don't have positive proof, the rumor mill in a small town was in full vigor for a long time, and there were a lot of local citizens pissed-off they were hiding out in our community. They were more concerned about the fact "The Town" was going to attract unwanted media attention on our God-fearing, self righteous region. I came from a family that didn't support the war in Vietnam, my dad actually having long hair in support of the hippy era, but it was still bandied about in our apartment complex, up on Alice Street. "We should turn those hippies in!" I don't know how the Brothers at the monastery felt about it generally, but I'm sure if it was as loud and clear to a kid like me, the town administrators may, in one form or another, have run-it-by the church, about the impropriety of compromising the good name of the town. And as unfair as this was, in my opinion, as a youngster, it was also suggested that if they harbored pacifists, they'd also be accommodating pot-smoking hippies. I heard it many times, and in fact, my mother, after talking to the mothers of my chums, ordered me to stay away from this beautiful place on the hill…..the monastery, that was occupied by some very nice people. I don't think this prejudice and hearsay got a lot of play in the local press, because they wanted it solved without expending any ink.

If you read a history, for example, of the logging industry in Muskoka, you will most likely learn about the scope and rigors of the industry, the board feet of lumber produced, the number of people employed in the logging and sawmill enterprise, and the way we earned the name "Sawdust City," here in Gravenhurst. What you won't read much about, for some pretty obvious reasons, is the kind of carnage that happened when the camps let out in the spring, and the loggers wanted to party hardy, in our local hotels and anywhere else they could find liquor and a shoulder to cry on! There are stories about hotels being torn apart, especially in communities like Utterson, and Gravenhurst, when all the pent-up enthusiasm from winter camp loggers, spilled out onto our streets. To say that lumbermen drank and caroused too much, can only be an understatement, but considering we don't have any real time video to prove it, well, it becomes just one of those annoying burls that doesn't saw according to everything else. This was the reason why preachers were encouraged to visit the lumber camps during the winter season, to try and save the loggers from themselves…..and the demon rum. There is a book I have somewhere in my Muskoka collection, entitled "From the Lumber Camp to the Ministry," the story of one such preacher who realized how many souls he could save, if he was on his game, visiting these Satan-bound atheists……playing poker and doing sinful things with their money. He had started this way, but came to see the light. So he took up the cause of God, and returned to save the logger lads.

Let's just say, for the sake of argument, there were houses of ill repute in our region. Why would we be surprised? It's not like they didn't exist at the time.

The book details the huge task of convincing these tough and well travelled men, that drink was evil. The sins got bigger the more liquor was consumed. By his account, he was successful, to the point he actually "saved" the soul of lumber baron, J.D. Shier, of Bracebridge. In reality, according to the preacher (and this is only one side of the story), he had reached Mrs. Shier before her husband, and the lumberman was slightly easier to convince, to accept God as his Savior……in part (however small) to please his wife. This had been a great coup for the preacher, a Reverend Allen, I believe, because from that "saving of the soul," Shier was more adamant about civil, Christian behavior in his lumber camps and mill.

Point is, for decades, from the early days of the logging and lumbering industry, in our region, rowdy behavior was quite anticipated, and to some degree accepted, as a lot of money poured into the towns, once the spring drive had ended. Incidents of alcohol related crime? You bet. But you can scour through the pages of local history, and you won't find much about the revenues of these lumbermen visiting those houses of ill-repute I mentioned. As I noted in the beginning of this blog, a lot of relevant, factual and necessary historical information was never recorded…..on purpose, because of the values of these same editors and publishers. I suspect they believed it far more important to deny public access to information they were aware, because of the calamity these revelations might have caused to the social propriety and righteousness, they believed was so fragile. Yet if you had complete access to the criminal trials, and the police blotters of our communities, you would have a hard time splicing what you uncover, into the history that has been so "carefully" written from the beginning…..with some exceptions of course.

It happens even today. I have often been at odds with how the local press will view and report on an incident or crime, that I may have witnessed, at least as an aftermath, and for all intents and purposes, there are very few comparable details….such that I have to keep re-reading the account, because it was not how I personally observed the sequence of events. On major events however, that are game-changers for historians, trying to portray our communities with accuracy, and a balance of opposing sides, it is far more detrimental to have obscured information, and it frustrates me constantly. Our big mucky-mucks are still doing the same old, same old, deciding how certain matters in the public domain, are to be viewed. I know every time a politician does this, and I'm not even one percent clairvoyant……just an historian who doesn't accept status quo because that's all that's offered up as the news of the day.

I remember on two occasions in my years with the community press, of being warned off a story. Done. Over. Not to be mentioned again. I can't tell you what those stories were, but I never forgot what it felt like, to have had the scoop but not the ink to run it on the front page. I didn't get an explanation. I was broke. I had no choice but to drop the stories. That's the way it was. Haunts me to this day.

I take the public's right to know very seriously, and I have been clobbered and black-listed for years as a result. I'm just one of many, who feel that even with this great democracy we live in, suppression of truth is still as convenient as ever.

So how poor were we in Muskoka way back when? Join me tomorrow and I'll tell you!

NOTE: NOW I'M GOING TO LISTEN TO THE EXPERT….AND NOT-S0-EXPERT ANALYSIS OF THE FEDERAL BUDGET, I'M TOLD WILL IMPACT ME AS INTRUSIVELY AS AN ICING-SUGAR DUSTING OF MY HEAD……AND I'M PRETTY DARN SURE OUR MP WILL BE ALL GUSHY AND WILDLY OPTIMISTIC ABOUT IT, IN HIS NEXT NEWSLETTER STUFFED IN MY MAIL BOX….., THAT I DIDN'T ASK FOR. JUST LIKE THE BUDGET WE HAD TO DIGEST FROM OUR PROVINCE. I LOVE IT WHEN THEY TELL ME I'LL FEEL SO MUCH BETTER AFTER MY POCKETS ARE EMPTIED. MAYBE THEY'RE RIGHT. SOMETIMES I FEEL GOVERNED BY A CULT. PLEASE TELL ME I'M WRONG TO BELIEVE THIS!

