Culture and History

I want to know everything. Knowing I’m not immortal to see the future, or able to create a time machine to look at the past and the future… bothers me. How can I ever be satisfied when there is so much I don’t know!

Of course, the more I find out about the more I want to know. Knowledge is bottomless, endless and I will run out of time long before I run out of viable brain matter, and that bugs me.

The future is out there. I can see some of it, imagine more of it. I look at what we have and try to deduce what will come. Without immorality or a time machine, that’s the best I can do.

History is alive in our words, our traditions, our beliefs and our lifestyle.

This is about retro science, utopias, spirituality, traditions, the pioneering spirit, the paranormal, science fiction, survivalist theories, folk tales and vintage ideas.

I enjoy history. But, so many people think it is dull when you present it as a topic of conversation. I think they are assuming history is all about long winded tomes in the library under attack by dust bunnies and cobwebs. History is right now, each second passes into history. History is how we can see into the future.

There are 60 posts filed in Culture and History (this is page 1 of 6).

Woodstock Ontario Dundas Street Looking West Valentine Sons Postcard 1907 | eBay

Woodstock Ontario Dundas Street Looking West Valentine & Sons postcard 1907

Source: Woodstock Ontario Dundas Street Looking West Valentine Sons Postcard 1907 | eBay

Invasive Reed in Ontario

Phargmites, also know as the European common reed, can be seen throughout Simcoe County and has become a particular problem for communities along the shores of Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay.

Source: Fight against invasive reed slowly taking root in Simcoe County

The House in Ballantrae

I know this house in Ballantrae, Ontario. I’ve never been inside, or even closer than looking from the street. There is another similar down the road but far less looked after. This house is a local treasure, to me at least. I found it on a card sold via Etsy today. It doesn’t seem to say who the artist is, might be easier to see on a larger size. Or, I could ask the Real Estate Board. But, mainly, I like seeing the house drawn as it is now. Who knows how it will be in the future. Nothing lasts forever, but houses aren’t always so lucky with being maintained. I hope this one stays lucky a long time.

These are vintage cards produced by the York Region Real Estate Board. They feature a print of a hand-drawn sketch of buildings located in Ontario.

Source: Vintage Cards of Ontario Buildings Blank Interior With | Etsy Canada

I Love a Good House

            If my life had gone differently in my earlier years I think I would have become an architect. I love buildings and all the trimmings. I’m still trying to teach myself all the right names for the parts of buildings. I go out and take photos of old buildings, mainly derelict farm houses here in Ontario. I also like going to the main street of a small town or city and looking up. That’s where you see the fancy parts of old stores, homes and banks. Most of the old parts below have been renovated away.

Maybe I never would have been a great architect. I like the old stuff too much to make the modern looking type of building with more right angles than curves and more sensible and practical elements than elegant columns, gargoyles and gingerbread trim. It would be hard to design something just to stand there rather than to pose there.

I am still very attracted to anything building/ house related. Art with houses draws my eye. Even fiction about a house stops me long enough to at least skim it. The old woman living in a shoe caught my imagination from a young age. How did she live in that shoe? Did she use the laces to cool the house off in winter and then tie them up tight again to keep warm in winter? How did she put a roof on the shoe, was the sock still around to be stuffed over head? Did she make the eyelets for the laces into windows? Did she put the door back at the heel where it would have been strong but had that higher step down or somewhere else? So many questions. Living in a shoe didn’t seem that appealing all things considered.

I’d rather live in a castle, except I’d like a much smaller and cosier version of a castle than a real castle. A castle like Dr. Who’s Tardis, bigger on the inside than the outside could work well. Like the Tardis, no one ever seems to need to clean it either.

I have drawn my perfect house. It was harder to pick the location than the decide on what I wanted inside the house. But the harder part still was to limit myself to less rather than more when it comes to how the outside of the house will look. There are so many great old things that could be added. Small like old iron doorknobs to huge like a dragon sculpture taking up a large part of the garden.

