At last I have found time to scan and post a copy of what we in our family call "Mom's Book". This is a family history, written by my mother Janet Eleanor Scott Harding in 1985-86, centred on the life of her father George William Scott.
Because I don't have one server which can accommodate the whole book, I have broken it into several sections. Just click on each link in order and then use the 'back' button in your browser to take you back to the list.
When one shares family history, one always runs the risk of giving the appearance that everyone should be interested, much like forcing visitors to watch home movies. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This is simply a convenient way to share this information with those who might be interested. My mother's writing style is very readable and there is a wealth of information herein about life and people in Gananoque, Grace United Church, along with the family history.
I encourage every family to do two things: 1) write down the stories that you have heard your parents and grandparents tell and 2) write the names on the back of photographs
Enjoy!!
Showing posts with label Gananoque. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gananoque. Show all posts
Friday, 11 December 2009
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
It's official - The Festival of the Islands is no more ...
Sad news in the Gananoque Reporter this morning - the 17-year-old Festival of the Islands is done. Declining attendance and the misfortune of bad weather last year has racked up debt (small debt in the bigger scheme of things) that has made continuing the Festival impossible. Now is a good time, if you haven't already, to thank the hundreds of volunteers who have made the festival such an amazing event. Naming names would be foolish - there have been so many involved and even though a few names come to mind I would be afraid of overlooking someone. The beauty of the festival was that every contributor, great or small, made the festival work.
Over the past 17 years we have been treated to performances at the Waterfront Stage by some legendary performers - artists I certainly never expected to see perform in Gananoque: The Association, Great Big Sea, Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, John Kay and Steppenwolf, to name just a very few. Although the waterfront stage shows were the showcase of the Festival, there were events all over town for the whole week for young and old. We'll miss the nightly parade of people with lawnchairs in hand, trudging down to the waterfront. Even if they didn't know who was performing, they knew they were in for an evening of great musical entertainment and a chance to meet with their neighbours and friends and others whom they had not seen since the last Festival. And let's not forget the fireworks - hundreds of boats and tens of thousands of people enjoying the most spectacular fireworks ever seen in this area.
A few years ago I wrote and recorded a jingle for the Festival, recorded at Summit Sound in Westport with the help of Cliff Edwards. We used an old Yamaha DX-7, a primitive Roland drum machine and the studio singers. I've only ever written one jingle and I still remember the first time I heard it on the radio! Gan-an-o-que doesn't scan easily, but it really ended up being quite tuneful. Give it a listen and think back to all your Festival memories. The hole in the middle is called the "do-nut" and it's left for voice-over announcement of daily events.
btw - as I tried to figure out how to post an audio file when BlogSpot only provides for video postings, I finally figured out how to create a video slideshow with an audio track. This video only has one image, but I know now how to add others. Get prepared for future postings!!
Over the past 17 years we have been treated to performances at the Waterfront Stage by some legendary performers - artists I certainly never expected to see perform in Gananoque: The Association, Great Big Sea, Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, John Kay and Steppenwolf, to name just a very few. Although the waterfront stage shows were the showcase of the Festival, there were events all over town for the whole week for young and old. We'll miss the nightly parade of people with lawnchairs in hand, trudging down to the waterfront. Even if they didn't know who was performing, they knew they were in for an evening of great musical entertainment and a chance to meet with their neighbours and friends and others whom they had not seen since the last Festival. And let's not forget the fireworks - hundreds of boats and tens of thousands of people enjoying the most spectacular fireworks ever seen in this area.
A few years ago I wrote and recorded a jingle for the Festival, recorded at Summit Sound in Westport with the help of Cliff Edwards. We used an old Yamaha DX-7, a primitive Roland drum machine and the studio singers. I've only ever written one jingle and I still remember the first time I heard it on the radio! Gan-an-o-que doesn't scan easily, but it really ended up being quite tuneful. Give it a listen and think back to all your Festival memories. The hole in the middle is called the "do-nut" and it's left for voice-over announcement of daily events.
btw - as I tried to figure out how to post an audio file when BlogSpot only provides for video postings, I finally figured out how to create a video slideshow with an audio track. This video only has one image, but I know now how to add others. Get prepared for future postings!!
Monday, 8 December 2008
And so it begins ...
River caught over with ice this weekend and a light dusting of snow makes it quite pretty.
BTW - gas is .679 today!!
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Daydream Believer is launched
The 2008 boating season has officially begun (for us, anyway). Clark's Marina splashed us yesterday and today Daydream Believer came home. Fortunately, the St. Lawrence is high and there's lots of water at the dock. After several trips up and down the cliff (the GFCI is at the house on the top and the dock is at the bottom - puff, puff) I finally found the right combination of switches to connect to shore power without tripping the breaker. Don't know when our first overnighter will be, but I think we're good to go. Handling is quite different with twin inboard screws as opposed to twin outdrives which I had just about mastered. Give me lots of room for a while. On one of my many trips to the boat today, there was a tourist couple on my dock - breathlessly enjoying the river and the view. They told me that we're very lucky. They're right - we are truly blessed!
More pictures later.