Karon Update, It's Happening, History As It Was

AN UPDATE ON RICHARD KARON BIOGRAPHY - THE WEEKENDER GOT US SOME ACTION

LAST FRIDAY THE WEEKENDER, OUR WIDELY CIRCULATED NEWSPAPER, HERE IN MUSKOKA, PUBLISHED A "LETTER TO THE EDITOR," I'D WRITTEN, SEEKING THE PUBLIC'S ASSISTANCE, ON OUR RESEARCH OF CANADIAN ARTIST, RICHARD KARON, FORMERLY OF BAYSVILLE, IN THE TOWNSHIP OF LAKE OF BAYS. ADMITTEDLY THE ARTIST'S SON, RICHARD AND I WERE ONLY SLOWLY PLODDING ALONG, BUT NOTHING MAJOR WAS HAPPENING …….AT LEAST AS QUICKLY AS WE HAD HOPED. WITHIN TWO HOURS OF "THE WEEKENDER" HITTING THE DRIVEWAYS OF MUSKOKA, WE BEGAN GETTING EMAILS AND A FEW PHONE CALLS, FROM PEOPLE WHO EITHER KNEW MR. KARON PERSONALLY, OR OWNED ONE OR MORE OF HIS ORIGINAL PAINTINGS. WHEN I CONTACTED RICHARD LATER FRIDAY NIGHT, HE WAS QUITE IMPRESSED. WHEN I EMAILED HIM THE NEXT DAY, THE DAY AFTER THAT, RIGHT UP TO THE PRESENT, BELIEVE ME, WE'VE PASSED BEING "TOTALLY ECSTATIC" WITH THE GENEROSITY OF PAINTING OWNERS, AND OLD FRIENDS OF THE ARTIST.

FROM HAVING ABOUT TWENTY KNOWN PAINTINGS, MOST IN RICHARD'S PERSONAL COLLECTION, WE ARE NOW HOVERING AROUND THE FIFTY PAINTING MARK, AND EVERY DAY IT INCREASES BY TWO TO FOUR ORIGINAL OILS. NOT JUST THAT, BUT WE ALSO GOT AN EMAIL FROM A PRESENT LAKE OF BAYS ARTIST, WHO ASKED IF WE MIGHT ALSO LIKE A PHOTOGRAPH OF KARON'S ORIGINAL EASEL, THAT HE GAVE HER WHEN HIS BAYSVILLE STUDIO WAS CLOSED. ONE OF THE FIRST QUESTIONS YOUNG MR. KARON ASKED ME, WHEN WE STARTED THIS PROJECT EARLY IN THE NEW YEAR, WAS IF I KNEW WHERE HIS FATHER'S EASEL HAD GONE…..SEEING AS I WAS AT THE AUCTION WHEN HIS PAINTINGS AND EQUIPMENT WAS SOLD OFF. THE ARTIST IS WILLING TO SHARE AN IMAGE OF THIS SENTIMENTAL PIECE, AND ALLOW RICHARD TO VISIT HER STUDIO FOR A CLOSER LOOK-SEE. THE GENEROSITY BEING SHOWN US IS WELL BEYOND WHAT RICHARD OR I HAD EXPECTED, WHEN WE SHOOK HANDS BACK IN JANUARY…..COMMITTED TO SEEING THIS TRIBUTE TO HIS FATHER COMPLETED. WELL, WE'RE GETTING HELP……AND I'VE GOT TO TELL YOU, THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BE A WRITER / HISTORIAN, BECAUSE EVERY DAY HAS A HEAPING HELPING OF ADVENTURE AND DISCOVERY.

As far as the biography itself, I have four days to hammer out the rest of the copy and proofread the material, before it is shipped off to Richard for some "fine tooth combing." Son Robert, and the talented singer, friend, Dani O'Connor, now famous for this past winter's "Skokie Song," in support of the Gravenhurst Winter Carnival, have composed and performed the companion music to the upcoming YouTube video, which will be an exhibit of some of Richard Karon's paintings, that have been kindly loaned to us, for use in this project. Robert played the theme music for Suzanne the other night and she started crying…….she think's Dani has the voice of an angel, and I heartily agree. The video of course, will be a companion itself to the written biography on this blog-site, which will also included many images of Karon's landscapes, dating back to the late 1960's. The video itself is meant to be a celebration of his art work, not a memorial, so we hope it won't make everyone get bleary eyed, because it certainly isn't the intent. This project has been fun from the beginning, and I haven't felt so invigorated as a writer in the past ten years. Gives me a chance to get away from politics for awhile. It has been a wild couple of weeks at the computer, I'll tell you, and I'm not used to staring at this infernal white screen for hours on end. Surprisingly after all these years, I'm a pretty quick typist thanks to the instruction of Norma Ferrier, back at Bracebridge High School. "Fingers on the home row. Eyes on what your are typing and not on the keys. Now type." She may have been the best ever teacher, as I've needed my typing skills ever since. Of course, I'm supposed to say that Suzanne was my best ever teacher…..but that's due to marriage, not the fact she actually taught me back then. She had Mrs. Ferrier as well, and she can type faster than me. Point is, thank God l'm not a typical one-finger journalist…..and they still they exist, believe it or not.

Please join Richard Karon Jr. and I, for our first biographical blog, which will be published on this Gravenhurst site, on Monday, April 16th, at approx. 8:30 p.m. Later in the spring, we will be putting all the Karon material on a separate blog, that will be easier to use than archiving through my stuff…..to get to the good stuff. Hope you'll like it. Tell you what…..it's one of the best "Muskoka" stories I've ever worked on…….and for me that tops out several hundred regional features I've penned since the late 1970's. The other interesting aspect of this biography, is that it has no conclusion, as it will be open to additions and corrections to infinity, so that we can have a very thorough and up-to-date look at this fascinating artist. As much work as we have put into this, we're still a long way from having a complete biography….especially his years in Poland, Germany and France.

