Muskoka’s summer a tradition of “getting ready”
When I was a kid, the Victoria Day holiday in Muskoka, meant the dawning of that year’s “Tourist Season.” It marked the beginning of the “make money time of year,” when every retailer put out the red carpet for the tourist clientele. All the store windows were decorated with the latest wares and of course souvenirs, to entice the travelers and cottagers, to part with their holiday money. There was no shame in trying to massage some money free from our guests, as it was our history you see, to make the most out of the attractiveness Muskoka possessed to the weary urbanites. There’s a lot less of that today, city dwellers now finding more of the urban wasteland re-located in their vacationland. Certainly they witness much more expansive, horizon to horizon tarmac and commercial development than back in the 1960’s, when the main street of Bracebridge was a really short walk from beginning to end.
Shortly after the settlers arrived in Muskoka, back in the late 1850’s, they met up with sportsmen from the more urban areas of Canada and the United States, requiring certain services and luxuries in the wilderness. The first roadhouse came with the McCabe family in the late 1850’s, in the present Town of Gravenhurst, and when it became abundantly clear that Muskoka was not going to be a great agricultural district, and that lumber resources weren’t enough to build an enduring, balanced economic future, these same sportsmen provided the impetus for new investment. Afterall, it was a beautiful lakeland, and could be sold as a “restorative,” even “healthful” place on earth. Bring us the adventurers, the hunters and anglers; bring us those tired of urban ways and demands, and bring us those in need of clean air and health-promoting environs.
So today, in the late spring of 2007, watching the carpet unroll for the tourists and cottagers to our region, isn’t much different than when I was a kid growing up in central Muskoka. It was said with some accuracy, although some historians don’t like to dredge it up, that prices for commercial goods went up the moment the first tourist of the year turned up Highway II North. I don’t know how much gouging went on but it became pretty much an accepted fact. Most year-round Muskokans didn’t have a lot of use for local souvenirs, and we didn’t attend places “in-season” that were known tourist “traps”. In the fall and winter season either these tourist related shops closed for the winter, or adopted a “local” pricing policy to appease the yocals. I can’t say if this is still the case, although I suspect it’s possible that tourists feel an unspecified inequality, pondering if the price for merchandise and services decreases after Thanksgiving.
The point of this blog is to tell readers that I’m pretty much caught up in the tourist season despite the fact most of our business, as old book sellers, occurs world-wide by e-commerce throughout the year. My wife Suzanne’s family used to own the Windermere Marina, on Lake Rosseau, and I worked as a young lad in the produce-supply business out of Bracebridge, visiting almost every camp and resort in the district……. during my three years of labor hustling spuds and onions border to border, lake to lake. So we both still activate when yet another tourist season approaches. It is the time of the rolling year for Muskokans to make money off the grand nature of our lakeland. Muskokans dependent on the tourism industry have from May 24th until Thanksgiving, to make their financial commitments for the year. Most tourists have no idea how much their patronage keeps our district going. Tourism is the number one industry here although some municipal politicians now and again like to think we’re much more secure economically. Well we’re not, and this historian is telling the truth. If we ever have a serious downturn in the tourism industry in the midst of our present progressive – build on every square inch development binge, you will see a business cull of epic proportion.
So I’ve been writing a lot less these past few weeks, spending time instead re-finishing an assortment of old trunks and chairs, in preparation for our summer antique sales, which we have both at home and on the road throughout the district. The antique business only has one significant season financially, and that’s the eight or so weeks of July and August. Our mission is to sell off the larger items we’ve picked from sales and auctions throughout the year, items too large to ship via mail but perfect for an open air sale. So even after years of diversification, so that our business is much less dependent on the fluctuations of the tourism economy, we still find ourselves hoping for a good selling season…..and a majority of our buyers, will once again be our seasonal visitors and second home owners (cottagers). That doesn’t mean the local citizenry snub us but it does mean our records show that we could not survive in the antique business without the summer support we receive from our summer population increase.
Without much fanfare at all or even re-assessment, we are just two of thousands of Muskokans eager to watch our business pick-up as a result of our region’s summer destination popularity….. which is still hale and hardy all these years since those early sportsmen lodging in pioneer shelters. I will always be grateful to our summer visitors for helping us to survive here these many years. I do believe we should show our gratitude much more than we do presently. For the next century we will depend on the kindness of our guests, just as we have benefited from the 1860’s to the present. The unfortunate reality is the growing indifference to conserve more of Muskoka for parkland and open space, and stop the ugly march of urban sprawl. If there’s any danger I see, to the balance of the tourism industry generally, it’s in this transformation of Muskoka, from hinterland to “the new burbs.” Muskoka appears to be either on the verge of great new things, or a catastrophic change. In the meantime, I’ve got two more old trunks to refinish and at least three community sales only several weeks away. Please pardon my Muskoka tradition, as the distance and budget of time has certainly broadened from this computer, since good old Victoria’s birthday this past May. I won’t be doing much writing at all until those nippy days of late October, when the morning frost covers the raspberry canes, and the Hallowe’en pumpkins are back in-season.
I don’t think I could live anywhere else. The seasons of Muskoka are something to behold.
