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| Courtesy of Old Home Week Commission |
Note: The following article was published in the Saturday, August 24, 2010 issue of The River Region Reporter, a Fredericton-based community newspaper that was discontinued in October 2010. The Shiretown Blogger has added pictures to certain parts of the article for your interest, and has edited the article to represent this year's Old Home Week festivities.
Woodstock Old Home Week
The town of Woodstock is delighted to be hosting the 64th Annual Old Home Week festivities from July 29 to August 6, 2011. Old Home Week is among the largest tourist attractions in the Saint John River Valley. Its popular activities provide endless entertainment to people from far and wide annually.
The inaugural Old Home Week was held during the last week of August 1948. Mr. Frederick O. Creighton, Woodstock's mayor at the time, had the idea for one week of numerous events. A Charter Member of the Woodstock Rotary Club, local entrepreneur, and community volunteer, Mr. Creighton's idea gained support from the Rotary Club, and Old Home Week became a reality. For its first two years, the Rotary Club led the organization of Old Home Week until the annual festival had grown too large to be handled by a single group. As a result, organization from that point on would be assisted by the local Y's Mens Club, Elks and Lions Clubs, Royal Canadian Legion branch, and other interested individuals. To this day, Old Home Week remains a large community effort.
From its founding in 1948 until 1967, most of Old Home Week's events took place on Island Park, a tear drop shaped island which sat in the middle of the Saint John River, at the mouth of the Meduxnekeag River. With approximately 100 acres of space, Island Park was home to nearly every recreational facility before the permanent flooding of the island by the Mactaquac dam headpond.
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| Woodstock Island Park. Photo courtesy of Sharon Beck. |
Road access was provided by a ramp leading off the halfway point of the Grafton Bridge, spanning from King Street to Grafton from 1884 to its demolition in 1970. A large exhibition building stood on this island from 1919 until its destruction by fire in 1946, being replaced shortly after.
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| A 1919 artists' sketch of the Island Park Exhibition Building. Photo courtesy of the LP Fisher Library Archives. |
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| Exhibition building fire in 1946. Photo courtesy of LP Fisher Library Archives. |
A horse racetrack and a grand stand were also on the island. From around 1920 to the Second World War, the island had a miniature railroad. Built mostly by municipal worker Albert Wort, the miniature railway was another favorite attraction in its day. The hockey arena and community swimming pools were also located on the island from the 1950s onward. In 1967, despite major disappointment and even protest, the Island Park's facilities were relocated to the present Connell Park to make way for the raising of the Mactaquac headpond. The new park provided improved parking along with better, more modern facilities, aside from the sadness left from the loss of Old Home Week's site for its first two decades.
A parade has always occurred on the Sunday of the week and is a great way to help kick off the festivities. The first parade was held in conjunction with Old Home Week's beginning in 1948. At the time, this inaugural parade was considered to be one of the best of its kind to happen in Woodstock in a long time, as it was the first to happen after the Second World War. Many local businesses, service clubs and individuals entered floats in the parade—a tradition that continues today. The 2011 parade occured on Sunday, July 31st. It is now organized by the Woodstock Rotary Club and is a must-see annually.
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| Old Home Week Parade a few years ago. A midway has attracted reasonably large crowds to the Woodstock area since the days of Old Home Week on Island Park. This attraction consists of several carnival rides along with a number of canteens to satisfy the hunger of visitors. When the fair happened on the island, rides were provided by the Bill Lynch Organization. Later, the King Reid Company brought rides until the 1974 return of the Bill Lynch shows. Today, the popular rides are courtesy of Campbell Amusements. 2011's fair will open on Tuesday, August 2nd and close on Saturday, August 6th.  |
A hobby show has played another part of Old Home Week's success at one time. Many dedicated volunteers helped make it a go, but as the years elapsed, they either passed on, aged or lost interest. The once popular hobby show hasn't occurred for a few years due to a lack of volunteers and popularity. In its heyday, the Old Home Week Hobby Show regularly hosted displays of local craftspeople and gardeners, along with exhibit booths of local businesses. One individual, Hazen Craig, was a volunteer who dedicated his life's worth of time and effort to the hobby show. Partly responsible for the show's success, Hazen unfortunately passed away in 2009 at the age of ninety-four. Old Home Week and the town of Woodstock owe Hazen a tremendous amount for his assistance in his share of Old Home Week's prosperity.
