Somewhere there is a WI project waiting to be found in a post-pandemic world …
Buried deep in the centre of our community there is a very old house - many say the oldest house here - dating back to the early nineteenth century. That building is the Old House Museum, managed by the Wolfe Island Historical Society. Before Covid, exhibits included a few items from the Women’s Institute. In June 2021, the Historical Society contacted us to say they wanted to move the WI items upstairs. We were not thrilled. The stairs are steep and narrow and challenging. We wondered how many visitors - and WI members - would be brave enough to look for our exhibit.
On the positive side, we learned we could have more space “up there”. The whole museum was going to be reorganized, and then someone would come to use 360 degree photography to create a virtual tour, similar to the virtual tour of Addie’s house. This would allow the museum to be open online while the pandemic kept the physical doors closed. We warmed to the idea, thinking that members and visitors who couldn’t get upstairs could at least see the exhibit on a monitor. Then we found out our new exhibit had to be ready for the photographer in two days!
Our branch is small in numbers but big in enthusiasm. Led by our Tweedsmuir co-ordinator, a woman with sound knees, we scrambled … borrowing folding tables … searching for the suitable shade of blue tablecloths … rummaging through those boxes of “WI Stuff” that every branch has … the ones that seem to multiply at an alarming rate because we are reluctant to get rid of extra copies of Home and Country or the left over pipe cleaners from a craft we did ten years ago. Erland Lee wannabes were enlisted to make deliveries. A former member who was not intimidated by the stairs was recruited to help, and a new and improved WI exhibit was born!
Well, we are still waiting for that 360 degree photography to happen. The pandemic prevented the photographer from coming last June. The Old House is a seasonal museum, and it is currently closed.
We couldn’t take a picture of the Wandering Investigators Sharing Hijinks inside the museum. The weather made the path down to the Old House dangerous for the less fleet of foot, so we decided to take our photo inside another historic building, conveniently located across the road from the museum - the WIPP, or Wolfe Island Pub and Pizzeria (formerly Ernie’s Lunchroom, est. 1967) - where we would have lunch and a big pot of tea to celebrate the WI’s 125th.
Islanders - and Wandering Investigators - have learned to be resilient. The first luncheon we planned had to be cancelled due to an emergency boiler repair at the restaurant. We rescheduled. Illness intervened. Weather happened. We were determined to complete our task and rescheduled again. One hour before our meeting time, the restaurant called to say the furnace wasn’t working so we might be cold. With a looming deadline and the threat of worse weather to come, we accepted the challenge and accessorized with sweaters.
The Old House Museum and the WIPP are in the village of Marysville, just east of Fargo’s General Store and the Town Hall. The planning meeting to create the Wolfe Island branch of the WI took place on the upper level of Fargo’s in March, 1927. (It was called Rattray’s back then.) The first meeting of the branch took place across the street at the Town Hall in April, 1927.
While working on this WISH clue, we decided to investigate something else - the cost to get a commemorative plaque installed somewhere in the village to celebrate our 100th in five years. We can just imagine the next generation of WI scavengers taking a photo there!
