County and Quinte Living Winter 2019

WINTER 2019

P R I N C E

E D W A R D

C O U N T Y

A N D

Q U I N T E

R E G I O N

INSIDE: The flavours of Mexico in downtown Belleville, Andy brings joy, nature heals and so much more.

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613-962-9211 407 N FRONT ST.

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BELLEVILLE • KINGSTON • BROCKVILLE • CORNWALL

swimming pools | hot tubs | patio furniture | BBQs | saunas and docks | fitness equipment | billiards

PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY AND QUINTE REGION

ON THE COVER

The incomparable, joyous Andy Forgie.

Photo by Daniel Vaughan.

IN THIS ISSUE

8

Bringing the Flavours of Mexico to Downtown Belleville

Each issue available online at: countyandquinteliving.com

24

ANDY FORGIE Delivering joy to young and old and in between

by Vic Schukov

42

The remarkable life of Jennie Creighton Woolworth

50

Sarah Slean’s Gravitas

by Alan Gratias

by Peter Lockyear

by Jennifer Shea

18

Finding Yourself – and Healing in Nature

34

49

by Lindi Pierce

by Lindi Pierce

Trenton town hall 1861

SIGNPOSTS MILFORD

by Jennifer Shea

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COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2019

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PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY AND QUINTE REGION

GENERAL MANAGER Adam Milligan amilligan@starmetrolandmedia.com

GET THE JOB DONE. COMFORTABLY.

editor Catherine Stutt editor@countyandquinteliving.com

GET THE JOB DONE. COMFORTABLY.

Photo editor Daniel Vaughan

Plowing, blowing, sweeping and hauling.

No matter the job, Kubota’s B50 Series is tough and easy to operate. But most important, it’ll be easy on the operator. Compact, efficient and engineered for comfort, you’ll be looking forward to spending the day in the driver’s seat.

Even when you don’t have to.

Publication coordinator Leslie Osborne • 613.867.8271 leslie.osborne@metroland.com Design/Graphics Editor: Kathern Bly design & production: Monica McTaggart SKBailey Marketing & Design CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Alan Gratias Peter Lockyer

Vic Schukov Jennifer Shea

Lindi Pierce CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Rick Matthews

Daniel Vaughan

home Delivery subscriptions Sharon LaCroix • admin@countyandquinteliving.com 613.969.8896 Distribution inquiries Mitchell Clarke 705.742.8450 • mclarke@mykawartha.com Advertising inquiries 613.969.8896 • sales@countyandquinteliving.com Orlinda Johnston • Tracey Perry County & Quinte Living is published quarterly and is complimentary through strategic partners, wineries, golf courses, real estate, and chamber of commerce offices, retail outlets, and advertiser locations.

County & Quinte Living may not be reproduced, in part or whole, in any form without prior written consent of the publisher. Views expressed by contributors are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of County & Quinte Living.

Home Delivery Subscription rate $25 a year, HST included. County & Quinte Living is a division of Star Metroland Media Group Ltd.

Mail Address: 65 Lorne St, Smiths Falls, ON K7A 3K8 613.969.8896 countyandquinteliving.com • Find us:

Plowing, blowing, sweeping and hauling.

No matter the job, Kubota’s B50 Series is tough and easy to operate. But most important, it’ll be easy on the operator. Compact, efficient and engineered for comfort, you’ll be looking forward to spending the day in the driver’s seat.

Even when you don’t have to.

Anderson Farms #99 County Rd. #34 Picton, ON K0K 2T0 Phone: 613-476-6597 Fax: 613-476-1594

©2019 Star Metroland Media Group Ltd./ Printed in Ontario Canada Gold: 0.25.100.0 Charcoal: 5 0 0 80

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kubota.ca |

Anderson Equipment Sales 771 Wallbridge Loyalist Rd. Belleville, ON K8N 4Z5 Phone: 613-969-6246 Fax: 613-969-1653 kubota.ca |

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from Prince Edward County who married a young man from New York state and together they built Woolworths.

The twists and turns and opportunities and serendipity, and we get to share that with our readers. Woven in the fabric of our stories are subtexts of coincidences and the small-worldness of our lives.

When we left Trenton at 5 a.m. it was an unseasonably warm 28 degrees Celsius. Alert was enjoying minus 21 and someone commented on the cold – dry cold, that is. I replied, “It’s like a nice spring day in Muskoka.” Off to the side, I heard the reply, “Muskoka? Who’s from Muskoka?” Turns out I’d travelled to the top of the world to run into Jim Nelson, a friend from high school who was in charge of the water treatment plant in Alert.

A few years ago, thanks to the beloved Colonel Sean Lewis, 8 Wing’s Logistics As the clouds battle the sun and the and Engineering Officer at the time, I wind swirls leaves across the lawn, had the opportunity to fly to the top heading with great velocity to our of the world. Literally. Sean figured I It’s a small world, full of big important understanding neighbours to the east, needed to visit Canadian Forces Station stories, and we are honoured to share the CQL team is putting the finishing Alert, north of the North Pole. That little them with you. touches on the winter issue. piece of Canada jutting over the top of May your days be merry and bright.

It seemed like a few months ago we Greenland? That’s where Alert is. It was Spread joy. Embrace every flake of this were building the spring issue, and yet April, and 24-hour daylight. Right now, winter too quickly arriving. here we are, to paraphrase Coach Bill the Frozen Chosen, as the Alert crew Thanks for turning the page.

Belichick, off to Spring 2020. Daniel proudly self-identifies, is heading into has already shot several of the stories, 24-hour darkness. We had it good. interviews are underway, and our story We boarded a C-17 Globemaster in boards are getting crowded. Before long, Trenton and flew north. It’s a pretty easy we’ll be looking at 2021, and that’s okay, bearing. North. The sign at the Alert because there are so many stories to base operations says, “All flights south.” share.

A bit over five hours later, we landed on Our magazine is about journeys, because even large corporations start with one person’s dream, like the story of young Jennie Creighton, a seamstress

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an austere runway, were transported to the accommodation facility, had a great lunch, and started a tour of the station.

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2019

Catherine Stutt, Editor, County and Quinte Living editor@xplornet.com

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Bringing the Flavours to of Downtown Belleville

Mexico

Story by Jennifer Shea Photography by Daniel Vaughan Born and raised in Mexico City, Marlem Power and her brother Abraham Ramos Serrantos have fond memories of family gatherings, which always revolved around food and the dinner table. They brought that family atmosphere, combined with a variety of fresh, authentic Mexican cuisine to their downtown restaurant, Chilangos, when they opened in 2016.

