The Kiwanis Club of Pembroke
This is an expanded version of talks I gave to Kiwanis Club celebrating their 100th Anniversary as a service club in Pembroke. My main focus was on the first decade or so of the club in the community and of necessity was but a brief outline of the club's involvement in that time.
I want to talk today, not just of the good works for which the Kiwanis Club is well known, but rather of the fun things done by the club, although you really cannot separate the fun from the underlying commitment to the betterment of the community that the club has as its founding basis.
The first of these was in May of 1922 when the newly formed Pembroke Kiwanis Club, assisted by the Ottawa Club, put on the JOLLIES OF 1922, an evening of music, skits, a Minstrel Show and the sixty voices of the Public School Children's Choir who sang "The Old Folks at Home" and "The Land of Our Fathers" among other favourites of the day.
There had been several ads placed in the local newspapers advertising this event and even newly minted Kiwanian, William Harvey, placed a notice of it in his ad informing people of his impending move from above "The Ladies Exclusive," P.C. Doran's woman's and children's wear, to his new location at 31 Pembroke Street west at the block at the bridge.
The venue for this was the Grand Opera House, later to be renovated and renamed the O'Brien Theatre and you may notice in the ad above, the movies that had been scheduled for the Grand were being screened at the Casino Theatre, Pembroke's other movie house of the day. This theatre, located at about 122 Pembroke St. west had been shuttered for a couple of months but reopened for this occasion.
On opening night the Board of Trade Band, who were providing music for the evening, set up outside the Grand and played a concert in hopes of drumming up an interest in the event and getting people into the theatre. Whether it was their efforts or whether people had already planned to attend, the evening was a sell out with many potential patrons being turned away. The second night was almost as packed, with only a few seats remaining unsold and the two evenings were considered to be a great success with all the proceeds going to the Board of Trade Band to aid them with their operational expenses.
After the final performance a banquet was held at the Copeland Hotel where the visitors and members of the band were guests of the Pembroke Kiwanis Club. After being treated to a fine meal, speeches were made, and with music being provided by Hamilton's Orchestra, a local dance band, there was an evening of singing and laughter which only ended when the guests had to catch the last train back to Ottawa.
The next community event staged by the club was a couple of months later, in the summer of 1922 when they put on Pembroke's first Community Sing-Song. It is difficult in this age of continuous, at home entertainments and diversions via radio, television, computers and cell phones to imagine just how eager people were for amusements and for something new to pass an evening away from home. On a Friday evening in mid-July, on the grounds of the Central School, between four and five hundred people showed up to stand before a stage erected for the event by the Wm. Markus Company, contractors and illuminated by lights provided by the Pembroke Electric Light Company. With song sheets in hand a dozen or more songs were sung with music accompaniment provided by the Board of Trade Band who also performed several selections on their own. Although it was noted that many in the audience were reticent about taking part in the singing the evening was still considered to be a success and repeat of it was slated for the following Friday evening. Over the years evening Sing-Songs, along with band concerts became a feature during the summer months. However as radio became increasingly popular and affordable these concerts faded but never went away and this writer remembers attending performances put on by the Legion Band, held at the Riverside Park Band Stand in the 1950's.
A week or so after the second of the Sing-Songs the club was again busy as it, along with the Board of Trade Band, held a Monster Picnic on Monday, the seventh of August at O'Kelly Park in Pembroke. This was their biggest undertaking as of yet with a slate of horse races with prizes totalling $600 and a baseball tournament with the Ottawa Knights of Columbus ball team playing against both the Pembroke Pirates and the Pembroke Outlaws ball clubs for a cup valued at fifty dollars. There was also full slate of "Caledonian Games, Etc.," the Board of Trade Band was in attendance to provide music and of course there would be food and refreshments. The day was capped off with an evening dance, held at the armouries with music provided by Hamilton's Orchestra.
As was often the case for events such as this both the Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk Railways provided reduced fares for all stations in the region for people wishing to attend this event. These reduced rates were good from the 5th to the 8th so people could spend a few days in town if they so desired.
