Harbourville celebrates Diamond Jubilee

While Harbourville somewhat disassociated itself with the coming Diamond Jubilee of Confederation, the people were nevertheless going to celebrate the first of July in due and proper manner, owing to the fact their Board of Trade had taken the matter in hand and, as a committee, had been very busy in arranging for that proper celebration. Naturally, there would be a host of visitors to the shore who would bring their families and their lunch buckets and picnic on the beach and elsewhere, but there would be a whole lot of them who would want something more.

The board of trade arranged a tentative program of water sports, the tide being just right for the whole afternoon and well into the evening so there would be motor boat races, sailing races and a handicap race between the yacht “Nyanza,� owned by Capt. J. B. Morris, and the auxiliary sloop “Bohemia,� owned by Capt. Ed Curry. Capt. Morris would depend entirely on his sails, as he would sooner sink his handsome yacht then disgrace her with an engine. Capt. Curry, on the other hand, had the privilege of using engine and sails and anything else he could use and, even at that, Bloom Morris expected to win the race. If the weatherman gave the right kind of wind, the race could be very interesting.

A lot of work was done to make the village look good. Lawns and flowers were well cared for and never looked better. On the Shore Boulevard, west of the public square, Ben Bezanson had all his bungalows in good condition and had even gone so far as to number them. This would make it easier for visitors to locate their friends.

Visitors were informed they would be very late getting home because they would not want to miss seeing the enormous Jubilee fires going on along the Cumberland County shore. Fires on this side were burning at Blomidon, Wolfville, Canning and Kingsport.

When it was all over, Canada had celebrated its Diamond Jubilee, and even Nova Scotia was good-hearted enough to join in and help to make it one gala occasion. Even Harbourville, where Confederation hit its death blow, having practically nothing left except its magnificent scenery, unknown outside of a radius of 50 or so miles; forgot its grievances and made things so pleasant for the hundreds who spent the day in that village, they would want to come again.

The flags were all flying, but that old crank up at Seaside Park would not half-mast his flag after he said he would, explaining he did not want to put a damper on the enjoyment of their visitors. It was prominently noticed he did not fly the Canadian Ensign, but had the Dominion coat of arms removed from it and red bunting inserted so he flew the British flag instead of the Dominion.

The weatherman, deciding something had to be done to counteract the excessive heat over in the Valley, arranged it so they had an occasional lovely spurt of fog roll in that cooled things off, without spoiling the day for the visitors. However, he went back on his word as far as a sailing breeze went, and so the yacht race had to be struck off the program. Every boat on the shore was busy giving their 1,000 or more visitors’ trips on the Bay.

There were probably nearly 500 cars parked wherever a car could be placed and it was noted that there were but very few high-priced cars. They were the old-timers, mostly old-fashioned touring cars. That explains why Harbourville and every business interest in it had the best Dominion Day they ever had, because everybody had real money and were not afraid to separate themselves from it.