Truly, one can spend a whole day at this village and still come away wanting to know more.

The  Menie General Store in Lang Pioneer Village has  a little bit of everything. The building also served as the local post office.

Are we also going that way with our super centres and one-stop shopping?

 

outside the General Store (1899)

 

 

Here  people of the community could purchase groceries, household items, gifts, toys, even lace. Probably much more. There was so much to see in this building.

Inside, the smiling faces of (l to r) Audrey and Danielle, ready to help a customer and tell them what they have on hand. (Click on photo if it doesn`t open right away)

 

 

 

 

The schoolhouse, where the children received their education (1880s–1950s). Families were mainly Scots, English and Irish in this representative community.

 

 

 

 

Here teacher and school guide, Hayley, teaches an actual lesson to children visiting the village. The teacher would write the lessons on the board and the children would write the answer on their slates. Strict discipline was meted out and parents tended to back up the teacher on punishment. The desks facing front blackboard were similar to my one-room school, only our picture of the Queen was here.

Interesting to see that it shows Queen Victoria’s family and not just Her Majesty by herself. And I remember having coloured chalk and single desks.
Then on to the blacksmith’s shop

 

 

Steve, the blacksmith, answering a question of a young boy about the coal used in the forge. Coal that was used in the blacksmith’s shop as well as in furnaces to heat people’s homes, a step beyond the fireplace or hearth  in the home.

 

Steve and his assistant, Joseph,  doing their work with hot metal. This place could get pretty hot. Would it be welcome on a cold winter day?

 

At S. W. Lowry Weaver’s Shop, we saw looms for making fabric and the guide, Marie, worked alongside her helpers, Hannah 1 and Hannah 2. I collected only first names after I got permission to take photos. This building was also known as Jacquard Loom Interpretive Centre.

 

Marie cutting strips of fabric for the girl’s braiding project.

 

 

Threads on the loom and a completed project.

 

 

 

This is the second place where the students share a name and interest. Hannah 1 and Hannah 2. They’re braiding a cord to sew on a purse they have woven. It will look pretty. Good work, girls.

 

 

Back to the hotel now for some tea and cookies. We got talking to a family who were seated at the long dining room table about what they liked best about the village. The weavery and blacksmith’s place were the young people’s favourite. We talked about the wide variance in teaching methods too and I said that the dunce cap was likely not very helpful, though perhaps some of their discipline might not be a bad thing.

Our tea and ginger cookies were delicious, by the way. Thank you, girls.

 

 

Here are the lovely young ladies, Sophie 1 and Sophie 2, who took our order, served us and posed in the dining room afterwards. As it turns out, Sophie 2, on the right, is connected to the Milburn Family somewhere back in her family line. Her mother is also a “friend” on Facebook. It’s a small world after all.

 

 

 

Glen Aida Methodist Church (1898)

A simple worship house on the outside

 

Inside the church. See the pump organ on the left? Not an extreme amount of detail added outside of woodwork, but what’s there served the congregation well. I don’t know if they had cloth banners for the seasons of the church year or altar cloths. Perhaps they did.

 

 

Douro Town Hall where council meetings would be held and voting.

 

 

And a commemoration of local authors, among them Susannah Moodie and Catherine Parr Trail who were also earlier immigrants, along with their husbands. Reminded me of the storytelling duo Carol Leigh Wehking and Glenna Janzen performing their version of the women’s stories awhile ago.

 

Another desk of the period inside the town hall.

 

 

We had covered most of the village by this point, except for the lumberman’s shanty and the mill, which I’ll save for the next post, lest this one become too long.

 

Photos by C. and L. Wilker.  Thank you to all guides and volunteers in the village who gave permission to have their photo taken so that I could post on my blog.