I enjoy drawing unusual houses. I’ve drawn the shoe house. I’ve drawn a house made in a teacup. I’ve drawn a plan for how very small people would live in the standard sized world. I’ve drawn magical houses for elves, fairies and of course dragons too.

There is something special about a house, any building really. People make them, plan them, live and work in them. Keep them. Repair them. It’s saddest of all when a place is abandoned and left to the elements. There is a mystery to the abandoned places. Something time and people forgot. I never feel they are creepy or haunted. just sad and yet still dignified and majestic in some way. We give a house a power by it’s creation and everything we put into it beyond that point. You can’t just lose that when the house is empty. It’s there, right in the very design.

I think I would have been an amazing architect.

Killing Art for Politics

            Demolishing art (and architecture) bothers me. The history does not go away, but the art does. Losing art and architecture due to changing politics is not a good thing.

How will people in the future understand the past if it is all whitewashed?

In a letter to the Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers, the signatories advocate for the removal of monuments to Christopher Columbus, J. Marion Sims, and Teddy Roosevelt.

Source: Over 120 Prominent Artists and Scholars Call on NYC to Take Down Racist Monuments

8 Strange Historic Jobs – Weird Worm

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Chances are you don’t love your job. If you’re like most people, you have to get up in the morning and sit in front of a computer for hours compiling excel sheets or answering phone calls. However, an average 9 to 5 job is heaven compared to some of the peculiar, dangerous or simply stinky jobs that people had to do in the past. Here are some of the weirdest jobs anyone ever had on their resume.

During the 1600’s in England, educating the future king created an interesting problem. Since the monarch’s blood line was considered divine, teachers and caretakers couldn’t punish the young prince even if he acted like a brat. The solution was obvious: get another young boy to take the punishment instead of the future king, hence the job of Whipping Boy.

These scapegoats were usually chosen from the children of the nobility and educated along with the prince, living in the same quarters and playing together in their spare time. This meant that most of the time the prince was attached to the whipping boy and avoided doing badly so his friend wouldn’t be punished.

While there is no record attesting how well this worked in practice, we do know that some kings later rewarded their whipping boys with land and nobility roles. If nothing else, the promise that one day you might become a duke would probably keep you going through all those undeserved punishments.

Apparently if you were really bad you got fed to a bear

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Another career option during the 1600’s was the position of dog whipper. This was a church official whose job was to, no big surprise here, whip dogs. The reason for this wasn’t that medieval people hated puppies, in fact the problem was that people loved dogs too much and hordes of stray dogs waiting for food gathered around churches. It was the dog whipper who made sure that these dogs didn’t start barking in the middle of a sermon, and he would chase them away if they tried to attack a well dressed lady.

Part of the job benefits were a free whip, a pair of wooden thongs (useful when trying to remove stubborn dogs) and a small plot of land sometimes known as the dog acre. Some of the downsides were the packs of dogs that could become very angry when someone tried to chase them away. Luckily for everyone involved: as dog shelters became common there was no need for this job anymore.

Well, you don’t see any accountants carved into buildings, do you?

An extremely popular occupation in ancient Greece was that of professional athlete. After all, Greece was the place where the Olympic Games started so it’s no wonder that many young men focused on physical training. However, all these sweaty men needed someone to clean themselves up and we’re not talking about someone to give you a sponge bath. Back in ancient times the way to clean up was by pouring oil on your body and scraping yourself clean. At the end of it all, you ended up with a gross mess of dirt, dead skin and oily mush. Sounds awesome doesn’t it? Well if you were a Gymnasiarch it was your job to deal with that.

Interesting enough, because athletes were in such high regard even this position was seen as very important and reserved for nobility. However, you did get the great bonus of carrying around a large stick and hitting young athletes over the head when they didn’t perform well enough.

Cleaning yourself was different back in the day.