When I was a kid, the Victoria Day holiday in Muskoka, meant the dawning of that year’s “Tourist Season.” It marked the beginning of the “make money time of year,” when every retailer put out the red carpet for the tourist clientele. All the store windows were decorated with the latest wares and of course souvenirs, to entice the travelers and cottagers, to part with their holiday money. There was no shame in trying to massage some money free from our guests, as it was our history you see, to make the most out of the attractiveness Muskoka possessed to the weary urbanites. There’s a lot less of that today, city dwellers now finding more of the urban wasteland re-located in their vacationland. Certainly they witness much more expansive, horizon to horizon tarmac and commercial development than back in the 1960’s, when the main street of Bracebridge was a really short walk from beginning to end.
Shortly after the settlers arrived in Muskoka, back in the late 1850’s, they met up with sportsmen from the more urban areas of Canada and the United States, requiring certain services and luxuries in the wilderness. The first roadhouse came with the McCabe family in the late 1850’s, in the present Town of Gravenhurst, and when it became abundantly clear that Muskoka was not going to be a great agricultural district, and that lumber resources weren’t enough to build an enduring, balanced economic future, these same sportsmen provided the impetus for new investment. Afterall, it was a beautiful lakeland, and could be sold as a “restorative,” even “healthful” place on earth. Bring us the adventurers, the hunters and anglers; bring us those tired of urban ways and demands, and bring us those in need of clean air and health-promoting environs.
So today, in the late spring of 2007, watching the carpet unroll for the tourists and cottagers to our region, isn’t much different than when I was a kid growing up in central Muskoka. It was said with some accuracy, although some historians don’t like to dredge it up, that prices for commercial goods went up the moment the first tourist of the year turned up Highway II North. I don’t know how much gouging went on but it became pretty much an accepted fact. Most year-round Muskokans didn’t have a lot of use for local souvenirs, and we didn’t attend places “in-season” that were known tourist “traps”. In the fall and winter season either these tourist related shops closed for the winter, or adopted a “local” pricing policy to appease the yocals. I can’t say if this is still the case, although I suspect it’s possible that tourists feel an unspecified inequality, pondering if the price for merchandise and services decreases after Thanksgiving.
The point of this blog is to tell readers that I’m pretty much caught up in the tourist season despite the fact most of our business, as old book sellers, occurs world-wide by e-commerce throughout the year. My wife Suzanne’s family used to own the Windermere Marina, on Lake Rosseau, and I worked as a young lad in the produce-supply business out of Bracebridge, visiting almost every camp and resort in the district……. during my three years of labor hustling spuds and onions border to border, lake to lake. So we both still activate when yet another tourist season approaches. It is the time of the rolling year for Muskokans to make money off the grand nature of our lakeland. Muskokans dependent on the tourism industry have from May 24th until Thanksgiving, to make their financial commitments for the year. Most tourists have no idea how much their patronage keeps our district going. Tourism is the number one industry here although some municipal politicians now and again like to think we’re much more secure economically. Well we’re not, and this historian is telling the truth. If we ever have a serious downturn in the tourism industry in the midst of our present progressive – build on every square inch development binge, you will see a business cull of epic proportion.
So I’ve been writing a lot less these past few weeks, spending time instead re-finishing an assortment of old trunks and chairs, in preparation for our summer antique sales, which we have both at home and on the road throughout the district. The antique business only has one significant season financially, and that’s the eight or so weeks of July and August. Our mission is to sell off the larger items we’ve picked from sales and auctions throughout the year, items too large to ship via mail but perfect for an open air sale. So even after years of diversification, so that our business is much less dependent on the fluctuations of the tourism economy, we still find ourselves hoping for a good selling season…..and a majority of our buyers, will once again be our seasonal visitors and second home owners (cottagers). That doesn’t mean the local citizenry snub us but it does mean our records show that we could not survive in the antique business without the summer support we receive from our summer population increase.
Without much fanfare at all or even re-assessment, we are just two of thousands of Muskokans eager to watch our business pick-up as a result of our region’s summer destination popularity….. which is still hale and hardy all these years since those early sportsmen lodging in pioneer shelters. I will always be grateful to our summer visitors for helping us to survive here these many years. I do believe we should show our gratitude much more than we do presently. For the next century we will depend on the kindness of our guests, just as we have benefited from the 1860’s to the present. The unfortunate reality is the growing indifference to conserve more of Muskoka for parkland and open space, and stop the ugly march of urban sprawl. If there’s any danger I see, to the balance of the tourism industry generally, it’s in this transformation of Muskoka, from hinterland to “the new burbs.” Muskoka appears to be either on the verge of great new things, or a catastrophic change. In the meantime, I’ve got two more old trunks to refinish and at least three community sales only several weeks away. Please pardon my Muskoka tradition, as the distance and budget of time has certainly broadened from this computer, since good old Victoria’s birthday this past May. I won’t be doing much writing at all until those nippy days of late October, when the morning frost covers the raspberry canes, and the Hallowe’en pumpkins are back in-season.
I don’t think I could live anywhere else. The seasons of Muskoka are something to behold.
