There was a moment during Lloyd Arnold's service with the Canadian army when he could have left the special forces and become a member of the permanent army. Doing so would even have allowed him to shave a month off his one-year commitment in Korea.

“But I told them that if I could make it through 11 months I could do one more and that would be that.”

Arnold signed up in August of 1950. He was 19 years old at the time and was working for a pipe fitting company in Shawinigan when he decided to heed a call from Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent for volunteers to sign up for a special force for a “police action” in Korea.

Lloyd Arnold's father had served in the First World War, and was stationed for a time in Vladivostok. He also had two uncles in that war, one of whom rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. A number of Arnold's cousins served in WW2, including one who was killed in a bombing raid in 1942 and another who participated in D-Day and died nine days later in battle.

“Back in those days King and Country was something to me, and I thought I should do my part when the call came in 1950,” he said.

He signed up in August and then trained both in Washington State and later, in northern Japan, where he took a Vickers machine gun course.

“I expected to be a gunner after that training but one day and officer came into my barracks where I was sitting with a buddy of mine and he asked us if we wanted to take a drive. The next thing we knew we ended up in transport,” he said.

He landed in Korea in May, 1951 and spent the next 12 months ferrying ammunition from a depot to the troops who were holding a mountain range near the 38th parallel, land that today is likely part of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

He remembers how cold it was in the winter. “I don't think my legs ever really thawed out the whole time, and the truck was wide open to the elements, so I remember how cold it was in there,” he said, but apart from that says he did not think much about the danger.

“We had a job to do and we did it. We were very young,” he said.

One thing he remembers was a special delivery he made at Christmas time in 1951, a truckload full of Labatt's 50 ale, one bottle for each soldier.

“They counted those bottles before I drove off and when I arrived; I do remember that,” he said.

When his tour was over, the men made their way back rather slowly, finally boarding a train on the west coast in July.

“We stopped in Calgary and came off the train to a big meal and reception for us,” he said, “and there were other events as we kept travelling east.”

When they got to Montreal, where his family was, “We got off at the Westmount Athletic Town. There were about 15 of us, and our families came to meet us. We left and went on our way and I never really thought about the war after that - and the government never thought about us either. They called it a police action for all those years, until 2009.”

Arnold went back to Shawinigan and got his old job back. He stayed in the same business for his entire career, including taking a degree in business management at McGill University.

Even though he lived in Canada, he worked for Celanese Corporation (US) for many years, handling their accounts across Canada.

After retiring in Kingston, he purchased a home, with his wife Gail, in Crow Lake about 14 years ago and they have been enjoying their retirement ever since.

Lloyd Arnold has been acknowledged for his war efforts by the Canadian government. In 1990 they sent him a medal, and in 2000 he received a letter from the US government thanking him for his contribution. In 2009 he also received a medal from the government of Japan.

Although the stayed away from the Royal Canadian Legion for many years, particularly since in earlier times Legion membership was not open to Korean war vets, but he has joined the Sharbot Lake Legion since moving to Crow Lake and is an active member.

He is not taking part in the Remembrance Day ceremony this year, however.

“I can't stand that long,” he said, adding that he might go to the Legion for the reception afterwards.

Remembrance Day will have particular significance for Brian and Brenda McKinstry of Arden and their family this year. In the lead up week to November 11th, the McKinstry family are being profiled across the country as having provided military service over five continuous generations from 1917 to the present.

In 1917, conscription for the WWI war effort was in place in Canada. However, William McKinstry, Brian’s grandfather, volunteered for service at the age of 33. Leaving his pregnant wife and son, he was immediately assigned to demolition and trenching duties leading up to the battle for Vimy Ridge which would prove to be a defining moment in Canadian history. Sadly, William was killed in action in the month before the battle and is buried in the Ecoivres Military Cemetery near the Vimy Ridge memorial in France.

The son William never saw, Clifford McKinstry, Brian’s father, recognizing the threat German aggression represented, enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force early on into WWII. Flight Lieutenant McKinstry flew Lancaster bombers with Bomber Command, one of the deadliest and most dangerous assignments of the Second World War. For every 100 Allied airmen who joined Bomber Command, 45 were killed, six were seriously wounded, eight became Prisoners of War, and only 41 escaped unscathed (at least physically). It was a loss rate comparable only to the worst slaughter of the First World War trenches. Clifford returned to Canada after the war and continued to serve in the RCAF until retirement. Of note, Clifford and his wife, Eileen acquired property on Kennebec Lake in the late 1950’s and eventually retired to the lake until ill health necessitated a move to the Kingston area.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Clifford’s son Darrell enlisted with the RCAF in the early 1960’s during the height of the Cold War. With the constant threat of nuclear war from the 1950s to the 1980s, Canadian men and women in uniform served on the front lines of freedom’s borders in Europe, patrolling oceans for submarines and surface ships, watching for and intercepting aircraft flying into North American airspace, and deploying around the world, wherever they were needed. As part of this effort, Captain Darrell McKinstry served throughout the Cold War as an Instrument Technician and eventually an Air Traffic Controller until retirement.