Despite what you’d think after reading this job title, urinatores were not really dealing with urine at all (for the urine related jobs look at the end of the list). The word “urinator” is Latin for diver, which means that urinatores were divers who had two different, but equally important tasks. On one hand they were the first amphibious unit used by the Roman army whenever it was necessary to send underwater soldiers to sabotage ships. On the other hand, when there wasn’t a maritime war going on, urinatores dealt with underwater scavenging.

This was a profitable business as many ancient shipyards were filled with wrecked ships that contained merchandise and other goodies such as locked money boxes. The problems with the job were that diving in polluted waters (yes, pollution was a problem even back then) resulted in many health problems. The bonus was that you got a free air pouch in order to breathe underwater, basically giving you half the superpowers of Aquaman.

Attack squid and boat harps were much more common back then.

Source: 8 Strange Historic Jobs – Weird Worm

Canada is Running Low on Insects

Think of insects as more than creepy crawlers. They each have their function for the cycle of life on the planet. Insects matter. From honeybees to the common fly, they all have a part. This post focuses on insects as bird food. But, that seems less important, unless you are a devoted birdwatcher. Insects are important in pollinating plants, spreading seeds and being plant food too.

When Jeff Skevington’s parents used to take the family camping in Algonquin Park, they needed to stop the car halfway and buy windshield washer fluid because of all the squished bugs.

Source: Canada is actually running short of bugs

A Canadian Pre-History Brief

A Brief History of Canada

Pre-History to 1599
Early Exploration
Introduction
In the beginning, North America and Canada did not exist… at least in the minds of Europeans. They knew of Cathay and of the rich trade possibilities there, but the ocean to the west was a barrier which seemed too vast to cross. When overland trade routes became blocked and the voyage around Africa was found to be long and dangerous, the European nations began to look westward for a shorter journey. Little did they know that they would discover a whole new world complete with its own unique peoples and riches.
This section deals with the discovery and early explorations of Canada and the attempts by both the English and French to settle in and lay claim to the New World. It deals with the first encounters with the Native People and the fragile relationships which developed between the Natives and Europeans, and even among the Europeans themselves. It deals with the development of the fur trade which would effectively change Canada’s history forever.
Note: Clicking following an event opens a New Window containing more detailed information concerning that event. Related stories are linked in sequence.
Pre-History
In Canada, ‘Indians’ are know as ‘Aboriginal People’, ‘Native People’, or ‘People of the First Nations’.
Current archaeological evidence indicates that Natives first arrived in North America 40,000 years BCE (Before the Common Era) by crossing a land bridge which had formed between Asia and Alaska during the latest Ice Age.
— 9000-8000 BCE – Hurons (originally known as the Wendat) settled into Southern Ontario along the Eramosa River (near Guelph). They were concentrated between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay. Most of the land was still covered in glaciers and the Wendat hunted caribou to survive.
— 7000 BCE – The west coast of Canada was being settled and various cultures built themselves around the salmon fishing available there. The Nuu’chah’nulth (Nootka) of Vancouver Island began whaling.
— 6000 BCE – Different cultures were built around the buffalo by the Plains Indians. They hunted buffalo by herding migrating buffalo off cliffs. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, near Lethbridge, Alberta, is the most famous hunting grounds and was in use for 5,000 years.
— 5000 BCE – The oldest ceremonial burial site was discovered at L’Anse Amour on the coast of Labrador containing the remains of a 12-year-old boy. He was lying face-down and a slab of rock was laid across his back. Red ochre had been sprinkled on the back of his head and in a circle around the body. Buried with him were a decorative caribou antler pestle, a bone pendant, bird bones, a harpoon head, a bone whistle, and a walrus tusk. It is unknown what standing the boy had in the community to have been buried in such an elaborate and time-consuming manner.
— 2000 BCE – Inuit arrived by small boats long after the land bridge had disappeared and settled in the Arctic regions.
— 800 BCE – The glaciers had receeded and the weather had warmed. The Hurons had became farmers instead of hunters, cultivating corn which will not grow wild.
— 500 BCE-1000 AD – Natives had settled across most of Canada. Hundreds of tribes had developed, each with its own culture, customs, legends, and character. In the northwest were the Athapaskan, Slavey, Dogrib, Tutchone, Tlinget and Guii’Chen. In the Arctic were the Inuit. Along the Pacific coast were the Haida, Salish, Kwakiutl, Nootka, Nis’ga and Gitskan. In the plains were the Blackfoot, Blood, Sarcee and Peigen. In the northern woodlands were the Cree and Chipwyan. Around the Great Lakes were the Annishnaube, Algonquin, Iroquois and Wendat (Huron). Along the Atlantic coast were the Beothuk, Maliseet, Innu, Abenaki and Micmac. All of them, however diverse, had named the 4 corners of their country: Denendeh, Us-Qui, Nunavut and Kanata.
1000 AD (approx.) – The Vikings
— Vikings landed in the New World and attempted conquest over the Natives in Newfoundland and Labrador. Native raids forced them to abandon their attempts to settle.

