A Trip to the Past...

Yesterday was Friday and my goal was to be finished next door by then. Well, I'm pleased to say that I'm about 98% done!! Hurray! I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders... The only thing left to deal with now is the old appliances. Everything else is gone other than a very few odds and ends. There's a big Yard Sale in our area tomorrow so maybe we'll put the last few odds and ends in it and we'll be done.

I "took the afternoon off" and my buddy Sue and I took a little jaunt to McAdam. Now I know those of you who live in my area are thinking "That is a strange destination..." - true, there isn't a great lot in McAdam these days, but I had to pick up a small parcel in Vanceboro Maine, which is just a few minutes from McAdam. In it's heyday during the early 1900's, McAdam was a bustling railway hub, and the Railway Station there is really something to see. It was declared a National Historic Site in 1976, a Heritage Railway Station in 1990 and a Provincial Historic Site in 2004. Built in 1900-'01, and commissioned by Sir William VanHorne, the 285' long structure is a combination of Gothic, Baroque and Victorian styles and was modelled after a Scottish castle. The second storey has nine dormers. The restoration is ongoing, but many areas are complete and we enjoyed a walk through, seeing such things as the telegraph office, the waiting room (originally it was the men's waiting room - the ladies had a seperate more elegant waiting area), the dining room and lunch counter. Originally the station included a CPR Railway Hotel with eight and later 17 guest rooms. These first-class, five star accomodations catered to an upper class of travellers, and the diningroom with it's white linens and fine china featured elaborate menus. Most of the hotel furniture and dishes were not original to the McAdam Station- they came from the CPR Royal York Hotel in Toronto - whenever the Royal York was updated, the old furniture and dishes were sent to McAdam. The Lunch Counter, at the west end of the Station, was used to serve light meals and snacks to hundreds of passengers daily. During the heyday of the Station, lunch counter staff had to be ready to serve breakfast to upwards of 1200 passengers, arriving mainly from Boston and Montreal. Fed here as well were many soldiers passing through on the troop trains headed to the coast during the First and Second World Wars. Anyone desiring dessert could enjoy a slice of one of ten different types of "Railroad Pie" that this lunch counter was famous for. We were disappointed that we could not have lunch here... The Station even contained a Jail - one holding cell for anyone found violating train rules- such acts as thievery, debauchery or vagrancy!

I couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic, imagining the excitement and "romance" of a trip by train in the early 1900's.... when McAdam enjoyed the golden age of the railway....

Piece,

Linda

The joy is in the journey, not at the journey's end...