Let's talk about Santa Claus

First time visitors to our house during the Christmas season are usually interested in our decorations but it sometimes takes a while before they realize the extent of the Santa Claus figures theme. We’ve pared back considerably in the last 10 years, from about 250, with Mark and Paul being the recipient of many of the SC figures whether they wanted them or not. In fact, to circumvent Paul’s resistance, Jim gave the Santas to Rachel and Jillian rather than the parents. It’s fun for us to visit the two houses and see some old favourites on display. Even so, the only ornaments on our tree are Clauses and most of our other seasonal decorations are too.

So how did this Santa Claus thing come about? It’s a short/long story and for interest’s sake I am going to say it started in 1988. It might have been 1987, maybe even ’86, but ’88 makes it an even 30 years ago and justifies this post. Nan FitzGerald may remember the year since she started it all; the PEI Home Economics teachers were having a Christmas house tour fund-raiser event in whatever year it was and Nancy was organizing it or maybe president of the association, or both. In idle staff room chat about the event Nancy said they needed a “modest” house for the tour, to counterbalance Government House.

 

Our 1700sf house certainly fit the modest requirement but it was in an interesting waterfront location with an unusual-for-the-day wide open layout. Without any thought, or consulting Jim, I offered it and Nan said yes. We didn’t have a lot of notice or a clue what we were doing but dived in anyway.

We ordered up a 12 foot tree, not that easy to come by, and then I said, “we should have a theme”. We had picked up a couple of Santa Claus figures in our year in South Carolina, so decided that rustic/cottage/SC would be our thing. We were relatively broke but also relatively creative so we made a set of 4 Father Christmas’s out of scrap plywood and lucked into a package of biggish flat wooden ornaments at the old Eaton’s store on Kent Street. Two days before the event I decided we had to have something at the front door, so a purpose-bought piece of plywood turned into a 6’ Father Christmas in a big hurry, such a hurry that a week later we had to sand him down and re-varnish because he had begun to peel.

The house was a front split with a 4 foot drop to the living room from the entry, hence the 12 foot tree located at the bottom of the stairs with 

the upper half decorated from the upper hall. I don’t know if the house tour was a success but several hundred people trekked though our place, such that while we were having our wind-down beverage later, the tree crashed. Who knew that all that jarring as people came down the stairs would destabilize the balance of the not-tied-to-anything tree? We were SOOOO lucky it didn’t happen as ticket holders wandered about!

Naturally we carried on with the Santa theme over the years; we made more than a few for gifts and were given others in return. Santas also became something we looked for as we travelled. Storage of Christmas decorations was an issue as we shopped for houses and decorating became a party event with teams of friend and family assigned to different vignettes in the house and, of course, a competition where a team spokesperson had to sell their effort. In 1990, the first Christmas in our 2^nd house in Victoria, we brought a 9.5 foot tree home from Florida 2 days before the decorating party. The Customs Officer in Vancouver said “you’ve got a what, from where”?

Over the years we've hosted 2 more Christmas house tour fund-raisers and a lot more parties. There are so many stories to tell....!

a tree topper from Shoppers
 in Charlottetown, about 1987

salt-glazed pottery from Maine

Thailand!

front page pic of Jim advertising one of the house tours in Victoria

gift from Linda Bodine

ditzy SC from sister Bets

arts cards from Whitehorse

toy maker from Anne Snowden

a postman to honour Jim's
father and brother
and my grandfather

hand crafted trapper

Ho Ho Ho 2018

St Paul's

the unknown dome

January 4^th, 11 degrees outside and sunny in what, so far, has been a mild winter. At almost latitude 49 the days are short and, with our winter cloud/rain, some days are short and dark like yesterday when it seemed like night by 4:00pm. Instead of long evenings on the balcony or patio, we relish Christmas lights and events and celebrate December 21 when the earth seems to stand still and then move back toward the sun. Our 2018 Christmas “season” started in November with a 3 day jaunt to Vancouver. We had gorgeous weather and the city was well into decorations. I loved the Scandi theme decor at Nordstrom's and St. Paul's Hospital had a huge fund-raising display of stars (that little silhouette against the red is Jim). We weren't sure what the dome was for but it had a red carpet down the middle as though something was going to happen inside.

