Old Macdonald Had a Farm - Post 4

I can’t keep pace with Marti’s Montreal Memoirs, so won’t even try. This week’s blog is a history lesson (lots of photos!).

As some of you know, we moved out of our small, on-campus residence hall apartment last week into a spacious five-bedroom home in the small village of Beaurepaire (pronounced “Bo repair”), only a 10 minute drive, or 20 minute bike ride from campus. More on that later.

Before sharing about our new location I should first review the last location, the McGill Macdonald Campus and campus of John Abbott College. Yes, there are two colleges co-located here. AUTHOR’S WARNING: Those of you not too interested in  history, etc. can look at the pictures provided and skim the text (just like when you were in college), and hope I post another Marti’s Montreal Memoirs Bonus Blog soon.

Until 1971 McGill Macdonald Campus was known as Macdonald College. Sir William Macdonald, born 1831 on Prince Edward Island – died 1917, was a Scots-Quebecer tobacco merchant and major education philanthropist in Canada. He made his fortune during the U.S. Civil War with tobacco shipped to Canada from the Southern States by selling it to the Northern States. He contributed vast amounts of his tobacco fortune to McGill University, paying for many buildings, even paying faculty salaries during a time of low budgets. Hello, Warren Buffett.

He is particularly close to my heart because, when the university's engineering building burned down - which he had originally paid to build - Macdonald paid the costs to rebuild it.

In 1904 Macdonald made his largest gift and purchased three farm properties in an area on the western end of Montreal Island known as Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. On the 300 acres he planned and built Macdonald College, an agriculture training institute. Hello, East Campus, UNL.

Constructed in 1905-06 and opened in the fall of 1907, the facility's entire construction and furnishing costs were funded by Macdonald, who also provided a $2 million operating endowment. Hello, 2014 dollars.

Named President and Chancellor of McGill University in early 1914, Macdonald also provided funding to create McGill University College of British Columbia which ultimately became the University of British Columbia. (background information courtesy or Wikipedia)

Selfie with Sir William Macdonald

Former Macdonald College center piece building

Building of John Abbott College

There you have the history of one campus I was living on, and the following is the modern history of that same campus. While the university here is called McGill Macdonald Campus, it is really not located in the original facilities of the former Macdonald College. Stay with me here.

Those buildings (see pictures) are now used by John Abbott College, a junior-college-type public college that post-high school students are required to attend here in Quebec. There are eight English speaking and many French speaking colleges. Started in the 1960's it is a unique system, even for Canadian provinces. After high school, all students spend two years getting either a technical school degree or a university preparation degree. If they choose the university path they then register for university, which is only three more years. Hello, increased graduation rates.

Facilities of John Abbott College

First modern building on John Abbott campus. First opened for 2013-2014 school year.

This public subsidized college has little or no tuition fee – it’s about $200 per year, yes, per year. (financial background for tuition cost courtesy of a former teacher at John Abbott who now sells hand-crafted soap at the Ste. Anne Farmer’s Market – in her retirement.)

That’s it. If you are still awake I can share with you the one inside story I know about Sir

William Macdonald. He was a life-long bachelor, however, when he died he left a large portion of this fortune to his secretary’s wife. Yes, to the secretary's wife. Macdonald’s personal secretary, as was common in the 19th Century, was male. Macdonald left the fortune to the secretary’s wife, which in today’s scandal-mongering culture, raises some eyebrows. A portrait of the secretary’s wife hangs in the break room in the Bioresource Engineering Department where I am working, not in the Dean’s office.

Bonne Journee,

Tom

The wife of Sir William Macdonald's personal secretary.

 

Memorial hutch to Sir William Macdonald housed in Macdonald-Stewart Hall where I am working. Includes his top hat, gold watch, Knighthood Medal, and more.

Bonus Blog: Marti’s Montreal Memoirs - Post M1

Every forgotten raincoat has a silver lining…

I took off for a hike in the cemetery last Thursday.  That would be the HUGE Notre Dame Cemetery on Mount Royal. Today's history lesson:

The Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery was founded in 1854, is over 340 acres and is the largest cemetery in Canada (3rd largest in North America) with more than 55 kilometeres of lanes and one million people interred. The Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery site has over 65,000 monuments and 71 family vaults.