1360
— The Church of Rome sent Norwegian Paul Knutsson to reclaim Greenland. Records indicate that Knutsson sailed westward into Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay and then south into James Bay. It is believed that Knutsson travelled inland along the Albany River all the way to Lake Nipigon, north of Lake Superior.
1398
— Micmac legends indicate that a ‘White Man’ (believed to be Norwegian Henry Sinclair) landed in present-day Nova Scotia. Sinclair was told of red-haired, green-eyed men with beards (Lief Ericsson?) who had arrived centuries earlier and taught the Micmac how to fish with nets. Navigation records in Venice, Italy, may substantiate this.
1420
— Basque whalers began fishing off the coast of Labrador.
1492 – Christopher Columbus – New World
— Christopher Columbus ‘officially’ discovered North America but mistook it for the Orient. Landing in the Carribean, he mistakenly thought he was in the Indies. This began a new era of exploration for Europe.
1494
— Spain gained control of virtually all of North and South America through the Treaty of Tordesillas.
1497 – John Cabot – Claiming Canada
— May 2 – John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto Montecataluna), along with his sons Sebastian and Sancio, set sail from Bristol, England, aboard the ship Matthew. Unlike the Spanish, who were concentrating their conquests in South and Central America, Cabot sailed west.
— June 24, St. John’s Day – Cabot went ashore, probably on Cape Breton Island, and claimed Terre Nova in the name of King Henry VII.

