Wanted   Do you have a passion for antiques and collectibles - and writing?   The Wayback Times invites you to submit freelance articles for use in print and on our new web site.   E-mail your text submissions to The Wayback Times.   Articles published in The Wayback Times since 1995 have covered a wide range of interests, from Golliwoggs to toy VW collecting, and from collecting insulators to hunting old books.   Most authors of our online selection of articles have included their e-mail addresses and they are always delighted to hear from other collectors.

Ad Rates / Articles / Classified Ads / Editorial / Home / Links / Showtime   Memories of rural Quebec   List Della Walker Next   In Della's Day Memories of a rural Quebec hamlet and antiques   By Della Walker I grew up in a small hamlet in Quebec's Gatineau hills during World War Two. Lumber was the area's main source of "ready cash." The area did not get electricity until the late 1960s and, except for a very few whose vehicles were used for essential services, motor vehicles were not commonly seen.   Daily life was much like it was during the 19th century, when farms produced what food was needed, with the excess sold to local general stores or bartered for other necessities. Most homes were handed down from the area's early settlers, complete with furnishings and utilitarian items.   Poverty was the norm and things did not get thrown away until they were worn beyond use. Bread was made every second or third day, mixed in large wooden dough boxes and put in a draught-free place for the first rising. Then they were pulled out to be shaped into huge loaves, which were baked in the oven of the wood stove, no matter how hot the day was. Butter churns were used daily to churn the cream that had been put through the separator the day before.   Summer and fall were the seasons for harvesting and canning both domestic and wild fruits and vegetables. The kitchen cook stove was hauled into the summer kitchen. This was not for the comfort of the women but to prevent it from heating up the house. Children were also expected to contribute to a family's well-being. There were gardens to weed, animals to feed, wood to cut, split and stack for the coming winter, and, when in season, berries to pick for canning down - a job for the girls.   Necessities not produced at home were ordered from mail order catalogues and arrived at a train station seven miles away two to three weeks later.It was from this simple country background that I gained an interest in antiques. It began when I was a child, with the items that I was most familiar with. I loved my grandmother's furnishings: she had married in 1903 and bought second-hand furniture from her cousin who lived in Ottawa. At the time, early and mid-19th century items were considered "used" things, but they were special to me. When I was in my grand- mother's home on her farm, I always enjoyed looking at her prized glass, dishes and formal mahogany furniture and considered it a privilege to dust and clean cherished items when spring cleaning time came around.   When I was old enough to get a job in the city, I stayed with family in Montreal. One of my part-time employments was in a pawnshop. This was a few doors down from one of Montreal's few antique shops that specialized in antique items from the Continent and the Far East, which often caught my interest. My first purchase was a vasa murrhina ruby glass vase, with delicate applied lily handles, which I still have. In Montreal during the '50s, such items were found in second-hand stores which would be seen today as antique shops.   The first piece of art glass I bought cost me only 25 cents. I continued to collect art glass, buying from homes, auctions and yard sales and I've always purchased what has appealed to me, never really focusing on any specific type. It might be a piece from an archaeological find or a maybe Victorian whimsy. In Montreal during the 1950s, antique collectors were considered to be, at the least, an eccentric group of people. It was the Canadian Centennial celebrations in 1967 that generated a keen interest in the general public's awareness of our material heritage.   Antiques became status symbols, but this created a dilemma. When our ancestors came to this new land, they brought with them the conception that status was determined by having the means to acquire the newest material goods. Having to use old items inferred poverty and inherent laziness. A solution to the dilemma came with readily available furniture refinishing products, and numerous articles on how to adapt old items for modern use. We could then have old items in our homes that looked new and fresh. In the early 1960s, I'd had enough of city life and moved to a country home outside of Ottawa. There I learned to appreciate Canadian country furniture from Philip Shackleton, and, remembering the items from my past, I decided to go and buy around the area where I grew up. This formerly self sufficient countryside community was experiencing radical social changes. The young people were no longer willing to eke out a living as farmers and lumberjacks. They were moving elsewhere to make a better living, leaving aged relatives at home, knowing that various forms of social assistance would care for them. Many of these elderly residents were either dying or vacating the hopelessly outdated cold-in-winter, hot-in-summer, insect-ridden log homes for newer town residences. Those who moved often left furniture and other items behind in their abandoned shacks and barns, or they would sell them for whatever they could get. That may sound like paradise to a collector or a dealer of today, but retail prices were considerably lower then. Refinishing was a must if decent profits were to be made.   As an example, I would pay $2 for a good butternut chest of drawers in original finish or overpaint and sell it for $10 to a dealer. The dealer would then re-finish it, price it at $40 and sell it for $25 to $35. If I finished the piece myself, as I often did, I could get $15 to $20. Items the dealers did not want were put into auctions and at other times when we knew that dealers were overstocked, we would just put the pieces directly into sales.   Then, as now, fashion ruled. The style of the day was to put a flax wheel in the picture window of your bungalow, a wool winder in a corner beside a wooden dashstyle butter churn, and to drill holes in either pottery jugs or glass demi-johns to make lamps. Other desirable items of the time were ladderback chairs (until many owners realized how uncomfortable they were), large wide-mouth crocks for use as planters, spool couches, chests of drawers, dry sinks and back-to-wall dish dressers with glass doors on top. Washstands, pitcher and bowl sets were among the most commonly desired items. Primitive pieces, like oxen yolks, wooden rakes and grain shovels were all very popular as were other items such as barn lanterns and farm or school bells. Of course, many of these things are still very popular now and more difficult to find. Victorian furniture was very sought after and far more popular then than now.   It was from these early beginnings and experiences that I evolved into a collector, then a picker and finally an antique shop owner. Return to top of page   This Is Livin' Publishing © 2010 581 8th Line West, RR1 Hastings, ON, K0L 1Y0 Phone/Fax: 705-696-1833   webmaster