CHRISTMAS IN BRACEBRIDGE -
1927 COOKBOOK WORTH EVERY PENNY - ANGLICAN CHURCH WOMEN'S FUNDRAISER - TIME OF THE OPENING FOR THE RED CROSS HOSPITAL
THE ASKING PRICE FOR THE 1927 RING-BOUND COPY OF THE 1927 BRACEBRIDGE COOKBOOK, WAS WORTH EVERY NICKEL AND MORE. THE 1927 BRACEBRIDGE ANGLICAN CHURCH WOMEN'S COOKBOOK WILL BE ADDED TO THE EARLIER WOMENS PATRIOTIC LEAGUE COOKBOOK WE ALREADY HAVE IN OUR COLLECTION, PLUS SEVERAL OTHERS THAT TRULY MAKE IT NOW A "COLLECTION IN PROGRESS." I HAVE INCLUDED A COUPLE OF GRAPHICS OF THE OLD COOKBOOK, THAT I WILL BE DETAILING IN GREATER DEPTH ON MY MUSKOKA HERITAGE RECIPES BLOG THIS WEEK. I HAVE BEGUN A CAMPAIGN TO PRESERVE THESE RELICS FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION, AS THEY ARE NOT ITEMS LOCAL HISTORIANS FIND PARTICULARLY APPEALING. DON'T GET ME WRONG, THEY ARE VALUED AS PART OF THE HISTORY OF THE COMMUNITY, BUT TUCKED, FOR SAFE KEEPING, IN SOME ACID-FREE PACKAGING, IN SOME VERY CLEAN, SELDOM OPENED ARCHIVAL BOX FEW PEOPLE WILL EVER SEE AGAIN……UNLESS YOU SHOULD HAVE A SPECIFIC REQUEST, AND THE PUBLIC LIBRARY HAD SUCH AN ITEM IN THEIR MUSKOKA COLLECTION. WE ARE A LITTLE MORE GONZO ABOUT THIS MATERIAL, AND HAVE EMBARKED ON A CAMPAIGN TO SHOW-OFF OUR FINDS, AND LET YOU HAVE A GLIMPSE AT WHAT, FOR POSTERITY'S SAKE, HAS BEEN TRADITIONALLY HOUSED IN CONSERVATION-BOXES, STACKED ON SHELVES WITH VERY CLEAN DUST BUNNIES……BUT NOT FOR PUBLIC ENJOYMENT. MY RESEARCH PARTNER, SUZANNE AND I, WANT TO CHANGE THIS IN OUR TWO FAVORITE MUSKOKA TOWNS…..BRACEBRIDGE, AND GRAVENHURST…..AND WINDERMERE WHERE SUZANNE HAS HER REGIONAL ROOTS. THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF A LITTLE ADVENTURE FOR US……AS WE INTEND TO HUNT FOR NEW HISTORIC DISCOVERIES, TO OFFER READERS INSIGHTS ABOUT ITEMS, PHOTOGRAPHS, NEWS THEY DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT, IN THEIR PLACE OF RESIDENCE, OR AT LEAST, THE PLACE WHERE MEMORIES WERE MADE.
SO FOR A START, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO GET MORE IMAGES OF THE COOKBOOK LATER THIS COMING WEEK, BY CLICKING ON TO http://muskokavintagerecipes.blogspot.com/
SECONDLY, I WANT TO TELL YOU A STORY…..THAT I DUG-UP YEARS AGO, THAT WILL LIKELY NEVER MAKE IT TO PRINT ANY OTHER WAY…….THAT INVOLVES THE BRACEBRIDGE VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT, AND A NEWSPAPER STRINGER BY THE NAME OF PAUL RIMSTEAD. JUST AS THE DEPARTMENT AND THE TOWN CARRY ON WORK TO RE-ESTABLISH A NEW FIRE HALL FOR THE COMMUNITY, THE RIMSTEAD STORY SHOULD BE ONE THAT IS CARRIED ON……AS IMPORTANT TO THE APPRECIATION OF WHAT WE HAVE BEEN AS A COMMUNITY……NOT JUST THE BARE FACTS, BUT THE REALLY NEAT ANECDOTES, OF WHICH THERE ARE A BILLION. SO HERE GOES:
THE WRONG DIRECTION - ON PURPOSE - THE PESKY KID ON THE BIKE CHASING FIRE TRUCKS
FIRST OF ALL, THIS STORY HAS A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT VERSIONS, AND I'VE HEARD ABOUT THREE DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES. MY CONCERN IS THAT, BECAUSE IT HASN'T REALLY GOT THE HISTORICAL MERIT TO INSPIRE LOCAL AUTHORS TO INCLUDE THE STORY IN THEIR HERITAGE TOMES, THIS WONDERFUL ANECDOTE WILL BE LOST…..AS THOSE DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO ITS ORAL TELLING, ARE FEWER THESE DAYS, BECAUSE OF THE DEATH OF THOSE WHO HAD FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE OF THE EVENT. WHILE IT ISN'T A STAGGERINGLY IMPORTANT PIECE OF LOCAL HISTORY, IT DOES FALL INTO THE FORUM OF HUMAN INTEREST MATERIAL. I THINK YOU'LL AGREE, IT WOULD BE A SHAME TO LOSE THIS STORY. THIS VERSION IS THE RESULT OF THREE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT VERSIONS AMALGAMATED INTO ONE.
