Babes in Toyland?

Charlie Jardine in the 1957 Verdun United YAG Revue.

Charlie Jardine in the 1957 Verdun United YAG Revue.

I spoke this week with June Jardine because her surname had come up recently and I hoped she could give me the skinny on a couple of things. I wanted to know if she was related to this Charlie Jardine who shows up in a few pictures from the Verdun United shows of the 50s and 60s. These were elaborate musical revues put together by the church’s Young Adult Group of the time. As some of you surely know, Charlie was June’s husband. They were already young marrieds when this photo was taken in 1957. The “fashion show” was a popular portion of these revues, and June recalls Harvey Mercer and others combing the bazaars and rummage sales for period dresses that the men – Charlie, Ed Chaffey, Don Peddar -- might fit into.

I think Charles Jardine looks like a million bucks in this outfit, don’t you?

The late Ed Chaffey collected and labeled many pictures from those years. I was confused at first when he indicated that Charlie was in the one below… until I realized he must have been in the horse costume! I won’t speculate as to which (ahem) half of the horse he was.

June Jardine is in this one as well. She’s one of the “soldiers” in white hats and boots in what seems to be a Nutcracker-inspired number.

I hope you won’t find my comments irreverent. I love looking back at these photos. It’s so obvious what a good time everyone was having! From what I’ve heard about Charlie Jardine, who sadly passed away in 2010, he was a good sport with a terrific sense of humour.

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Music in times of solitude

How often have we said that these are such strange times? Or that we have to adapt? 

Musicians spend a lot of time alone practicing, but rehearsals and performances include all kinds of interactions. Take away the performance of music and the intense camaraderie of making music with others – whether in a concert or Christmas Carol service – and the musical equation simply collapses. It’s been lonely, I must say, and somehow this latest lock up has felt more barren than the previous ones.

We turn to recordings to fill the void, and although they in no way replace live performances, they have a way of almost implying the presence of an audience.

In just one month, we will mark the beginning of Lent. Nearly one year ago, I shared and wrote about pieces of music every day during Holy Week. One year!

I enjoyed that experience. It made me feel connected to friends at SouthWest through the shared experience of music I love.

So lets make a date. A music date. Once or twice a week, with Amy’s help, I’ll send out my music selections, with a bit of a story attached. And we’ll make it a little more interactive this time; comments, suggestions and thoughts not only welcome, but expected!

See you next week.

Stay tuned…

 

Sarah

 

 

Verdun in the 1920s

UPDATE: Linda Potts writes: “I grew up in Verdun and lived on Galt ave at the corner of Bannantyne. My Mother and grandmother would often send my older brother and me to the Chinese laundry on Gordon and I also remember my mother and aunt taking me to a restaurant at the corner of Gordon and Wellington in the late 1950's and early 60's and I believe it also might have been owned by a Chinese person.”

This doesn’t prove that there was a laundry at Galt above Wellington way back in the 1920s, but a photograph sent by Katherine Black adds strong evidence. She points out that in the group photo, you can see what certainly looks like the roof of the nave of Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs just above the two men in felt hats. Katherine walks by that corner often and she stopped to take a picture looking through the lane toward De l’Eglise avenue. As mentioned in the original post, the wooden building that housed the laundry has been replaced by the Renaissance building, but the triplex on the left, although somewhat changed, could very well be the same structure. And there is the identical roof and chimney at the end of the lane!

Thank you, Linda and Katherine, for the feedback! - Amy

P.S.: I really wanted to call this Blog post, Cloche Hats and Laundromats, but a laundromat is where you wash your own clothes, whereas a laundry is where you take your clothes to have someone else clean them. Oh well.

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ORIGINAL POST:

“Verdun Methodist” is all it says on the original of this photo. This tells me one thing: that although the hats suggest the 1920s, this was most probably taken before 1925, when Verdun Methodist Church became Verdun United. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess this is a choir group, and that maybe they are heading out to do some Christmas caroling on this snowy day.

So where was this shot taken? I hoped the laundry in the background could provide the answer. A search for “Wong Sing Laundry in Verdun” didn’t turn up anything, but on a no-longer active website called “Growing Up in Verdun” people recalled two Chinese laundries in Verdun, one on “the even side of 2nd avenue near Verdun ave.” and the other on “Gordon avenue, next to the lane above Wellington”.

