Eagle Bay Comm. Assoc

Fall Activities for the Eagle Bay Community

By Cathy Wolf

While it has been a quiet month at the Eagle Bay Community Hall, plans are in the works for weekly groups to begin again at the Hall.

Our quilters are ready to start again September 14. They have a full roster for the fall. Inquiries about the group can be directed to Inez Jorgensen (250 675-4531). Crafters as well will be reconvening on Wednesdays starting September 16 and calls for pre-registration can be made to Dot Salter (250 675- 4531). The Garden Club will meet on September 10 at 10:00 am. Please call (250 675-2125) or email Carol Newton (theeagleshack@gmail.com) by September 8 if you are planning on attending. We are also excited to begin Spanish classes in September. Caleb Espinoza will be instructing and while the class is currently full, please contact Sallyanne Calver (250 675-3884) if you would like to be put on the waiting list. Also, if anyone is interested in signing up for water colour art classes, a tentative date of September 8th has been set with classes running for 6 weeks. Contact Sallyanne Calver (250 675- 3884) for more information.

Just a reminder that there are no drop-ins and protocols are in effect.

Fitness classes and darts are currently on hold. We will provide updates as we can, on our webpage. The children’s playgroup will be delayed until after the new year. We are also taking a careful look at our monthly coffeehouses and are connecting with other community organizations to see how they may be offered. Stay tuned and we will do all we can to have them back as soon as possible. We are looking for more information from provincial health and safety officials regarding how some of these events can be supported.

“Hamsters”, our local theatrical group, has also made the decision to postpone their yearly dinner theatre until May of 2021. Please watch for more information in the new year.

Board welcomes Tim Mascarenhas

This month we also want to welcome Tim Mascarenhas as a new director on the Board of the Community Association. Tim is proud to be part of the Eagle Bay Community. He is interested in keeping Eagle Bay a safe and engaging community that is welcoming to all. Tim sees many changes coming through the Revitalization Project at the Community Hall. He is excited to part of these efforts to bring neighbours and our community together.

While our new “normal” is still unfolding, we look forward to supporting community activities. We will continue to review and update hall protocols and keep you informed about community events.

All Kinds of Weird and Wonderful Stuff Part 2

Uncle Al Indigenous Basket - Photo credit: Jerre Paquette

by Jerre Paquette

Last month I promised to continue the story of Uncle Al McClelland and that it would include something of ghosts and his winning a battle with a broken cannon. But it turns out Al's story is far too complex and engaging and historical to get all that into this space--I can squeeze in something of the ghosts, but for the full story you will have to ask him in person while you're negotiating your next woodsy, "living edge" dining room table. He's quite the character!

It's likely true there are ghosts in Al and Vicky's rambling wood structure with its considerable museum-worthy artifacts throughout. That was the rumour that began with the claims of a young lad sharing his venture at Al's with his friends, and it persists to this day. No wonder! Once you visit Al's CUSTOM LOG FURNITURE and personal habitat, you'll know there are enough dark corners, cracks, ancient spaces, and locked rooms for many otherwise homeless ghosts. Al's penchant for whiling

away some of his busy time telling stoworld that would expand in ways he had ries of early Canadiana, provides the preno idea about at the time. cise fodder and environment for the Two years later, still a kid, he met ghostly. Trust me--but check it out for Phyllis Bomberry of the First Nations of yourself! the Grand River reserve, manager of a

Al is more than just a business man Tandy Leathercraft shop in Toronto and and custom furniture designer. He's a bit who, in 1969, became the winner of The of an historian too, with a personal histoTom Longboat Award as outstanding ry that links him to the Royal Ontario Canadian aboriginal athlete (https:// Museum, well-known indigenous leaden.wikipedia.org/wiki/ ers, and even the likes of Alexander Phyllis_Bomberry). Best (son of Dr. Charles Best, coThrough her, he became close to her discoverer with Dr. Frederick Banting entire family (members of the Iroquois of insulin). Such Nation), and from considerable influthem developed ence may be why much of his growing to this day Al is an awareness of the unbridled collector powerful traditions, and keeper of articulture, and art of the facts that beg to indigenous people. tell their stories. His growing fortune

Let's unpack did not end there. His Al's history a bit. father took him one

While attendday to the Royal Oning an Ontario tario Museum where Scout's Camp at he met Ed Rogers, age 12, he wanUncle Al’s Cabin Dining Room Table curator of the musedered off and got Photo credit: Jerre Paquette um. He reminds Al of irrevocably lost in the woods for two Sean Connery who you might recall as days and two nights. He vowed he would Harrison Ford's crusty old father in the never be that insecure or unprepared for last of the Indiana Jones movies. life again. Ed Rogers did not fail to notice Al's

He undertook to learn bush craft, esinterest in indigenous materials and took pecially (at first) how to make leather, him on as a kind of apprentice, challenghow to make a fire with two rocks and ing him again and again to become as keep food in your stomach--but that siminformed and as articulate as could be. ple start led him into an entirely different Ultimately, he suggested Al should get a university degree and pursue a career in the area, something Al did not really feel the desire or need to do. Nevertheless, his acquired and growing knowledge and his set of new values gained through the Bomberry family served him very well by the time he met (Continued on page 31)

Uncle Al’s Museum - Photo credit: Jerre Paquette

(Continued from page 30) up with Alexander Best in the late '60s. Alexander (better known as "Sandy") became Al's best friend and personal mentor. Sandy also had considerable money and a serious interest in indigenous artifacts, but he needed someone to hunt them down: He saw in Al an opportunity to combine resources, so established a cooperative arrangement with Al to exploit the fact that so many people were beginning to dispose of their grandparents' trunks full of historical artifacts. He invited Al to join him in searching for and acquiring as much as they could, thereby setting up one of Al's best business partnerships ever. This was the start of Al's life as a business man; his job in the partnership was to find the goods! He's still doing that today.

Al lights up when he recounts the moment that Ed Rogers, Sandy, and he were about to leave the Royal Ontario Museum to go for lunch when an elderly man, a retired doctor, and his greatgrandson suddenly approached them with a huge trunk full of Chief Sitting Bull's original garments that they no longer knew what to do with. What happened next is complicated. Of all that happened, Al's favourite memory is that he got to hold up Chief Sitting Bull's nowfamous war shirt, a particularly beautiful and emblematic garment.

There's so much more to Al's story, but it can't all be told here. Go visit Al, explore with him what he can build for you, and get him talking!

Al’s & Vicky’s unique Canadiana & Indigenous shop is about 3 km west of Blind Bay on the Trans Canada Highway. Look for the sign “Custom Log Furniture”; contact (250) 804- 6373 or alan4570@telus.net

250-253-8104 ajrahsun1@gmail.com

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