Log Cabin a "magic thing"

Clifford Barnard, whose great-grandfather James Scarrow Jr. lived in what is now the Creemore Log Cabin well over 100 years ago, summed up last Saturday’s grand opening event in a beautiful speech, in which he reminded the Creemore residents in the crowd just how “magic” our village is.

“Creemore is a magic place,” said Barnard, who was being supported by his middle-aged son while he spoke. “When I grew up here, there was a train that came in twice a day, and I was there both times to greet it. That was magic. My childhood here was magic. And when I was older and I lost touch with the town, in about 1940, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I come back to visit every chance I get.

“And when Paul (Vorstermans, a Log Cabin Service Board member) tracked me down, that felt like magic, too. And look at this cabin now… really, it’s a magical thing.”

Following that speech and some remarks by Log Cabin Service Board chair Chris Raible – in front of several of James Scarrow’s descendents; Marlyn Shaw, who was the last resident of the cabin, moving out in 2004; and a large crowd of onlookers and cabin supporters – Barnard accompanied Mayor Ken Ferguson as he knocked on the cabin door with a piece of wood. Opening the door was a bearded man dressed in period costume, courtesy of the Dufferin County Museum, and as a fiddler in the crowd started up an old Irish reel as everyone slowly entered the cabin to view the interior for the first time.

Shaw, who piloted his wheelchair up a ramp and into the building, was beaming as he was greeted by many of the village residents inside.

Two days later, Raible and his wife Pat, treasurer of the Log Cabin Board, braved the cold and received trick-or-treaters at the cabin, while candles burned in the windows, marking the first of many community uses for the building in the years to come.

Click HERE to see a slideshow of images from the Log Cabin opening.