1498
— John Cabot died. Cabot began his second voyage to Terre Nova, but a severe storm damaged one ship which managed to return to England. Four other ships, including Cabot’s, were lost at sea.
1501 – Slavery
— Approximately 50 natives (probably Beothuk) were forcibly kidnapped, probably from the shores of Labrador, and taken to Lisbon by Alberto Cantino. The natives’ upper bodies were superbly built for hard labour and the Portuguese believed they had found a new source of slaves. However, most had died en route and those who survived and landed in Lisbon died soon afterward from various European diseases. Another ship, captained by Gaspar Gorte Real and carrying 50 more ‘slaves’, was lost at sea.
1502
— England recorded its first shipment of fish from the New World.
— Three natives were presented to King Henry VII as slaves.
1504 (circa) – St. John’s Harbour
— A small fish-processing village was set up at present-day St. John’s, Newfoundland. The harbour and the processing plant were used by all the major European countries who fished the Grand Banks. St. John’s Harbour became a focal point for ships leaving and arriving in the New World.
1506
— Portugal began to levy taxes against all the fish caught in the Grand Banks.
1507 – Terra Nova
— A world map, compiled in Rome, shows the eastern coast of Canada including Hudson Bay. Newfoundland is marked as Terra Nova (New World).
1508
— Sebastian Caboto (son of John Cabot) sailed north from Labrador and is believed to have reached Hudson Bay, which he believed to be the Pacific Ocean. Lack of food and a mutinous crew forced his return to England.
— Slave trader Thomas Aubert of Dieppe may have travelled up the St. Lawrence River as far as present-day Quebec.
1518 – Wild Horses of Sable Island
— Baron de Lery, of Portugal, established a colony on the northern tip of Nova Scotia and another on Sable Island, off the southern tip. Horses and cows were taken to both colonies. The colonies failed soon after, but the horses on Sable Island survived and their descendents still live wild there today.
1520
— Portuguese maps indicate the Gulf of St. Lawrence – 4 years before Jacques Cartier would discover it.
1523 – New France & Acadia
— Giovanni da Verrazzano claimed the New World on behalf of King François I of France and named the land ‘Nova Gallia’ (‘New France’). Verrazzano also named Arcadie (Acadia). He also reported several close ‘run-ins’ with the Spanish who were sailing the northern waters.
1525
— Spanish slave trader Estoban Gomez captured a number of Natives from Nova Scotia and Maine.
1534 – Jacques Cartier’s 1st Voyage – Chief Donnacona
— April 20 – Jacques Cartier’s first voyage to the New World in search of a passage to Cathay (the Orient). He discovered and charted the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He met Iroquoian Chief Donnacona and kidnapped his sons in order to take them back to France as proof of the New World.

— The name ‘Canada’ was born. The name (‘Kanata’) was first used in maps and journals by Jacques Cartier.
1535 – Jacques Cartier’s 2nd Voyage – Stadacona & Hochelaga
— May – Jacques Cartier returned to the New World with Dom Agaya and Taignoagny, the sons of Chief Donnacona whom Cartier had kidnapped in 1534. With Dom Agaya and Taignoagny as guides, Cartier sailed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and discovered the St. Lawrence River, which would ultimately be Cartier’s most significant discovery. He also discovered the Iroquoian villages of Stadacona (present-day Quebec) and Hochelaga (present-day Montreal)

1535-1536 – Jacques Cartier – Winter & Scurvy
— Cartier was stranded in Canada over the winter and discovered a cure for scurvy. In May 1536, Cartier returned to France after having once again kidnapped Dom Agaya and Taignoagny, along with their father, Chief Donnacona.

— Canada’s first tourists arrived in Newfoundland. Thirty gentlemen, under the charge of Richard Hore of London, soon ran out of food and were forced to resort to cannibalism. After a French fishing boat rescued them, the ship was captured and the crew abandoned to an unknown fate. Hore returned to England.
1540 or 1541
— Iroquoian Chief Donnacona died of undisclosed caused and was buried in France.
1541 – Jacques Cartier’s 3rd Voyage – First Settlement in Canada
— Cartier’s third voyage in which he founded Charlesbourg-Royal at the mouth of the Cap Rouge River, the first attempted settlement in Canada.

1542 – Jacques Cartier – Failure, Retirement & Suspension
— Iroquoians, enraged over the death of Chief Donnacona, kept Charlesbourg-Royal under seige throughout the Winter. Cartier abandoned Charlesbourg-Royal and returned to France with ‘gold’.

1543
— The first New France had collapsed completely. French exploration in the New World was abandoned temporarily.
1544
— The Basque founded Tadoussac at the mouth of the Saguenay River. Tadoussac had long been a trading centre, but the Basques ‘winterized’ it and built a trading post and fish processing plant.
1557
— September 1 – Jacques Cartier died in St. Malo. He was 66.
1565
— The first oil spill in Canada occured in the Strait of Belle Isle, Labrador, when a Basque galleon sank with 189,000 litres (50,000 gallons) of oil aboard.
1567
— Samuel de Champlain was born in Brouage, France.
1576 – Martin Frobisher – Northwest Passage
— Martin Frobisher of England made the first of three attempts to find a Northwest Passage over the top of North America. He discovered the Inuit (previously named ‘Eskimos’ by early explorers) who he mistook for Asians.

