DISPATCH FROM THE SILVER MAYNES
SEPTEMBER 2015
‘The sun
is a-shining to welcome the day. Heigh-ho, come to the fair!” That song –
lyrics by Helen Taylor and music by Easthope Martin – ran through my head as I
flipped hamburgers at the Mayne Island Fall Fair. Helen Taylor’s words are
memorable only for their first two lines, and her invention of a new word:
“a-shining”, and I don’t know who Easthope Martin was. An ‘Easthope’ used to be a two-cycle engine
made in Vancouver for fishing boats, but working on two-cycle engines does not
inspire song. The melody is about a century old (Easthope Martin died in 1925),
but it suits the Mayne Island Fair, and perhaps, at some future fair, the
programme committee will find a bass-baritone to belt it out from the new stage
on the fairground. The Silver Maynes was at the fair and made a contribution.
The Silver Maynes booth inside the entrance to the fairground peddled cold soft
drinks and bottled water. And in the parade was Maxine Holmgren driving her
Chrysler Sebring and beside her, in the passenger seat, was Jill Nolli, dressed
as queen for the day. The three of them, Maxine, Jill and the Sebring, were the
Silver Maynes showing in the parade. So, to all the Silver Maynes members who
worked at the Fall Fair, a warm-hearted thank-you!
The
Silver Maynes fall programme will be getting underway as the trees put on their
multicolored autumn raiment. So far, there is little to report. But keep an eye
on future ‘Dispatch from the Silver Maynes’ columns. This year’s final summer excursion
to Chemainus, to take in the production of “Twist and Shout” in the Chemainus
theatre, was a great success, by all reports. We shall keep up the tradition.
Allan Evans
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