Radio 4, Cedar Lounge

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Our friend Dave O'Halloran (aka What Wave Dave on CHRW) has been sharing on Facebook, with our grateful permission, photos that we had taken of various bands back in the 1980's. This morning Dave writes in 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario group:

"Some more Reg Quinton pics, this time it's Radio 4 at the Cedar Lounge circa 1981.

Radio 4 sorta morphed out of VD Teens and Raw Dogs, 2 bands that played a few shows in London. Later Radio 4 evolved into the much better known Sheep Look Up in 1982. Sheep Look Up released an EP, cassette and appeared on a couple compilations. At the time, we believed they were one of the local bands that were going to make it. They had the talent, the originality, the drive, the songs.....just not in the right place at the right time.

Pictured are; Mark DeRoux, Matt Owens and Brian Bouge. The drummer could be either Paul Venno or Brian Embry."

There are some sadly out of focus pictures in this small collection which I'd normally not share. Dave likes to archive them all so here they are for all to enjoy. I've removed some duplicates.

Many thanks to Dave for preserving these memories and organizing our photos.

Golden Calgarians, CTO

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Our friend Dave O'Halloran (aka What Wave Dave on CHRW) has been sharing on Facebook, with our grateful permission, photos that we had taken of various bands back in the 1980's. This morning Dave writes in 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario group:

"Here's some more Reg Quinton pics. This time it's The Golden Calgarians at Call The Office circa 1985.

 
From the pics you can see the weekly calendar they used to have behind the old stage.

The Golden Calgarians were from Calgary (no kidding) released a couple of albums and singles in the early 80's. Believe they had played the Embassy a couple years prior."

I must confess I have no recollections of this event, but then it was nearly 40 years ago. I confess that, at first glance, I thought these were pictures of the Napalm Babies! We had some school friends from Calgary but have only visited a very few times (like in 1980 on our honeymoon!).

There is a bit about the band on Discogs, on Bandcamp, and even a video of "It's Fun to be Alive" on Youtube. Call the Office (the bar at York and Clarence) is long gone and sadly missed. 

Many thanks to Dave for preserving these memories and organizing our photos.

McAdams and Home

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Our trip home from Fredericton, NB was pretty uneventful. Rather than return via the Canadian route and retrace some of the path through Quebec and eastern Ontario we decided to take "the American Route" through Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York. Our idea was to make time on the Interstate system and only stop for a couple of overnights on the road. We had fine weather and enjoyed the drive but didn't do much touristing.

The first over night stay, Monday, was at the Kittery Inn & Suites in Kittery, which is just at the Maine/New Hampshire border. The last night, Tuesday, was at a La Quinta in Batavia, NY just outside of Buffalo. We might have made it home with only one stop but this was hectic enough. Kate was nursing her painful ankle injury, often times stretched out in the back, and I did pretty much all the driving. On our last day, Wednesday, we crossed at Lewistown/Queenstown Heights and were home by early afternoon. Glad to be home where our cats have been kindly cared for by our friend Chandel from Trusted House Sitters.

Our first stop on Monday, before leaving Canada, was to visit the McAdam CPR Railway Station. This was one of those "peculiar travel suggestions" that Kate is so fond of. When we were visiting the Resurgo Place/Museum in Moncton Kate had asked if there was an interesting train station in town. The guide remarked that although there is a train station in Moncton it's not particularly interesting. If you want to see something really interesting visit the former CPR station in the town of McAdam. It's an alternate route to Maine but well worth the diversion.

That's a view of the McAdam station above. There's an extensive Wikipedia page with lots of information but here's my quick summary. It's quite large, built of stone, three stories with guest rooms on the second floor and staff rooms on the third. The station was built around 1900 to cater to wealthy travellers to/from the US. The station is the first within Canada on what was a rail line destined to link the east coast to the US. It was abandoned by CPR/VIA back in the 1990's and has since been restored and maintained by a local historical society. That's quite the feat as the village of McAdam, at last census, was barely 1,200 bodies. The station is an important landmark designated as both a National and a Provincial Historic Site.