The next major undertaking for the club was Christmas of 1922. For the past couple of years the community had put on a "Christmas Tree" celebration for the children of the community. This was a day when Santa would ride into town in a horse drawn sleigh and distribute gifts and sweets to the children of the area. This year the Board of Trade Band and the Kiwanis Club teamed up to put on an afternoon of fun for both the children and their parents. As in years past a large pine tree was brought to town and set up in front of Victoria Hall where it was decorated in holiday attire, strung with Christmas lights and topped with a Star of Bethlehem. The town itself got into the spirit and changed all the lightbulbs in the streetlights along the "White Way," Pembroke's main street, to coloured bulbs, which along with the decorated store windows turned the main street into a wonderland for the children.
Invitations were sent out to not just local schools but to schools in Westmeath, Stafford, Alice, Rolph, Allumette Island, Sheenboro and Waltham and all the communities in-between. The Canadian Pacific Railway put on extra coaches and had a special train leaving town at six o'clock at the end of the day to return the children and their families home. This was several steps above what had been done in previous years and it was reported there was a heightened level of excitement as the day drew near.
On the 23rd of the month, the day of the big event, it was remarked that Pembroke "has probably never had as many people in town at Christmas" and was noted that "on Saturday afternoon main street had the appearance of Broadway so great was the crowd on the street." At two o'clock children began gathering at the armouries and at half past the hour the doors were opened to admit as many as 3,300 children ranging in age from babes in arms to teenagers including a number of parents who braved the mayhem that only such a large congregation of children can produce. Promptly at three o'clock Santa arrived in full Santa Clause regalia, riding in one of Mr. Peter Fournier's red sleighs which was pulled by a pair of coal black horses draped with white netting and with necklaces of jingling bells. Accompanied by two mounted escorts the great man disembarked and to the sound of trumpeting bugles he waded into the throng of people, shaking the hands of the youngsters, kissing the babies and heartily greeting the adults, many of whom noted the resemblance of Santa to local businessman, Mr. J.T. Stuart. After having made his way to the stage with the help of a phalanx of Boy Scouts clearing his way, the Board of Trade Band then began the afternoon with the playing of Hark The Herald Angels Sing and with the encouragement of Kiwanian Frank Garrow the entire audience sang along. After a few more carols it was time for the kids to greet the man of the hour and over the next forty-five minutes Santa shook hands and spoke with each child who went away with stars in their eyes and clutching a bag of treats.
Afterwards Santa and his helpers moved on to the the two hospitals where he dispensed more Christmas joy as well as treats for the children. The day was considered to be a great success, even to the extent that the services of the school nurse and a V.O.N. nurse, who had been on hand "just in case" were not needed and as a side benefit the local businesses had one of their best Saturdays ever.
The next big thing was the 1924 Labour Day "GET TOGETHER" a joint effort of the Kiwanis club and the newly formed Aquatic Club. An event which promised 20 HOURS OF FUN!
And fun it was. Even Mother Nature complied, providing a warm and sunny day with just enough of a breeze off the river to keep the temperatures comfortable. Over 5000 people attended the festivities at Riverside Park where they were entertained by baseball games, track and field sports, canoe and shanty boat races, log rolling and an exhibition of shooting by Mr. Frank Morris of the Dominion Cartridge Company of Montreal.
That evening between four and five hundred people gathered at the Government Wharf to enjoy a flotilla of illuminated canoes which was followed by a "gaily decorated and illuminated" pointer boat manned by a crew of a dozen or so young men, who, as they passed the wharf broke out "harmonicas and jews harps" to form an impromptu jazz orchestra, much to the delight of the audience.
That evening part of Pembroke Street was blocked off for a dance that went well into the night. Music for round dancing was provided by Pembroke's Sunshine Orchestra and for square dancing, Mr. Eugene Giroux and his Girouxville Fiddlers provided the tunes.
This Labour Day Community Picnic became an annual occurrence and in 1927 the festivities had the usual slate of events including baseball games, track and field events, boat races and lumbermen sports and as well, this year, a display of fancy riding by members of the military.
