Jan and I headed out yesterday for a pleasant drive to go wherever the car takes us. We need this sort of break now and then, when the pressure of history research builds up. Retirement, we have learned, is not for children.
Strangely enough, the car pulled over and stopped at an antique store. We obediently went in to see what was on offer. The store was absolutely packed with every type of object you could think of - and some that you could not think of. The only things missing were customers. (We were only browsers.) There were no aisles; there were only slight openings through which one could squeeze, being careful not to allow the static electricity to pull the artifacts off their purchase on other artifacts.
I talked to the owner while Jan cased the store. He was a clever interviewer. In no time he had extracted the information from me that we were involved in research about Blyth. At the mention of Blyth, he announced that he had a picture of some Blyth people. He had no idea where it was, but every once in a while he comes on it and thinks that he should set it out in case someone from Blyth shows up - but, alas, the picture disappears again. Here is someone from Blyth standing in from of him and - where is that picture? There followed a trek through the store. About every three feet, there would be a bunch of framed pictures leaning against a piece of furniture, a trunk, or some other solid object He would flip through these pictures very quickly, and then move on to the next. This went on for some time until I was convinced that I was never going to see the evasive picture. Suddenly an exclamation. Eureka!
I suddenly became a customer and we brought the picture home with us. It is now part of the Repository of Blyth History.
It's a framed picture of children aged from about 5 to mid teens, all dressed in their best, girls all in white dresses many wearing large white bows at the nape, boys in suits. It's probably marking the occasion of a confirmation ceremony at a church. The only indication of Blyth was in the name of the photographer stamped on the corner: "Baxter McArter - Photographer Blyth, Ontario".
I will post this picture here in case some one out there might be able to identify some of the people in the picture and the oaccasion and perhaps determine the time period.
Strangely enough, the car pulled over and stopped at an antique store. We obediently went in to see what was on offer. The store was absolutely packed with every type of object you could think of - and some that you could not think of. The only things missing were customers. (We were only browsers.) There were no aisles; there were only slight openings through which one could squeeze, being careful not to allow the static electricity to pull the artifacts off their purchase on other artifacts.
I talked to the owner while Jan cased the store. He was a clever interviewer. In no time he had extracted the information from me that we were involved in research about Blyth. At the mention of Blyth, he announced that he had a picture of some Blyth people. He had no idea where it was, but every once in a while he comes on it and thinks that he should set it out in case someone from Blyth shows up - but, alas, the picture disappears again. Here is someone from Blyth standing in from of him and - where is that picture? There followed a trek through the store. About every three feet, there would be a bunch of framed pictures leaning against a piece of furniture, a trunk, or some other solid object He would flip through these pictures very quickly, and then move on to the next. This went on for some time until I was convinced that I was never going to see the evasive picture. Suddenly an exclamation. Eureka!
I suddenly became a customer and we brought the picture home with us. It is now part of the Repository of Blyth History.
It's a framed picture of children aged from about 5 to mid teens, all dressed in their best, girls all in white dresses many wearing large white bows at the nape, boys in suits. It's probably marking the occasion of a confirmation ceremony at a church. The only indication of Blyth was in the name of the photographer stamped on the corner: "Baxter McArter - Photographer Blyth, Ontario".
I will post this picture here in case some one out there might be able to identify some of the people in the picture and the oaccasion and perhaps determine the time period.
But apart from that, Jan came up with the idea of creating a Baxter McArter Gallery. We have many of his portraits and we know that there are hundreds of other out there.
Why not? All we need is someone to call a meeting and ... well, perhaps you can decide how to get this project going.
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