WHO WILL TELL THE STORIES……. ABOUT WHAT IT WAS REALLY LIKE IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS?
OR WILL FUTURE GENERATIONS WANT TO KNOW? WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE HERE, IF WE HADN'T BEEN BORN?
TO BORROW A LITTLE MORAL SNIPIT FROM THE MOVIE, "IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE," IF HUGH CLAIRMONT HAD NEVER BEEN BORN….WELL SIR, OUR FAMILY WOULD NOT HAVE MOVED TO GRAVENHURST, BACK IN THE AUTUMN OF 1989. NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THERE WOULD BE A LOT FEWER CLAIRMONTS IN THIS TOWN.
NO, I'M NOT COMPARING GRAVENHURST TO BEDFORD FALLS. BUT I AM VERY DEFINITELY STATING, THAT WE CURRIES WERE VERY MUCH INFLUENCED TO MOVE TO GRAVENHURST BY THE GOOD MR. CLAIRMONT. I TRULY BELIEVED, THAT IF HUGH LIKED THE PLACE, AND FOUND IT HAD EVERYTHING ONE NEEDED TO BE HALE AND HARDY THROUGH LIFE, IT WOULD BE PERFECT FOR OUR YOUNG FAMILY, AT THE TIME, PLANNING A MOVE SOMEWHERE SOUTH, EAST OR WEST FROM BRACEBRIDGE. WELL, HUGH WAS BORN, HAD FAMILY, ENTERTAINED US, IN MUSIC AND HIS COLUMNS, AND WAS A PERSUASIVE AMBASSADOR FOR THE TOWN "ALWAYS"……AND ITS DEFENDER, IF ANYBODY GOT A LITTLE LIPPY ABOUT GRAVENHURST'S STATE OF THE UNION……POLITICS, CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS, SOCIAL ACTIVITIES OR SPORTS. IT TOOK A FAIR BIT TO RUFFLE HIS FEATHERS BUT HE DIDN'T LIKE YOU TAKING CHEAP SHOTS, AT HIS HOMETOWN'S EXPENSE. I NEVER REALLY SAW HUGH GET MAD, BUT I DID HEAR HIM GET EVEN MANY TIMES. HE WAS A WORTHY WORDSMITH AND A KEEN DEBATER…..BUT EVERY CLARIFICATION I EVER HEARD FROM HIM, WAS ON HIS GROUNDS, HIS TERMS, AND UNDER HIS DIRECTION. IT WASN'T EASY FOR AN ADVERSARY TO GET A WORD IN, AS THEY SAY, "EDGE-WISE!" HIS RETORTS WERE LINE CANON FIRE AND THAT LOUD TOO!
ONE WINTER NIGHT, NEAR CHRISTMAS, A SHORT WHILE BEFORE WE BEGAN SERIOUS DISCUSSIONS ABOUT MOVING, SUZANNE AND I MET HUGH DEEP IN THE "INNER SANCTUM" OF SLOAN'S RESTAURANT. WE WERE THERE FOR SUPPER, AND HE HAD JUST COME IN, AFTER SOME CROSS COUNTRY SKIING. HE WAS COVERED IN SNOW, AND THE MELT WATER WAS STREAMING DOWN HIS FACE AS IF HE WAS CRYING…….BUT HE WAS LAUGHING TOO HARD TO HAVE TEARS OF SORROW. A WAITRESS FRIEND, MRS. WALKER I BELIEVE, SAID SOMETHING LIKE, "HUGHIE, YOU'RE GETTING THOSE NICE FOLKS ALL WET…..AND THE TABLE CLOTH…….COME AND SIT DOWN." HE CAME IN LAUGHING OUT LOUD…..HE SAT DOWN LAUGHING OUT LOUD, AND AFTER WE SAID FAREWELL AT THE END OF DINNER, WELL BY GOLLY, HE LEFT THE RESTAURANT LAUGHING AND SINGING, AND YELLING AT ALL THE OTHER PATRONS HE KNEW. THERE WAS NOT A HAPPIER, MORE CONTENTED MAN ON EARTH, THAN HUGH CLAIRMONT. IT'S NOT JUST MY OPINION EITHER. HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A KING OR A TOWN CRIER BUT HE DIDN'T LIKE TO BE WEIGHTED DOWN BY UNNECESSARY PROTOCOLS, OR CHAINS OF OFFICE.