MANY FASCINATING STORIES ALL AROUND US - THAT WE SHOULD KNOW

Like the Karon biography, there are hundreds of interesting stories to be told in our region…..compelling, unique, adventure-filled tales of local, national and international adventures, that would curl your hair. Exciting stuff that has never been passed from the family…..tales locked away in journals and diaries, that should one day make the light of day. There have been lives led here, that we have never known about publicly, that would seem the rank and file of fiction. But they are true. I've been told so many of these stories, but not for publication. I'm almost at the "ready to burst" level, with the kind of believe it or not stories, that would mesmerize an audience. Ghost stories. There are thousands of amazing ghost stories, accounts of encounters with UFO's, and other really neat paranormal occurrences, but they're held back out of that lingering sense of fear……that they will be laughed at, for their admissions. It happened many years ago, in Muskoka, that someone who had claimed to have seen a UFO, was publicly humiliated by disbelievers and bad press. There were a lot of folks who saw almost the same event at the same time, but were frightened to say anything.

As an old book collector / seller, an historian, and a writer, always eager for a good story to publicize, I know a lot of things you don't. I'm not bragging. But what you read about the history of Muskoka is in many ways the sanitized version. I've been going after old paper, documents, records, journals, personal letters, diaries, obscure histories that were published in small quantities…..some that were written but never actually printed for public consumption. I've seen honest personal accounts of life and times in the region, that doesn't jive with the history you will read in the local accounts of the way it was.

It was, with some coincidence, William Dawson LeSueur's complaint against Stephen Leacock, after the celebrated author published an overview, an "oh so friendly" and non-controversial history of Canada. LeSueur, who you might remember named both Gravenhurst and Bracebridge, in 1862 and 1864 respectively, believed in the critical approach to the analysis of history. He felt that Leacock was guilty of writing a "popular" non-aggressive history, that served no real purpose other than to smooth the edges of the harsh realities of our past. LeSueur, himself, was famous for duking it out with the big shots, including the Prime Minister of Canada, Mackenzie King. LeSueur had ripped apart the myth of King's grandfather, Sir William Lyon Mackenzie, who was said to have been the brains behind the Rebellion in Upper Canada. Authors for years, recalling the event of the Rebellion, called MacKenzie a "Firebrand," and the "Great Scot," for his fearless leadership. LeSueur knew differently, and challenged the historians of the day to stop being politically correct, and call Mackenzie what he actually had been……an over-reacting, quick tempered ass. What I admire so much about Dr. LeSueur, and cherish the fact he has provenance with our towns, here in Muskoka, is that he fought Mackenzie King, and despite being discredited and losing publishing funds, never changed his mind about the less than stellar accomplishments of the "not-so-much" weak-tea firebrand. King went to huge lengths to stop publication of LeSueur's book, because it knocked down the legend he wanted to be true. With what was protracted litigation, King was successful in keeping the LeSueur book off the shelves until the 1960's, I believe…..decades after both men had passed out of this mortal coil. When the book was finally released, it was every bit as important and relevant to the study of William Lyon MacKenzie, and is today, still a very important reference text to the study of this period, of the 1830's, in pioneer Upper Canada, and the quest for responsible government. Hey, we're still looking for that…..oh, geez, I just got political again.

The point of bringing this up, is that this is what I have been doing for years, and it makes my contemporaries cringe, at times when I threaten to write a new tell-all history book for the District of Muskoka. When I see film re-creations of the our history…..the "popular" version, because that's what most folks seem to want, I confess, I'm "outta-there" by the fifth minute of video……of that romantic, nostalgic, sickly sweet part-history we're being fed. Well, with what I have uncovered over the decades, I've got another version…..the "R" rated one, where by golly, Muskoka's pioneer laborers "did so" have prostitutes. Maybe that's not a surprise. Maybe we're working off the same script. In tomorrow's blog, I'll paint a clearer picture of what pioneer Muskoka was really like……not much like what has been recorded so far in the mammoth amount of books previously written about our area. They're important books for some things. But miss the point completely in others. I start off by dealing with the logging industry, and what hasn't been discussed about rambunctious loggers, booze and God……who was supposed to save their souls……but a lot slipped through the log jam.

Thanks for joining me. See you again soon.

Gravenhurst Council Must Pay Attention To School Danger

THE BUDGET GRAVENHURST SHOULD KEEP AN EYE ON - OR YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT SNOOZING AND LOSING-

HIGH SCHOOL NUMBERS - COUNCIL NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE PIKE

I'M REALLY NOT VERY POLITICAL, OTHER THAN I FIND MYSELF, AT MOST STATIONS THROUGH LIFE, DISLIKING WHAT WE HAVE AS GOVERNANCE. MOST OF THE TIME YOU JUST COMPLAIN TO THE WALL, AND MUMBLE TO ONESELF ABOUT THE INJUSTICES OF BUDGETS LIKE THIS LATEST ONE, AND WELL, PAY WHATEVER NEEDS TO BE PAID…..AND MOISTEN THE OLD CRYING TOWEL WITH YOUR TEARS. THIS LATEST PROVINCIAL BUDGET HAS A LITTLE BIT MORE TO IT, THAN FOLKS IN GRAVENHURST MAY INITIALLY BE AWARE OF…..AND WHILE IT WILL CERTAINLY SEEM LIKE I'M HARPING, OR FLOGGING THE PROVERBIAL DEAD HORSE, THE ISSUE I'VE BEEN WARNING MY TOWN ABOUT, GOT A HUGE HAIRY BOOST IN THE LATEST GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT.

THERE IS A PROVISION BY THE PROVINCE, TO WORK AT BOARD OF EDUCATION EFFICIENCIES, SUCH AS INCREASING BOARD SIZES THROUGH AMALGAMATIONS……BEEN THERE, DONE THAT……AND CLOSE SCHOOLS THAT ARE OPERATING UNDER-CAPACITY. AMONGST OTHER THINGS, GRAVENHURST IS GOING TO SEE SOME POTENTIAL CHANGES WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT. NOW IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE A LIBERAL OUT THERE, I'M SORRY TO OFFEND YOU…..AND WHILE I DO AGREE WITH THE RAGING NECESSITY TO DEAL WITH OUR PROVINCIAL DEFICIT, WHEN IT COMES TO THE POTENTIAL WE COULD LOSE OUR HIGH SCHOOL, OR SOME PUBLIC SCHOOLS, WE HAVE TO THINK OF OTHER THINGS THAN PLEASANTRIES TO WISH THE GOVERNING LIBERAL PARTY….AND BY ALL MEANS, BRING ON AN ELECTION. FRANKLY, THIS MAY HAVE BEEN THE BEST WAY TO GET THIS ISSUE OUT IN THE OPEN, SO LOCAL COUNCILLORS CAN SEE FOR THEMSELVES THAT THIS CLOSURE POTENTIAL IS A BIGGER DEAL THAN THEY HAVE PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT…..IF IN FACT THEY HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT IT FOR FIVE MINUTES THIS YEAR.

