Canada Day (s)

Lockeport knows how to celebrate - this year Canada Day was celebrated from June 27 to July 1st.

On June 27th there were several events starting with a party in Seacaps Park for the children run by our local community of disabled adults - games, food, balloons etc. Then there was a sidewalk chalk contest (Queen's Diamond Jubilee theme), and then we held our annual BakeWalk to raise money for the Ragged Islands Historical Society.

I was apprehensive when the July 1st Committee moved us to Wednesday evening but it turned out I was wrong - we had a fantastic turnout and made more money than we have for several years. The annual Variety Show was right after us and we got people from the Chalk contest on one end and early arrivals to the Variety Show on the other- also good weather helped. We really got a lot of baking donations including 7 cakes, muffins, cookies, fudge, pralines, bread, and pickles so there was lots of choice for the winners.

Part of the Variety Show is the choosing of the king and queen for Canada Day ( a draw from the names of those interested). The Queen was 4 year old Bella Taylor (one of the few children in town whom I actually know). Here she is presenting trophies at the Day Pass draw on Saturday (with mayor Darian Huskilson and Municipality of Shelburne Warden (and our good friend) Sherm Embree). What a little sweetheart - and she had a nice queenly wave in the parade.

Thursday, the 28th, I drove to Halifax early to pick up my friends Barb and Lynn with whom I worked for many years at Lady Evelyn Alternative school in Ottawa. They are visiting us until July 9th so getting to do lots of our wonderful small town events. They seem to have brought us good weather too - although thankfully not as hot as it has been in Ottawa.

Friday evening Wayne and I worked the gate at the Lockeport Rocks outdoor concert (Jimmy Flynn and 3 Way Radio) - Lynn and Barb came along and Barb said she had a "ripping" good time (she was tearing apart id bracelets for Wayne to put on attendees). It was a bit cool and the fog rolled in as our shift ended at 10:00PM but we had fun and everything balanced financially. Tim took over from us at 10:00 with June Harding-Scott. Total paid attendance was 218 which is pretty good for a town of less that 600 (and admission restricted to 19+).

Because July 1st is actually a Sunday this year and we are in Canada's Bible Belt, most of the celebrations were moved to Saturday. We went to the Craft Fair at 10:00AM, then had strawberry shortcake from the IODE in the Anglican church hall at 11:00AM, wandered around and looked at the booths and kid games. There was a zip-line this year and I didn't see it - apparently it's an awesome ride brought on a big flat bed - it was set up down on the baseball field and was about 40 ft in the air - first time it's been used in the Maritimes apparently.

We had lunch at the firemen's BBQ - sausage and a pop for $3.50. Lots more wandering around, waiting for the sailboats to arrive from the race from Shelburne Harbour Yacht Club to Lockeport. We had dinner at the White Gull sitting on the deck right beside the Heavy Water concert. Scallops and fries done really well - they were super busy too. The Town and Country and the new B&B (although not open or licensed yet - either of them) managed to do outside service of lobster rolls, drinks, and some BBQ stuff. We didn't eat any of that but we did stop at Beech Street Studios for giant cookies and fudge.

During the afternoon we watched the parade and went to the Day Pass draw. After dinner we walked over to South Wharf to watch some of the greased pole competition - I don't know how those brave participants can stand falling in the cold Atlantic, even if they are managing to grab money on the way down.

              Sailboats arriving    

                  

Getting ready for the parade to come by in front of our house 

                                  

Start of parade - one of Mac's cars

Heavy Water performing

Sailboats in the marina

One of the Longboat Society's boats giving free rides

People on the wharf watching the concert, Historical Streetscape in the background

 We were exhausted from all the sunshine and walking around town all day so we didn't make it to either the outdoor evening concert (which was free) or the adult dance at the firehall ( it didn't start unti 9:30PM). Tim decided to go and managed to get a ticket to the sold out dance ( the organizer printed him a ticket from the original computer file with the next number in sequence about an hour before the dance - it pays to be a nice guy).

Sunday Lynn and Barb and I went over to the Anglican Church's BBQ for lunch - we each had a hamburger and then we were still hungry so we went back for hot dogs. A new event so not very well attended it seemed. There is a gospel concert  that we're going to this afternoon, followed by the Opening Ceremony (?) with flag raising, Oh Canada and birthday cake, and tonight the fireworks at 10:00PM. There's also the Poker Walk after supper but I doubt we'll do that one.

No soap box derby this year - I think the old cars finally got beyond repair. Maybe someone will make some new ones for next year.

Happy Birthday Canada!