Chilango is a term used to describe someone who was born in Mexico City.

It’s been a circuitous journey to launching the restaurant, beginning when 18-yearold Marlem ventured to Canada to learn English as a second language. She honed her new language skills while working as a live-in caregiver for a Kingston family, who sponsored her to become a Canadian citizen.

She continued to live and work in different Ontario cities – meeting and marrying her husband along the way – until they settled in the Quinte region in 2008 when he was posted to 8 Wing/CFB Trenton.

After finishing a university degree in international relations in Mexico, Abraham followed in his sister’s footsteps and came to Canada in 2010 to improve his English.

Marlem had completed a culinary course and was working for a catering company at the time, and was able to secure a position for Abraham. The owner sponsored him to become a Canadian citizen.

“After taking the culinary course, I developed my love to cook, but I always dreamed and was thinking about the plates of Mexico,” says Marlem. “I was talking to my family back home to exchange recipes. That’s how I practiced. I was using those flavours.”

The brother and sister discovered the City of Belleville’s annual Waterfront and Multicultural Festival and applied as food vendors. It was an opportunity to bring some of their traditional Mexican flavours to the Belleville public and check the response.

“We can remember our first waterfront festival,” laughs Marlem. “Our sign was made of cardboard. We were painting it the night before just to make sure we had the name of Mexico. All our community was behind us

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from that very first event. It was such a big success we ran out of food.”

Adds Abraham, “We did the festival for five years, from 2011 to 2015. That last year, we started talking about the idea of a restaurant. By then, I had gained my permanent residency in Canada, and we decided we were going to do it.”

The siblings approached Trenval Business Development Corporation and were given assistance in developing a business plan.

They pooled their savings and secured a loan to get started. They found an ideal location at 394 Front Street just below the Moira River bridge; complete with a patio overlooking the river. The only drawback was the street was completely torn up as the City of Belleville was in Phase 1 of its downtown revitalization project.

Nonetheless, they took the plunge and opened their 27-seat (now 110) restaurant in March 2016.

“Nobody wanted to come downtown with the roads under construction,” says Abraham. “We were surprised the first or second day, the lineups were out the door. It was a very fast pace.” The siblings worked 16hour days in the early years, often starting at 5:30 a.m. It was important for them to get the formula right and to establish their distinct roles in the business.

Says Abraham, “Marlem oversees the quality of the food. That’s what makes Chilangos successful. It’s not about the name. It’s not about the location. It’s about the food. It’s about the freshness, about the authenticity, and about the flavours we are portraying on each plate. People know us

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by that. In the back of the kitchen, Marlem makes sure each plate heading to the tables is according to the recipes our Grandma or mother used to serve in Mexico.”

Abraham’s role is to manage the front of house, including the serving staff. “We have achieved what we have because he’s a vision man,” says Marlem. “He can foresee into the future and he plans toward meeting the next goal. I can definitely be there for him for support and share my opinion a little bit in order to keep us balanced.”

Balanced they are. Marlem is the more outgoing sibling, often the first to respond to a question. Abraham appears more thoughtful and waits to respond but adds a little extra colour and background to his sister’s perspective without stepping on her toes.

Chilangos is a warm and colourful place with Mexican décor on the walls (including a sombrero) and Mexican music in the background, filling the gaps in table conversations and laughter from diners. Frequently, the sound of the blender interrupts everything as a frosty margarita is prepped and poured at the bar.

In pursuing their goal of bringing authentic Mexican cuisine to the Quinte region, Marlem and Abraham have had to work on modifying some customers’ expectations.

“There are certain misconceptions about Mexican food,” says Abraham. “Like hard tacos. In Mexico City, we will never have a hard taco. All tacos are soft in Mexico. We will have some certain type of crispy tacos, but they are rolled.”

When guests come in expecting to have that type of experience, the siblings stand fast in their traditions. “We tell them no; we don’t have that. As well, we have tried to keep our consistency. We have not opened our menu to get into Tex Mex or American or food from other cultures.”

However, the menu does accommodate dietary trends and restrictions many customers have. For example, 90 per cent of the menu items are gluten-free. Vegan vegetarian, and certain food allergies can be accommodated.

Most people equate Mexican cuisine with spiciness. To the contrary, most of the menu items are mild in heat level, and the spiciness can be controlled according to the amount of salsa added.

“What will always compliment a good taco is the type of salsa we serve,” says Marlem.

“We go back to the salsas of mild, medium, 12

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or hot. Those are the family recipes of how we prepared those salsas. The salsa chipotle (mild) has more of a smoky flavour. The green salsa is medium, made with tomatillos. The salsa arbol, the hottest one, is made with one specific pepper that will make the flavour of the salsa. The salsa morita uses a completely different pepper.

The salsa taquera is a combination of both (arbol and morita). The different kind of dry peppers will bring the aromas and the flavours into the food.”

As the kitchen director, Marlem orchestrates considerable activity in a small space. There are up to six employees working together in the kitchen, and all the activities must well-coordinated. “We will have the chicken poaching. We will have beans on the go. We will have the

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2019

poblano peppers roasting, then we can put them aside so they can sweat, and we can peel them while we are cutting the chips in order to fry them. At that point, we may need to strain the chicken in order to purify the broth to make the rice. That same broth will be used in many of the salsas. Everything has a procedure.”

Many of the Chilangos customers have been to Mexico and recognize the native flavours from their vacations. There are some regular customers who are on a mission to try everything on the menu, which now has more than 40 options.

They come every week to try something different. Others stick to their tried and true favourite item.

Antojitos (anto-hee-toes), pico de gallo (peek-oh duh guy-oh), huevos rancheros

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“One of the most popular items on the menu which we are famous for (because we won the Spicy Food Contest in 2017) is the enchilades verdes,” says Abraham. “It’s a very authentic Mexican dish with green tomatillos which we import from Mexico.”

Adds Marlem, “It is one of our spicier dishes, but we have toned it down since the contest.”

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Asked about their personal favourite menu item, both siblings say “sopes (so-paws)” – handmade corn tortillas with refried beans, lettuce, onions, cheese, and sour cream. “It reminds me of my Grandma,” says Marlem.

“It brings memories of when I was working with the dough at home with her. On every occasion when I went back and visited my parents, my mother always used to make them.” Abraham adds, “That was a Saturday brunch type of thing in Mexico.”

The Chilangos food has been endorsed not only by Canadians who have visited Mexico, but Abraham and Marlem’s family members.