THE QUESTION IS, WHAT IS THE CAPACITY OF THE SCHOOL, AND ARE WE CLOSE? IF WE HAVE BEEN UNDER-ENROLLED, INCLUDING THIS PRESENT TERM, THE BOARD, WITH THIS NEW BUDGET, HAS THE AUTHORITY OF THE PROVINCE, TO CLOSE IT UP TO SAVE COSTS. IF IT WAS JUST THE BOARD, ON ITS OWN, THERE WOULD BE A LOT MORE INVOLVED, THAN THIS NEW PROJECT TO SAVE US FROM BANKRUPTCY AS A PROVINCE. THIS IS SCAREY STUFF FOR THIS TOWN. SO AS FAR AS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GOES, LOSING THE SCHOOL IS A DEATH KNELL OF THE OLD TOWN, THE WAY WE HAVE KNOWN IT. SO IT REALLY IS A CASE NOW, THAT WE MIGHT WANT TO STUDY WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A LIBERAL, AND AGAIN, I'M NOT ASSOCIATED WITH ANY PARTY……BUT THIS IS AN ACT OF SO-CALLED RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT, THAT COULD, BY DECREE, CHANGE OUR HISTORY WITH THAT LITTLE PROVISION ATTACHED TO THE BUDGET. STRIKES? YUP! IT'S GOING TO BE A DANDY SPRING AND SUMMER.

AWARENESS AND PREPARATION TIME IS CUT IN HALF. SO GRAVENHURST COUNCIL WOULD BE WELL ADVISED TO COMMENCE THAT ACTION COMMITTEE I WAS WRITING ABOUT PREVIOUSLY, BECAUSE WE NEED TO BE SURE JUST HOW CLOSE THIS COULD BE ON A STUDENT COUNT IF IT WAS DONE TOMORROW MORNING. OF ALL THE OLD SAYINGS, I WISH IT WAS THE CASE, THAT I "WAS BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE." I DON'T WANT TO BE RIGHT ABOUT THIS, BUT YOU KNOW, WITH ALL THE STUFF THAT'S BEEN GOING ON IN OUR TOWN, OF AN ADVERSE NATURE, LOSING THE SCHOOL WOULD BE TRAGIC. WHILE MANY CITIZENS SIT ON THE FENCE ON ISSUES LIKE THIS, NOW IS THE TIME TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THESE FOLKS AT QUEEN'S PARK HAVE IN MIND…….AS JUST-DESERT FOR US……A CONSERVATIVE RIDING THAT THEY WON'T WIN ANY TIME SOON.

THERE IS ALL KINDS OF RHETORIC A WRITER OF MY VINTAGE CAN COME UP WITH, TO ARTICULATE THAT THE SKY MAY BE FALLING, AND CONVINCE FOLKS TO HIDE UNDER THEIR BEDS TO AVOID GETTING HIT BY SOME. FROM MY YEARS AS AN EDITOR WITH THE MUSKOKA PRESS, THIS IS WORRISOME, BECAUSE NO FOOLING, I DON'T NEED ANY RHETORIC TO COME UP WITH SOME REAL SOLID FEAR MONGERING. THE PREMIER OF THIS PROVINCE DOESN'T LIVE IN GRAVENHURST, AND IF THERE'S ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL UPHEAVAL, SO! AS THERE HAS BEEN SO MUCH EFFORT SPENT TRYING TO REVITALIZE THE MAIN STREET, AND REINFORCE THE IDEA THAT GRAVENHURST WANTS YOUR BUSINESS, EVEN THE POTENTIAL OF LOSING THE SCHOOL TO LOW ENROLLMENT…..THREE YEARS DOWN THE ROAD, IS A DOWNER TO FOLKS AND BUSINESSES WISHING TO RE-LOCATE HERE. NOW BUMP UP THAT TIME-FRAME, AND IT SHOULD BE A STAGGERING REALITY CHECK TO THOSE WHO DIDN'T THINK IT WAS EVEN REMOTELY POSSIBLE. THE PROVINCE HAS JUST SAID, THAT THEY WILL ASSIST CLOSING THOSE SCHOOLS THAT ARE UNDER-UTILIZED. NOT IN THREE YEARS. SOON. SO WHAT IS OUR DANGER ZONE? ARE WE IN IT NOW AS FAR AS ENROLLMENT, ESPECIALLY IF YOU REMOVE THE VICTORY LAP YEAR, WHICH DOES BULK UP THE NUMBERS? COUNCIL NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT. THEY NEED TO KNOW WHAT THOSE NUMBERS SAY……AND THEY SHOULD BE DEMANDING THE TRILLIUM LAKELANDS BOARD OF EDUCATION PROVIDE THOSE STATS, PRONTO.

I HOPE WE ARE SAFE. I'D LIKE TO END THIS BLOG BY SUGGESTING….."AH, WE'LL PROBABLY BE OKAY." AS AN OLD NEWS HOUND, WHO HAS WATCHED MANY BUDGETS COME DOWN, WHILE I WAS EDITOR OF THE HERALD-GAZETTE, AND FRANK MILLER WAS THE TREASURER OF ONTARIO…….I CAN TELL YOU, THIS IS A BAD NEWS BUDGET THAT COULD SERIOUSLY HURT OUR WHOLE COMMUNITY……AND AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED…..THE LEADERSHIP IN TORONTO, CALLING THE SHOTS FOR US…….WELL, WE HAVE A CHANCE TO LET THEM KNOW WHAT WE WON'T TOLERATE. I KEEP CHEWING ON THIS AIR AMBULANCE DEBACLE I'VE BEEN READING ABOUT ALMOST DAILY…….AND THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS INVESTED UNWISELY……AND IT'S LIKE THAT PETER FINCH MOMENT, WHEN HE SCREAMS OUT THE WINDOW….."I'M MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANY MORE!"

AN ELECTION. I'M BETTING ON IT. I'M PRAYING FOR IT. AND I'M NOT PARTICULARLY RELIGIOUS EITHER!