There was also, this year, a Baby Parade, with the winning baby being judged both on its development and appeal but also on how fancifully decorated its "conveyance" was. A panel of Doctors and Nurses were to judge the baby while a panel of citizens judged the conveyance. There had been other baby contests at other events around town over the years but this one, the Kiwanis Club assured us, "will be conducted in a manner which has heretofore, been unknown locally."
At the end of the day, young Sheila Cone took the 1st prize of $15.
There was also the introduction of a one mile swim across the Ottawa which was won by Mr. K. Smith of Renfrew with Pembroke's Lemay Jette a close second. This was be beginning of a long tradition of the club sponsoring the cross river swim which today is a round trip, two mile event which has been won numerous times over the recent years by Kiwanian Robert McLaughlin.
And of course the day ended with dances held on the main street and in the armouries.
About 3,000 showed up this year, less than previous years but there was competition this year with the Steamer Oiseau which was have a cruise up the Ottawa on the same day as the Get Together.
A jaunt up the river in the Oiseau and those steamers that preceded her had been a staple of summer entertainment in town for decades but now it's appeal was fading and it was unsure at the start of the season if the cruises would even take place. At the last moment someone had leased the boat for the summer and this was perhaps a final chance to experience that old pleasure of a trip to the Fort or to Oiseau Rock or go all the way to the Swisha, reliving a time that was passing quickly.
Even though the crowds had been down somewhat the day was considered a success and everyone went home happy.
Before all this took place the kids of the area had been having a pretty good summer - the only thing missing was that a circus had not come to town. This event had been one of summers pleasures, usually preceded by a parade from the C.P.R. train station, up the main street to whichever park the spectacle was being held at. Then the boys and girls, and not a few adults, would gather to watch the elephants and the carnies hoist the big top into being and walk among the cages holding the big cats and other examples of animal exotica.
To replace that they had everything from the Pembroke Lumber Company fire in June of 1927, which to the adults surely brought on memories of other devastating fires, one of which happened less than a decade earlier, but to the kids this perhaps would have been pure excitement. Luckily the prevailing winds kept the fire from spreading to the business section and although the losses to the company were great the town was spared another major catastrophe.
This too had been Canada's Diamond Jubilee year and throughout the summer there were celebrations both in town and throughout the surrounding communities. And if there wasn't a circus there was at least a mid-way complete with games, rides, pony rides and a side show featuring Mike & Ike, the "World's only Twin Midgets."
The Grand Opera House had, as usual, a revolving slate of movies with at least one or two a week that would have been among the "gotta see" films for the youngsters. Most weeks there was at least one western where perhaps that cowboy hero of the twenties, Hoot Gibson, would save the day, the town or the ranch from some nefarious bad guy. There was often a two reeler highlighting the derring-do antics of comedian Harold Lloyd who although seemingly on the verge of death and/or heart break throughout the film would, in the end, triumph over adversity and get the girl.
Then there was Jerry the Human Fly, passing through town to perform his act he would have held the youngsters in awe for an hour or so. Jerry Hudson was a man with the unique ability to be able to scale the outsides of buildings using only his bare hands. He had been to Pembroke three years previously when he climbed the outside of Victoria Hall, rung the bell, scaled the flag pole and performed feats that had the crowd either gasping in amazement or looking away in fear. This year he was back after putting his climbing ability to other uses in Toronto which garnered him a stint in that city's Don Jail. Now, presumably chastened and reformed he climbed the outside of the O'Kelly Block, todays Pembroke Mews, performed some acts of daring-do on the edge of the roof after which he climbed down from there to the roof of the Royal Bank, next door, climbed their flag pole, did a head stand on it and descended to the ground to pass the hat. It was reported that hundreds of people turned out for this and no doubt among the crowd were many children, always eager for a new amusement.
But for many boys THE big event of the summer was going to be a ride in an automobile.
In 1927 there were just under 1900 cars in North Renfrew County and most of these were owned by the fairly well to do. Even used vehicles were a recent phenomenon and so most kids had never ridden in a car. The Kiwanis club was about to change that and on August 24th all the boys of Pembroke who's parents did not own an automobile and were between the ages of 8 and 15 were invited to experience the thrill of a ride in a car with a trip from Pembroke to Petawawa Point.