Their mother has visited and enjoyed the food; she expressed her pride in her children’s accomplishments. “Last summer, we had a group of 10 family members visit and they were able to see the opening of the new section,” says Marlem, adding Chilangos can now seat 110 diners. “They were able to try all the dishes here in the restaurant. They said, ‘This is it. This is Mexico.’”

Marlem is proud of the Chilangos staff, and notes that it’s a multicultural team. “Having people from all these beautiful cultures

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HOW 85% OF PATIENTS ELIMINATED NUMBNESS, TINGLING OR SHARP PAINS Numbness, tingling, and pain is an extremely annoying problem.

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THE LIKELY CAUSE OF YOUR PROBLEM Chiropractic has been helping people with neuropathy and nerve problems for more than 100 years.

Often neuropathy is caused by a degenerating spine pressing on the nerve roots. This can happen in any of the vertebral joints from the neck all the way down to the tail bone.

The good news is that chiropractic treatments have proven effective in helping to remove the pressure on the nerves.

By using gentle techniques, we are able to release the pressure that has built up on the nerve. This allows the nerve to heal and the symptoms to go away.

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COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2019

COULD THIS BE YOUR SOLUTION? It’s time for you to find out if chiropractic will be your neuropathy solution.

For a limited time, $35 will get you all the services that normally cost new patients $120!

What does this offer include? Everything. Take a look at what you will receive: • An in-depth consultation about your health and well-being where we will listen to the details of your case.

• A complete neuromuscular examination.

• A full set of specialized x-rays to determine if a spinal problem is contributing to your pain or symptoms. (note: These would normally cost you at least $85).

• A thorough analysis of your exam and x-ray findings so we can start mapping out your plan to being pain free.

• Answers to your most probing questions about nerve problems and how chiropractic can help.

Until June 30, 2019 you can get everything listed above for only $35.

WHY NOT GET HELP BY THOSE TRAINED TO CORRECT THE MAJOR CAUSE OF PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY. See the chiropractic clinics below offering this nerve evaluation.

Call the location closest to your home or office. We can get you scheduled for your consultation, exam and x-rays as soon as there’s an opening.

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Heron Family Chiropractic, Dr. Peter Herron Fleming Building 1005 Elgin St. W, Suite 206 905.377.0555

BELLEVILLE

Chiropractic Generations, Dr. Stephen Lippitt 100 Bell Blvd., Suite 230 Quinte Mall 613.966.4725

TRENTON

The Chiropractic Centre, Dr. Craig Cocek 455 Dundas St. W 613-392-4008

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working with us is amazing - people from the Philippines, Guatemala, Venezuela, India, Italy, Canadians, Native Canadians.

Seeing us working together, it’s a really good thing. People take their job seriously and it’s wonderful.”

In addition to meeting the needs of their regular clientele in the restaurant, Marlem and Abraham have started catering, including providing lunches for some area schools. They’ve also been asked to serve a Quebec-based tourism company, providing meals for as many as 53 people arriving by bus en route from Niagara Falls to Quebec.

The siblings are proud of what they have accomplished at Chilangos in a few short years. One of their greatest achievements is creating a family environment for their 21 employees.

“Our employees work with us, not for us,” emphasizes Marlem. “It’s important to have employees working together with us shoulder to shoulder. We do care about them and I know that they always give their best for us.”

In Belleville, on the banks of the Moira, everyone at Chilangos is family.

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Finding Yourself – and Healing -

in Nature Story by Jennifer Shea Photography by Daniel Vaughan I first met Jessica Spooner at a women’s wellness weekend, where she was leading a forest therapy session for attendees. Along with about 10 other women, I decided to try it – not really sure what to expect. As she handed out portable camp stools to each of us for sitting in the forest, Jessica explained the history of forest therapy.

It is inspired by the Japanese practice of Shinrin-Yoku, or forest bathing. The Japanese government was seeking ways to help curb the high level of mental illness and realized spending time in nature is very therapeutic, lowering blood pressure, stabilizing mood, improving sleep, and boosting the immune system. The Japanese government designated many of the country’s forests specifically for forest bathing, offering volunteer guides to take people for long walks in nature.

In North America, the Japanese practice has been somewhat adapted. Jessica received training and certification as a Forest Therapy Guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, which calls itself the, “World’s leading forest therapy certification program.”

As a guide, Jessica’s role is to lead a group on a two-to-three-hour nature walk while providing invitations for sensory opening activities along the way. Interestingly, the

“

Doing forest therapy in a clear headspace for weeks and months has been pretty profound. I’ve had things come up – realizations or things to reflect on – just clarity.

”

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walks only cover about a kilometre in total, but the pace is slow and deliberate. On our walk, Jessica helped us to tune in to our five senses to take in the natural environment and focus our minds in the moment.

“There are a few pieces to a guided walk,” says Jessica. “One is giving permission to people to just be in that experience and also permission to not watch the time. The guide has the time and for that two or three hours you can just be in whatever way that is, whatever comes up for you. That alone is empowering and also shifting. There are very few spaces where you can do that.”

Jessica is right. How often in our day-today lives do we actually slow down long enough to really take in our surroundings -

experience. “I led a walk at a spa for their executive team. It was the boss’s decision to take the staff’s phones away first. One of the staff was upset about it when he found out. I led the walk and there were two things that happened for him. One, he realized he doesn’t feel comfortable being alone; and two, when he was invited to smell the earth, it made him remember South America where he’s from and the farmland he left.”

Jessica has personally benefited from spending so much time in nature, saying forest therapy has brought her many lessons she would never have anticipated. “You can learn things you’re not quite expecting.

For me, what forest therapy has done – in January, I quit consuming alcohol. I just

particularly in an outdoor setting? It’s quite powerful to open yourself up to whatever comes. On the guided walk I participated in, I was able to tap into happy memories from my childhood with vivid images of my grandparents’ farmhouse, where I often spent time. I hadn’t thought about that in decades and it was really comforting, particularly since my grandparents are now gone.

Jessica describes the walks as a shared experience, but also a very independent

kind of stopped. I had never felt secure in a space enough to just do it. After the holidays, I thought, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ Doing forest therapy in a clear headspace for weeks and months has been pretty profound. I’ve had things come up – realizations or things to reflect on – just clarity.”

Jessica calls her forest therapy business Blue Bark & Co. – the Co. is for collaborate and community. Blue Bark is a reference to the blue hammered lichen that grows on the bark

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2019

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of a tree. She launched the business in 2018 and has guided several groups throughout Ontario since then.