The House of My First Antique Shop, A Spirited Place

A HAUNTED ATTIC AND A WRITER IN RESIDENCE AND AN ANTIQUE SHOP

The year I graduated from York University, in Toronto, with a freshly inked degree in Canadian history, I arrived back in my then hometown, of Bracebridge, and commenced getting involved in everything I could. Community events and initiatives that had even the slightest heritage fringe, must have needed my help. Or so I thought. I guess you could say I was "pumped" to get involved.

It was the spring of 1977. Within weeks of settling in, we had launched plans for a family antique business, which involved a move to the mainstream. I begged some column space from a local publisher, and got my very first byline on a weekly column entitled simply, "Antiques and Collectibles." Before the end of the year I had held an inaugural meeting of a proposed Bracebridge Historical Society, in the attic of the wonderful old McGibbon house, we had just moved to, in order to operate Old Mill Antiques. The Historical Society's objective, when officially launched, would be to save Woodchester Villa, an octagonal home, built by Henry Bird of the well known Bird's Woollen Mill on the Muskoka River. It wouldn't be until 1978 that the Historical Society was officially recognized but it had its seed in the attic of Dr. Peter McGibbon's former Manitoba Street home.

I was overflowing with ambition, some of it misspent. I somehow believed that the rolled up diploma, now tucked into a dresser drawer, entitled me to fire off in all directions, and be successful no matter where I hurled myself. It didn't proceed quite as I'd hoped, but 1977 was a good turn-around year, particularly as a writer in this splendid, early 1900's residence. The best part of the new digs, was that I was able to turn the large attic portion, in the three story house, into a great place to write. With a huge window at the front, affording a panorama of Manitoba Street's, maple-line Memorial Park, I could watch a lot of comings and goings at all times of day and night, over the four seasons. As a fledgling writer, there was always something to make notes about, or expand from observation, into another short story. It was a luxurious, inspiring location that most writer's would have killed for, especially the solitude. Street noise was always muffled, it seemed, even if the window was open.

We had a three room shop that first year, an apartment in the back, and access via the back stair, to the attic room, which stretched from the back of the main house to the front, as the south wing, along the main street, had only two stories. I would work in the store, or in the basement refinishing through the day, and following dinner, I'd spend the rest of the night, and well into the morning, working at the attic window, where I set up my desk and typewriter. For several years, I wrote like a man possessed, and I dabbled in poetry, play composition, short stories, non-fiction, and of course my weekly columns for the local press. Sometimes I'd wake up with a start, head hung down over the typewriter, where I'd fallen asleep mid-sentence. It was a non-threatening, comfortable, subtly inspiring studio set-up, and I wanted to tap into it for everything and anything it could, as inspiration, to motivate a budding but unaccomplished author.

Even as a kid, I've always been keenly sensitive to my environs, and whether I'm writing, or just lounging, the aura of the room or the abode generally, factors deeply into my psyche. It will show up in my writing in any number of ways. It has taken four places of lodging, since, to have found my perfect writing place again, after leaving the McGibbon house, when my wife and I got married. Even though Birch Hollow, for me today, is a great and nurturing place to write, it is nothing like what I'd benefitted from in that main street attic.

As I've been aware of house-vibes, every place our family has ever called home, during the past 56 years, I instantly knew the McGibbon house had a positive aura, from the moment I stepped foot inside the main foyer, on that first look-see with the property manager. Working in the attic, I always had the feeling there was a resident spirit, or more, moving about the house, on the back staircase, and occasionally around me in the attic. I'd suddenly feel a strange draft of cold air, and hear footsteps coming up to the landing-door, when everyone else in the house was sound asleep. I sometimes felt as if a watcher was looking over my shoulder while I worked. Admittedly, I had moments when I felt mildly uncomfortable, but a lot of that came from Hollywood depictions, of ghosts and hauntings, such as the move "The Changling." But the positives of the place far outweighed the occasional sensation of spirits wafting around me. I got used to their presence.

Until one late night encounter, that is! I had worked late to finish a newspaper column. As I did every night, I began at the desk, turning off quite a number of sources of light, two floor lamps and two overhead fixtures, before I'd reach the attic door that was kept closed when I was working. Once the last overhead light was turned off, the only light to guide me down the back stairs, was the hall light on the next floor. When I'd get to that landing, I'd flick off the switch, close the door, and count on the illumination of the ground floor kitchen lamp, to get me down the last flight of stairs. On this occasion, when I had turned off the landing light, and taken a few steps out onto the platform of the second floor, I had an experience never to be forgotten. I had walked into a brilliant, white, cold, scented vapor in the otherwise dark staircase.

For several seconds, I was consumed by this cloud, and could see nothing else but the brilliant light all around me, and the chill-air like one would experience walking into a freezer on a hot summer day. It wasn't a frightening experience at all, but unsettling by its sudden arrival in that location of dimly-lit house. It passed as if it was moving up the stairs, as smoke, and I just happened to get in the way. But there was no doubt in my mind, once it had passed, that I had just enjoyed a one-on-one experience with an apparition. I got down to the bottom of the stairs, sat down on the last step, and tried to recall the sequence of events. Could there be any other explanation to the encounter, than to admit to myself, "I'd just seen a ghost?"

As I sat there, I felt a similar cold draft of air, slide down the back staircase, and it was so strong, it actually ruffled my hair. Seeing as this was mid-winter, and the furnace was directly below where I was sitting, and hot air rises, it seemed as if I'd had a second encounter in only a few moments, with the same passing spirit. I wasn't scared but I was definitely alerted to the potential of paranormal energy, flitting about Dr. McGibbon's former residence.

Several days after this adventure on the back stairs, while I was working in the shop, a group of people came in for a look around. I immediately noticed that they were formally dressed, predominantly in black, and seeing as we were neighbors of the local funeral home, I assumed they were visiting the recently deceased. When I heard them talking amongst themselves, about where they remember a family member sitting, in one of the rooms we had turned into store-space, I felt strangely compelled to listen more closely to the conversation. They had obviously lost a family member who had lived, for some time in the past, in the McGibbon house. They weren't of the McGibbon family, but came much later in the building's history. When I asked them a few questions, because I'm a "Nosey Parker," as my mother used to call me, one of the relatives said that a family member had died on the night I had witnessed a specter, climbing up the back stairway. Then the hair on the back of my neck, really did rise in salute, to the ways of the hereafter. By golly, I think I walked through a ghost, or possibly the ghost walked through me. If you've heard about a spirit taking leave of the places it dwelled in mortal form, during life, then it isn't so much of a stretch, to think that this sighting was just a final re-tracing of the good old days, for one last time.