Do you understand now when I say HUGE!! And that's just the Notre-Dame des-Neiges Cemetery, which is primarily a French-Canadian Catholic cemetery.  There is also the adjacent Mount Royal Cemetery which adds another 165 aces with over 162,000 interments, which is primarily English-speaking Protestants.

But I get ahead of myself as I never actually made it to Mount Royal for my day long outing.....I forgot to look at the weather forecast.  The sun was shining and I had my backpack loaded with my camera - check; water bottle - check; map - check; bus/Metro pass - check; money - check; sunscreen - check; phone - check; apple - check; granola bar - check; raincoat...nah; umbrella ....ha!

I got on the bus and did what everyone does - plugged myself into my iPod.  45 minutes later I was riding the Metro subway system. I popped out of the ground like a gopher at Metro station nearest Mount Royal to find the sun had been overtaken by a rather nasty storm front while I was underground.  I reached for my phone to text Tom to ask him to check the radar for me, but just as I found it in my loaded back pack, it 'ding-donged' with an incoming message alert....it was Tom asking, "Did you remember your new $$$ raincoat?  Raining hard here".  My reply was simply, "Ahh...The sun was shining when I left!"  I could hear him roll his eyeballs......

As I saw very dark clouds approaching and heard thunder, I decided not to walk the half mile to the cemetery...I needed Plan B.  And then I saw it.  It's hard to miss St Joseph's Oratory, so when I caught sight of it in the looming clouds, I headed that way.  Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, (French: Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal), is a "Roman Catholic minor basilica", but it looked rather 'major' to me. It's Canada's largest church (capacity over 10,000 and 2,400 of those get to sit!) and the dome is the third-largest of its kind in the world after the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.  Pretty major company!

A lot of other people without raincoats were scampering to Saint Joseph's, so my new best friends and I started the self-guided tour in the 1st level 'Votive Chapel'.  The first impression is of the warmth and the smell of 10,000 votive candles.  It instantly makes you slow down (not easy for me) and take it all in.  In addition to the candles and the many statues, is the tomb of Brother Andre (Saint Andre Bessette).  Brother Andre built the first chapel in 1904, but the congregation quickly outgrew that space. There were several expansions; 1908 and again in 1910.  But they needed something bigger for the ever growing congregation, so began the construction of the basilica.  The basilica is dedicated to Saint Joseph, to whom Brother André credited all his reported miracles. These were mostly related to some kind of healing power, and many pilgrims (handicapped, blind, ill, etc.) poured into his Basilica, including numerous Protestants. On display in the Votive Chapel is a wall covered with thousands of crutches from those who came to the basilica and were allegedly healed. Pope John Paul II deemed the miracles to be authentic and beatified Brother André in 1982. In October 2010 Pope Benedict XVI canonized the saint.

The sanctuary of the basilica has an art deco feel - very different from the Notre Dame Basilica in Old Montreal.  I attached a few pictures, but my photography doesn't do justice.  I walked around and took pictures, I sat and read, I sat and meditated, I sat and prayed.

Meanwhile, it was still raining hard.  I went to an observation deck and watched the rain and wind in the treetops.  There was a lady there who was obviously not from Nebraska...."Look at that tree blowing!  I think it's a tornado!".....not even close.

I had read all the English displays and decided to make a break for the Basilica Cafe and Gift Shop across the parking lot.  Being a good duck, I didn't mind getting a little wet.  I enjoyed a cup of soupe poulet et nouilles (sounds better in French) and waited out the storm.  About the time I finished the soup, the clouds cleared and the sun returned.  As I walked around the outside of the basilica, I noticed a trail tucked in the woods, up the hill. There were only a few other people hiking this trail as it was steep.  I followed it to find a fantastic trail with the 12 Stations of the Cross - all with larger than life stone sculptures. It was beautiful...and offered a beautiful view of the west side of Montreal.....I half expected to see a rainbow

When I was finished, I walked down, down, down the stairs to the entrance garden and noticed the statue of Joseph holding an infant Jesus.  The inscription said, ITE AD JOSEPH.  As all you Latin buffs know, that means 'Go to Joseph'......good idea on a stormy day!