Blue Bark & Co. evolved from another business Jessica began in 2016 –Women Hike Wild. That business offers wilderness adventures for women, with backpacking, hiking, and camping in Ontario provincial parks. Jessica’s post-secondary education was in tourism and travel.

“I remember a presentation for a program, Outdoor and Adventure Education in Haliburton. At the time, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I kept that brochure for years and I became an environmental person in post-secondary. I travelled all over the place. I wasn’t really sure where I fit. I was moving and found the brochure and decided to take this course. I studied at Fleming College in Lindsay and it aligned with adventure tourism.”

Jessica worked in Costa Rica for a time before returning to Canada for a teaching position at Loyalist College. She was toying with the idea of starting a company that offered cycle tours or backpacking and one of her good friends suggested gearing the business to women only.

“As soon as she said that, a light went off.

I’d been in cycle groups and rock-climbing groups with women only and something special happens you can’t even really put words to; you just have to experience it when it is a women-centric or women-identified group. As soon as she said that, I knew it was right. Absolutely. I wanted to try to eliminate some of the barriers women may experience in trying to get into this activity.”

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That was how Women Hike Wild got started. Jessica does all the planning for the trips, provides the equipment, and even dehydrates and cooks meals so all the participants need to do is show up ready to hike.

During one of her Women Hike Wild trips two years ago Jessica came up with the idea of Blue Bark & Co. She noticed the participants were really opening up to one another with meaningful conversation and they seemed very comfortable sharing in that space. She realized if this sort of opportunity was facilitated and intentional, it could be a beautiful thing.

“I started looking into eco-therapy, healing outdoors, and things like that. Forest therapy came across. I pushed it aside. Two months later, I saw it again. It was a different day, a different feeling. I looked into it more and I talked to my partner. You do a one-week immersion, then there’s a practicum that follows. Something just happened. Before I went, I said I didn’t want to be a cliché, like, ‘Oh, I’m transformed,’ but it totally did transform me. In a sense, I’d never felt more aligned.”

Jessica left her college teaching job and now runs the two businesses side-by-side, while furthering her education.

“One of my goals is to amalgamate both businesses in a sense the trips will become wilderness therapy. Taking the idea of having women out for longer than a night – really let them diffuse and get them out of their comfort zone by backpacking or whatever else comes up. As I get other guides, I can do more things, have intentional weekends.”

With the help of a colleague in Toronto, Jessica also offers nature-based life coaching programs. She is taking additional courses herself to become a certified coach.

One of the most beautiful experiences on a guided forest therapy walk is the tea ceremony at the end. Jessica finds an open space and lays out a blanket with a small mason jar for each participant to use as a teacup. She forages plants from the forest to make the tea. “I befriend a tree and ask permission and practice reciprocity with the space I’m in, then make a tea out of the needles. I love white pine, white cedar, sumac.

Our last council, where we sit in a circle and share, we get to breathe it in and see it and taste it. It’s a nice way to end. I’ve started to incorporate gifts of gratitude as well. People share their gratitude.”

Adds Jessica about the tea, “You get to taste the forest, but you also get to bring a little bit of it with you.”

Jessica says spending time in nature is powerful therapy. “It brings people back to a time when they were unencumbered by the weight of the world. It’s innate in all of us.

We were born in the natural world.”

The blue lichen that grows on the bark of trees is actually a combination of fungus and algae. The fungus collects moisture while the algae collects food. They have a symbiotic relationship without impacting the bark below. It’s the perfect name for a forest therapy business – allowing people to take in all that nature has to offer without leaving any trace behind.

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Andy Forgie

Delivering joy to young and old and in between Story by Vic Schukov Photography by Daniel Vaughan

Like Woody Allen with Manhattan, musically mesmerizing front man Andy Forgie - a Belleville legend - has never left his hometown except to ply his trade.

“I’m an East End kid. My Mom and Dad lived four blocks away from where I live now.

After high school, the road was my calling.

The turning point was seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show (February 9, 1964).

Turning nine just a week before, I remember it like Yesterday, pardon the pun. I remember the insanity in school the next day. All the kids talked about the Beatles. Boys combed their hair like the Fab Four. Girls were aquiver. It was an instantaneous explosion of joy. The band was having a good time, the audience was having a good time, everybody was smiling and ecstatic. I think I got caught up in the ball of energy.”

Andy picked up his first guitar in grade six. “I took some lessons. My albatross is I am very impatient. I just wanted to play what I was hearing on the radio, and my teacher was teaching me cowboy tunes like Down in the Valley,” he laughed. “I started getting together with two buddies from St. Joe’s. In seventh grade, we met Mark Rashotte and put the band together.” Three of the four still play together regularly on special occasions.

“

I made some CDs of original music and got to work with the Friendly Giant. A beautiful man, a guest on one of my CDs.

”

“Throughout elementary and high school, we had lots of opportunities to play in front of live, breathing people. We got our 10,000 hours in, so to speak. After high school, we had the big decision: what are we going to do? We decided to travel across Canada and be rock stars. We bought a used Econoline van and turned pro in Summer ‘74.”

Road warriors for the next 10 and a half years, they criss-crossed Ontario and Quebec ad infinitum, with extended tours throughout the east coast, including New York State, and then west through the Rockies. When they got scouted seriously, they showcased in New York City (1979) getting close to their dream. They had a lot of names, eventually settling on Photograph, signing a one-year contract with Capital Records’ Parlophone label (the same as the Beatles) in 1980, releasing an album a year later. Photograph scored a coast-to-coast hit called Last Dance.

Then the bottom fell out in 1984.

“We worked so hard to the point of being signed, playing cool gigs. When Capital didn’t

“

Music gives me joy. My parents loved music. We had it in the house all the time.

We had a fantastic record collection.

”

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renew, we were heartbroken.

Then the gigs started going backwards. We played places we thought we’d never play again.

After the band broke, I just could not give it up.”

For a year he ran a daycare service from home because his wife Barb had a job at the hospital. He figured if he was to be home with two kids, he could look after some of the neighbourhood’s kids.

Neighbours were saying, “Hey Andy is looking after kids,” and he ended up having six kids a day, calling it Mr. Mom. “It was fun. I played for the kids, and we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I got into children’s music, In the late ’80s and early ’90s, there was a big market in school assemblies and libraries and private parties. I still do festivals and schools, touring Southern Ontario. I made some CDs of original music and got to work with the Friendly Giant. A beautiful man, a guest on one of my CDs.” In 1999, Andy and Mark formed All You Need is Love - a celebration of the Beatles; it started as a one-off charity event for a women’s shelter. The project had legs. Twenty years later, they’re keeping their rock mojo going internationally.

