Joanne Walters has attended Knox Presbyterian, Goderich, as long as she can remember. Today her involvement in the church pretty much adds up to a full-time job. She is secretary of the Women’s Missionary Society, a member of the Library Committee, a volunteer at the annual Mega Sale and co-chair of the historical Mariners’ Service that has been held in the church since 1914. Whew! That’s for starters.
“I’m a lifer in these organizations. There’s no one to take over,” says Joanne, whose “real” work is as a crisis counsellor in a women’s shelter.
Similar to all small girls of her generation, Joanne started Sunday school, in shiny patent leather Mary Jane shoes, and later attended Young People’s and taught Sunday school. She also joined the Junior Choir but admits she failed to impress anybody, including her mother. “She pointed out, at home, I was very loud and bossy but I couldn’t manage to sing out in church. So I gave that up,” says Joanne.
Joanne is a prime mover behind the church’s Mariners’ Service, a ritual launched, at Knox, in 1903, to bless the ships before they set out each spring. It was originally called the Sailors’ and Fishermen’s Service – that is until The Great Storm of 1913.
In its hey-day Goderich, on the shore of Lake Huron, was a major in-land port transporting grain, from the west, and salt from the mines still operating in Goderich. On November, 9, 1913, “The blackest date in Canadian marine history,” a cyclonic blizzard sank 12 lakers, drowning 250 sailors. Ten of the bodies that washed up on the shores of Lake Huron were never identified. Five are buried in a cemetery in Goderich and five in Kincardine. In the 1970s, Ron Pennington, an elder at Knox and a sailor, spear-headed a movement to restore the graves and have a monument erected to the Unknown Sailors. (Interestingly, the Wexford, one of the ships sunk in 1913, was found by divers in 2000.)
Joanne describes Pennington as “a walking encyclopedia of all things Great Lakes and Great Storm related.” After his death, his widow Lenna, donated her husband’s marine memorabilia, scrapbooks and research to Knox’s library.
The 100th Annual Mariners’ Service will be held February 23, 2014. Members of Knox always decorate the sanctuary with flags and Marine artefacts and the touching service replicates the original one, held a century ago. The ceremony also includes wonderful old Methodist hymns such as Will Your Anchor Hold and Shall we Gather by the River. The service also features the Harbouraires, a men’s choir formed in 1947. During the remembrance ceremony an antique ship’s bell is rung 13 times for the year 1913, eight times for eight ships lost on Lake Huron, one for the unknown sailors and so force.
(Also in 2014, November 7-9, the Town of Goderich will hold a three-day event to commemorate the Great Storm. For information visit: www.1913storm.com.)
This year, Knox’s popular Mega Sale will be held on August 10th, the same weekend as the Celtic Festival, in Goderich and the Highland Games in nearby Fergus. In the past seven years the Mega Sale has realized a net profit of $74,000. Some 75 per cent of this goes towards church maintenance, according to Joanne, who works tirelessly on this project.As if all this isn’t enough, Joanne, a journalism graduate, edited a book for the church, called We Love to Tell the Story: One Hundred and Seventy Years of Presbyterianism in Goderich (1835-2005).
Joanne appears to be present in every aspect of the church, but she does admits to a deficit in a significant department (besides singing) – the culinary arts. She realizes, it’s almost a prerequisite that a female, of the Presbyterian persuasion, bake for church functions.
“In my 20s I tried to learn to bake. A muffin recipe called for cream of tartar. So I put in tartar sauce with the green pickles. Not quite as bad as my cousin who added eggs to cake batter, including the shells. A friend gave me a cookbook, with recipes, with two ingredients. I didn’t even try them.” says Joanne, brazenly.
No matter. Joanne’s mother, Winnie Walters, is an excellent baker, so naturally Joanne turned to Mother for the recipe for a favourite treat.
PUMPKIN BARS
Step One:
I large golden cake mix. Remove 1 (one) cup. ½ cup melted butter or margarine. 1 beaten egg.
Mix together and press into a 9 x 13 cake pan.
Step Two:
1 28-0z can of pumpkin
3 eggs
½ cup brown sugar
1 small can Carnation milk
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
Mix together and pour over first mix.
Step Three:
1 cup cake mix
½ cup sugar
¼ cup butter
½ cup walnuts
Mix together and spread on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.