Then we did a quick flip (2^nd one in 6 weeks) back to the Maritimes for Paul’s 50^th birthday and took in the Father Christmas Festival in Mahone Bay as well as the annual Christmas party to light the Stars of Russell at Chez Griffith. 

birthday boy

 And on the home front there is always so much to do and see! We managed to get to the Santa Claus parade, Butchart Gardens, the tuba Christmas concert, the tree festival, the gingerbread competition, some theatre, went to a few parties, hosted 2 parties for groups we are associated with, and had 20 for Christmas dinner.

Where's Waldo?

Butchart Gardens

Tuba concert with 113 musicians

At almost the last minute I did a couple of shifts for the Salvation Army Red Kettle campaign, a very minor contribution to a worthy cause. Maybe it is different in other places but they were having trouble getting volunteers this year and donations were down. I did the early afternoon shift on December 21, prime time for the campaign, and there was no one on duty before or after me. That means the kettle is idle and no money. Christmas is a hot time for charities, especially food banks, Christmas hampers, refugees, homeless shelters and children’s programs; every one of them supporting vulnerable people. It can result in donor fatigue and with high expectations for a “Merry Christmas” everyone is stretched for cash. Yes, being on The Kettle can be boring and after a couple of hours of bell-ringing I was sore, but the SA is always on the front line in the worst places, no questions asked so it felt good to be there.

Me dressed for the +10 degrees I had to endure on the Kettle!

Regina 2 - the Ledge and Wascana

Well, scratching the surface of those topics.
Wascana is a not very old, large lake and park that also houses the provincial legislature, the museum, the art gallery, etc. "The Big Dig" took place in 2003-4 to dredge the lake down to deep from the hand dug version, employing 2000 men in a make-work project in the 1930s depression/desperation years, that created the lake from a creek. Another bunch of money got thrown at the infrastructure in 2014 when Regina hosted the Canada summer games. Regina is the only provincial capital not built on a water way, rather a railway intersection, but Wascana fills the gap nicely.

yes, it's a pelican!

The Albert Memorial Bridge that spans Wascana Creek was another depression era relief project. King Tut's tomb had recently been discovered and all things Egyptian were in style, explaining the bridge design. The bridge is about 250 meters long to span the 20 meter creek and cost more than double the budget estimate. Hmmmm. Sounds familiar.

Kelly was our guide in the Legislature as visitors are not let loose on their own anymore. It is a gorgeous building with 34 types of marble and the chamber built for twice as many legislators as there are. Premier of the day Walter Scott, seriously, imagined the Regina and Saskatchewan of the future as grand and important and built accordingly.

marble from Cyprus

 

In the basement of the Ledge, there is an art gallery and the current exhibit blew me away. Wow, wow, wow. It is a large body of work with both large and small pieces, some are hands but the majority are Roughrider fans. But the skill.....!

self portrait, Belinda Kriek

And then there was the cafeteria, serving perogies that day. You would die if you ate this whole plate, we shared.

Regina 1

I don't care what the numbers say, Regina is bigger than Saskatoon.The Toon population must include every blade of grass and certainly they have counted the 30,000 U Sask students across the river. Regina feels like a city with the gravitas of the provincial capital and the business hub.
We've been here a week and have been exploring as usual.
Our first stop was the RCMP Heritage Centre adjacent to Depot Division, the training centre for every member of the RCMP. The date was Thursday, September 6, 2018 and at 3:00 on the parade ground we witnessed the installation of the first female commissioner, Brenda Lucki. Lucky were we to be there and we just kind of wandered over to a good spot, surrounded by red serge and invited guests!

bad cropping but you get the gist

We also may have solved the mystery of how Betsy's and my great uncle Jack got from the North West Mounted Police, to the Bloemfontein Constabulary in South Africa, to eventually be killed in WWI. I've always described him as a "rolling stone" but these story boards say, maybe not. It seems the NWMP were in demand as a well trained and disciplined force as are the RCMP now. 