WHILE WE WERE TOGETHER, TUCKED INTO THE WARM BOSUM OF THE INNER SANCTUM, HUGH ASKED SUZANNE IF SHE'D EVER CONSIDER MOVING TO GRAVENHURST. I HAD ALREADY TALKED WITH HUGH ABOUT THIS A DOZEN OR MORE TIMES, WHEN WE'D GET TOGETHER WITH WRITER BRANT SCOTT, AT THE STAR MOTEL, FOR A WEE PINT OR A DOZEN. BRANT AND I USED TO TAKE OFF FROM THE HERALD-GAZETTE EARLY ON NON-PRESS DAYS, AND GET IN SOME RECREATION AT THE SQUASH AND FITNESS CLUB. AFTER I'D BEAT HIM, I HAD TO QUELL THE ANGER IN MY OPPONENT, BY BUYING SOME ROUNDS. ON MOST OF THOSE NIGHTS WE WERE IN GRAVENHURST, WE'D RUN INTO HUGH, SOMETIMES EVEN AT MUSKOKA SANDS, AND WE HAD SOME MEMORABLE CONVERSATIONS. SUZANNE, ON THIS NIGHT, ASKED HIM A FEW QUESTIONS ABOUT THINGS TO DO IN GRAVENHURST, AND ABOUT THE HIGH SCHOOL……AS SHE WAS THEN A TEACHER AT BRACEBRIDGE AND MUSKOKA LAKES SECONDARY SCHOOL. HE CERTAINLY HAD SOME COMPELLING ARGUMENTS FOR RE-LOCATING, AND I'VE ALWAYS REMEMBERED THAT TABLE-SIDE CHAT, BECAUSE, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, IT WAS ONE OF THE CONSIDERATIONS ON THE EVE OF REAL ESTATE HUNTING. WITH OUR AGENT AT THE TIME, JOHN DALZELL, OF REMAX, WE LOOKED AT FOUR GRAVENHURST HOUSES….WHICH WAS A LOT TO TAKE IN, AND WE PUT AN OFFER IN ON ONE. WITH A LITTLE TWEAKING, ADDING A FEW EXTRA DOLLARS, WE CLOSED THE DEAL FOR THE HOUSE AT BIRCH HOLLOW, PERCHED SO NICELY ABOVE THE BOG AND BORDER WOODLANDS. I COULDN'T WAIT TO LET HUGH KNOW WE HAD TAKEN HIS ADVICE. BY THE WAY, AS A SIDEBAR HERE, IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR THE EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE OF MUSKOKA TODAY, DURING OUR FIGHT TO CONSERVE THE BOG, WHEN IT WAS BEING CONSIDERED AS A NEW SUBDIVISION, A FEW YEARS BACK, WE WOULD HAVE LOST THE BATTLE. IT WAS SAVED THANKS TO PUBLICITY GIVEN TO US FROM MARK CLAIRMONT AND EDITOR LOIS COOPER. I WILL NEVER FORGET THEIR HELP, AND THEIR EDITORIAL SUPPORT GENERALLY, WHICH MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE TO OUR UNDERFUNDED, RAG-TAG BUNCH OF DEFENDERS.