Meeting in the lot of the Pembroke Farmers Market, today a parking lot opposite the Armouries, at two in the afternoon, 214 boys showed up for that promised ride and although it wasn't recorded how many members and their cars were there to chauffeur them it was far too few to accommodate all the boys. These were not the small sedans of todays world but were automobiles of their time which were commodious to a degree we can only imagine today and judging from local ads in the newspapers these must have been some of the cars that showed up on that day.
Even with all that interior space available and the boys crammed in like sardines, one Kiwanian claimed he had thirteen boys in the back seat of his car, there were still too few seats and fifty boys too many. Rather than disappoint any of the lads a call was put out to members with boats and the overflow were treated to a cruise up the river in a flotilla of power boats that would have been those grand inboard motor, mahogany clad beauties that were the boats to own in those days. This in itself would have been a real, once in a lifetime treat that I've no doubt many of the car riders were envious of.
At last everyone made it to the Point where they were handed over to Mr. Maurice Paquette, the Kiwanis lifeguard for Riverside Park, and he kept the boys busy with an afternoon of swimming and water sports followed by track and field events and capping off the day was a bon fire with hot dogs and ice cream and then the return trip home.
The next big, and new adventure for the Kiwanis Club took place six months later, in February 1928 when it held the first Pembroke Dog Sled Race for kids. A couple of weeks previous to this event Pembroke had been hit by what was called, "The Worst Blizzard Seen in Many Years" which had snow piled up three and four feet deep on Pembroke Street. Students skied to school, mail delivery was curtailed and even horses had trouble getting around. So on the big day Pembroke was said to resemble "a little bit of Alaska" with great piles of snow and a spate of eager dogs straining at their harnesses.
The route of the event was along Pembroke Street starting at Hinks Street and ending at Victoria Street. There were two classes of dogs, one under 50 pounds and the other over 50 pounds and while the race for the smaller dogs seemingly went off without incident with young Josie O'Brien winning the event, the race for the larger dogs ran somewhat less smooth.
Dogs, being dogs, were more interested in fighting than in racing and the start was a free-for-all of contestant dogs fighting among themselves and once that got straightened out the spectator's dogs took up the fight among both themselves and with the contestant dogs. In the end everyone was separated and the the race was run with the only reported obstacle being the crowd, who, in their enthusiasm, swarmed onto the street handicapping those boys who were trailing first place. This event was won by Ed Krupp with Archie Carmody placing second. Every boy went home with a prize that could have been anything from a windbreaker or box of chocolates to a knife or hatchet, all donated by local businesses.
The following year in an effort to avoid the melee at the start of the race it was decided to run the race in four heats with the winners facing off in a final race down the main street. Thousands of people lined the sidewalks and the final race was between four boys, Owen Gravelle, Cleveland Larwell, Doug Splaine and Somerville Daniel. It was a close race with Splaine in the lead followed by Gravelle and Larwell with Daniel bringing up the rear. Close to the finish the Gravelle and Larwell dogs began to fight. Splaine's dog, hearing this, turned and joined in giving Daniel and his dog a chance to skirt around them and take the lead which he did without incident. However as he approached the finish line his dog balked and Daniel, in a fit of enthusiasm hopped off his sled and dragged the dog across the line, thus disqualifying him. Meanwhile the other drivers were still sorting things out and once untangled the team of Owen Gravelle and his dog broke away and took first prize.
It wasn't until 1930 that a girl entered the race and in that year two girls signed up. The pair were Jessie Coumbs and Joyce Biggs. This year it was decided to run time trials with dogs leaving the starting gate at three minute intervals in hopes of avoiding the troubles of previous years. Unfortunately Joyce's dog became unmanageable when spectators thronged onto the street as she approached and although Jessie and her dog made a good showing she didm't finish in the top three. This year it was Ed Krupp and his collie who had last won in 1928 completing the dash in a time of one minute and forty seconds. The slowest entry took a full seven minutes to complete the race.