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Sweden - Day 13
March 23, 2008 - EASTER SUNDAY - Goteborg, Frankfurt, Chicago, Syracuse, Gananoque!!!
This is the first Easter Sunday in 57 years that I have not been in Grace Church, Gananoque.
We got a cab to Landvetter Airport this morning after our last breakfast at Hotel Lorensburg and appeared to be the only people at the airport. We checked in our luggage and got our boarding passes for the Goteborg-Frankfurt leg of our trip. The Scandinavian agent couldn't give us boarding passes right through to Syracuse because the other two flights (Frankfurt-Chicago and Chicago-Syracuse) were with American Airlines, so we were instructed to check in at the American counter in Frankfurt. We seemed to be the only travellers on that flight that had to do so, but we dutifully went to the counter. We're all for anything that ensures that the people on our plane (including us!) are legitimately there.
Now - I realize that everybody has a 'first day on the job' at some point in their life; but the girl at the American counter in Frankfurt was decidedly incompetent. We had to present receipts for our hotel in Goteborg, answer endless questions about our whereabouts and activities for the past two weeks, recite our in-laws' shoe size, etc. etc. etc. and she still couldn't really comprehend our travel plan - to fly to Chicago, then to Syracuse and get in our car and drive home to Canada (1 1/2 hours from Syracuse). When she asked for the receipt for parking in Syracuse (don't you leave that on the dash like EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD?) we'd had about enough. It was especially stressful because they had been calling our Frankfurt-Chicago flight for quite some time. Meanwhile, to go to the American counter we had to go out of the secure area so we had to go through security again before we could go to the gate. We did make the flight, but barely and it was not without a lot of unnecessary stress and frustration.
Our assigned seats were not those we had chosen on-line long before we left Canada two weeks ago, but we didn't complain since they had seated the four of us in a block of six seats with an empty seat between each pair.
The Chicago-Syracuse flight was pretty routine - the plane seemed like a paper-towel tube after the 767 from Frankfurt. Our captain on this flight, according to the flight attendant, is one of only a few female captains.
Believe it or not, our luggage came down the chute in Syracuse just like it had in Goteborg and Chicago. I don't know whose luggage it is that they're constantly losing (oh yeah - Brent Bommentre's) but it wasn't ours this time around. The highway trip home was pretty snoozy - gas seemed quite a bargain in Watertown - and Canada Customs welcomed us back home.
Hard to believe, hitting the sack in Gananoque Sunday night, that we had breakfast in Goteborg, Sweden that same morning.
Suitcases are now unpacked but not put away. We're already looking forward to our next foray into the world of travel. Think, maybe, we'll fly out of Canada, though ....
This is the first Easter Sunday in 57 years that I have not been in Grace Church, Gananoque.
We got a cab to Landvetter Airport this morning after our last breakfast at Hotel Lorensburg and appeared to be the only people at the airport. We checked in our luggage and got our boarding passes for the Goteborg-Frankfurt leg of our trip. The Scandinavian agent couldn't give us boarding passes right through to Syracuse because the other two flights (Frankfurt-Chicago and Chicago-Syracuse) were with American Airlines, so we were instructed to check in at the American counter in Frankfurt. We seemed to be the only travellers on that flight that had to do so, but we dutifully went to the counter. We're all for anything that ensures that the people on our plane (including us!) are legitimately there.
Now - I realize that everybody has a 'first day on the job' at some point in their life; but the girl at the American counter in Frankfurt was decidedly incompetent. We had to present receipts for our hotel in Goteborg, answer endless questions about our whereabouts and activities for the past two weeks, recite our in-laws' shoe size, etc. etc. etc. and she still couldn't really comprehend our travel plan - to fly to Chicago, then to Syracuse and get in our car and drive home to Canada (1 1/2 hours from Syracuse). When she asked for the receipt for parking in Syracuse (don't you leave that on the dash like EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD?) we'd had about enough. It was especially stressful because they had been calling our Frankfurt-Chicago flight for quite some time. Meanwhile, to go to the American counter we had to go out of the secure area so we had to go through security again before we could go to the gate. We did make the flight, but barely and it was not without a lot of unnecessary stress and frustration.
Our assigned seats were not those we had chosen on-line long before we left Canada two weeks ago, but we didn't complain since they had seated the four of us in a block of six seats with an empty seat between each pair.
The Chicago-Syracuse flight was pretty routine - the plane seemed like a paper-towel tube after the 767 from Frankfurt. Our captain on this flight, according to the flight attendant, is one of only a few female captains.
Believe it or not, our luggage came down the chute in Syracuse just like it had in Goteborg and Chicago. I don't know whose luggage it is that they're constantly losing (oh yeah - Brent Bommentre's) but it wasn't ours this time around. The highway trip home was pretty snoozy - gas seemed quite a bargain in Watertown - and Canada Customs welcomed us back home.
Hard to believe, hitting the sack in Gananoque Sunday night, that we had breakfast in Goteborg, Sweden that same morning.
Suitcases are now unpacked but not put away. We're already looking forward to our next foray into the world of travel. Think, maybe, we'll fly out of Canada, though ....
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