AS FOR BEDFORD FALLS, AND GRAVENHURST……THANK GOD HUGH WAS BORN, BECAUSE OUR LIVES WOULD ALL BE SO MUCH DIFFERENT NOW…….AND I'M PRETTY SURE, IF WE COULD WEIGH THE "WITH" AGAINST THE "WITHOUT," WE WOULDN'T BE AS HAPPY EITHER. FROM THE FIRST FEW DAYS AS A REPORTER WITH MUSKOKA PUBLICATIONS, I GOT TO MEET REGULARLY WITH HUGH, WHEN HE'D BE IN BRACEBRIDGE TO ATTEND A FRIDAY ROTARY CLUB MEETING. HE'D COME INTO THE NEWSROOM WITH GREAT THUNDEROUS BLUSTER, AND GOOD CHEER, AND ALL WORK WOULD STOP……EVEN INTERVIEWS IN PROGRESS….BECAUSE HE WAS JUST THAT KIND OF PERSON, YOU WANTED TO TALK WITH…..OR HEAR HIS STORIES ABOUT OLD TIME JOURNALISM. THERE WASN'T MUCH HE DIDN'T KNOW, OR HAVE AN OPINION ABOUT. THE BEST QUALITY OF HUGH CLAIRMONT, FOR US, WAS THAT HE NEVER, EVER PUT US DOWN AS "GREEN" REPORTERS, LIKE SOMEONE OF HIS EXPERIENCE COULD HAVE IMPOSED ON ROOKIES. HE TREATED ALL OUR NEWS STAFF WITH THE UTMOST RESPECT, AND HE NEVER SHOWED UP IN THE NEWSROOM WITHOUT OFFERING A FEW NEWS TIPS HE'D HEARD ON THE STREET. HE WAS ALWAYS A RELIABLE SOURCE AND HE HAD A NOSE FOR NEWS, AS THEY SAY.
HOW MY WRITING YEARS WOULD HAVE CHANGED
Hugh was happy we had finally re-located. It wasn't too far along, in our Gravenhurst residency, before Hugh reminded me that he had a plan, sometime down the road, to start a project that would need an experienced writer. I was working as a columnist, at the time, for a couple of publications, but when Hugh and son Mark finally called me up……everything else was of much lesser concern. When they asked me if I'd be interested in joining a new publication venture, to be known as "Muskoka Today," I was absolutely thrilled. I met with father and son, at their new office on First Street, and after a couple of hours discussing the potential, I shook hands, thanked them for including an old journalist like me in their exciting new plans, and headed home to tell Suzanne what a smart move it had been, to listen to the advice Hugh, when he said we'd be a lot happier in Gravenhurst. My column was headed, "Hometown Advantage," and amazingly, my portrait was sketched by Hugh's friend, Frank Johnston, one of Canada's finest print makers and watercolorists. It was the nicest I've ever been treated as a writer. And it happened right here in Gravenhurst. How could I not love this place?
I am not the historian of choice in this town. Not even close. To some I'm an interloper, and maybe even a transient historical type, who will pretend to be interested in local chronicles, and then bugger off after being painstakingly tutored. I've never tried to be intrusive honestly, but I've also never been accused of being a shrinking violet either. But I do understand, that arriving here in the fall of 1989, doesn't even today, by trial of time, qualify me to be anything more than an apprentice historian…..which in strictest protocol, means fetcher of tea, coffee and butter tarts, for heritage meetings. If my name comes up at heritage committee meetings, it's probably for all the wrong reasons. I've become somewhat of a rogue historian locally, and it means I don't get invited to the annual Historian's Ball, or get to go on the heritage junkets my contemporaries plan. But when they might ask, undaunted, what my qualifications are, and why I should be fast tracked into the rank and file of area historians, I will tell them, I learned more sitting and writing in the Muskoka Today office, than if I had been privately tutored by the best of the best historians.
