Old Ottawa And Bytown Pics | lindaseccaspina

Communicating About History with Humour? — Jim Sharp Comments

“I am not amused!”

Comments From Old Ottawa And Bytown Pics October 2021

Jim Sharp--While we’re talking about Carleton Place families, Bill Findlay and his wife were touring Scotland once and ran into the Queen of England who broke down in her Landrover and apparently was invited for tea afterwards.
David Jeanes-–Hey Jim Sharp I thought from the movie “The Queen” that Queen Elizabeth knew how to fix Landrovers from her work as an army driver during World War II.
Jim Sharp–David Jeanes– Guess she didnt have the right wrench

I have been writing and documenting community history for a very long time with over 6,300 blogs about history. I believe humour is important telling history sometimes, as people seem to remember what is written longer. Everybody knows the tragedy of history, yet, there is no denying that the past is often very funny and yesterday Jim Sharp’s comments on Old Ottawa And Bytown Pics not only made me laugh, but I will never forget the story.

Do we think that serious textual stories are better, more “literary,” whereas maybe something in a lighter fare is for the under educated? If so, then we have a problem. Today’s generations are not interested in facts, and to get them, or a lot of other folks to read about history, it has to be interesting. I don’t know about you but reading traditional text really doesn’t inspire me to want to know more, so I decided to take the ‘vanilla’ out of some history. I mean what would you rather read–

“A faintness came over him, and together with the evacuations his bowels protruded, followed by a copious hemorrhage, and the descent of the smaller intestines: moreover portions of his spleen and liver were brought off in the effusion of blood, so that he almost immediately died.”

Well, maybe that is a terrible example–but today, one of the younger generation would ‘text’ that sentence something like this:

“Hey! That man just %^&* out his internal organs and I will never eat Pigs In A Blanket again”.

What about a local lad who was so popular that the crowd at one of our local Ottawa Valley threw so many various items at him out of adoration that he died of asphyxiation? What will you remember? Pie Winners? I don’t think so. But, interesting tidbits sometimes helps you remember the rest of the story.

Mill of Kintail Road off Highway 28

Of course we all remember Brothel Bertie (King Edward the VII) who probably exercised his prowess around the local Lanark area, including Ottawa. When he visited in 1860 he might have ended dying from bow chicka wow wow when he had a drink at Bennie’s Corners. Apparently, a certain lady from a local Ramsay farm had caught his eye. I don’t know about you, but reading about those “old community spirits” keeps my interests up and makes me want to know more. Read more here-Taking Sexy Back with Brothel Bertie aka Edward the VII

Ice Ice Baby, Ice Ice Baby
All right stop, Collaborate and listen

On the 18th of 1897 Carleton Place was advertising for someone to introduce military drills and exercise in the public schools. For $600 a year the individual they hired was to instill serious discipline into the local school child. It was mentioned that 15 minutes a day plus the occasional ‘polite and necessary’ beating would increase the brain function from all that sitting sideways and slouching forward that a normal child does during the day.

Really? Really?

As Maestro Fresh Wes once said: “Let your backbone slide!”

*McKay Street Bakery to the left of me– Peden’s to the right–Here I am stuck in the middle of Bell Street with you*. Read-Snippets of Bell Street we Should Not Forget ( photo from Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum)

The Central Canadian newspaper wanted the school system to hire Joseph McKay, son of James McKay, Carleton Place Bell Street baker for the position. He rose in his long militia service here from lieutenant of No. 5 Company in the late 1870’s to lieutenant colonel of his regiment at the turn of the century. The Rifle Ranges at Carleton Place were constructed during Lieut. Colonel McKay’s command and the newspaper said it would be hard to find a more efficient man for the position. A no nonsense man I believe was quoted in the newspaper.

**Black Jack Jonathan Randall- Outlander with a little photoshop**

So what else did I remember when I read the newspaper article?

I somehow saw Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Mackay who had risen to Major by that point in time looking something like Black Jack Jonathan Randall from the hit TV show Outlander instructing those Carleton Place children with a snap of his crop.

I don’t think there is a “chance in Inverness” that I will ever forget this story now–nor will you.