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| Photo courtesy of Old Home Week Commission. |
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| Hobby show booths in the exhibition building on Island Park. Photo courtesy of LP Fisher Library Archives. |
Several other events have joined the long list of Old Home Week's events and have become annual fixtures. These include a fiddle contest recently named in memory of its founder and long-time local radio announcer Walter Tompkins, a horse pull, gospel concert, dairy show, antique engine display, harness racing cards at the horse racetrack, a children's parade at the Carleton Civic Center, a 4-H agricultural achievement show, a road race named after former Woodstock educator and Boston Marathon participant Joe McGuire and a demolition derby. Events like these will help ensure the continued success of Old Home Week.
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| Joe McGuire Road Race around 2008. |
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| Joe McGuire Road Race around 1991. Photo courtesy of LP Fisher Library Archives. Originally a fashion show called the Miss Upper Saint John River Valley competition, the Miss New Brunswick pageant has been an annual and popular event at Old Home Week for five and a half decades. In 1955, a trophy was donated to the Old Home Week commission to be awarded to the young woman who would be crowned Miss New Brunswick that year. At age eighteen, Marion Corey, originally from Southampton, received the inaugural Miss New Brunswick crown. Now married and known as Marion Kirkpatrick, Marion moved to Woodstock in 1961, where she continues to reside today. She still holds fond memories of many aspects of her experience, and she shared them during a 2010 interview. “In those days, the ladies needed a sponsor from their community as part of participating in the pageant. The Town of Woodstock asked me to come, so they ended up being my sponsor,” Marion recalls. “The pageant took place on Island Park. On the island, a building stood in the center of the old horse racetrack where we dressed and prepared. The Island Park grand stand was full to capacity. Being on the island surrounded by water made for a very nice, outdoor atmosphere.” |
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Marion Corey after being crowned the first Miss New Brunswick in 1955.  Marion Kirkpatrick in 2010. On May 5, 1997, as a result of high fears of no pageant that year, Sandra Hudson took over as pageant organizer. “We weren't going to let the pageant be cancelled, so this is what we felt was the right move,” Sandra recalls as she heads into her thirteenth year as pageant organizer. Without any prior knowledge about a commitment like this and on short notice, Sandra managed to bring the pageant off the verge of cancellation and make it a success. “I took this on knowing absolutely nothing about organizing a pageant and with only two months to prepare it. We made it a go and it went well, as it has every year.” Sandra also feels very joyful about being able to inspire the young ladies and let them come to a beautiful community like Woodstock for this experience. “Its very nice and rewarding to see all the young ladies come from across the province and have such a great time. We try not to focus on beauty but personality, poise, talent, intellect, and the experience. When they come out, they look to have earned just that.”  Sandra Hudson Sandra Hudson has also been President of the Old Home Week commission for two years, along with having a position on its board for a decade. A local entrepreneur and avid community volunteer, Sandra credits the nature and location of Woodstock and all the dedicated volunteers for Old Home Week's success. “The whole community supports it, though we could use more volunteers. It is important that the younger generation gets involved because our population is aging and they will be needed to help Old Home Week continue to prosper. We are a border town so we get visitors from the United States over here for the annual festivities.” Since the early 1980s, a demolition derby has attracted more than reasonable turnouts. Held in the center of the horse racetrack in Connell Park, this popular event is now co-chaired by Emily Hull and Neal Porter, and is largely sponsored by the NAPA Auto Parts retailers in Woodstock, Nackawic and Florenceville-Bristol.  The competition consists of three to four heats and cars are classified into front and rear-wheel categories. The participants in this must-see attraction entertain the large crowd with the noise of roaring engines, banging steel, smoke, dust and colorful cars. Safety is always considered in events such as this, and all drivers make every effort to ensure the safety of their fellow competitors while having fun and fighting to be the last surviving car and win the ultimate cash prize. As of 2009, cash prizes have been awarded to the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth place winners. The demolition derby action continues rain or shine and is a great way to help bring a week's worth of Old Home Week festivities to a close. Local auto salvage enterprises benefit from the derby action along with the community by providing the service of towing and salvage of the cars.  Because the derby is often held on the final official day of Old Home Week, this is a great opportunity to stick around Connell Park for one last chance to enjoy the rides at the midway. This year's derby will occur on the afternoon of Saturday, August 7th. To finally wrap up Old Home Week until 2011, an amazing fireworks show will be held near the fairgrounds on Saturday night.  Photo courtesy of LP Fisher Library Archives. The creativity and determination of individuals like Mr. Frederick O. Creighton, Hazen Craig, Sandra Hudson, and many others is partly responsible for the continuous prosperity of Old Home Week. These innovative people were able to create, maintain, and help shape an annual summer festival that has continued to attract visitors to Carleton County once annually from far and wide. Old Home Week has been very successful for over six decades, and it looks like it will remain that way for years to come. |
My apologies for the paragraphs looking a little unclear and for some of the white borders around the pictures taking up more space than expected. We had a few technical difficulties with this post.
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