It was time to go, but first I found a wonderful bakery (I may never bake bread while I'm here - they do it so well!) and then stopped at an outdoor market for fresh produce.  I loaded up my shopping bags and went back into the gopher hole to head home.....

Every forgotten raincoat has a silver lining.

Posted with permission from Marti Franti

Observations of a Budding Quebecophile – Post 3

Well, folks, it’s time for the long awaited “observations of a Quebecophile” post. I love Top Ten lists, but doubt I can put together that many poignant observations (yet), so will provide below an undifferentiated list, and let you rank them yourself. Here it comes…

 

Blondes have more fun. I mentioned in blog post No. 1 about my realization that I, a natural blonde with blonde instincts (no jokes out there, now), was surrounded by a seaway of brunettes and black-haired nations. Many people in Quebec are French-Canadian so the dark-haired look must come from heredity. To solidify this observation note that brunette is actually a French word. This observation has held true everywhere we have gone. Dark hair rules, except in the older generation. I am still a bit queasy about this, in fact, yesterday at the Farmer’s Market I saw a blonde-haired, Norse looking guy coming down the sidewalk at me and wanted to hug him.

Thin to win. Another physical observation about the largely French-Canadian population here in Quebec is their very good fitness. The thin body-type seems to be as popular as brunette hair. We’re not sure if they are more health conscious, more diet conscious, or just plain more conscious. We’re not sure if this observation holds across Canada, but here in Quebec they eat well and stay trim.

Poutine, what do you mean? This thin and trim fact flies in the face of the first uniquely Montreal food choice we encountered. This dish is Poutine, pronounced like pooh-teen.  It is not high dining, but rather a dish of French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. Ugh. I won’t post a picture of this dish for you. This dish takes the American, “Do you want fries with that?” to a whole new level. If you don’t know what cheese curds are, they look like popped popcorn kernels, small, white, blobs of cheese. So, the Poutine Diet is likely not the one that keeps Quebec thin.

Bike Lanes. Quebecois love to bike, I mean, bicycle, early and often. There is a strong bicycle culture here with many trails, lanes, paths, and even the main road through Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue is a dual bicycle and car route. This particular roadway, Bord-du-Lac, or Lakeshore Drive, has stop signs very regularly – much more often than an American driver would tolerate – which cars, but not bicyclists, must obey (or, if the bicyclist should, they don’t). Cars share the road graciously with bicyclists, even with packs of bicyclists that ride as one. The bicycle club ride is very popular, especially on Saturday mornings, when groups of cloned-bodies of brunettes can be seen in colorful spandex bicycle suits riding down Bord-du-lac like a school of fish migrating up the Saint Lawrence. Despite the roadway courtesy with cars, I have never heard a Montreal biker yell, “On your left” – as we do in the U.S. – as they go streaking by.

French-Canadian Fashionista. Here in Quebec the women dress like they are going out to a fine restaurant and the men dress like teenage boys. These thin, brunette, French-heritage women bring it all. Shopping for groceries in a black, spaghetti-strap dress, with matching heels, walking the boardwalk in the same, dressed for a night at the Opera to attend a picnic. Dresses are the everyday wear of choice for Quebec women. You think I am joking, but I am not. I’m not talking dressed for a wedding, but actually wearing clothes other than blue jeans. However, the men that escort them balance things out. Men typically wear cargo shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals, flip-flops, or tennis shoes. I don’t know how these woman put up with these guy’s poor couture. How to Ruin a Photo 101: Stand By This Guy. One tick in favor of the men’s fashion is they avoid t-shirts with images of skeletons, fireballs, aged rock n’ roll singers, motorcycles, and Mickey Mouse.

Well, I’m not at number ten yet on this list, but I have a few more weeks to go. I’ll stop here for now. I’m off for an afternoon bike ride in my cargo shorts and t-shirt.

Bonne journee,

Tom

P.S. Coming soon...a Bonus Blog: Marti's Montreal Memoirs.