I didn't say a word about my paranormal introduction, to their newly deceased relative. It wasn't the appropriate occasion, to blurt out something like, "oh, yes, I met your relative on the last go-around of the old haunt," and, back in the 1970's, it was still at a time when folks assumed you were a nutter, if you dared to admit even a slight, half-belief in ghosts. So it was our secret, the ghost and I, until much later when it was shared with Canadian Ghost Sleuth, John Robert Colombo, and it got a mention in one of his well known publications.

It made working in the attic much more interesting and event-filled after this.

-30-

Picnic at Gull Lake Park, And More Emails

A RESPITE AT GULL LAKE PARK -

LIFE OF THE BIOGRAPHER A BEAUTIFUL THING…….BUT I DON'T HAVE TIME TO RAKE THE YARD……..BUT THAT'S OKAY

As I explained in a recent blog, the response we've been getting here, at Birch Hollow, to the request for information that was published on Friday, in The Weekender, on the life and art of Richard Karon, has been outstanding. Only days after it made the district-wide paper, readers have answered ten out ten questions I had going into the weekend. I've been working side by side the artist's son, also named Richard, and we've had some nagging questions, that after three months of sleuthing, seemed almost impossible to answer. Well, thanks to the kind people of Muskoka and area, we've been able to infill these areas in the biography, and find some very significant Karon originals in homes and cottages around the district. It's exciting stuff, because when we began the research, I have to tell you, it was pretty thin. Why? Richard Jr. was only seven years old when his father died of cancer, and because of an earlier separation in the family, a lot of intimate time was lost with his dad, when he needed it the most. So due to his father's death and the fact their home and studio / gallery had been sold off in the mid 1980's, he didn't have much, in the way of personal recollections, of time spent with his day…..which is the usual place to start a project of this magnitude. So we just worked with the sparse amount of biographical material we had, and asked for help from those who knew him, or had purchased paintings from his Baysville, Ontario studio. So we've been answering emails for three days now, and the amount of critical information received, has enlightened us immensely from even a few days earlier. We're getting tired here, sitting at the computer, but each time we get another important tidbit of information, it's so darn exciting, well sir, we forget all about being tired, and soldier on. If you're going to be swamped…..let it be the case its something you don't mind being buried in…….and this works for us. Suzanne is a teacher / librarian, after all, so she helps organize in-coming and out-going, and a lot of things in between. I haven't made handwritten notes likes this since university…..when I had the fortune of getting every fast-talking professor that worked there.

A lot of folks who do email, have asked for us to set aside a book or two for them, when the biography finally makes it to print. At this point, we don't have any firm plan to put this into book form, as we really do want to share this story with as many as possible, free of charge….we think that's what the artist would have liked……no trees felled to make his life-story more appealing. We will be publishing the biography online, via this blogsite, beginning on April 16th, at 8:30 p.m., and it will run parallel to a music video displaying his art work, much of it contributed by our generous friends, and the series will continue on a daily basis until it reaches its conclusion……we're not sure, with the responses that we have now, and will soon receive, if there will be an end…..so, it's likely, we are going to have at least three weeks of daily entries. When we do have some time, at the end of the biography, we will be setting up a separate blogsite for Richard Karon, to make it easier to access, and add-to when new information becomes available. We'll keep adding to it for as long as it takes……to get the best profile of the artist possible. We'll run all the photographs of his paintings we can accumulate. And we will be able to answer questions from painting owners and researchers in the future.

We just returned from a short hiatus down at Gravenhurst's Gull Lake Park, where we enjoyed the first picnic of the season. What a dandy place to enjoy an early spring day, and "people watch." There were lots of folks like us out and around today, and some travelers who had stopped in our fair town to enjoy the sights. We've got lots of them. The Barge looks lonely out there in the lake……but it appears from a distance, that the repair work has progressed, but then most of the important reinforcements were to be added beneath the platform…..so we're not sure whether this has been completed yet our not. It felt almost sinful sitting out there, with the open lake, a warm breeze, a nice sun, and knowing March hasn't gone out yet…….and we're already basking. Normally, we would have been forced to look out over this scene, from the comfort of our vehicle…..where we would nibble on treats safely covered from the sharp snap of cold March wind. It was like May today, and I know somewhere down the line, we're going to pay for this……with an April snow event, and potentially late frosts. We are freaked-out every day around our homestead, to see what else has emerged prematurely from the soft, warm earth. What is normally still frozen, at least on our forested lot, shows no frost the depth of a shovel at least. Global warming? Makes you wonder.

We had a very modest antique outing this week, due to the biography of Mr. Karon. I was able to get some hand-forged blacksmith tongs, in great condition, a nicely executed, signed and numbered print, entitled "Misty Gloucester," (see graphic) (Ontario? we assume), and a perfect condition, six foot long piece of "Harris Tweed, Woven in Lewis, (Scotland)", with its original tag from Nisbet & Auld, of Toronto. The mill was located in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and was sold in Toronto for $19.99. There is no accompanying date. Suzanne hasn't decided what to do with it, but from the texture, it better not be boxers for me. We also found an amazing original bridge-cloth that we have taken a snap-shot of, showing card players sitting in wicker chairs…..looks like it should be in a Muskoka cottage. It's in good condition, and cost us $30, from a Bracebridge shop. It's worth quite a bit more but Suzanne will use this as a backdrop in our boys' Gravenhurst shop, to highlight other nostalgia pieces we wish to sell. I didn't come home with Quebec pine, a flat-to-the-wall, or a Tom Thomson original, but we didn't come back empty handed either. It was a beautiful day for a drive and a picnic in scenic Muskoka, courtesy a tidy road-side park. I love the drive just as much as the finds out there. We don't race from shop to shop, or sale to sale. There's too much to enjoy in between.

