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Golden Prairie School Closes

When I was in Grade Two my parents moved from their farm in southwestern Saskatchewan to the village of Golden Prairie where my father was the elevator agent for Federal Grain. I had taken Grade One at a one-room school a mile and a half from our farm. The farm was only seven miles from town (we called it a town) and my father was able to farm and raise cattle as well as run the elevator. When I was in Grade 12 my parents returned to the farm and built a new house.
I had been the only student in Grade One in the rural school. As a result of moving to town I was able to attend what to me was a very large school. We had two grades in each room, with approximately fifteen students in each grade. I competed Grades Two to Ten and Grade Twelve there, but went to an even larger school – Maple Creek, population of 2,000 – for Grade Eleven.
I have returned to Golden Prairie for several reunions – and once to speak at the High School Graduation. My message to the graduating students ('Leave for a while, continue your education, then consider your alternatives') was not accepted with great enthusiasm by some of the students and parents.

Golden Prairie School closed on July 1, 2006. There were only twelve students left at the end of June. I presume that they will be bused to other schools in the area.
I knew that this would happen someday but learning about it was a bit of a shock. Villages like Golden Prairie have declined in population over the last forty years. Most of those living in Golden Prairie now are seniors and oil field workers.
My grandparents were attracted to the area because they were offered free land. It was short-grass prairie, with low annual rainfall and periodic droughts. Wheat grows well most years – but the prairie is not always golden and farming is not as profitable as it once was. As roads were improved people went further and further to shop, and many moved to other rural areas or cities. Stores closed. Young people left.
The town now has 67 people living in it, according to the last census figures on the internet. It seems strangely peaceful and quiet. Prairie grass and caragana trees are taking over abandoned lots.
The last time I visited the town I saw two people and six deer: and somehow that was okay.
But I'll miss the school.

Used Books On the Internet

In the Letters section of today's New York Times Alfred Glossbrenner, an author, suggests that the used book market on the internet is having serious effects on the earnings of authors and publishers. He uses, as an example, John Updike's latest book which had an initial print run of 150,000 with a list price of $25. According to Glossbrenner he can buy a used copy of the book from Amazon, pay a shipping cost of $3, then sell it again for nearly what he paid for it, thus being able to enjoy Updike's prose for approximately $3.
The cycle continues. The book is sold again and again while the author and the publisher were paid for only one book.
Glossbrenner suggests that in future no more that 10,000 copies of any book will be printed and that they will circulate through cyberspace ...'like a sparking cloud, a veritable Van Allen belt of books.'

Art and History At The Shelburne

'You don't happen to have a 49 inch belt, do you? It's strange how that size is still used in modern machinery.'
I had just entered the Print Shop at the Shelburne Museum, in Vermont, where the gentleman who asked that question was fitting a somewhat worn belt on an old Linotype machine. I responded by saying that if he had asked me yesterday I might have been able to help but that I didn't have one with me at the moment.
We chatted about the history of printing and how various local companies had supplied the old but still functioning printing equipment in the Print Shop. I had stopped at the shop after after asking my wife and two young grandchildren to meet me at the Museum Store, knowing that I was more interested in printing than they were. We had already enjoyed several rides on the 85 year old carousel, visited an exhibition of Georgia O'Keefe paintings at one of the galleries onsite, and toured the restored Ticonderoga, a 220 foot ship that was built in 1906 and served Lake Champlain ports in New York and Vermont until 1953.
Shelburne Museum is described as '...one of the nation's finest, most diverse, and unconventional museums of art and Americana. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in a remarkable setting of 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the Museum grounds.' The Museum covers 45 acres. While one can walk from building to building there is a small bus which stops at key locations throughout the grounds. Some of the buildings were built in the early 1800s, while others are modern. The art owned by the Shelburne ranges from traditional American quilts to paintings by the French Impressionists. Other exhibitions include New England weather vanes and modern furniture by designers such as Frank Gehry.
Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888-1960), an early collector of American folk art, created The Shelburne Museum. She purchased not only the art work but the historic buildings as well. She also bought the Ticonderoga and had it transported to the Shelburne site. She created not only a museum but an educational experience for people of all ages.
I left the Print Shop, wishing that I had more time to chat about Linotypes, paper trimmers and the history of small newspapers in Vermont. The Print Shop resource person, like the other staff members at the Shelburne, was excited about his job, eager to talk to visitors about his area of expertise and about the history of the museum. I promised that I would drop in the next time that I visited the Shelburne. I still had a lot of sites to visit.
Institutions such as the Shelburne Museum are part of a mature and healthy society. Those who have had significant wealth and have created such institutions for their fellow citizens deserve our thanks. In some countries museums like this are funded by government: but government would never have created anything as eclectic as the Shelburne.
We'll be back.