Paul Rimstead was one of Canada's most popular columnists. His column in the Toronto Sun, (AS WELL AS OTHER WESTERN CANADIAN SUN PRODUCTS) jettisoned him to great popularity amongst average folk, leading average lives, on an average or below wage……and who could genuinely relate to the foibles "Rimmer" got up to in any given day, of any week, any year. Without intending to, he became an advocate for all the folks who considered themselves "ordinary," and well, downtrodden. By presenting his life as an open book, from re-counting what led to necessary rectal surgery, to what built the road to divorce, a drinking problem, to financial woes, readers saw in him, a beacon of hope……a compassion and acceptance that commonplace was pretty darn interesting, if you pool it all together, and share stories with those thinking their misfortune is greater than anyone else's. I never remember a time, in my life anyway, when it was actually cool to have shit hit the fan. Paul Rimstead wrote about it, and over time, it was a refreshing new normal, that captivated those of us…..who thought we had the market cornered on "screwing up," living too hard, and being less than serious about tokens of exchange….like having money. In his company, we felt that our problems were pretty small, and even the big ones, were just part of the great life adventure in these modern times.
I won't go into huge detail about the man's life because others have documented it so much better than I could……as I didn't have the same exposure to the man, as they did, working within the domain of Rimstead……which could be an explosively exciting place to be. Rimmer wrote the book, "Cocktails and Jockstraps," and after his death, his friends and colleagues presented a fitting memorial tribute, a book of reminiscences entitled "Dammit Rimstead." Both are fabulous books and can be found by doing an online search of out-of-print book sellers, such as through the collective of the Advance Book Exchange.
Paul went to Bracebridge High School, and was a co-editor of The Beatrice Bugle, a small publishing project from the family home on the Beatrice Town Line, north of Bracebridge. From a young age, he was a newsy and there was every sign, Rimmer had somehow got ink in his blood…..and would be forever influenced by it coursing through his veins. I once had a pressman at The Herald-Gazette tell me, as a new editor, "You're going to get printer's ink in the blood Ted." It actually meant, that being involved in the writing profession, and publishing as an outcome, spelled out clearly that, "once in, it's game over…..you're a writer in residence until you die." I thought the guy was just kidding about this. I knew what he meant. I didn't have to drink a quart of ink to be infected. Rather, it came about as a matter of keen interest…….like watching the magic of a printing press stamping the ink onto a blank page. I was hooked easily because I had no will to avoid it……Rimstead had found the allure many years earlier…..but at the same school. We also shared our dislike for school studies.
So here is this print-absorbed kid, looking to writing as a potential future career. Keep in mind that about 1 in 10,000 kids would have answered "reporter" if asked by a teacher back then. Well, this one in ten thousand kid, was able to convince the Orillia Packet and Times newspaper, to give him a chance as a "stringer" for their publication. Being a stringer meant, gathering news tips and following up with stories fit to print. You're not considered a staffer, but it is a place to plant the seed for the future. Many of the best known journalists began with this fledgling relationship, and blossomed after a few years on the news hustings. Rimstead's choice, was to cover breaking-news on the community front…..such as finding his way to fires and accidents. I'm told he even had a "Press" card hung off the handlebars of this bike……the one he used to chase after emergency vehicles. I'm pretty sure he had a camera, but he most certainly had a note pad.
I guess the captain of the fire department wasn't particularly happy, to look in the rear-view mirror, to see this teenage news-hound hustling behind. While obviously they could ditch him, by speed alone, he had secure knowledge the department was heading to a particular address, or highway location to deal with an emergency. When a fire call came in, one of the firefighters used a chalk board at the hall (in the old town hall across from the present station) to record relevant information, so that when other volunteers arrived at the hall….or after the trucks had left, they knew where to drive within the community. So Rimstead would go into the hall, mostly undetected, and head out to where the emergency had occurred. It happened quite a few times, and the fire brigade was unhappy about this pesky kid getting under foot. It was a time when media relations hadn't quite matured, as we think of it today, where everyone seems to have a camera-phone to capture actuality.
What happened was that the fire captain(s) decided to mis-direct "Scoop" and put false information on the chalkboard. All the firefighters knew about a secondary message board that had the correct address, so they wouldn't go the wrong way……just the kid on the bike. I guess it happened a few times before Rimmer figured out they were purposely misdirecting him to locations far from harm's way. The firefighters didn't want Paul to get hurt, and considering he wasn't a news staffer with any real clout with editorial, they didn't look on their misdirections as injurious to the youngster's ambitions…..but it did keep him from getting too close to structure fires and major, multi-vehicle accidents.
Maybe it did have an influence. He had running battles with most authority figures, including his newspaper bosses, and he found his niche not in front line news reporting, but in human interest stories, and in those precious day-to-day living columns, that made him famous. He was a great source of inspiration to many fledgling writers in this country, because he told us what to expect of the profession we had chosen…….and he taught us about the dangers of taking ourselves too seriously…..as it would sap our capability of enjoying one of the best careers on earth……being a writer.
Just thought you might be interested in this wee bit of Bracebridge history.
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