The Dog Derby went on for a number of years with it eventually being relocated to Renfrew Street when snow clearing and road sanding on Pembroke Street became more efficient thus hampering the running of sleighs.
By 1931 the effects of the world wide depression was becoming a harsh reality in the town of Pembroke. Families were struggling and what small treats parents would at one time have given to their children were now an expense that could not be borne. That nickel for a bag of candy or a dime, later reduced to a nickel, for a matinee at the movies would now go towards food or fuel or rent. The one joy that was still available and still free to everyone was a swim at Riverside Park. In years past the Kiwanis Club had provided a life guard and swimming instructor at the beach and in order for this to continue there was a concert put on by the club at the end of May to raise funds for this service. Held at the auditorium of the Pembroke Collegiate Institute it featured a program of local talent encompassing everything from a one act play, a shadowgraph skit, music by the 29 piece, P.C.I. Symphony Orchestra and the vocal and instrumental talents of members of the Kiwanis Club and of the High School. Enough money was raised that by the time school was out for the summer and the rafts were in place, Mr. David R. "Dubby" Small was hired as swimming instructor and life guard. "Dubby" had a busy schedule as he taught swimming to children from nine a.m. until noon after which he was fully occupied in his life guard capacity and overseeing the bathing beach until nine o'clock in the evening.
At the same time as Mr Small was taking up his duties there were plans underway for the construction of bathing houses where the public could change in privacy and have a secure place to store their clothes and belongings while at the beach. By the end of July the change rooms were in use and the sight of people trying to preserve their modesty behind trees and bushes while getting into or out of their bathing suits was a thing of the past. The official opening was held in mid August and along with the pomp of the official ceremonies there was also a full program of aquatic sports for the boys and girls of the area with prizes of coupons redeemable at local stores.
At the end of the summer the bath houses which had been conceived and built by the Kiwanis club with donations of goods and labour from the community, were officially donated to the town.
In February of 1932 the club held a Winter Carnival at the Mackey Street Arena to raise funds for some much needed medical care of community children. One undertaking was the removal of the tonsils and adenoids of one hundred and fifty underprivileged children who were in need of this operation. Over the Easter vacation most of the local physicians and both hospitals were kept busy with this influx of young patients, each of whom was kept for 24 hours, given ice cream and gelatine deserts and sent home with no families reporting any untoward problems.
This same year the club had a charity baseball game between the Renfrew Rotarians and the Pembroke Kiwanians. The hope was to raise $200 for the treatment of four local children who were in need of specialized treatment in either Ottawa or Toronto.
Again this summer "Dubby" Small had been teaching swimming to local children and in August many of his seventy five pupils took part in a swimming meet that had various ages competing for prizes. Not long after this was the annual Labour Day Get Together and in the autumn there was a benefit football game and later in the season a play was staged with a "pay what you can" admission policy, all to raise funds for children's welfare concerns.
Throughout the hard times of the 1930's the club continued it's good works, raising money through their annual Winter Carnival events and various fund raisers held over the years. By the mid thirties the new swimming instructor, Murray Doran, in concert with the Standard Observer Newspaper, began collecting unwanted and used bathing suits for the poor who were unable to afford such small items. He had noted that a great many of the more than five hundred or so children who would crowd Riverside Park on a hot day were unable to go in the water for lack of a swim suit. By his efforts he ensured no child had to sit on the shore on a summer's day and only watch the others having fun in the water.
As the depression deepened and monetary donations were harder to come by the club turned to gathering and repairing unwanted appliances as well as continuing the many events which had become synonymous with the good works of the Kiwanis Club. The dedication by the members to the well being of the children of the community never flagged and the contributions made by the club in their early years and through the hard times of the depression serve as the basis for their continuing commitment to that cause.
The above essay is but a brief sketch of the time and efforts the Pembroke Kiwanis Club has dedicated to the town and citizens of Pembroke, particularly the children of the community. I hope this slight effort inspires a sense of pride in the members of the club and a sense of gratitude from the community which they have served for so long and so well.