As for our ongoing quest to purchase items with the national symbols……a Maple Leaf, a Beaver, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, our mission has been thwarted recently, with nary an item on the shelves of local antiques and second hand shops. We started this as a little competition in the new year, pitting husband and wife against each other, to see who could find the best examples of these three national symbols on a variety of found antiques and collectibles. We started off with a bang, and came home week after week, with lots of neat nostalgia stuff. Not too old. Mostly souvenirs, but it was a start. To this point we're even with our finds. On July Ist, Canada Day, we're going to show you what we found through a half year of scrounging through flea markets, second hand shops, church fundraisers and yard sales. I think we'll finish the challenge better than we started. Pickings have been lean for the past few weeks, which is okay……we've bee pre-occupied, sort of, with our dual roles of collectors one day, historians the next. It's always an adventure.

I've got a few more emails to write before I topple into bedlam, so I must bid you farewell for now. Thanks for joining me today. Please visit again.

Thanks for the Response on Biography of Artist

A PROJECT THAT BEGINS AND WHAT YOU SUSPECT IS THE END, IS JUST ANOTHER BEGINNING

RESPONSE TO RICHARD KARON AMAZING-

I REMEMBER THE LETTER I WROTE TO ROGER CROZIER, ASKING IF IT WOULD BE OKAY TO COMMENCE A PRELIMINARY RESEARCH PROJECT, FOR AN EVENTUAL BIOGRAPHY I WANTED TO PUBLISH ON HIS CAREER IN THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE. WHEN HE WROTE BACK, GIVING ME PERMISSION, WELL SIR, I WAS LEVITATING WITH HAPPINESS. I HAD ACTUALLY BEGUN PRELIMINARY RESEARCH BEFORE THIS, WHICH WAS PROBABLY ABOUT 1994. I WAS WORKING ON GETTING ROGER SOME SHOWCASE SPACE AT THE BRACEBRIDGE ARENA, BECAUSE IT WAS PATHETIC, AT THIS POINT……… THERE WASN'T A SINGLE PICTURE OF ROGER, HANGING ANYWHERE IN THE BUILDING. ACTUALLY, THERE WAS A FRAMED PICTURE. BUT IT WAS IN A BOX OF OLD PHOTOGRAPHS, THAT WAS COVERED IN A HALF INCH OF DUST, SITTING IN A STORAGE ROOM. THIS WAS MY BEGINNING ON THE PROJECT, AND EVENTUALLY I WAS ABLE TO WANGLE ONE SMALL SHOWCASE FOR ROGER'S PHOTOS WITH THE DETROIT RED WINGS, THE BUFFALO SABRES AND THE WASHINGTON CAPITALS. OF COURSE, A FEW YEARS DOWN THE ROAD, ROGER WOULD GRANT MY WISH……A BRAND NEW HALL OF FAME SHOWCASE, AT THE ARENA, TO EXHIBIT GENERAL SPORTS HEIRLOOMS BELONGING TO THE TOWN. ROGER HAD PASSED ON, BUT IN HIS MEMORY THE HUGE BANK OF SHOWCASES WERE INSTALLED, AND I WORKED AS CURATOR FOR TWELVE YEARS. AS FOR THE BIOGRAPHY, I DIDN'T WAIT FOR THE BOOK. I ARRANGED TO OFFER THE BIOGRAPHY THAT I HAD COMPLETED, TO MUSKOKA PUBLICATIONS, AS A FEATURE INSERT OF ABOUT 12 PAGES. I EVEN ARRANGED FOR MUSKOKA ARTIST, MARY THRANE, TO DO A PAINTING OF ROGER IN HIS DETROIT RED WING JERSEY. THE LITTLE PUBLICATION WAS A BIG SUCCESS, GOT SOME GOOD SIZED ADS, AND BEST OF ALL, IT MADE ITS WAY TO ROGER'S OFFICE IN WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, AND THE MAJOR AMERICAN BANK HE WORKED FOR…., MBNA. THE NEXT THING I KNEW, ROGER'S MOTHER MILDRED, HIS LAWYER FRIEND JACK HUCKLE, AND I, WERE BEING FLOWN TO A BIG PARTY FOR ROGER, BEING HELD AT LONGWOOD GARDENS, IN PENNSYLVANIA. AT THAT TIME ROGER WAS GETTING A SPECIAL AWARD FROM THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA, FOR HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO THEIR ORGANIZATION……I BELIEVE. I ATE AND DRANK LIKE A KING. WHAT A PLACE TO HAVE A PARTY. IT WAS AN ADVENTURE FOR A BIOGRAPHER, WHO HAD A HUNCH, A MODEST TRIBUTE WOULD BE APPRECIATED. WAS IT EVER.

I have always taken on research and writing projects, that I've found enjoyable (from the initial poking around), and to tell you the truth, a lot of times it has been initiated by the antique and collectible business I happen to be obsessively consumed. My first Roger Crozier collectible was a Coca-Cola bottle cap, from the late 1960's, when he was one of the "Original Six" NHL players, who had their faces printed on the bottle caps. I had all of his hockey cards as a kid, and he invited me to his summer hockey camp here, free of charge. Roger was a generous man, as far as I was concerned, and he had heard that I was a pretty good goaltender…..but needed a little brush up before the start of the next season. I always remember that year, because there were quite a few kids from the Detroit area at the camp, and they were kept in Muskoka longer, because of the race riots, and massive fires happening in the city that particular summer. So when it came to writing his biography, I had all kinds of things that had turned me onto the story, dating back to childhood. As I've mentioned before, it's this odd combination of writer and collector battling for supremacy, the result being some interesting historical / biographical writing jags. I was paid handsomely, after joining with Roger's Crozier Foundation, to assist a team of researchers, including my old American colleague, Charlie Wilson then of MBNA, who was my mentor, to put together the template of a more thorough internationally released biography. For some reason, following his death, it was abandoned. All I know is that my modestly produced biography made it to print, and Roger gave it the thumb's up……and he was about as fussy a boss as there ever was……and that's what I needed back then. Someone who would push me a little harder, knowing that's what made my writing more palatable to a larger audience. Every writer needs help like that, in the early going of a career.