Downtown Regina has a large public gathering space just off Victoria Park, City Square Plaza, with a couple of blocks of pedestrian only traffic radiating from it. It's going to have to be warmer than today's 6 degrees to get me to the farmers' market there tomorrow! Oh yeah, I brought long johns and a down vest!
All over the province we've been seeing laser cut metal art pieces for signs and decorative purposes.

at the RCMP Heritage Centre

a 3 layer one in City Square Plaza, Regina

a more traditional style, a HUGE grasshopper in Ogema

Moose Jaw

We only spent a few hours in MJ but it has a good feel.

outside Boston Pizza for pete's sake!

It was/is an important transportation hub with an intersection of the CN and CP railways and apparently used to have a direct link to Chicago.
We opted to do the Al Capone version of the tunnel tours for 50 minutes of 1920s fun. We weren't allowed to take photos because, of course, what goes on in the tunnels stays in the tunnels. Let me just say that a good bit of money had been spent on the interiors and effects, it's not a rinky-dink operation. Wiki: A network of underground tunnels connecting buildings in downtown Moose Jaw was constructed beginning around 1908 as an underground steam system that was abandoned. The tunnels were used to hide Chinese railway workers escaping persecution and entire families lived in the tunnels and worked at above-ground businesses in exchange for food and supplies. The tunnels became a hub of renewed activity in the 1920s for rum-running during Prohibition in the United States. Although no written or photographic proof exists of Al Capone's presence, several firsthand accounts from people in Moose Jaw who claim to have met him have been documented.

The downtown area seems well looked after and people are friendly and helpful. There appears to be a concerted beautification effort and sister B thought we needed a new garden ornament souvenir; as though our garden isn't already packed! But she's right, and you'll find these birds in our courtyard the next time you visit.

On High Street we found McIntyre Hall, named for our friend John's father who grew up in MJ and who sat on the Supreme Court of Canada for 10 years.

There are (I know the "are" is not grammatically correct but would you really say "is" and think it sounded right?) a significant number of murals in the downtown area, mostly historical and mostly well done. Also in MJ, and dear to Canadians is the home base of The Snowbirds as well as a NATO flight training centre. Lots of clear skies in Southern Sask resulted in the creation of RCAF Station Moose Jaw in 1940 and it is still Canada's primary military flight training centre.

Beyond the Battlefords

It's no distance from Toon Town (thank you Cam Culham!) to the Battlefords (Fort B, B, and North B) and we headed out on Tuesday morning. We rolled into North Battleford at lunchtime expecting to visit Fort Battleford. The National Parks website said it would be open on September 4 and we organized our time to fit that statement. We showed up on site to find locked doors and a phone number to call for deliveries. Clearly not for us. I wasn't feeling my diplomatic best and gave "buddy" a bit of a hard time on the phone. He called me "young lady" several times not knowing I was about to reach through the phone and rip his throat out. Apparently NPC had not told Fort Battleford they were supposed to be open on the 4th and all the summer staff were gone. Buddy came to the door eventually, apologetic, but he was the maintenance man, not a ranger or interpreter.
Another carload of 6 people arrived on our heels to the same answer. I will be writing to NPC!

Luckily there is a Western Development Museum in North Battleford, one of 4 in the province. These museums are really well done and this one includes an outdoor village of 30 buildings, an elevator, and a train station. The contents aren't very different from the WDM in Saskatoon which is all indoors but the village setting gave context to the artifacts in a different way. Thirteen of the buildings are original and others were purpose built. So much in these museums was part of our normal childhood. It is amusing to see familiar items deemed to be historic but Saskatchewan is very young. For example, the school room is pretty much exactly what my elementary school looked like. NOT the hair curling contraption! Good grief!!!

It was windy which seems to be a theme.
On the way to Moose Jaw the next morning we stopped in Unity to look for a probably non-existent photo studio where our friend Don Rowlatt worked as a teenager. Mention Saskatchewan to any group of people and I can guarantee that someone has lived here at some point. At least in a western group. We stopped in a café and asked the server who asked her boss and a table of local women. Guess what? One of the women remembered Don's family and the location of the studio, now a realty office. So we took a picture of course. Keep in mind, this was 60 years ago - what were the chances? Apparently excellent! And the three women had a lovely time reminiscing about the old days.