Musical Night a Success

The theatre at River Valley Middle School was full to capacity on Friday night (Feb 15-08) for the community celebration of our musical heritage. The Grand Bay-Westfield Heritage Committee lined up a stellar cast of local performers to entertain the crowd. The varied program included everything from young Elvis impersonator Edward Mitchell from Harbourview High School to the popular country and bluegrass sounds of Reg Gallant, Jerry Cormier, Allison Inch and Murry Sheils to the impressive and powerful voices of the Saint John Men's Chorus. In between we heard performances on piano, traditional folk songs, original songs written about the area, step and highland dance demonstrations and much more. I'm not going to single out an individual performance because they were all terrific.


As the MC for the event I introduced the evening by saying it reminded me of something that could have happened in the community back in the 19th century. In fact I invited the audience to pretend they had arrived by horse and sleigh, a wood fire was burning in the front of the hall and they had all come for a night of musical entertainment provided by their friends and neighbours. That used to be the only way to enjoy music before the days of radio and digital players. That analogy worked for me especially when all the performers and the audience, accompanied by Bertis Sutton on the piano, all sang together 'Back to the River St. John'.

It was a great night. Hope you enjoy these photos all taken by Diane Bormke.

Music of the People

Heritage takes many forms. It's our history and our beliefs. It's old buildings and museums. It's the way we lived our lives in the past and still do today. Our heritage is also found in our culture. Part of that culture can be found in the music we make and enjoy.

Years ago, before radio and records and digital anything, music was sung and played by family and friends. It was performed live and people would gather together to enjoy their own special style of music. Making live music in a community setting is rare today but it's happening tomorrow night (Friday, February 15) in Grand Bay-Westfield. It's a show featuring our own local performers in honour of National Heritage Week and it's called 'Music of the People'. The concert is free and hosted by the Grand Bay-Westfield Heritage Committee. It starts at 7:00 pm in the River Valley Middle School theatre. I'll be the MC of the show and a canteen is being provided by the Home and School Association. Here's the lineup.

Piper – Donna Nason

DVD – Video of NB Heritage

Reg Gallant, Jerry Cormier, Allison Inch & Murray Sheils

Allison Inch and Rhonda French – Step Dancer

Doug Losier and group

Noah McCormack on the piano and with his teacher Trish Sennett

Mary Rose Daigle on guitar and piano

Edward Mitchell – Elvis impersonator

Jordan Fisher – Piano

Harbourview Choir

INTERMISSION – Canteen courtesy of Home and School with proceeds to assist with new playground at Westfield School

Piper – Donna Nason

Janna Sherlock – Piano and Song

True North True – Beth Palmer, Lorne Blagdon and Doug Kelly

Brandon London

Bertis Sutton – Piano and Song

Kaitlyn Greer – Highland Dance

Laura Sennett Piano

Erin Boudreau
Saint John Men’s Chorus

Bertis Sutton and Audience – ‘Back to the River St. John’

It promises to be an evening of great entertainment. Hope to see you there.

Sick of Storms and Flooding

It's been a miserable day. The snow and then the rain, especially the rain has made a mess of everything. You know I love the snow and winter but another storm every second day is getting difficult. The torrential rain has nowhere to go because of the ice and snow and it's pooling in all low lying areas. The result is flooded streets. I've never seen as much water on the roads as I've seen this afternoon. In Saint John the bottom of King Street was flooded and smaller cars that stalled while trying to get through the axle deep water were left abandoned. Here in Grand Bay-Westfield parts of Woolastook Drive were under water. River Valley Drive by Scholtens turned into a small lake and the highway coming into town had some dangerous sections because of all the pooling of water. I know people are dealing with flooded basements too. It's a mess and it's probably going to get worse because the rain is supposed to continue into tomorrow. The drive into the city is going to be fun in the morning. Be careful.

The Return of the Rambler

The Rambler is back. After taking a break for the last few months the River Valley Rambler has returned from retirement. It made sense to end the Rambler at the time because most of the content in the column concerned outdoor activities. At the same time I was launching a new column, blog and podcast called Doing Stuff Outdoors so I decided to focus exclusively on outdoors content. It's worked very well. The Doing Stuff Outdoors program and blog is now heard and read by people all over the world. I invite you to check it out at doingstuffoutdoors.com.

But the demise of the Rambler column limited my ability to write about the local River Valley area. Sure there are plenty of outdoor related topics to write about in this region but there are also many other interesting and important things going on. I felt constrained restricting the column to only outdoor content. At the time of the change the River Valley Rambler blog reverted to postings of previous columns from years past. I was surprised to find that quite a few people still checked into the site regularly at RiverValleyRambler.com. Something else happened that encouraged me to bring back the rambler column in this paper and in a new and expanded web site. The popular Bay Info web-page dealing with community events and news shut down at the beginning of the year leaving this area without a regular web presence. At the same time people were telling me they missed the old River Valley Rambler. We're also heading into an exciting and busy period for Grand Bay-Westfield and the surrounding area. Development seems to be happening everywhere and there's a municipal election coming in the spring. The time is ripe for the return of the Rambler along with a redesigned web-site. The Doing Stuff Outdoors column will remain as a source of information about outdoor activities and will alternate with the Rambler column in this paper. But the exciting and interesting content is what I hope will develop online.