I recall a couple of interesting stories about the station. First, when the station was shutdown CPR had told those working there to take anything they wanted. They did, the station was effectively stripped by the townsfolk. However, when the McAdam Historical Restoration Commission was set up and they went about restoring the station all those artifacts were donated back to the station. Second, apparently kitchen staff (at the restaurant and luncheon counter) were in the habit of tossing dirty dishes into the nearby lake to expedite cleanup. There's quite a display of broken dishware retrieved from the lake. How did they get away with that?

We did not have time to take a tour but were taken on a bit of one nevertheless — they insisted! There's a spacious waiting room in the middle with restored ticket office and station masters office. To the very far end there's a massive lunch counter room and between them a very large fine dining area. They have special event dinners here (like at Christmas) and have even catered weddings. At the other end there would have been area for baggage, mail room, customs and the like. Several exhibits on the war effort, train crashes, and more history were on display in that area.

We were talking to one of the fellows who is very involved in the management of the site. I had noted that the building had a newly shingled roof and wondered about the cost. He was telling us that they're trying to upgrade the heating system (although it's only open during the warmer summer months it has to be heated all year round) and how much it cost just to maintain the building during the cold winter months. We were surprised that it's this small community, not National Parks and Monuments, that keeps this place going. They of course get some national and provincial funding and grants. During the summer/tourist season, when they are open, they get 50-100 visitors each day. Visitors who tour the building are another important source of funding — which helps to explain why they insisted we do at least some of the tour (we didn't go upstairs to see the guest rooms).

From McAdam it's a short drive to cross the US border at the towns of  Vanceboro (ME) and Saint Croix (NB). We followed the two lane Route 6 through to Interstate 95 at Lincoln where we could really make time. It was pleasant drive through densely forested hill country where there leaves were brightly on display. There were, no surprise, several logging trucks along the way. Some quite large. I was surprised at how much forested land there was on this trip. Here in Southern Ontario, where we live, there remains some forest but most land is flat, well drained, and intensely agricultural.

We zoomed quickly along Interstate 95 to Kittery where we had reserved a room. On check in we asked the clerk about local eateries. She replied, "Well, there's Roberts" ... followed by a long pause. So I guess that's where we have to go. She gave us no other options; but this was a good choice. It's only a few miles back on Route 1, which runs parallel to the interstate.  Roberts Maine Grill and Raw Bar  is a pleasant modern facility in a clapboard building, with a faux lighthouse entrance, set on a large tidal creek. There's a small outdoor area on the second floor but the weather is cool and it's not open. Reg has yet another lobster feed — this time it's steamed lobster with lots of butter and corn bread. Kate has a lobster risotto. Both were yummy, just as good, if not better, than anything we've had on this trip.

The next day, Tuesday, was a long 8 hour drive to Batavia, NY with only rest area/fueling stops along the way. We are only briefly in New Hampshire (there's all of 20 miles of NH that butts onto the Atlantic shore); we skirt around Boston and meet up with Interstate 90 that will take us all the way to Buffalo with our overnight stay in Batavia.

The interstate system is pretty great but most of it on this trip was on toll roads. In Maine there were staffed toll booths where you would stop; but they weren't taking any Canadian cash and we didn't have any US money. They gave us paper receipts/bills and that evening we were able to login at the web site to pay the fares. Interstate 90 was different; instead of toll booths they had toll sites along the way to capture your licence plate or transponder signal. Since we didn't have a transponder at the end of the day we logged into another site to give them our Mastercard and tie it to our licence plate. I've not seen the bill yet but I'm confident it was not cheap. We might have avoided this expensive route by heading cross country on secondary roads through the moutains; that might have been fun, it would have been scenic and taken much, much, longer!

