Like any community, Minto has its share of good stories and storytellers. The town is working to keep the art of the verbal tale alive and recently hosted its third storytelling event at the Harriston Library on May 24.
The evening featured stories by Campbell Cork, a veteran radio journalist and author of the Pig’s Ear collection of tales from around the region. Cork shared stories from his books, including several featuring Minto characters and settings.
Local historian Chad Martin told stories of the early days of Palmerston, illustrated with slides of vintage postcards showing the evolution of the town, beginning with the construction of the first log cabin in the area in the 1860s.
“I love postcards. I call postcards a 100-year-old version of twitter,” Martin quipped. “In about 140 characters you could fit a message on a card and it usually had some sort of interesting picture with it.”
Minto Mayor George Bridge shared some stories from the memoirs of his father, Milt Bridge, covering the elder Bridge’s time as a Second World War fighter pilot. Bridge noted he recently donated a copy of the book to the Harriston Historical Society and it is now available in the society’s display room at the library.
Harriston history buff Carol Homuth spoke of a time in the late 1920s, when a small oil drilling operation was set up along the Blind Line at the edge of the town.
“They were drilling with a water drilling apparatus so they weren’t drilling that deep. But they got enough to heat an old shack for the winter,” he recalled.
During the event, the floor was opened up to allow other participants to share their memories of local people and events. Recreation and marketing coordinator Mandy Jones said the event was designed to help preserve an aspect of local history that might otherwise be lost.
“So much of our history is in the stories we tell around our kitchen tables,” she noted.