When I look back at some of the other biographies and meaty historic projects I've pulled-off over the decades, they've all been rooted in something I acquired, had access to, or felt connected to by the company I kept. Shortly after I opened up our antique shop, in the late 1970's, in Bracebridge, I became consumed by local history. Not only did I help launch the local historical society, and the initial bid to establish a town museum, but took a part time summer job with the Muskoka Board of Education, to create a tape recorded history resource for the local school network. I had a staff of five, and we fanned out over the countryside, getting dozens and dozens of interviews with many of Muskoka's oldest citizens. I actually held a Free Land Grant document in my hand, at the home of Mrs. Kirbyson, in Ufford (near Three Mile Lake), and listened to so many fascinating tales by well known characters like Henry Longhurst Sr., of Windermere, Bill Andison of Bracebridge, Minnie Percey of Bracebridge, Bus Brazier, also of Bracebridge, and many more, who took us young folk back to the good old days…..with memories of what it was like here in the hinterland, dealing with the Great Depression, and World War. I got the opportunity to immerse deeply in the history of Muskoka, being allowed into their homes, to see their fascinating family albums and heirloom pieces.

Whether it has been researching and publishing the history of the Icelandic community of Hekkla, (near the Village of Rosseau), the logging history which I entitled "The Life and Times of the Shanty Boys," "Muskoka's Cookery Heritage," a further examination of the "Tom Thomson Mystery," or the biographies of Muskoka artists, Ada Florence Kinton, of Huntsville, or Robert Everett, of Bracebridge, they have always provided so much discovery and curious spin-off, much like my research on Roger Crozier had afforded me back in the mid 1990's. Possibly I select my projects wisely. Point is, I just don't have a clue how they're going to end, once I immerse myself. This is the precise case now, as we get prepared to publish the biography of former Muskoka artist, Richard Karon. What begins low key, and with modest proportion, by tradition, ends so much differently than I could have imagined, and this is exactly how the project is progressing at this time. I told the artist's son, also named Richard, that it was customary, with my research and writing projects, that they never proceed without wild gyrations, and many, many strange, direction-changing developments. The beginning is the easy part. Adjusting to what we uncover, does take some strategic navigation. We historians tend to stumble upon things previously unknown, and it can change the tempo and mood of the story almost daily. I kind of enjoy the diversity these projects spawn.

On Friday, a weekly publication, known as The Weekender, kindly published my "letter to the editor," which asked readers for help on our continuing research, regarding the good Mr. Karon. I asked if anyone, who owned a Richard Karon original painting, or who had a story about the artist, would be willing to offer an image, (or information), to assist our biographical sleuthing. We wanted to gather images of as many Karon paintings as possible, to be published in the online text, and also to be included in a special YouTube Video being prepared now, to run at the same time as the blog-ography of Mr. Karon. This begins on April 16th by the way, at 8:30 p.m. on this blog-site, and will continue on consecutive days until it is complete. I digress. The point is, we've had six email responses already, and at least nine new images to include in the story / and video. This is so wonderful, I can't find the words to summarize. Richard Karon Jr., has been working with me through most of this winter, helping to piece together the story of his artist father's life. Richard was four years old when his mother and father separated, and seven years of age when his father passed away, as a result of lung cancer. It would be an honest appraisal, to say he knew very little about his father or the large number of art pieces he created over his lifetime. Each time we hear, or get an email (letter) from someone who knew Richard, and who may have visited his studio situated near Baysville, Ontario, in the Township of Lake of Bays, it is another bit of clarity to the story, and a young man's understanding of his father. I can't tell you how good this feels, to be able to participate in this coming together of information, visuals, paintings and goodwill from old family friends. It began for me, with my own Karon originals. I liked his work dating back to the early 1980's, and as a an antique dealer, I have bought and sold several dozen over three decades.

I sometimes think the word "passionate" is so over-used these days, especially in reference to business and making the "big buck," as I hear over and over on reality shows like the CBC's "Dragon's Den," that I hesitate to use it…….cause it just seems so watered down. But you know, for the last 24 hours, getting this small but significant flood of emails, with pictures attached of Karon originals, has resurrected my good opinion of "passionate." I wrote an email to my research partner, Richard, yesterday afternoon, and I couldn't believe my own giddiness, at how much co-operation we were getting, to move this project to fruition. I told him that it was a most wonderful sign, that so many people, after all these years, possess such lasting respect and enthusiasm for his landscape paintings. As I wrote earlier, when you start out on these research missions, you don't often connect as quickly, or successfully as we have done already. Now keep in mind, that painting owners have been contacting the relevant provincial and national galleries, to find out even a smidgeon of information on Karon's life. I have been fielding two or three requests a month, for biographical information on the painter, unofficially, for the past ten years. Just as a dealer who has sold his work previously, not as an expert. So it's pretty much virgin territory, and it's just a neat feeling being at this ground zero of discovery, because there is a lot we, and family, don't know about Mr. Karon's early life, in Nazi occupied Poland. But the way information is being offered to us, we're pretty optimistic a lot of grey area is going to get colored in, before this project runs its course.

Due to the heavy response, we have pushed the starting date of the online biography to April 16th, with the first posting to be up by 8:30 p.m., which we hope will be simultaneous with the YouTube video, created as a retrospective tribute to his work. It will profile a large collection of the graphic images our friends have sent us most recently. My son Robert and singer Dani O'Connor, both of Gravenhurst, will be providing the back-up music to the gallery presentation. When my mother once said to me, after I'd bobbled, but not dropped, one of her favorite flower vases, "Teddy, you've had a charmed life," I suppose the same thing applies…..and hopefully holds for a while longer. This is one of my biggest projects in over 35 years in the writing industry, and I feel its weight. But working with the Karon family has made this so much more enjoyable, and rewarding, and that has certainly helped ease the stress an historian hoists, just long enough to get to that final chapter. The best part of publishing this material online, is that we can offer it free to those who are interested, and continually upgrade it, as new information arrives over the next couple of years……without having to revise the print edition, reprint or kill a tree to do so. The artist would have liked that, about our approach. A special "Richard Karon" blogsite will be set up later this year, to include this archived material, for the use of researchers in the future.

Thanks for visiting my blogsite. Hope you will join us for the April 16th first edition unveiling, of the Richard Karon story.