At Batavia, which seems to be a horse racing destination, we note a crew of Mexicanos/Americans who are doing some restoration work on the entrance to the La Quinta where we are staying. They were busy and spoke to one another in Spanish. Should Trump get his way, will these be part of the 10 million deported? And if so, then Who's Gonna Build Your Wall?

Fredericton, NB

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On Saturday, the day after the wedding, we four (me and Kate, Sam and Barry) headed out to Fredericton, NB for a couple of days. The "newly weds" were flying home to Winnipeg on Monday from "Freddy", we were heading home via the "US route" the same day.

We had some travel suggestions/guidance from family and friends. Paula did her MA at the University there so was able to provide several recommendations including the gallery and a couple of restaurants. Our other friend Sam (of Sam and Al in London) had lived in the area in her youth, her sister is still in the area. She recommended we check out the pretty town Gagetown which is on the St John River just a little off the Trans Canada Highway 2 (about two hours from Shediac and an hour or so to Fredericton). Oddly the "Gagetown Military Base" is in Oromocto, closer to Fredericton, and not in Gagetown. There's a story there but I'm not entirely clear about it.

We stopped in Gagetown to have lunch at Gulliver's World Cafe on River Run Lane. We had read about it on Tripadvisor (or perhaps Google Maps); I recall it was rated as the best restaurant in Gagetown. But then again Gagetown is a very small town, not much larger than a village, and only has maybe two other restaurants. It wasn't hard to find tucked down a lane beside the river.

We arrived to a lovely sunny day. The restaurant had a patio where we could sit to enjoy the view and it wasn't very busy. There was another table being served. The hostess, who turned out to be the owner with her husband (the chef), asked if we had reservations. "Ah, no. Do we need one?" It turns out that reservations are very much recommended, especially at this time of year. They chef orders supplies sufficient for those who have made reservations and, as we didn't make a reservation, they may not have enough in stock to feed us. She checked with the chef and fortunately they were able to take us. The menu was quite limited — a soup, some sandwiches and a roast chicken which I had. I'm surprised we weren't seated right away without any fuss.

We enjoyed the food and drinks and had quite a chat with the server/hostess/owner. I understand they cater to weddings and other special events. Also that their busy season is the summer and at this time of year they really looking towards shutting down for the season. It's a lovely spot on the river and perhaps it was busy with reservations that evening. But not so busy when we stopped in for lunch.

We gas up at the highway and discover you can buy liquor and wine at the gas station. We stocked up. Needlessly. Which meant we entered the US later a little over our liquor import limits. Fortunately the kindly fellow at US Customs and Immigration did not ask nor did the Canadians when we crossed back into Canada.

In Fredericton we're staying at the Delta Fredericton (a Marriott) a little up the river from the center of town. Kate and Sam have made the reservation, I stay out of the way as they check in. Barry has yet to learn to leave well enough alone ("A lotta guys would stay clear ...."). The Delta is a large, fairly posh place, with a convention center and an outdoor pool/recreation areas (closed for the season). There was some big international convention/gang there during our stay. They were competing in a fishing competition. Google tells me:

"The 2024 Pan-American Black Bass Championship will be held in Fredericton, New Brunswick from September 25–29, 2024"

The fishers had team uniforms and hung out at the bar until very late. Much later than we. There was some live music that evening at the lobby bar (we had eaten at the hotel restaurant). They were pretty competent musicians and played music we enjoyed. We asked them, even asked them on a $20 bill, to play certain songs. It became a bit of game as they'd usually turn down our requests. "I like the music, I know the song, but we haven't rehearsed that one!". They dragged a friend in who was able to play some John Prine for us. The wait staff, the next day, were telling us that someone from the fishing tourney kept everyone up very late buy rounds for everyone. They had a hard time shutting the bar down.

The next day we used Uride (an alternative to Uber, there is no Uber in Fredericton) to get around the city. Our hard drinkin' ways mean that we ought to be safe rather than sorry.