This electrifying showman, not surprisingly, has bought his talent to the third demographic of the trifecta - seniors. Here is where Andy Forgie, the sweet guy, flowers.

“Of everything I’ve done, I’m most proud of the 23 years of doing musical therapy. It started by being a children’s entertainer and then a local nursing home invited me to pop over and play.

The people running it had a vision. They asked me to do this weekly in the cognitive disability ward, and then another nursing home called. Now, I have six or more I do regularly. I walk into the special unit and play for people and their loved ones. I started with songs from the ’30s

and ’40s. But the math of it now is, I am doing more ’60s and ’70s music because of Baby Boomers.”

The therapeutic effect is staggering.

“With memory loss, they can’t remember what they had for breakfast, but they can remember words to songs they danced to long ago. They are lethargic when I get there, and they hear the music and suddenly they are alive and singing and dancing.

For a brief window in their day, they are young again. Regardless of your generation, it’s about the songs of your teens and 20s that never leave you.”

Chicken or the egg. Has Andy’s life been all about music because he is joyful, or is he joyful because he has always been about music?

“Music gives me joy. My parents loved music. We had it in the house all the time. We North Star has earned an enviable reputation had a fantastic record collection. for producing high-quality and energy efficient Before the Beatles, I was listening windows and doors.GUARANTEE THAT A QUALITY to the soundtracks of Porgy and Bess and West Side Story and Tested and certified by both the Canadian Standards singers my parents loved, like Association and American Architectural Manufacturers NorthStar Starall has earned reputation fornot producing North has anenviable enviable reputation for producing Perry Como. I would sing in Association, ofearned North an Star’s windows and doors high-quality and energy effi cient windows and doors. my swing set. After seeing the high-quality and energy efficient windows doors. only meet or exceed all industry standards, theyand meet Testedand andcertifi certified ed by both the Canadian Standards Association Beatles on television, I would Tested by both the Canadian Standards Association our own high standards.

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And we back them with pretending to be John spread a transferable, limited lifetime warranty to prove it. a transferable, limited lifetime warranty to prove it. legged or Paul knock-kneed. The QUALITY WINDOWS & DOORS first time I sang publically was in GREAT SERVICE. EXCEPTIONAL VALUE. QUALITY WINDOWS & DOORS DEALER grade school class. I sang I Want GREAT SERVICE. EXCEPTIONAL VALUE. DEALER INFORMATION 13 LOYALIST DR. to Hold your Hand, doing all the INFORMATION BRIGHTON sounds with my mouth.”

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was very nice.” Andy knew he had to say something to Paul, and said, “I will never forget when you were on the Ed Sullivan Show.” There was silence and Andy thought Paul didn’t want to talk about that, because by now he was with Wings. “I thought I’d stepped in it, then Paul replied, ‘I will never forget it, either.’ Yes, the eagle 30

has landed. We connected!”

To anyone who has ever seen Andy, he is the personification of joy.

“In a rock band, I learned how to win a crowd over, but it was playing for children where the joy kicked in. Playing for kids, seniors, or my peers, this is who I am. It is not an act. With children’s stuff, suddenly it

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2019

wasn’t entertainment for entertainment sake; it became something else and morphed into musical therapy. Now it morphs when I play in a rock band because I am comfortable in my own skin. I remember my Dad talking about Al Jolson, about leaving it all on stage, as in You Ain’ t Seen Nothin’ yet.’”

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to Andy. It’s who he is, whether he is sitting with an interviewer or performing British Invasion songs on stage at Westben. He is so comfortable, equally happy playing music or telling a story. He wears kindness on his sleeve and is joy itself.

“What appeals to me when performing for kids, is their reaction, uninhibited, innocent.

I realized I didn’t have to talk to just kids. I could say things to other age groups. Same on the other side of the rainbow, with folks in seniors’ homes. It’s pure. When we’re young, we’re fearless. We will do almost anything and not think about it, just do. Older, you get more disciplined and self-conscious.

32

Suddenly, you cross the bridge again and you go, ‘Yeah I can do this.’”

Andy draws his heroes into a thoughtful moment.

“There is something truly wonderful inside the Beatles’ music, how all the notes fall together. I’m so happy growing up when it was happening.”

Andy Forgie’s magnetism stems from having reached a place not everyone can claim - embracing oneself.

“This is who I am. To me, music is a gift, what I’m supposed to do. Music is always with me.

I wouldn’t have known what else to do. I go from an intimate setting playing for kids or

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2019

seniors to a full rock-out band. I love it all.”

As for aging gracefully, “I guess age evens all things out. Age is a wonderful thing. When you’ re young, there is competition. You put more pressure on yourself. Today, there is no pressure. I really am comfortable in my own home. I don’t want a whole lot of stuff. I would never give up the musical therapy. It is the one thing that makes me feel I am leaving my mark. I just want to stay reasonably healthy to enjoy my grandchildren and perform my music.”

“I reached a point when I realized I like me, who I am, and what I do. I like my life.”

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Trenton Town Hall 1861 Story by Lindi Pierce Photography by Daniel Vaughan Vintage images courtesy Trent Port Historical Society

“A farmer and his wife were passing by in their horse-drawn wagon, on the way to market with a load of farm produce. Speculating that my mother might have gone to market herself, they took me onto their wagon. We clopped off to market while the farm wife tried to comfort me with soothing words. But I was not to be comforted so easily.

The market was jammed with people. Farm wagons piled with bright orange pumpkins, yellow onions and brown potatoes were backed up at the market square. Puppies in cages awaited buyers. Chickens squawked in other cages. A big blue policeman with shining buttons strolled through the mob of townspeople…”

Reaching for the Beaufort Sea, Al Purdy, 1993. Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, B.C. Used with permission.

This recollection from the pen of Al Purdy, one of Canada’s most beloved poets, describes his experience as a small lost boy, when Trenton’s town hall and marketplace were the beating heart of his community.

Trenton almost lost its iconic first town hall.

By 1968, after years of neglect, the building was slated for demolition for parking lot expansion. The hall stood empty and vandalized, pigeons entering freely through broken windows. At an Ontario Municipal Board hearing considering the building’s fate, a descendent of the Honourable Robert Charles Wilkins (1782-1866), who donated the land for the hall, made a successful appeal.

The rest, as they say, is history. Lots of history. Mayor and Council gave their blessing to the newly formed Trent Port Historical Society (TPHS), sprung into being expressly to advocate for the hall’s preservation. The group took on the challenge of the proposals, permits, and reports required, raised funds from individuals, small business, and corporate donors, and stepped forward to help with

the physical work of the restoration project.

