A Little Trip Down Memory Lane….

Posted On July 4, 2012

A couple of issues back we did a story on the old Stewart farmhouse, “Hillhurst” in Perth-Andover, and how the enterprising Stewart Sisters ran it as a tourist home back in the good old days.
 
We got a lot of comments on that piece, and in particular, lots of folks filled us in about the tennis courts and golf course.
 
The golf course was up behind where the Hotel Dieu sits today. Indeed, some of our readers, of, shall we say, a certain age told me that they played in the old greens and sand traps back when they were kids. There was even a skeet shooting range back there…Susan Murchison says that she and her friends were still able to throw rocks with the clay pigeon flinger that was still mounted.
 
I can’t imagine that being allowed to go on today, can you? Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen!
 
This is all overgrown now, of course, but you can still see clearings in which the undergrowth isn’t quite as thick and shrubby where the greens used to be.
 
The tennis courts were regulation clay, and were over on the Andover side of the river.
 
It strikes me as quite ironic and truly tragic that all of our small river valley communities used to be veritable boomtowns compared to the state of things today. Not only were there more thriving small businesses of all types, but there were many more opportunities to socialize or enjoy a local night out, and I don’t just mean Bingo games and benefit dances!
 
There was actual culture, by God!
 
We had theatres, music houses and bowling alleys. Real dinner and dance clubs that you dressed up to go out to!
 

All the regional communities enjoyed many benefits and connections from the easy to use and economical railway system that we used to have. It was really a loss to our sense of community and our social networking systems when the train system was dismantled. Everyone could travel anywhere…and you didn’t need a freaking gas guzzling and environmentally polluting car.
 
I must succumb to the need to digress a bit and have a wee rant here… But back in the early 20th century a number of US cities had a public transportation system that was functional, cheap, non-polluting and efficient: The Electric Trolley System.
 
Enter those psychopathic Robber Barons of the Fossil Fuel Industry.
 
How can you sell cars, gas and rubber tires if everyone is using this terrific public transport system?
 
Well, obviously, you can’t. So those fantastic Electric Trolleys were dismantled, destroyed and scrapped in all the cities, so we could all enjoy the so-called “luxury” of driving our own personal vehicles.
 
This was actually promoted as an advancement over public transportation.
 
Think about it: Not only does this sell more stuff to break down, it was also yet another clever way to separate people as well….and to further promote social and economic division.
 
Without the public transportation system, people who couldn’t afford cars to travel to work in became even poorer and more isolated, exactly the way that NBers without cars or sufficient gas money are trapped.
 
There were only a few trolley systems that escaped this fate.
 
Back to our trains, I remember Mom telling me about how everyone used to make quick train trips to neighboring villages to shop or simply visit around. And, as you will have noticed from our front page story, a return to the train system will open up our province, our economy and our lives in many fantastic ways.
 
Jerry Smyth grew up in these parts, and now lives in Nova Scotia. He sent us these marvelous photographs, a bit of local living history. He plans to donate the photos to the Perth Museum later this summer, which is a wonderful way to share our family histories with the community, and a terrific way to support our local museums.
 
Jerry says that of the Carlingford Bearcats, all the team members have passed on except for Jerry himself and his father, Norman Smyth.
Jerry asks if anyone can put names to those kids in the photograph of the pupils at the Carlingford School his mother took back when she was the teacher.
 
If you have photos and stories you’d like us to share with our readers, please send them to us!