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Pastimes,
Recreation, Fun at Work and Music
Some
Regional and Contextual Background Information
We had a great
time last night. Ashley expected Tommy Oxley and Harry Pring to come and give us
a concert. Harold and Jenny came over, and Aunt Annie and Frances Stobo were
here. I was putting Margaret to bed when we heard the drums beating. We rushed
to the window and here were those two silly fellows marching down the
Kingston Road
each beating a drum. They brought two drums and the bells, and we had some
splendid music, with Papa on the fiddle and Tommy and I taking turns at the
piano. He is a fine musician. Needless to say, Margaret didn’t get to bed
early.
Ruth
McCowan Letters, May 1 1917
The apple crop
is a failure, the majority of our trees haven’t an apple on them. The other
fruit has been plentiful. Papa is going out to New Liskeard and Cochrane to
judge the standing grain. Hasn’t he had some dandy trips this summer? Lockie
Wilson asked him to make him a sheaf for the Ex, so he told me if I would help
him, he would give Mamma and me the money he got for it. We are going to take
him up on it and show off some of our artistic ability. He stood third with his
oat field this year.
Ruth
McCowan Letters, August 11 1918
We got the
prize for our sheaf and the grain as well. They are being sent down to Ottawa
Fair next week. Aunt Jennie got first prize on socks and there were about twenty
pair against her.
Ruth
McCowan Letters, September 8 1918
We had a
raspberry patch and we kids used to sit on the side of the highway and sell
berries at 20 cents a quart. I was quite young at the time -- one customer
taught me how to count out change. One year we bought a lawn swing with the
profits and another year we bought a croquet set. We had many exciting games of
croquet on the front lawn. Sometimes, if there were friends visiting, we would
have sides and, if it got too dark before the game was over, we would tie white
cloths on the hoops so that we could see them.
My Dad, Harold,
loved to lawn bowl, curl and whistle. Once in a while he would break into song.
I think his favourite was:
“Oh it’s
nice to get up in the mornin’
When the sun begins to shine
But when the snow is snowin’
And it’s murky overhead
It’s nice to get up in the mornin’
But it’s nicer to lay in your bed.”
I clearly
recall our first radio. Mom’s Aunt Cynthia (Annis) and Uncle Alex Thom gave us
their set that had earphones. They were going to get a radio with a loud speaker
(it looked like a big horn on top of the radio). I must have been about six
(1926) because I used to sit and listen to Santa Claus with the earphones on.
Helen
McCowan Thomson, 1990
I heard a story
about Uncle Ashley once, and I believe it is true. When they finished building
the big barn on
McCowan Road
, Uncle Ashley climbed up to the top of it and hung from the hay-fork track. He
went hand-over-hand the full length of the barn. He would have been in his
mid-twenties at the time.
Bill
McCowan, 1990
Another happy
memory of Papa, my grandfather, was the way in which he would keep us busy in
the hay mow when we were quite young and just starting to help on the farm. He
would have us tramping the hay so that we could get more in the mow. He had a
phrase, “put your foot on that, Mr. Britton”. He would keep us working and
he always had some little thing to say that made work seem like fun.
Walter
McCowan, 1993, in Fairs and Frolics: Scottish Communities at Work and Play
Exercises
Individual Exercises:
Refer to the Photograph of the McCowan Barn
1)
Using the photograph of the barn as a resource, write a 100 word paragraph about
how you think the barn was built. What tools were used? What do you think was
the critical ingredient to get the job done?
2) How long do
you think it took to erect just the frame of the McCowan barn? Perform some
calculations.
The
Scarboro Heights Record V14 #7
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