At Paula's recommendation we first went to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. We arrived there on Sunday morning just as it opened. It's a large modern gallery, across the street from the NB Parliament, with a collection that just blew me away. There's a modest entry fee you pay at the gift shop. We found that you could borrow a wheel chair which I used to push Kate around. Not that she couldn't walk, but this makes it much easier for her.

The first gallery we enter has an impressive collection of Canadiana — Group of Seven through to modern classics like Alex Colville, Mary and Christopher Pratt. There's a large group of religious paintings from around 1500. Nearby is Kent Monkman's "The Trapper's Bride" (2006) — we saw a travelling exhibit of his works at the LRAG (London) with Ross and Bev a few years ago. One of the real surprises that is a large (3m x 4m) Salvador Dali, "Santiago El Grande" (1957), which, with a few smaller pieces occupies a gallery at the end of the building. It's a piece you would expect to find at the MOMA in New York, the Louvre in Paris or the Prado in Spain. How it ended up here must be an interesting story.

In the basement there were some experimental installations. All quite interesting. But Sam and Barry are not as keen, we return to find them nursing a glass of wine in the lobby. We have a lunch at a nearby restaurant Isaac's Way. We sit outside on the back patio which overlooks a classic red and white clapboard lighthouse. Inside they have interesting quotations on the wall including:

"Once, during the Depression, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water!" W.C. Fields

We return for a rest at our hotel and meet up with the newly weds at the bar later in the day. That evening we returned to the same area downtown to have some drinks at the "540 Kitchen & Bar" (recommended by Paula) and dinner around the corner at "MOCO Downtown" where again the hostess/server is in fact the owner with her husband the chef. I think her son was there bussing too.

I feel we did not do Fredericton justice. There's a lot there to see and we barely brushed the surface. Perhaps next time we'll stay longer and explore more.

 

Wedding Day, Shediac Bridge

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Our friend Sam (her real name is Alison) and her partner Barry came to visit with us in Shediac. And, while here, made it a special day on Friday by planning a small wedding service at our AirBnB at Shediac Bridge. That's them to the left, happily married with Shediac Bridge in the distance. It had been a grey dreary morning but by the end of day had cleared with glorious skies for the wedding service.

Sam and Barry stayed in Shediac proper at an historic old Victorian era boutique hotel — the Tait House. I drove into Moncton to pick them up Thursday; they had spent the previous day getting all the paper work in order for the marriage. That evening we five (Paula, Kate, me, Sam and Barry) had a pre-wedding dinner at the Kuro Sushi restaurant on the main street a short walk from the Tait House. Paula had recommended this restaurant, it's sort of a "Barbie meets Japan" themed place with a ton of pink, too many dainty floral arrangements and too many odd little knick knacks tucked around all over the place. The menu was beyond us but, with help, we got it figured out and enjoyed our meal together. 

Paula had pointed out the restaurant out a few days ago when we were at La Coast (maybe three doors down) for lunch and then later that same day for dessert. Paula, who lives nearby, was a good guide to the area.

But back to Sam and Barry. Sam is a childhood friend of Kate's; they were in grade school together in Winnipeg. Kate left when she was in Grade 9 when her family moved to Belleville but she and Sam have maintained a relationship over the years. You'll find pictures of Sam throughout this blog, we often get together when travelling. Notably, I first met Sam at Our Wedding in 1980. She stood up with Kate as her "Maid of Honor". In the photos of the wedding she's the one dressed in black!

As we are all getting on in years maintaining relationships with old friends is important. Kate and Sam had made sort of a pledge to see each other at least once a year. We could go to Winnipeg, they could come here, or we could meet up on our travels (Sam has been with us to Texas several times). Kate had suggested that Sam and Barry should come and meet us in NB if they were interested. Sam knows Paula and we thought it might be fun to explore some of the East Coast together. They said sure, sounds like fun and shortly after agreeing to come sprung the idea of getting married here in NB. They've been together for about six years and had already agreed to get married but hadn't committed to a date and place. I think they wanted to do something simple; like elope to Las Vegas for a weekend wedding. Instead they picked this Shediac holiday.

