An interesting visit to the Colchester Historeum
The woman who’s all about hockey history
It was an uplifting occasion, visiting the Colchester Historeum recently.
I was immediately greeted and made to feel welcome by Kate Pitcher, the new administrative/ fund development assistant. A Memorial University graduate, Pitcher was previously seasonal curator for the Conception Bay Museum in Harbour Grace, N.L.
I also talked with longtime museum volunteer Stacy Culgin; she was busy working on a project near the front entrance. Making my way to the third floor, I was interested in the upcoming exhibit, A Taste of Science. Administrator/curator Margaret Mulrooney, who planned the exhibit, had agreed to give me a crash course.
As we looked closely at five fair-sized modules on display, I wanted to learn more.
“These five modules are each about a different method of food preservation,” Mulrooney said. “For example, water, oxygen, PH – it’s about the different effects they have on food preservation. The H20 is talking about removing water from foods through dehydration including preserving, using sugar and salt to make things like jams and pickles.”
Examining the H20 module closely, Mulrooney explained students can interact by touching the screens to follow recipes and create jams and jellies.
“It’s an interactive exhibit that’s ideal for children and families. It talks about the different ways food is preserved and kept safe for people to eat. We’re currently booking school groups for programs; we have three classes booked to date. The program we’ll be doing is called ‘Heroes and Villains’; it is about good and bad bacteria. We have other programs we’ll be offering as well.”
Besides the five modules, Mulrooney and Ashley Sutherland selected artifacts and photographs from the historeum’s collection to demonstrate further history regarding preserving food in Colchester County.
The exhibit will be on display from Feb. 5 to April 19 and the grand opening will be Heritage Day, Feb 18.
“It will be admission by donation,” said Mulrooney. “We’ll also have a reading by author Sion Irwin Childs – his book is Foxfyre. Things will get underway at 11 a.m., at this point we are still finalizing details for the day.
Mulrooney advised that the present exhibit will be followed by an exhibit celebrating Truro-born opera star Portia White, which will open May 11.
The hands-on administrator/curator has been at the local historeum just over three years, since November 2015.
“I really enjoy my job,” she told me. “I’m just grateful for how much community support we get as an organization. I’m really excited about the new types of programs we’re offering.”
There were no slapshots and no flying pucks when I visited the Colchester Historeum late last week. There was a dandy hotstove league session though with Gladys Otterson, when we faced off near centre ice.
As is sometimes the case when meeting up with Otterson, she had a little something to give me. ‘The woman about hockey history’ passed me a 74-page outline on early-day Truro Bearcats hockey.
It was uniquely hand written, glancing through the first few pages; a catchy paragraph read, in part: “It was called Allan Cup fever, it had begun to sweep through the Maritimes in 1928 after Truro Bearcats made a gallant but unsuccessful attempt to reach the pinnacle of amateur hockey in Canada.”
Otterson explained she had worked on such a hockey project a number of years back with Kay Purdy, daughter of Bill Flemming, the well known Truro businessman who built the Flemming Arena.
Together, we glanced at a souvenir hockey program from when Truro TSN Bearcats won the Allan Cup in 1998; a book, Four Seasons, With Truro Jr. Bearcats and another, The Dream, The People and The Game, an official 1998 Allan Cup commemorative edition commissioned by the Wilson Fuel Company of Truro.
Otterson, who was employed by Wilson’s, helped with the book.
“I remember going through some old microfilm,” she recalled. “I also looked through old sport pages. Gerry Hale did a lot of work on the book; Gerry actually wrote the book. Dave Wilson helped a lot as well; of course, Dave was George Wilson’s son – his father played on
the 1925 and 1926 Truro Bearcats, the Maritime Hockey Champions.”
Following further reminiscing, I tried to thank the outgoing 43-year historeum volunteer. It had truly been a very interesting discussion.