My work space, when I needed one, was situated between Mark's editorial desk, and wherever Hugh happened to be standing or sitting. He moved around a lot. I don't know how this happened, all the time, but I was for many days, the middle Clairmont, when fire and brimstone between the two writers would erupt. Yup, there were a lot of editorial disagreements, which always worked out, and I understood all the pressures of a small publication trying to survive……and after awhile, so as to feel part of the current events, I'd start yelling my opinion as well. This was a fabulous learning experience. I didn't have single regret, offering to write for the Clairmont boys, who put out a quality product, with a little extra kick-back to the old days……and that pleased a lot of readers in our town, who praised the respectful way the paper handled local history, and interviewed the many characters, like Shorty, who were fixtures in our own little "Bedford Falls." They reminded us, about the contributions that had been made to our town, by the most unassuming, quiet and gentle citizens……who would talk to Hugh like he was family……and that's how he found remarkable stories no other paper or journalist could. He had a way with people, that made them volunteer the most amazing stories……many about the real human heritage of Gravenhurst. He was a humanist. His history of the community, that was important to him, was the human side…..the personal stories that were often neglected by formal histories, reporting on major events, building, fires, misadventures, milestones etc. He wanted to know your story. He made those who thought of themselves as ordinary, feel extraordinary when they left his company…..and he turned back to his typewriter, to write up the interview. He knew what Gravenhurst was all about. He knew what made it tick. He understood its misfortunes, missed opportunities in history, its dark side, and what gave it such a resilience, to take shortfall, and build something out of it.
I'd sit there for hours, watching Hugh do his thing. Whether it was talk on the phone to one of his buddies, or if someone came into the office for a wee chat. I listened to the dialogue between father and son, publisher/ editor and ace columnist. At times, I have to confess, that it was like being part of an old movie script, about newspaper life, back in the 1940's, because this is what was so entertaining….and absolutely historical. I was getting a history lesson every time I went to work. But I wasn't being lectured. I was just letting it all seep in….and not wanting the learning curve to end. Even sons Andrew and Robert would come into the office with me, and listen to the same animated discussion. They knew Mark would offer them time on the computer to play some video games. They had a blast, and frankly, so did I. If Hugh Clairmont had never been born. I wouldn't be writing this blog today. We wouldn't have a main street business. Our boys wouldn't have a popular vintage music shop, or work at the Opera House, or on The Barge, or have graduated Gravenhurst High School……or son Robert, wouldn't have won the Gordon Sloan Music Award. Suzanne wouldn't have transferred to GHS, and we wouldn't have ever known Birch Hollow, as a family homestead. Which means we wouldn't have these cats (two on my lap) that we rescued from The Bog. All of this…..and I could go on and on, if I hadn't known Hugh Clairmont, and believed his sincere invitation…..that Suzanne and I should bring the family, and start all over again……in the embrace of all the characters…..all the good neighbors of Gravenhurst. When I told John Black what Hugh had said, that night at Sloans, all he said was, "Well you should listen to him…..he knows what he's talking about."
Sometimes when we think of history as burdensome and boring, maybe we should draw our own parallels to the story of Bedford Falls, in "It's a Wonderful Life," and how all our lives are indeed intertwined and relevant to each others actions, reactions, and onward missions through time and place. We are the history makers.
I was tending a small campfire in the back yard, here at Birch Hollow, when CKCO reporter, and long-time friend, Gar Lewis, called Suzanne, on that memorable Christmas, to let me know he'd heard that Hugh had only recently died. I won't kid you, about all of us that day, getting choked up, because he was a hard guy to replace in all our daily comings and goings. If someone reminisced that "Hugh Clairmont was larger than life," they would be telling an historical truth. Without a doubt.
Ironic and strange as this might read, I was tending my same Yule-time fire, in the backyard, the next year, at about the same time as the call had come in from Gar Lewis, when I could hear, off in the distance, the sound of a lone trumpet through the lightly falling snow. I wondered if it had something to do with Hugh. Well it did. Mark was playing at graveside for his father, which I think has become a Christmas tradition, at the Lakeside Cemetery, a short distance from our home at Birch Hollow. Whenever I hear it, I can see Hugh just as clearly, as he was that evening, hovering over Suzanne and I in Sloans Restaurant, wishing us both a Merry Christmas…..and by God, he meant it.
Our family owes a lot to Hugh Clairmont. To the Clairmonts generally. Muskoka Today was a fun experience for those early years. And yes, it was history in progress, and there was always a lot to learn.
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