President Adrian welcomed all to our meeting, in this, the 59 th week of our 18 month Anniversary “Year”. He mentioned how great it was for the club to be able to meet in-person last week for a regular club meeting for the first time in over 14 months. He encouraged members to join us for our next in-person event, a tour of Catlyst137 on August 29 (see below).
Howard Pell is delighted that his latest book, a novel this time, is at the printers and that it should be ready for the August 31 Waterloo Bookfest at Waterloo Square. Many other local authors will be present as well.
Bill Proctor was happy that after a lengthy pandemic delay he and wife Judy and friend Margaret were able to take a sightseeing plane ride flown by fellow Burlington Rotarian John Stairs last week. Judy purchased the flight, with the proceeds going to the Rotary Foundation for Bill’s 70th birthday back in 2019.
Russ St. Louis was happy to report that his daughter and family recently flew to Vancouver and that none of their luggage was lost!
Marissa Watkins was happy that she was recently able to host an actual in-person meet and greet for clients. The event was at the Smokehouse in Kitchener (Bridgeport) which Marissa highly recommends.
Catch The Ace
Last week's winner Bradley B. chose Card #15 revealing the Five of Hearts. He won the weekly prize of $798, our largest weekly prize in this round of Catch the Ace. But still no Ace of Spades so the grand progressive pot of over$21,000 is still up for grabs and only 13 cards left.
When you buy tickets you have a chance to win the weekly prize and if your card is the Ace of Spades you will also win the Progressive Prize. The next weekly draw is on Thursday August 18th. The deadline to get your tickets as always is Wednesday at Midnight.
Don't forget that you have to purchase a ticket the week of the draw to qualify for both the weekly and progressive jackpot!
When you play
Catch the Ace not only do you have a chance to win great prizes but you also win by knowing that the net proceeds will all be going to
KidsAbility.
Tour of Catalyst137
Out next club “outing” will be our club meeting on August 29 where we will tour the Catalyst137 complex in Waterloo beginning at 5:00 p.m. Following the tour, those who wish to, will gather for dinner in the adjacent Graffiti Market Place restaurant. For full details and to register or decline please go to:
Online Auction
Neil Swayze reported that our Online Auction fundraiser will be getting officially underway in September and members will be receiving their information package soon. Members are asked to start thinking about reaching out to past donors and to consider who might be new donors.
Our speaker today was a local historian and author, providing some highlights from her book Waterloo You Never Knew. She was introduced by Betty Bax.
Joanna Rickert-Hall is a social historian whose research interests include local settlement history, myth, magic and folk medicine. When not teaching or researching elsewhere, Joanna works as the Weekend Coordinator at Joseph Schneider Haus where she facilitates at historic workshops in period costume where you may find her baking bread over an open fire, making traditional Mennonite foods or just telling stories.
Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century, Waterloo, Ontario, could be any small Canadian community. Its familiar histories privilege the “great accomplishments” of those who built the institutions we know today: industry, government, and education. But what of those who were marginalized, weird, and wonderful — real people who lived between the boundaries of mainstream existence?
Waterloo You Never Knew reveals forgotten and little known tales of a community in transition and reflects on those lives lived in infamy and obscurity, by choice or design. Meet the rumrunner, the ex-slaves, and the cholera victims, the grave-digging doctor, the séance-loving politician, and the sorcery-practising healer.
In the 1830’s travelling Circuses and Menageries were quite popular, but, unfortunately, in 1834 they brought Cholera to the area with devastating results on the community from Galt to Berlin:
- One fifth of the area’s population perished
- Many within 48 hours of contracting the disease
- Left many orphans, widows, and widowers who also had families
- Eradicated? Nope. The disease still kill 100,000 people each year
As towns developed and grew there were more people and more “problems”, not unlike today, and areas of “social” governance, regulation and containment/remediation became more important to address:
- Poverty
- Mental health issues, drug and substance abuse
- What to do with the sick: Illness and hospitals (epidemics like cholera or Spanish flu in 1918-19)
- Crime- committed against property and people
- Homelessness—especially children (No local orphanages until 1896)
The solutions at that time included:
- The Gaol (some people would intentionally commit petty crimes so they would be put in the gaol where in would be dry and warm and where they would receive meals)
- The Waterloo County House of Industry & Refuge aka the “Poor House”
- Life on the streets included children
- Some entered servitude or the military
- Sadly, some died, from “misfortune” and others, by their own hand, out of desperation
Other stories included the tale of Dr. Christ, who was a grave robber, selling cadavers to support his family; the prevalence of Spiritualism and séances with follows such as Prime Minister Mackenzie King and local artist Homer Watson; and the curious case of Christian Eby a “Charmer” who practiced “alternative health” methods involving sorcery and astrology.
Joanna was thanked by Howard Pell. Her book is available at Words Worth Books in Waterloo
