In this slow, post-Festivus period, I thought I’d spend a few more column inches looking backwards in time to Dunvegan Decembers a century or so ago. While reading the Dunvegan column the December 2, 1898 issue of the Glengarry News, I felt a kinship with the hamlet’s scribe. Unlike today, community correspondents of the period remained nameless. However, I do know our hamlet’s correspondent back then was a testament to the educational system of the day. As the following excerpt demonstrates, the guy or gal more than earned the postage and envelope the News paid columnists at the time.
“Our town presents rather a lively appearance for the last few weeks,” the column proclaimed, “owing no doubt to the coming again of the joyful and gladdening tide of Yule. By the agreeable expressions shown by our businessmen and mechanics, we venture to say that health, prosperity, and general contentment is the lot shared in by all our enterprising citizens universally.”
In this same issue, I learned an interesting fact about a former general store on the northeast corner of the Dunvegan crossroads. The building is still with us today, and is presently owned by Jerome and Mona André. It looks much the same as it did 119 years ago, at least when viewed from the front. This place of commerce has had a number of owners over the years, eventually becoming Yvon Leblanc’s barbershop, the spot where our son had his very first haircut.
However, in December 1892, the proprietor was C. S. Northcott of Vankleek Hill. In his ad on page four, the merchant from the Hill informed readers that he had a “full stock of everything you want for winter, both at Vankleek Hill and at my Dunvegan store under the management of D. E. McLeod.” Claiming that his emporiums were Headquarters for Furs in the Two Counties, Mr. Northcott did indeed offer an impressive range of goods, including: “Men’s Coon, Wombat, Wollaby, Cont and Lamb. Ladies’ Aetracban, Coon and Bucbara. A fall line of Ladies, Men’s and Misses’ Caps, Collars and Muffs cheap. Men’s Heavy Cloth Ulsters and Overcoats. Dress Goods, Ready-made Clothing, Men’s Long Top Moccasins, Three Bear, Buckskin and Rubbers of every description cheap.” I admit that a number of these items are unfamiliar to me, but this may be due to typos. (There was no spellcheck back then and the proofreading seemed a bit spotty. As a result, I encountered a number of typographical errors.) Mr. Northcott and no doubt his agent, Mr. McLeod of Dunvegan, was also looking to purchase certain products, offering to pay top dollar for butter, grain, pork and fowl “when it freezes up.”
The final item that caught my eye in the December 2, 1898 Glengarry News was a “Shooting Match for turkeys” that was to be held at Dunvegan on Tuesday, December 30th. The notice, placed by John J. Clark, stressed that shooting would commence at twelve o’clock sharp. While it’s not entirely clear from the headline, I assume that the prize awarded to each winning marksperson would have been a Meleagris gallopavo, ready for roasting. An alternative interpretation might be that turkeys in the Dunvegan area were being invited to take up arms in retribution for their brethren lost to the Christmas feast just past. However appealing, this is probably the less likely of the two.
A sticky problem
I can’t explain it, but over the holiday just past I fixated on a memory from my childhood in the very early 1950s… the gummed stickers with iconic Christmas images that were used to hold seams together when gift wrapping presents. Today, strips of adhesive tape are employed for this task. The mid twentieth century though, was a time of technological transition.
Keep in mind that in 1948, the practice of celebrating Christmas with a gift-laden tree was only 100 years old. The buzz all began with a woodcut illustration in the 1848 Illustrated London News of Queen Victoria and her family admiring their shiny new decorated Christmas tree… a custom that just been imported from Germany. In these early days of commercialized Christmas, gifts were hung on the tree or placed in stockings by the hearth. However, as the quantity of gifts grew, so too did the emphasis on surprising the recipient by disguising their outward appearance. Unfortunately, the options were extremely limited — pasteboard boxes or sheets of white paper — as were the means available to seal the packages. Straight pins and sealing wax were the two main options. But not for long. By 1900, the gift-wrapping public had a full palette of coloured tissue papers from which to choose… and, thanks to the Dennison Manufacturing Company, gummed seals to hold the packages together. If you want to see an example of Christmas gift seals being used, just look for the scene in the 1947 Miracle on 34th Street movie when the District Attorney’s wife is wrapping presents.
The Dennison company and its imitators dominated this gift wrap fastening market, until 1930 when Richard Drew, an employee with Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, or 3M as it is known today, invented the world’s first transparent adhesive tape: Scotch Brand Cellulose Tape. (As an aside, here’s how the brand name came to be. Five years earlier, Mr. Drew had invented masking tape for auto-body painters. To save money… this was the Great Depression, after all… the tape only had strips of adhesive on the outside edges. Legend has it that one painter who was frustrated with the stingy application of stickum told Drew, “Take this tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put more adhesive on it!”)
However, to get back on track, that’s where I found myself in the 1950s… smack dab in the middle of the transition between gummed Christmas stickers and Scotch brand tape. By this point, the sticker manufacturers were at the top of their game. As I recall, stickers came in all sizes and intricate, die-cut shapes. Some even employed flocking (to simulate velvet), silver and gold foil and embossing. In Hampstead Public School, collecting these gaudy gummed marvels became a bit of craze. We carried our stash in unmarked envelopes and traded stickers to feed our “jones.” Or am I misremembering? Does anyone else out there recall this momentary fascination with gummed pieces of paper? Other than the obvious postage stamp parallel, of course. Please drop me a line if you do.
Dunvegan Titbits
Before signing off, I wanted to leave you with a quick overview of what’s coming down the pike. First off, the Dunvegan Recreation Association will be holding its Annual General Meeting and Potluck Supper in January. The DRA will also be resuming its popular Saturday Night at the Movies event. The January movie will be Arsenic and Old Lace. (And don’t forget that the DRA’s Euchre Luncheon is in hibernation for the months of January and February).
Speaking of February, circle Saturday the 3rd as the date of the DRA’s annual Community Winter Carnival… and the 9th as the date of the Glengarry Pioneer Museum’s “WE SURVIVED” party at the Bonnie Glen Pavilion to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1998 ice storm. Tickets (for the Ice Storm Party) are $40 per person and can be purchased at The Quirky Carrot in Alexandria, The Review in Vankleek Hill or online at glengarrypioneermuseum.ca. For more information, you can also check out the museum’s Facebook page or call 613-527-5230.
I’ll have more details on all of the above (and hopefully other items of interest) in next week’s column. In the meantime, I wanted to wish regular and occasional readers all the best for 2018. Keep those cards and letters coming. Your feedback — or even a friendly greeting while I’m in line at the LCBO (or the soon to emerge, MCBO) — makes it all worthwhile. Thank you.
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