King Township Historical Society and Villanova College present special concert at Marylake

And now, and ever after,

Their fame will grow with years;

They came with songs and laughter

We leave them here with tears.

Frederick G. Scott, Senior Chaplain

1st Canadian Division, B.E.F.

1914 Christmas Truce Concert

The King Township Historical Society and Villanova College Concert Band combined to present an evening concert which featured a University of Toronto Faculty of Music vocal quartet (pictured below), on Friday evening, December 5.   In addition to 16 musical selections, the evening featured recitations of poignant letters from the trenches.   Two of the evenings musical selections were O Tannenbaum and Auld Lang Syne and the audience of 300 sang along to both songs using lyrics printed in their programmes  

Pictured left to right:  Will Ford (tenor), Nicholas Borg (baritone), 
Melissa Peiou (mezzo soprano) and Amanda Cogan (soprano) 

Pictured above is Grant Armitage with one of two banjos that were played by his great-great-uncle Joseph Howe, while entertaining World War I troops.   Grant is a guitarist who only took up the banjo a month before the Marylake concert.   He started the musical portion of the evening with a traditional rendition of 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary'.   The military uniform that Grant wore during his presentation was a 75-year-old original outfit worn by a relative of King Township historian, Gavin Watt.

While many people were recognized for their contributions to the successful concert, special thanks were extended to historical society member, Diana Armitage, for her efforts and leadership in producing a moving and memorable evening of music and historical sentiment. 

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Barry Wallace

No horse blankets needed here

Photos by Barry Wallace

19th Sideroad  near Thornton Bales Conservation Area

A bit of snow and freezing temperatures do not mean these Clydesdale horses need blankets, like their thoroughbred cousins.   Most of the world's biggest and best draft horses had their origins in places with temperate climates, but which included harsh and cold winters.   The beauties above seemed only too aware that one way to keep warm was to keep eating.   The 13 horses (including a mule) are part of the new Dog Tales/Horse Haven rescue facility.   For more information about this remarkable undertaking, go to www.dogtales.ca. 

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Barry Wallace

45 years ago King City was "raped"

Photo by Barry Wallace

Watching the fellow in the photograph above, earlier this week, I couldn't help but remember the traumatic part of the village's history, back in the late '60s and early '70s, when Keele Street was widened to four lanes.   Apart from a  new dramatic, dispiriting deluge of transient traffic through the village, the cruelest cut was the cutting down of mature, 100-year-old maple trees, on both sides of Keele Street, from the centre of the village to the southern end of the older part of the village.   After the trees were cut down, property frontages were altered and lowered to such an extent that stone retaining walls were extensively installed, where required.   For the last few years, many of the walls have required remedial work.   That is what was taking place in the photo above.   45 years ago, in response to citizens' appeals against the road widening and stonework retaining walls, a York County official was quoted as saying: "You'll love the new road...we've done this before against opposition and the road becomes so popular we eventually have to take it out of the village and re-route it".   The quote is to be found in the booklet opposing the road widening published under the leadership of the inspired John Belknap who had his business premises and his home on Keele Street South.   He and his dedicated band of protesters were defeated of course and it was John Belknap who claimed King City had been "raped".   And now, after 45 years, yes, commuters and transients love the widened Keele Street (and later the King Road), as they pass through to other places.   And there has been a clamour by villagers for taking the widened roads out of the village but after decades of pleas the Region of York refers to the possibility as decades away, still.   A quote by the American writer , Philip Wylie, was included in the "raped" booklet.   It says: "Nothing nature created is allowed to stand in the way of any artifact of man, however slow and marvellous was the former in becoming, however quick and rude the latter".

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BtheB     

A wee taste of Scottish links

                                                                                                                                         Photo by Barry Wallace

King's Riding Golf Club

Bathurst Street ~ near Aurora

"In scoring, every course has its 'par', as the score an expert would be expected to make on it (The word is interpreted by cynics as an acronym of 'pretty average really'.)

- Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable

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BtheB

St. Bernard on duty

                                                                                          Photo by Barry Wallace

I was driving through Kingcross Estates, between Keele and Jane Streets, on the weekend and drove by a house with a magnificent St. Bernard posed on the front lawn.   So handsome was this lounging beauty, that for a moment I thought it was a lawn statue.   I quickly knew better and turned the Jeep around, rolled down the window, and fumbled with my camera to capture a photo of this splendid-looking beast.   I hesitated a second or two and by that time the dog was up, staring me down, barking and heading toward me.   It was tied up, of course.   Oh well, I didn't get a great portrait shot but I did get a picture.

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Barry Wallace

Nails in 2014 ~ eggs in 1956

Photo by Barry Wallace

The building on the north side of the King Road, directly opposite Fisher Street, in the middle of King City, appears to have a new business about to open there.   The signs for "Spa di da Nails"  went up this past weekend.   I wish this new venture every success, but so far know very little about it.   I can tell a story about this building from almost 60 years ago, back in 1956.   I was a young teenager who had been living in King City for less than two years.   On Hallowe'en of my second year in the village I was out and about with a couple of new friends.   At one point we passed by the building above, which was a restaurant then and operated by a fellow who everyone knew as a "real character".   The fellow was standing on the front porch of the building with a basket dangling from one hand. My friends and I, on the south side of the King Road (in front of the old Baptist church) hollered over: "Shell out, shell out, or we'll break your windows inside out!"   I don't recall ever hearing "Trick or treat" back then.   The next thing my friends and I heard was the diner operator calling out to us and reaching into his basket for what we thought were Hallowe'en treats.   He threw the treats across the street to us but it wasn't candy - it was raw eggs in the shell!   He laughed like a madman while we stumbled about covered in gooey egg yolks and whites.   We were momentarily dumbfounded but soon took off down King Road toward the four corners before the second and third round of eggs found their mark.   We weren't the only young fellows who got 'egged' that night.   For the next couple of days, no matter how much we denied it, we were notorious for having been 'egg-bombed'.   My memory is a little foggy after all those years, but I don't recall anyone ever retaliating against that "real character" restauranteur.

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Barry Wallace 

First of December Trees

                                                                                                                                    Photos by Barry Wallace
Cawthra Mulock Nature Reserve
Bathurst Street ~ on the moraine

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Barry Wallace