In the summer of 1953, Dad, Mom, Merritt, Bob and I took a trip to the Maritimes to raise money and recruit students and prayers from Believers in that region for ENC. Up until 1964, when Mt Vernon Nazarene College and Canadian Nazarene College was formed, the Church of the Nazarene Canadian districts that supported ENC included Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes. ENC’s total educational zone also included New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Northeast Ohio, Delaware, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Each summer, student musical groups – male quartets and ladies trios – toured the entire zone. However, since Dad was President, he was able to substitute his family for our tour. Note that brother Ed was at that time touring with another ENC quartet, so missed our trip.
Basically our “quartet” included Dad on lead, Bob on First Tenor, Merritt on Baritone, and me on Bass, with Mom on the piano. However, as part of each service, Mom and Dad sang a duet, “I’ve Discovered the Way of Gladness”, and I played the piano for that.
Our 3-week tour began in central Maine: a Sunday morning/evening in Milo and Dover Foxcroft, followed by a two-hour drive to Jackman Station, all on Maine route 6. Note that this trip took us through Monson (the starting point for the AT 100-mile wilderness walk) and Greenville, on the shore of Moosehead Lake (I remember seeing a steam locomotive there), and then later along the shore of Long Pond. This was definitely into total wilderness to a 13-year-old Me.
Jackman Station was basically a border town, with the frontier into Quebec just up the road. The Nazarene Pastor’s wife, Eileen Albright Lockhart was was a great athlete at ENC, and after graduation had participated in some kind of women’s professional baseball league. I remember playing “catch” with her on that trip. I remember thinking that Jackman Station was even more rural/remote than Waterville, Belvidere and other tiny places in Northern Vermont.
Once done with Jackman Station, we made a 300-mile trip to St. John, New Brunswick, crossing the border at Calais, ME/St. Stephen, NB. In the leg of the trip from Bangor to Calais, we traveled on the “Airline”, Rt. 9, so-called because it was quicker than Rt. 1. It also had almost no towns, and was the area of Maine where Dad used to go deer hunting with his friends.
The only thing I remember about St. John was the hype about a “reversing waterfall” where the St. John river flowed into the Bay of Fundy (where low-tide, high-tide differentials reach 50 feet). However, the view from a high-level bridge was under-whelming, to be sure. Of course right here in Quincy we have our little “reversing current” at the Quincy Shore Drive bridge over Black’s Creek, flowing “in” or “out”, depending on the time of day, and the Moon.
I also remember that the Nazarene church in St. John was very small.
Our next stop was in the area of Moncton, NB, where there are two fairly spectacular sights/experiences: Magnetic Hill, and the Tidal Bore, where the tide comes rolling in like a small Tsunami wave, twice a day. Both are “must see’s”.
We had three services in the Moncton area on Sunday: Moncton (AM), Humphrey (Afternoon) and St. Lutes (PM). St. Lutes is where Magnetic Hill is located. To a 13-year-old kid, it was AMAZING! And some people said that it cured “…” (you name it). The other memory of Moncton is that one of the church members drove a steam engine for a living, and we were given a little ride in the Moncton train yards. What I remember most was the really scary fire that appeared when the coal door was opened to add more coal (and hopefully not me!).
Leaving Moncton, before going over to PEI, we stopped off at Springhill, Nova Scotia, a coal mining town on the top of a hill. One of the pastor’s sons was an ENC student, Howard Tatrie, but he had a younger brother “Newt” who we visited with. I think he had had too many blows to the head. He was a real “trip”. He drove us boys around town in his large car, tooting his horn, and overall being most impressive. He took us to the entrance of the coal mine, and we could see workers going in and coming out. I immediately wanted to not go in there! We didn’t. The Tatrie house as I remember wasn’t even on a street, it was just in a field, with other houses randomly situated. The “wild west” for sure.
Note that 3 years and 5 years after we visited, there were mine disasters, the second of which ended the existence of the mine.
Following our service in Springhill, we headed back into New Brunswick, and the ferry to PEI at Cape Tormentine (now abandoned). Today, there is now a long bridge to PEI, but then only a ferry. And the ferry was huge! There were even passenger railroad cars riding along!
Once in PEI, it seemed a little more upscale than where we had been on the trip. We had a service in Summerside, where the pastor was family friend Joe Williamson; his Dad was a Nazarene General Superintendent at the time, and was formerly President of ENC during World War II.
Next up to Elmsdale, the largest Nazarene church we visited. I also think we went to an ocean beach nearby.
The big issue with PEI is the red soil. Everywhere. Most unique.
Before heading down the island, we had a service in O’Leary, which had the appearance of a “wild west” town; off the main road, a straight one-street town with a few shops, houses and a church.
From there, it was to Charlottetown and the Anne of Green Gables estate. I was bored beyond human endurance, but realized I was supposed to be impressed. So I cheated and pretended to care.
My big challenge was to convince Dad to not drive back to the Cape Tormentine ferry, but rather take the Wood’s Island ferry to exactly where we needed to go next, New Glasgow, NS. So he accepted my suggestion, and we headed in that direction. However, there was a long line, and we were the first car to not get on the ferry. But as I remember, they re-parked a car or two already on the boat, and made room for us. Was I relieved!
At New Glasgow, we stayed with the Stanford family, Warner, Iris, Eva, etc., all ENC students in the coming years. We also visited a nearby steel mill, where they made axils for railroad vehicles. It was most impressive, and very LOUD! From there we went to Middleton, passing through Windsor along the way. I remember seeing boats sitting on the mud about 50 feet down in a canyon. When we came by a day later, they were right at street level! Low and high tide!
At Middleton, we stayed with the Boates family, on a farm. 13-year-old Tom would eventually come to ENC and be a Chemistry major like me and Bob. But while we were there, we kids had the famous “bean fight”; all these barrels of beans, and we had two teams, and pelted each other with the plentiful beans. It was great fun, but a colossal mess! Most embarrassing to Dad and Mom, and Mr. Boates seemed rather upset.
I believe our last service was in Windsor, as noted above, located on an inlet from the Bay of Fundy. We closed the tour down with a visit to the District Assembly in Oxford. The one thing I remember was on the road to Oxford, Merritt was driving, and became transfixed by a fly inside the car on the windshield. We came close to leaving the road, but didn’t.
I remember absolutely nothing about the trip back home. Maybe because it was actually to Waterville?
Here were there places we DIDN’T visit, but might be worth it:
Cape Breton Island, NS – look at some YouTubes of it. If you have the time, probably worth it.
Halifax, NS – the biggest city, and the Hobsons (Ted now lives in nearby Mahone Bay)
Beulah Camp (Brown Flat, NS) – Where Ed and Carol, John and Mary Young (Park Street Church), and other Maritime Christians go each summer. It’s on the St. John River. They apparently have 30 pianos in the Tabernacle. Of course, the Hobsons have had a cabin there for many years. Just North of St. John by 30 minutes. Or exactly 500 miles from Hearthside.