With Paula's help they found an "officiant" in Moncton (they flew into Moncton) who would conduct a wedding service at a place of their choosing. We had thoughts about having the wedding on some beach but ended up having it at our AirBnB which overlooks Shediac Bridge and the bay. The officiant did a lovely service which actually brought tears to both Kate and me (can't speak for anyone else).

For the service Kate got to be Sam's "Maid of Honor", I got to be Barry's "Best Man", Paula got to be the ring bearer and her two dogs, Jerry and Felix, were the "witnesses" I guess. After the service we took photos of the various participants and some funny photos in costumes that Paula had brought along as a lark. We popped open some bubbly wine to share and invited the officiant to share some and come to dinner with us. That story continues in another blog post on the "Witches Crawl".

Witches Crawl, Shediac

 

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After Barry and Sam's wedding at our AirBnB at Shediac Bridge we invited the officiant (who was from Moncton) to share some bubbly and a dinner with us. She said, "Thanks, but no thanks. I have to get ready for the Shediac Witches Crawl." Hmmm.... I wonder what that might mean.

Paula had recommended, and we had made reservations, for the five of us to have a dinner that evening at "Le Moque Tortue". It's an odd little restaurant in a Victorian Era home all decked out in an Alice in Wonderland theme. The Mock Turtle is a character in the story and Le Moque Tortue is the French version. We had been here earlier with Paula for lunch on the patio.

Anyways we were enjoying our dinners upstairs and slowly became aware that the witching hour had arrived as the hubbub increased downstairs. We met a fellow in the hallway dressed up as a Warlock who had come upstairs to find a washroom that wasn't busy. It turns out he was one of the very few fellows on this witches crawl. The women, of all ages, were dancing up a storm, hotting and hollering with a DJ on the main floor and, with a lovely warm evening, even more were drinking, laughing and having a gay old time on the outdoor patio area. I don't know how many there were at the restaurant when we were there, I'd guess about 50 or so, but the streets were busy with even more of them circulating between the bars. I suspect they were up that evening much later than we. They showed no signs of tiring when we left.

We never bumped into the wedding officiant, but then again, if she was dressed up like the others, we might not have recognized her in her witching outfit.

We understand that this is a long standing ticketed event celebrated each year around this time in Shediac. It seems to be an autumn celebration well in advance of the usual Halloween hijinks. See the event description. It was a treat for us and seemed to be great fun for the witches participating.

What's the Poop?

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Our friend Dave O'Halloran (aka What Wave Dave on CHRW) has been sharing on Facebook, with our grateful permission, photos that we had taken of various bands back in the 1980's. This morning Dave writes in 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario group:

"Here's some more Reg Quinton pics, this time it's the What's The Poop Awards from 1988. This was an annual event, late 80's/early 90's held in London ON. The actual awards given out, were what looked like dog poop, painted gold and mounted to a piece of wood or like a trophy as in the pics.

 
It looks like Condo Christ, 98DA and not sure of the band with Jane Colligan and Christine DeVeber in it.

David Clark, Jamie Conyers, Steven R Stunning, Brian McMillan"

I do remember this event but have forgotten most of these short lived bands. I suspect it was Scott (aka Steven R Stunning) who organized things — he was passing out the awards. I'm not sure of the location but I recall a bar on King Street between Richmond and Clarence where it might have been. I wondered in a comment if there would there have ever been a Forest City London Music Awards without What's the Poop? Would London have ever been designated a UNESCO City of Music?

Lori Hamilton Smit commented, "Loved 98DA! Still play their cassette."

And finally, again, many thanks to Dave O'Halloran for sorting through these old photos and sharing them for others to enjoy.