I'd like the new RiverValleyRambler.com site to fill some of the gap left by the closing of Bay Info. It has provided a valuable service to the community and I thank the producers of Bay Info for their efforts. RiverValleyRambler.com will continue mainly as a blog providing readers with a collection of thoughts, comments, reflections and ramblings about life in the River Valley area of New Brunswick. It will also contain posts of some of the old columns that have proved popular with some readers. I will endeavor to post new content and photos as often as possible. This is new material in addition to the regular column you'll find published in this paper. But for that to be successful I will need your help. I'd like to fill the site with useful and interesting information and stories about life in this community. That's where you come in.

If you have a story suggestion send it to me. If you've written a story about a person or an event happening in the area send that along as well. If you have birthday or anniversary wishes to pass on or community news of any kind send that too. I'm looking for all sorts of local content. If you have some great photos of the area, old or recent, send them too and we'll find a place for them on the Rambler site. If you know of something interesting going on in the community let me know about it and we'll pass the information along. In addition to photos and text, I'm planning to include video and specialized audio content on the site as well.

More than anything else I'd like the River Valley Rambler to become a place you visit on a regular basis to find out more about your community. I'd like you to be able to go to it often and always find something interesting, entertaining and useful there. But for this to work I'll need your input. I can't do it all myself.

The River Valley Rambler has a new email address. Send your stories, suggestions, community events and photos to rivervalleyrambler@inbox.com and check out the new site at RiverValleyRambler.com.

Disappearing Trails

(This is a column recently published in the River Valley News. It should concern everyone who enjoys the outdoors in this area. Contact me at rivervalleyrambler@inbox.com)


I was skiing along one of the local trails recently when I met another trail user going for a walk. We chatted about the weather and soon the conversation turned to the changing face of the backcountry this winter. We both commented how logging operations and the plowing of some roads have cut off access to some of our favorite trails. On parting the walker suggested that if this continues we may soon have to drive to Rockwood Park in the city to get access to the outdoors. Those comments have remained with me as I've explored more of our informal trail network in the Grand Bay-Westfield area. Given what I've seen so far this winter, I fear there may be some truth to those comments.

The clear cutting is everywhere. Trees are being downed right to the edge of long time back county trails and roads that have been used by people for generations. The logging equipment and trucks are tearing up the roads, making it impossible to ski on and difficult and even dangerous in places to walk. I haven't heard complaints from ATVers and snowmobilers but I'm sure the cutting is having an impact on their enjoyment of the outdoors as well.

A major cutting operation is underway over at the four corners by the ball fields at the end of the Britain Road. The forest on both sides of the trail is leveled for a considerable way. By the old Grand Bay dump and off the Mitchell Road a new logging road extends far into the forest. The old ski trails behind the Westfield Golf Course are long gone, swallowed up in clear cuts that now extend toward the highway. This isn't a new cut but I was skiing there the other day and lamenting over the loss of that trail system. It was the only wooded trail actually made for non-motorized use in this area. One of the most popular trails around here is what some call the Backland Road beside the Golf Course. It has also seen a lot of cutting this fall and the loggers have kept the road plowed through the early part of the winter. Plowing of course makes it almost impossible to ski. Further along the trail just past the Spencer's Camp property, a new road has been cut through the woods. It doesn't look like your typical logging road because it's considerably wide. The most troubling aspect of this road is that it cuts right across the existing trail to Loch Alva. Hikers, skiers and snowmobiles have used this trail for many years. The new road chops it in half and blocks it entirely with an eight-foot ditch across the trail. ATVs and snowmobiles now have to detour to Spencer's camp to get back on the trail. Skiers and hikers can still take the old trail but must negotiate this huge ditch to get through. It doesn't seem right that a road can be built right across an existing trail like that. My skiing companions and I have explored that new road. It continues for some way and actually has two branches. I don't know who built it or why but I don't think it's a logging road. My guess is it's for a new subdivision sometime in the future. Either way, someone went to a lot of trouble and expense to build a road that right now goes nowhere.

During our explorations of the area we discovered evidence of some peoples total disrespect for other peoples property and for the environment. I hadn't visited Spencer's camp for years but the place is in ruin. Some thoughtless people went through the property and broke every window in every building. Windows and doors were forced open and ripped off the hinges. Nothing escaped the vandalism. Whoever is responsible for this had to work hard to inflict that kind of destruction. What a wasted effort.

It's also sad seeing all the garbage left around in the outdoors. Out by Belvedere Lake we came upon a spot littered with empty beer cans and bottles. They had just been tossed and left there. This was at a trail intersection and the evidence points to thoughtless snowmobilers or four-wheelers. I can't understand why people would do that. I know most hikers or skiers would never even consider leaving their garbage strewn about like that.