Trenton Town Hall, the 1861 version, not the modern glass structure on the waterfront, is not just a historical remnant of the days when Trenton was at its peak.

Busy Trentonians may not fully appreciate the treasure that is the first Trenton Town Hall, but there’s something about it. It is a dignified island in a sea of parked cars. The city fathers (Trenton was a village in 1861) went all out to engage as Kivas Tully, a prominent Toronto architect responsible for such impressive public buildings as Old Trinity College and Victoria Hall in Cobourg, to announce the importance of Trenton to its citizens and the wider world. The 1861 Town Hall was designated in 1983 under Ontario Heritage Act as “a building of architectural and historical interest.”

The building was designed in the classical revival style popular for mid-nineteenth public buildings, like nearby Napanee Town Hall and Picton Court House. Forms and trims based on those discovered in Greek and Roman buildings lent dignity and authority.

White marble columns of Greek temples

were suggested by white-painted flat-tothe-wall pilasters and corner boards; the white trims stand out against the limestone walls. The gable ends boasted a triangular pediment emulating ancient temples.

The first Trenton town hall was a multiuse facility like many contemporaries, housing the town hall, municipal offices, farmers’ market, and lock-up. Over time, as municipal services expanded, functions

A belfry boasted a clock by which citizens set their watches, and awning roofs projecting from the stone walls sheltered farmers and customers on market days.

Butcher shops and weigh scales occupied the south end of the building, and market days operated at the site until 1981, when Quinte West Farmers’ Market opened along the river. An archival photo shows a fire hose tower at the southeast corner. In

evolved into specialized quarters. Trenton’s main police station remained at the building’s King Street entrance until 1985; five cells still exist there.

early years the building served as drill hall and armoury, and housed band practices, a temperance society (1864), a Murray township Agricultural Society exhibition

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Newspaper accounts from 1995 recall the huge efforts made to return the market building to as near original as possible, respecting 1881 carpentry techniques used in the timber frame barn construction.

Old photos helped, as many elements had been removed over the intervening century. Exterior wood trims were repaired or reproduced; exact copies of the

of lumber.

Rear additions were removed, including a mid-century addition built using stone from the early house of merchant and mill owner Myers. TPHS President Deborah Chouinard recalls working in the building in 1973. She recalls the confusion when she re-entered years later to find the addition she’d worked in, created when the old market awnings were enclosed, had

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1861 exterior eared window trims and 32 new sash windows were built onsite. The 30-foot-tall pilasters were also reproduced at the site, each consuming 200 board feet

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disappeared. Upstairs, vigorous spadework removed evidence of the pigeons’ occupancy. Part of the auditorium’s original tin ceiling was salvaged and used COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2019

37

in the lobby and stairwell.

Attractive signage invites the curious. It’s The restoration was accomplished totally a history-lover’s delight: the building itself, through fundraising. A card presented to the restored interior, the historic displays donors featured a historic rendering of the and resources, and the enthusiastic and hall, an old square nail, and the words, “I knowledgeable volunteers. Even the modern supported the restoration of Trenton’s Town washrooms are a treasure-trove, walls Hall (1861).” adorned with handwritten quotes from local The official name is Trenton Town newspapers: about circus elephants refusing Hall 1861: Heritage and Cultural Centre. the covered bridge and swimming the Trent.

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Or Canadian Press rescinding a report of four deaths, discovered to have been a movie shoot.

The museum features eight regularly changed display cases filled with artifacts, newspaper clippings, and photos, arranged by theme. Interpretive panels share the Hollywood North story, when Trenton was home to a silent movie industry producing

over 1,500 silent films from 1917 to 1934.

Drawers of photos and postcards line the research room walls. Artifacts tell the community’s story: an ornate wicker pram produced at Lloyd’s Baby Carriage Factory, a panoramic photo showing both Canadian National Railway (CNR) and Grand Trunk stations, the CNR roundhouse, and the massive white frame Hotel Tunnicliffe, gone

by1920. A chunky mother of pearl shell with neatly punched out disks is a relic of production at the Canadian Pearl Button factory. A First World War era patchwork quilt of serviceable dark wool, embroidered 1916, and a Depression era quilt, patched from pieces of floral printed flour sacks provided by companies who realized impoverished wives were using the bags to sew clothing,

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and details about the event being portrayed. relate our history through textiles.

Like most small museums, TPHS faces the The bright amateur paintings of Ila Jordan, who preserved Trenton’s homes, schools, challenges of documentation, and artifact businesses, and everyday life enliven many preservation, handling, and storage. Climatedisplay cases. An embroidery sampler by controlled storage is a dream. For the 14-year-old Elisabeth Steavens in 1841 and moment, just having enough shelves would the Queen Victoria chair, a tortuously carved be wonderful.

“Most non-profits struggle, history ones mahogany chair adorned with coronet and gryphons, once a gift to all Canadian senators, more so…” Society membership ($20 individual, $30 family) tends to be small, invite inspection.

The enthusiasm and hard work of volunteers workers even fewer. A core group of about makes the museum run. Deborah talks about eight people shares the load. “It’s vital to the museum’s mandate and challenges. The collect our history, but there are few with centre’s job is to collect, preserve, and display the passion. As people get older, we get it. the history of Trenton and the wider Quinte There’s always so much to learn about what West area. “Everything we have was donated went on in the past, and we want to save by a Trenton family or business.” Dorothy it for the future.” Membership provides a James, one of TPHS founding members, built-in audience for talks, tours, films, and donated a huge private collection. Photos historically themed fundraising events.

Connie Beal is the energetic TPHS are so informative; Deborah stresses the importance of providing names on photos, historian, and researcher for the Society’s

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hugely popular (4,000 followers) Facebook site. Her enthusiastic tours are a treat. Gillian Milligan, Society treasurer, created displays for Doors Open in September, while Wendy Ouellette, board member and Doors Open coordinator, organized the speakers.

The theme for the museum’s third Doors Open event, attracting 300 visitors, was the Gilmour Lumber plant. Deborah explains the industrial driver of early Trenton: “We exist because of them.” Author Donald Galna signed copies of a new book about David Gilmour, and popular local documentary filmmaker Sean Scally debuted his film Lumber Baron: The Gilmour Years to packed houses.

