Callander, Ontario was formerly known as North Himsworth, but the mayor remarked that no one knows where North Himsworth is, so the name was changed to Callander. I don't know how much of a difference the name change made, but I do know that the Dionne quintuplets were born just outside of Callander in 1934, just a few years before this card was sent. They must have been a big sensation there at the time, but the sender didn't mention them. His mind was on other things.
Callander currently has a population of approximately 3,300. When this postcard was sent, there were some good fishing spots nearby. May still be the case. There's supposed to be a good supply of Walleye at Lake Nipissing.
The message on the card, sent to Mr. and Mrs. Delbert Cain on August 18, 1937 reads:
Dear Folks,
Pulled in to North Bay early this evening. 688 mi Hoping to catch a lot of fish. How did you like her looks?
Nephew
Ervan (?)
I like the formation of UFOs hovering...or maybe the UFOs are higher up, and what we see is just their guano being disposed of, from far above.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the people who were already well aware of the place and its name were annoyed when it changed. Nowadays we'd be considering the cost of all the administration, signs etc to make such a change.
ReplyDeleteI love the "Welcome to Callander" sign. It's indicative of the pride of a small town, small enough that a single main road passed through the community.
ReplyDeleteI see you do have a postcard with a sign.
ReplyDeleteLisa, they don't seem to worry about the costs of name changes here, or the inconvenience to people. About a year ago they changed the name of a +/-8 mile long street, about 2 miles of which has commercial frontage, so not only did residential owners have to notify everyone of their new address, the commercial owners had to get new business cards, etc. Think the city gave them some sort of stipend for that? Guess again... At some point here in Portland they changed north/south streets from names to numbers, probably to make it easier to navigate as the city grew, but the old names are still stamped in many of the original concrete sidewalks, which is an interesting historical record.
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