1577 – Martin Frobisher – Meta Incognita
— Frobisher’s second voyage. The Arctic was claimed for England and named ‘Meta Incognita’ (‘Of Limits Unknown’).

1578 – Martin Frobisher – Gold Fever
— Frobisher’s third voyage. Frobisher was to settle Meta Incognita and begin mining the gold. The first English attempt to settle Canada failed dismally when the ‘gold’ turned out to be iron pyrite.

— Troilus de Mesgouez, Marquis de la Roche, was appointed Viceroy of New France and was given the authority to colonize it. (see 1598)
— Aristocrat Humphrey Gilbert was granted a patent by Queen Elizabeth I to settle the New World. (see 1583)

1582 – Ten Lost Days
— England adopted the Gregorian Calendar. As a result, October 4 was followed by October 15. Ten entire days in 1582 simply did not exist.
1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert – First English Settlement
— Humphrey Gilbert settled at St. John’s Harbour, Newfoundland and proclaimed himself Lord Paramount. His self-serving actions lead to the early downfall of the first English settlement Canada. (see 1578)

1584
— Gilbert set sail to the south, but the ship carrying the maps and charts ran aground. Not able to continue, Gilbert turned back but his ship sank during a storm near the Azores. Gilbert was lost. (see also 1578 and 1583)
1598
— Marquis de la Roche de Mesgouez was appointed Lieutenant General of New France by King Henri IV.
— March – De la Roche settled on Sable Island with 60 colonists, mostly prisoners escaping prison terms and death. Only 12 people survived the first winter and the settlement was abandoned the next year. De la Roche forfeited his title.
1599 – Marie de l’Incarnation
— François Grave du Pont (a.k.a. Pontgrave) and Pierre Chauvin de Tonnetuit were appointed Lieutenant General of New France.
— Marie Guyard (Marie de l’Incarnation) was born in Tours, France. Widowed at age 32 with a 13-year-old son, Claude, Marie placed Claude in the care of her sister and took the veil, taking the name Marie de l’Incarnation. (see 1639)

Society/History/By_Topic/Alternative_History/

Sites 15

Alternate History Discussion

The largest alternate history discussion forum on the web, plus a directory of individual scenarios sorted by era.

Alternate History Wiki

Exhibits pages related to alternate histories.

B-49 Alternate History

Speculates on how military aviation history would have been different if the project had not been cancelled.

David Johnson’s webpage

Mostly noteworthy for the long "TrolleyWorld" scenario, also has parts of zines from Point of Divergence.

Decades of Darkness

History of an evil USA dominated by slave owners.

For All Time

A very long and detailed dystopia resulting from the death of FDR shortly after Pearl Harbor.

History from the Closet

Finding the hidden truth through short history and archaeology tales.

Polish Zioty’s Alternate History Page

A fun and interesting way of looking at how history could have been.

Shattered World

An extremely detailed World War 2 alternate history, with its own discussion board.

Sideways

An anthology web comic strip that focuses on alternate history/reality. Also provides a showcase for alternate history stories.

Surreal History

Includes CSA Today, Balkanized North America and Moslem Australia.

This Day in Alternate History

A daily calendar with at least one alternate history scenario per day. Input on the scenarios or suggestions for new scenarios welcome.

Today In Alternate History

Weblog that features important events in history that never occurred today. Created by Robbie Taylor of College Station, Texas.

Uchronia: The Alternate History List

An annotated bibliography of novels, stories, essays and other material involving the ‘what ifs’ of history.

Union Lost

Features two alternate history scenarios.

All I Want for Christmas is Obsolete Technology

Found on Retro Festive.

I love these! I’m just enough of a dinosaur to want these on my tree. A lot!