That spot is currently occupied by the Friperie Renaissance building (the door where they receive donations faces Gordon and is next to the laneway). The person who mentioned the laundry in this location also recalled that there had been a restaurant next to it (would be off the right side of this picture) facing Wellington avenue. These memories were of Verdun in the 1940s, but it seems possible to me that the laundry was in that location twenty years earlier. What makes this location seem to fit is that the old church was located on the “even” side of Gordon, just a little above Wellington. It has since been torn down and there are condos in the spot now. But if the laundry in this photo is the one that was on Gordon, the people in this photo would be facing Verdun Methodist Church!

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Let’s not stop there. A second photo in our collection is labeled “Verdun United Church Choir 1928”. Although the name had changed by this time, the building was still on Gordon, as the church on Woodland wasn’t built until 1930. I think that’s a corner of the church building we see on the left of this shot, and that if we could swing around and look across the street, the Wong Sing laundry might still be there!

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Two Verdun Methodist churches were built on Gordon avenue, the first in 1902, and the second in 1908 as the congregation grew by leaps and bounds. The picture below is of the 1908 building, which served the congregation until they moved into an even larger church at 650 Woodland in 1931.

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Beryl's Blog: A "Christian" Insurrection

Emma Green is a staff writer at ​The Atlantic, where she covers politics, policy, and religion. She wrote the following in an article published on January 8th :

A Christian Insurrection

Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on Wednesday claimed to be enacting God’s will

The name of God was everywhere during Wednesday’s insurrection against the American government. The mob carried signs and flag declaring Jesus saves! and God, Guns & Guts Made America, Let’s Keep All Three.

Some were participants in the Jericho March, a gathering of Christians to “pray, march, fast, and rally for election integrity.” After calling on God to “save the republic” during rallies at state capitols and in D.C. over the past two months, the marchers returned to Washington with flourish.

On the National Mall, one man waved the flag of Israel above a sign, begging passersby to Say Yes to Jesus. “Shout if you love Jesus!” someone yelled, and the crowd cheered. “Shout if you love Trump!” The crowd cheered louder.

The group’s name is drawn from the biblical story of Jericho, “a city of false gods and corruption,” the march’s website says. Just as God instructed Joshua to march around Jericho seven times with priests blowing trumpets, Christians gathered in D.C., blowing shofars, the ram’s horn typically used in Jewish worship, to banish the “darkness of election fraud” and ensure that “the walls of corruption crumble.”

This is not the Christianity we follow.  We follow the words of a man, (himself a protestor) who stood for loving God and loving others.

His ministry is evidenced in words such as Generosity, Courage, Love, Forgiveness, Hope, Respect, Truth, Healing, Peace, Reconciliation, just to name a few.

Those were not words which rang out in Washington on January 6, 202l.  Let us not forget that as we, as followers of Jesus, live into 2021 in His ways, not their ways!

May God bless us all as we face so many new and frightening challenges both globally and here at home.

Pastor Beryl

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Remember That Men's Choir from the 50s?

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I shared this photo in a post about music back in October 2019. I had found it in our archives (a fancy name for the unlabeled boxes of papers and photos that had been lugged back to the church when the Mission closed earlier that year). The picture was identified as “Men’s Club Choir, 1954” but the individuals’ names were not given. At the time I obtained a few names by posting the photo on the Crawford Park Kids Facebook page, and I shared what I learned with you.

Then last spring, a member of the Crawford Park Kids group, Andrew Smith, posted a copy of the same photo that he had found while engaging in a popular lockdown activity: going through stuff in one’s closets. His copy had all the names! My favorite discovery is that the sweet-faced young man kneeling at left is Harold Grace, who appears approximately a quarter century later in another post on this blog.

There’s a good chance Len Storey was the photographer.

Back row: Rev. A.E. Jones, Bill Metherell, Eric Humphrey, Arnold MacInnis, Marvin Smith, Randy West, Herb Fleet, Murray Beesley, Jim Hutchinson. Front row: Harold Grace, George Gray, Bill Morgan, Alan Boyle, Bill Bryce.

Back row: Rev. A.E. Jones, Bill Metherell, Eric Humphrey, Arnold MacInnis, Marvin Smith, Randy West, Herb Fleet, Murray Beesley, Jim Hutchinson.
Front row: Harold Grace, George Gray, Bill Morgan, Alan Boyle, Bill Bryce.

A Message from Pastor Beryl

Dear Friends

 Although we will be physically closed for the month of January, I am inviting you to join me in an informal worship experience on January 3, 2021, available as of 7:00 a.m.

 You will not have to leave the safety of your home and can even drop by in your pyjamas! I look forward to sharing with all of you and hope you will enjoy it. 

 The link is posted below.

 Pastor Beryl

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