Excellence in Publishing: Books on Photographers and Photography

I love to visit bookstores, at home and abroad. I also enjoy visiting libraries to learn about books which are published locally. I'm in Burlington, Vermont, home of several fine bookstores and libraries. Thus far I've visited two Borders stores (one large downtown store and one mall store) and a large Barnes & Noble store. And, yes, I've bought a book or two.
I'm fascinated by the types of books that publishers choose to publish: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, photography, business, current events, biography and natural history. Obviously in the market served by the stores in this city each of those categories has a strong following.
Excellence in publishing includes the choice of books, the quality of editing, design, production and marketing. Publishers in the USA have a large market to serve but they also have a lot of competition. This apparently benefits the consumer since the books produced in this country tend to be high in quality and relatively modest in price.
New England publishers, and American publishers in general, publish high quality photography books, books that deal with famous photographers and regional photographers. Many of these photographers produce or have produced primarily black and white images. I read and collect such books and always buy at least one on most of my trips to the USA.
I bought Harry Callahan: The Photographer At Work several days ago and have been reading it and enjoying the photographs a few pages at a time. The book is published by Yale University Press in conjunction with The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson. It's a comprehensive look at an important and fascinating artist. It's also a fine example of the art and craft of bookmaking. The prints in the book are well reproduced, vibrant, full-range black and white images. No short cuts. Nothing lacking. It's a large hardcover book, 192 pages, with 227 tritones and 20 colour illustrations, and it's a bargain at $50 US.
Photography books, like many art books, will continue to be published in paper form, at least in some countries, because there is a significant market for them. Owning a high quality photo book is not quite as enjoyable as owning original photographs by famous photographers, but it comes close, as close as most of us will get.
While paper photo books are or can be wonderful products there is also great interest and logic in using the electronic media to publish photographic material.
Last week the Drumlummon Institute of Helena, Montana, published Drumlummon Views, an extensive, high-quality online publication which includes poetry, fiction, reviews and a portfolio of excellent photographs by David Spear. This PDF journal (276 pages) focuses on Montana and its writers, poets and photographers. The photographs are easy to view since one can change their sizes easily. E-journals and e-books of photographs will allow more photographers (and other creative people) to publish and distribute their work.
If you're interested in photographic books stop by Photo-Eye Gallery and Bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico. While I recommend a real visit to Photo-Eye and Santa Fe, a virtual visit will also be interesting. The bookstore stocks virtually all of the new photo books on the market and provides considerable information about them in their newsletter.
Photo books, be they paper or PDF, allow us to learn from photographers, their photographs and the essays which accompany them.
We can revisit these books years later and then pass them on to others, just as we do with our own photographs.

Viewing Canada Day From the USA

It's July 1, Canada Day. When I was in school it was called Dominion Day, but in the small town in which I lived it was known as the Golden Prairie Sports Day. Sports meant baseball, not softball. Baseball played with wooden bats, not those metal BLOs (bat-like-objects). How can one take baseball seriously when the sound of the 'bat' hitting the ball is a clank rather than a crack? On prairie 'sports days' teams from surrounding areas competed for modest prize money and the rest of us went along to eat hot dogs and pie served by the local United Church Ladies Aid and the 4H Beef Club.
Today I'm spending Canada Day in the USA. Burlington, Vermont. Just 40 miles south of the border. I'm watching Peter Mansbridge talking about The Canadian guitar, which was created from a canoe paddle owned by Pierre Trudeau and various other products from across Canada. It will be used by various Canadian musicians as they travel across the country. The program on this guitar will be broadcast several times today on CBC today. Interesting, but not enough keep me watching television on this fine day.
The Governor General is giving her Canada Day message as I write this. She talks about visiting parts of the country she had not been familiar with until her appointment. Most of us have not seen all of Canada, but most of us have seen more than she had before she assumed the role of GG.
Stephen Harper is now giving his message. I love remote controls for television sets.
What television, particularly CBC television, does best on Canada Day is to take us to towns, cities and villages across Canada so that we can see and hear how people from all parts of this country feel about it. Politicians come and go: some are leaders, some are not: but they all offer something unique. However, Canada is the land and the people and the interactions amongst them.
I commend Governors General who want to learn about this country and who contribute to it during their tenure and after it. I admire those who serve the public as politicians, public employees and military personnel. But today I want to see and hear about ball tournaments on the prairies and Canada Day celebrations in Newfoundland.
I'd like to see fireworks tonight (from a respectable distance, thanks) and raise a glass to Canada, mon pays. There will be fireworks here in Vermont and across the US on the evening of July 3. I guess that's close enough.
I will toast Canada tonight: but only after I toast my wife, Merle, at a restaurant in downtown Burlington. This is our 39th wedding anniversary: and, yes, we were married on Canada's 100th birthday.
Vive le Canada: and have a great day.