So even though the skiing was great, these incidents took away a little from the enjoyment of the outdoors. Given what I've seen so far this winter, especially in relation to clear cutting and trail access, perhaps it's time to consider some kind of trail plan for the Grand Bay-Westfield area. We're blessed here with a backyard full of some of the most beautiful country you'll find anywhere. But that access and the woods themselves are disappearing quickly. Maybe we need a designated trail system and some kind of protected area. We should at least start thinking about it because more and more, access to outdoor recreation plays a significant part in attracting and keeping people in a community. It really would be a shame if we had to travel to the city to enjoy the outdoors.

Christmas Greetings

(This is a column originally published for Christmas in 1992. Hope you enjoy it and may you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2007-08)


The Christmas spirit touched me early this year and I'm not sure
why. Normally I don't think much about the holiday until it's almost
here but this year is different. I found myself humming Christmas
music weeks ago and I keep day dreaming about, of all things, going
for an old fashioned sleigh ride. I've never been in a horse drawn
sleigh in my life and yet there I am, at least in my imagination,
riding through the woods and over the hills toward a far off village.
I can hear the jingling sleigh bells and feel the cold on my cheeks.
It's like living in a Christmas card. This is strange behavior for
someone who tends to be a little like Scrooge at this time of year.

You see I love Christmas itself, I just don't like all the fuss
and planning and hype that goes along with it. I'm uncomfortable with
the Christmas buying frenzy that's underway now and I feel the holiday
has become much too hectic for most people. And yet, I still find
myself in this mysterious Christmassy mood.

Even the Christmas chores, as I call them, couldn't destroy the
seasonal spirit that's infected me. Putting up the outside lights is
always a miserable job. They're tangled, bulbs are missing and it
takes an hour of fiddling just to get them working. In my wisdom this
year I decided to put them up the day of our first big snow storm of
the winter. My fingers were frozen, strings of lights decided to stop
working just after I placed them at the very top of the tree. These
are the joys of Christmas. It was a frustrating afternoon but you
know once the job was done and the lights were sparkling in the trees,
that darn Christmas feeling came back again.

I probably shouldn't be feeling this way. The last few months
have been difficult and painful for a lot of people. More then ever
before, I've seen the toll this damn, never ending recession is taking
on peoples lives. Times are tough for everyone and many families are
just scraping by. Others are dealing with sickness in the family or
the death of a loved one. For many people there isn't a lot to be
happy about this holiday season.

Maybe that's why Christmas seems so special this year? Maybe
it's just the tonic we need to help us get through these difficult
times. After all, isn't the magic of Christmas partly about sharing,
and caring for others and hoping for a better future? I think it is.

Yes, I'm looking forward to the holiday this year. I guess the
spirit of Christmas has really worked it's magic on me. Who knows,
maybe those Christmas Card sleigh rides of my imagination will turn
into the real thing. I have to go. The tree still has to be
decorated and I think I hear sleigh bells.

Merry Christmas.

Allen's Wall

(This is a column originally published in November, 1992. As far as I know, the wall is still there and still a mystery.)


It's not every day you go on an archeological expedition to the ruins of an old fort. It's even rarer if that fort is in your own backyard. But that's what happened one day this past summer on the Kingston Peninsula. Allen Gorham lead an expedition of sorts to the site of an old rock wall he's known about for years.

"When we were kids we came down here to play and look for Indian arrow heads and cannon balls and stuff." Allen says laughing, "Of course we didn't find any because we didn't even know what an arrow head looked like. But I've been told all my life that this wall is part of an old French fort."

The wall or fort or whatever it is stretches for about 200 feet through the woods at Gregory Point, just below Crystal Beach. It's about four feet high and three feet thick in most places and is made of field stones and boulders. It stands about a hundred feet from the waters edge, where the river bends and flows toward Westfield and Grand Bay. It's been here for a long time and yet few know of it's existence. But that could change.

Allen Gorham invited a special guest along on this expedition to the wall. He's Dr. Chris Turnbull, the Provincial Archeologist. Chris had heard about this rock structure before but never seen it. He was getting excited as he followed Allen along the beach and then through the woods toward the site. Dr. Turnbull has done this sort of thing before. He often gets asked by people to check out something on their property or an unusual structure they know about. In fact some of the most exciting archeological sites in the maritimes have been discovered this way.

After a careful examination of the wall, Chris Turnbull admitted he's never seen anything quite like this before. "The problem is that forts usually aren't just simply long walls like this, they're small enclosed areas." he said. "And French forts in particular are usually very small structures." He believes it's of European origin because native societies generally didn't build rock walls like this but he can't understand why it would be built here.

"Archeologists of course deal in probabilities and it certainly is a rock wall, it was put together by people for some reason but as to exactly when and for what reason we'd have to undertake some digging along here to uncover some artifacts." said Dr. Turnbull. "People have been living in a disposable mode for a long time and that disposal is the stuff we use to date things."

This expedition has been a great success for Allen Gorham. He's been assured by the expert that his mystery wall is indeed authentic and historic but to find out any more is going to take some digging both in the ground and in the archives. And Dr. Chris Turnbull promises this will happen at some point but he can't give Allen a date. That' OK though. The wall's been here for many years. It and Allen can wait a little longer.

For now this stone structure is being officially called "Allen"s Wall". "I'll go for that." Allen says with a hearty laugh. "I'll finally have something named after me."