Stirring the pot…
Today I’m stirring the pot a little more. Over the weekend I’ve had some great conversations with friends from the past and with new FB friends about the Lanark County Junior Farmers. We are all in agreement. We have lost everyone with memories of the early days, we are losing the second generation of alumni and the younger generation is still too busy with life to worry about the early history of the organization. As a result there is a movement to get a few alumni members together and see what we can piece together and what artifacts and records we can find.
For instance, who can remember wearing one of these?
Junior Farmer sweater from circa 1970 minus the crest that was on one pocket. Not sure where it is!
Or do you remember attending one of the Junior Farmer dances? If I remember correctly, this was the year that it started to snow during the dance and we didn’t make it back to Almonte until the next day! Fortunately, my parent’s farm wasn’t far away and with one spot of pushing the car through a snow drift and Frank sitting in the open car trunk for traction we made it to Glen Tay!
Don and Diane Duncan; Eleanor and Frank Paul, LCJF dance, Farrell Hall, Perth, 1969 (or was it 1970?)
Because we have moved halfway across the continent and have down-sized considerably, I don’t have a lot of memorabilia but I did find this copy of a play that the Lanark County Junior Farmers presented in Guelph at the provincial competition circa 1970 – 1972. Not sure if Don or I acted in this play. We both took a turn at the provincial drama competition.
One of the play scripts from Lanark County Junior Farmer Days
Or were you present for the 20th anniversary celebration for the Lanark County Junior Farmers circa 1964? Or was this the 25th anniversary in 1969? I didn’t fully appreciate the history behind this event at the time.
20th Anniversary of Lanark County Junior Farmers, old Clayton Hall, circa 1964. Ernest Miller, Frank Paul, John Bellamy.
We are looking for newspaper reports of events – Perth Courier, Carleton Place Canadian, Almonte Gazette and other papers, scrapbooks, photos, oral history/memories. What stories do you have about your time as a member of the Lanark County Junior Farmers. We have people that can meet with former members to video their memories. Don and I are currently living in Calgary so I can act as a gathering point for information (to be shared with the provincial historian) but we need feet on the ground to do actual research from a variety of sources.
At one time there were four clubs in the county – Perth; Appleton and Pakenham later to join and became known as the Almonte JF club; and for a brief time a Smiths Falls group. Can we find people from all these areas with memories or memorabilia to share? Send me an email (see the contact page) or Message me on Facebook and I will get back to you.
Could you contribute to this series of blogs by writing about your experiences? Hoping you will get in touch.
That would be 1970 Diane as our son was born in April that year .
It was December 1969, about two weeks before we left for Hawaii, and Don for his Australia trip I think.