The TPHS is currently working on a plaque project supported by the Hastings County Historical Society. Plaques will commemorate pioneer Mary Bleecker’s ferry on the Trent River, industry giant Gilmour Lumber, and

the Central Bridge shipyard which built over 100 tugs during the Second World War. “So many people don’t know (or care) about their history. Do they know about Trenton’s shipbuilding industry, the British Chemical Company’s dynamite works, the lumbering and milling days, the railroad history, the film industry, the early businesses? There’s so much history in one little town,” sighs Deborah. She quotes a line from Michael Libling’s just-released Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels.

“Every town has its history.

Every town has its secrets.

Trenton’s secret is its history.”

At 55 King Street, Trenton, many of those secrets are waiting to be revealed.

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The remarkable life of

Jennie Creighton Woolworth Story by Peter Lockyer Photos courtesy woolworthmuseum.co.uk Eliza Jane Creighton was born in 1850 in a log cabin overlooking the shoreline of Prince Edward County, Ontario. The granddaughter of Irish immigrants seeking a new life in a new land, she attended the school at Bongard’s Crossroads and the nearby St. John’s Anglican Church in Waupoos.

During her era, life was short, hard, and a perpetual struggle. On average, people lived less than 50 years – and it could be even less for women who often died in childbirth. So many families experienced loss that two other County residents, Katie and

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Maggie Fox of Consecon, achieved fame in the United States in the 1850s as founders of the American spiritualist movement charging $150 a night for their convincing performances that supposedly connected the living with the dead.

Eliza Jane’s life was also destined for something greater. Her fortunes changed forever in 1869 when the teenager ventured to stay with relatives in Watertown, New York while taking a dressmaking course. Through a chance encounter, Eliza Jane met a young store clerk named Frank Woolworth.

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History is uncertain about just how the couple met. One version of the story states they were introduced when Eliza Jane was sent to a local store to buy a spool of thread.

Another says she occasionally worked at the same store, Augsbury and Moore Dry Goods, and was hired by his family to nurse a frail Frank back to health after he was fired and

spotted in a store window. But their efforts to purchase the item for the 50 cents in change they had saved drew scorn from the shop’s clerks. It was a formative experience Frank never forgot. He took a bookkeeping course in the town riding back to the farm after night classes. His hard work and bookkeeping skills landed him a job in Watertown as an

family farmhouse parlour. When his health recovered, he got his old job back and showed a new talent for displays and managing stock inventories. When a recession struck the U.S. economy in 1877, leaving his employer with surplus unsold stock, Frank suggested a sale of five-cent items. Everything sold out.

In 1879, the young couple approached

suffered nervous exhaustion. However, they met, the event changed both their lives.

Frank Winfield Woolworth (1852 – 1919) was one of two sons born on a farm in New York State. He and his brother Charles helped with chores before and after school. Frank left school at 16 to work on the farm, but he had little interest in it.

He once visited Watertown with his brother to buy a gift for their mother – a scarf they

apprentice clerk at the dry goods store. He worked the first three months for room and board. At the start of the fourth month, he took home $3.50 per week. From all reports, he wasn’t particularly good at the job – a shy, awkward farm boy unaccustomed to dealing with store clients.

Marriage to Jennie, as he fondly called her, seemed to be the tonic Frank needed, and in June 1876, the two were married in the

family members to finance a five and dime store in Utica, New York. That store struggled and soon closed. But a second F.W. Woolworth Great Five Cent Store opened on June 21, 1879 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with gross sales of $127.65, one quarter of their entire stock. Within a few weeks, they opened a second store in nearby Harrisburg managed

by Frank’s brother Charles. Over the next 25 years, the family established stores across the

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United States and Canada. By 1900, they had over 1,000.

They often hired family members to run their stores. Jennie’s sister, Mary Ann Creighton, was the first woman manager of a Woolworth store in charge of the Poughkeepsie outlet.

She was so successful she was promoted to manage the company’s first store in New York

business people. They established the Friendly Rival Syndicate, a buying consortium with five other independent chains that lowered costs while adding diversity to product lines.

Woolworths began selling candy, books, sheet music, and novelty items imported from Europe in addition to their line of household wares. The consortium later merged under

a massive summer place on Long Island.

Frank was busier than ever running his retail empire expanding into the United Kingdom in 1909. Within five years, the British division of Woolworths – known affectionately as Woolies - operated 44 stores. In 1913, he completed the construction of what was then the world’s tallest building – The Woolworth

City with over 150 staff. She sold 50,000 items on her first day at work. Jennie’s brothers, Thomas and Allen, opened branch stores in Connecticut. Frank’s executive assistant was another Creighton, Henrietta.

Family control ensured stores maintained company standards and profits. Relatives and employees were encouraged to buy shares in the firm to capitalize its expansion efforts.

And the Woolworths were also shrewd

the Woolworth umbrella with a company stock offering that raised $65 million for the syndicate founders.

In the early years, Jennie raised her three children – Edna, Helena, and Barbara -within Woolworth stores tucking her sleeping infants into counter drawers. As the girls grew older, she withdrew from the business into the comfort of her luxurious homes – a mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York and

Building in New York – at a cost of $13 million bankrolled entirely from his own pockets. When it opened, every inch of the place was rented out to some of the most prestigious U.S. companies. Even postcards of the place were hot sellers. They sold one million of them.

Although he showered his daughters with elaborate gifts when he was home, Frank was no longer home very often. Jennie

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confided to friends that she had been much happier when they were poor. As they grew older, their girls lived unsettled lives. Edna was unhappily married and committed suicide. Her four-year-old daughter, Barbara Hutton, who discovered her mother’s body, later squandered her $500 million dollar inheritance over the course of seven marriages including her marriage to movie star Cary Grant.

It could also explain why there are no pictures of the couple together, although family lore also suggested that Jennie hated having her picture taken and refused to have photographs displayed. Only three images of Jennie exist as a young person, in middle age, and as an older woman.

By 1916, Jennie Creighton withdrew even further into a private world - a victim of dementia, a tragic disease sometimes known as “the living death.” Talk of her hometown of Prince Edward County seemed to animate her. Although the community had less than one-third of the population required for a Woolworth store, Frank opened a Woolworths on Picton’s Main Street In 1915 hoping the business would restore her health.

The store “opened for love” lasted only five years. When Frank died in 1919, tight-fisted

company officials closed the unprofitable Picton store the following year. According to the new management team, the best way to honour Frank’s memory was to maintain a profitable business providing the highest returns to shareholders.

Jennie Creighton Woolworth lived in her silent world until her death in 1924 at age 74 when she was re-united with Frank in the family mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York. The couple was spared the turbulent years to come – the Depression, wars, and changing times. In the late 1930s, Woolworth stores in the United States were staggered by staff strikes protesting low pay, long hours, and the company’s restrictive policies. Loyalty was prized and could be rewarded with a slow rise from starter jobs to management positions. Many employees were women. Marriage and children spelled the end of their working career at Woolworths.

New federal legislation in the United States raised minimum wages, encouraged collective bargaining, and empowered trade unions.

Woolworths was a retail phenomenon forged from another time. In March 1937, photos of protesting staff laying on countertops in company stores were splashed across American newspapers. To meet worker

demands for more pay, Woolworths granted higher wages, but cut staff, and introduced self-service to maintain profits.

By the 1990s, the company Frank and Jennie founded had abandoned its roots in the United States. One hundred stores became part of the Walmart chain while others were re-packaged as Footlocker Inc., Bargain Shops, or other brands. During the 2008 global recession, its U.K. division closed 815 stores and dismissed 27,000 employees collapsing under a mountain of debt that successive government bailouts could not resolve.

In the 1900s, the Woolworth empire was a dynamic, innovative business focused on meeting the thrifty shopping habits of consumers and driven by the imagination and hard work of its founders. It was a remarkable retail success that began as a love story between two people of very modest origins.

Today, there are few traces of the founders or their business.

Amid the collection of the Macaulay Heritage Museum in Picton there is a small, silver thimble – a donated gift from the Creighton family once used by Jennie Creighton Woolworth during her days as a seamstress.

FINE HOMES SHOWCASE MILFORD WATERFRONT To advertise within the Fine Homes Real Estate section of the County and Quinte Living magazine, call 613-966-2034.

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signposts Milford

Story by Lindi Pierce Photography by Daniel Vaughan

“There is positively no case of Malaria, Miasmatic Poisoning, Intermittent Fever, or Fever and Ague, that one bottle of Ague Conqueror will not permanently cure…” reads the claim on an early advertising postcard.

This potion and other wonders were once advertised by McKibbon and Knox, Milford, Ontario. McKibbon’s store was just one of the flourishing businesses in the 19th century in this hamlet in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County.

Milford was once a bustling commercial and municipal centre, the big city for rural folks along Royal Street, old Milford Road, and South Bay. The wheels of commerce may have slowed, but life is still full, as a browse through the South Marysburgh Mirror online newspaper will attest.

Today’s migration of urbanites to the area’s quiet charm represents another season in the life of this historic place.

A barn mural of early Milford, and an online walking tour recount its story.

Brick homes on a leafy back street maintain their heritage character, while aging commercial structures show how things were – and might be again. A remodelled historic village hall, modern fire hall, post office, library and a bakery/variety store serve the Milford community.

Milford has a great future, but Milford also has a past.

countyandquinteliving.com

Milford is named for the mills which once straddled Black River. Only the vestigial Scott’s mill remains, near the bucolic millpond. The sawmills served the logging industry which harvested the south part of the county. Tall pines were felled for ship masts, dragged along the Mast Road to Black Creek, and floated to Montreal for export.

Fishing boats and schooners built in the village were hauled down Black River, deeper then.

These were the days when temperance forces had to rise up to combat drunkenness and rowdiness among loggers and shipbuilders.

The rich farmlands of South Marysburgh created wealth during the Barley Days, growing large homes, flourishing hotels, and stores. Their few descendants are the Hicks General Store, closed in recent years, and the Minaker Garage, still hard at work.

Milford is beloved locally for its traditional Fall Fair, one of very few still operating in Ontario. The Italianate brick church on the hill, the 1867 Wesleyan-Methodist Church, has evolved since 1985 into a dynamic community theatre venue. Mount Tabor Community Playhouse and the nearby Port Milford music camp represent Milford’s new direction as a tourism destination and arts and culture hub.

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2019

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S a i ta rg ’s G r av i ta s Q u o t i e n T Gravitas Quotient is a measure of o n e ’s r e s e r v e s o f i n n e r w i s d o m .

About Sarah

Signed to Atlantic/Warner Records at 19, three-time Juno nominee and modern-day Renaissance woman Sarah Slean has released 11 albums. She has also published two volumes of poetry, starred in short films and a movie musical, written two string quartets, held numerous exhibits of her paintings, and shared the stage with many of Canada’s professional orchestras. Classically trained, she routinely collaborates with contemporary classical ensembles like The Art of Time and has been invited to sing world premieres by Canada’s leading living composers. Citing such diverse influences as Leonard Bernstein, Joni Mitchell, Buddhism, and Bach, her music borrows aspects of cabaret, rock, pop, and orchestral. The CBC has described her voice as a 19th century Kate Bush. Metaphysics, her first recording in five years, is an amalgamation of Slean’s orchestral arranging and her signature take of songwriting. Time magazine called her, “one of the most compelling acts Canada has to offer.” She recently performed both as a painter and singer at a library fundraising event at the Hatch Gallery in Bloomfield.

She came to the County for a weekend years ago and fell in love. She returns often.

By Alan Gratias

Discover your Gravitas Quotient at www.gravitasthegame.com

Q&A

S a r a h S l e a n a n s w e r s 1 8 G r a v i ta s q u e s t i o n s w i t h A l a n G r at i a s

Name one universal rule of friendship?

Forgiveness.

What are you going to do about growing old?

Enjoy every minute.

What makes your heart stand still?

True art.

If you knew the truth, how would you reveal it?

Softly.

We all hope there will be one more time. One more time for what?

That kiss on a balcony in Paris with the English epidemiologist.

What do you wish your mother understood about you?

No one gets me like my Mom gets me!

If you were going to launch a new prohibition, what would you outlaw?

Manufacturing anything that is poisonous to the environment.

How would you like to rewire your brain?

I was happy with my pre-iPhone brain; I’d go back to that.

If you were to ask for divine intervention, what would it be for?

Mercy for those who need it.

What are you fatally attracted to?

Trying to do it all!

Why do we sometimes crave chaos?

Because we know we’re part of something much larger than ourselves.

How do you stay clear of the rocks and shoals?

City living sort of does that for me.

When they say, ‘follow the fear,’ what fear are you following?

The fear that is so close to excitement you can’t quite tell the two apart. Which is stage fright, in a nutshell.

Why should we hang onto our illusions?

Because they contain seeds of dreams. And imagination is EVERYTHING!

Photo by RICK MATTHEWS

When do reality and fantasy merge?

ALL. THE. TIME. How do we get to the authentic self?

Stumbling through life whilst earnestly seeking it.

What is your favourite recipe for unhappiness?

Expecting someone to change who has no desire to.

What takes you down the rabbit hole?

Opera on YouTube. Lord help me!

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