At a time when conflicts became much more regionalized and Canada’s military assumed a role as a NATO peace keeping force, Darrell’s son, Shawn enlisted with the Canadian Army in the early 1980’s and would be assigned numerous engagements throughout trouble spots in the world including the Sinai, Cyprus and Croatia. It was while serving in Croatia in 1993 that Shawn would distinguish himself as part of the 2nd Battalion, PPCLI action in repulsing a Croatian ethnic cleansing effort at the infamous Medak Pocket incident. Shawn currently resides in South Frontenac and now serves as a reserve officer commanding the very same Canadian Army Regiment his great grandfather volunteered to join almost 100 years ago, the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment centered in Belleville, Ontario.

Much to his surprise, Lieutenant-Colonel Shawn McKinstry watched his son Justin enlist in the Canadian Army Signal Corps and be deployed to Afghanistan as a specialist in bomb detection, removal and disposal, thereby establishing a continuous succession of five generations of service to the Canadian military. Upon return to Canada, Justin successfully transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy as a Clearance Diver, and currently is stationed on the east coast.

‘Service before Self’ is the theme for this year’s Remembrance Week. The McKinstry family has demonstrated this concept in the past and continues to exemplify this spirit today.

New life has been brought to Mountain Grove by a local artist with a longstanding pride in her town, and a recently discovered passion for painting.

Arlene Uens, a retired employment counsellor who worked in Sharbot Lake for most of her career, has been beautifying her neighbourhood in Mountain Grove for many years, with flower arrangements under the signs entering town, and Christmas decorations in the village. Now she has added another dimension to that endless project.

Inspired by some of the folk paintings Arlene had seen on multiple trips to the East Coast, she started painting large pieces of plywood around her rural property. What started as a fun experiment turned into a series of imaginative murals that she has been installing in eye-catching displays all over town. As well she has recently started to sell some of her works.

Her work, clearly inspired by her natural surroundings, features loons, herons, moose, and deer amongst whimsical swirls of bright paint and repetitive patterns that draw the eye in.

“I'm a thrift junky,” Uens said about her passion for hitting up thrift stores in search of inspiration for her paintings. “I get great ideas from a tea cup or a little dish.”

Part of Uens' approach is to make the paintings big and bold so that they can be seen from a passing car.

Her paint of choice is Tremclad and she says that her neighbours have been dropping off used cans for her to finish up. In the summertime, she paints in her large barn with the doors thrown open but now that the cooler weather is here she's moved into a room in the house so she can keep warm and keep creating.

“Every day I paint,” Uens said about her art practice.

Along with her painting, Uens has been cleaning up the CP stockyard railbed, which runs from near the hockey rink across to Brock Road, and installing bird houses along the pathway. She dreams of one day having a bird sanctuary in Mountain Grove and also turning the pathway into an “outdoor gallery” with art hanging alongside the trail.

“The goal is to have other artists come in and do the same,” she said. “We have so many artists and artistic people (here),” Uens said. “They are everywhere.”

Those unfamiliar with the lore of Mexico’s Day of the Dead holiday may not have realized that one Sharbot Lake family with roots in Mexico were paying tribute to that country's Halloween traditions. Leslie Johnson, her son Chris, his wife Ana and their daughter Sophia, along with good friend Susan, chose to flavor their Halloween celebrations by honoring the Mexican traditions of the Day of the Dead holiday.

Chris was dressed as a mariachi, a traditional Mexican roots musician, Sophia was dressed as the enigmatic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and it was the ladies who put the Mexican tradition of “La Calavera Catrina” to the fore. The ladies wore white skeletal faces, fancy European dress and loads of jewelry reflecting La Calavera Catrina, which translates in English to “dapper skeleton" or "elegant skull".

The image or character comes from a zinc etching created in 1910-1913 by the famous Mexican printmaker Jose Guadalupe Posada, which shows a female skeleton dressed in a fancy hat befitting the upper class European outfits typical of the early 20th century. For the artist, the character represented a satirical portrait of certain Mexican natives who Posada felt were aspiring to adopt European aristocratic traditions in Mexico’s pre-revolutionary era. The name “La Calavera Catrina” is derived from a 1948 work by artist Diego Rivera.

Today La Calavera Catrina remains a popular costume for Mexicans celebrating the Day of the Dead. Thanks to Leslie, Chris, Ana, Sophia and Susan, this Halloween in Sharbot Lake had a unique Mexican flavour to it, likely unbeknownst to the many young trick or treaters who visited their home.

The original leaflet that accompanied the etching described a person who was “ashamed of their Indian origins and instead chose to dress in the French style and to wear white makeup to make his skin look whiter”.

While Posada introduced the character, the popularity of La Calavera Catrina as well as her name is derived from a work by artist Diego Rivera in his 1948 work “Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central" (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon along Central Alameda).

The culture of La Calavera Catrina also has deep political associations and has ties to political satire. The original was inspired by the polarizing reign of dictator Porfirio Díaz. Though Diaz' reign modernized and brought financial stability to Mexico, those accomplishments pale in comparison to his government's repression, corruption, extravagance and obsession with all things European and brought extreme wealth to the hands of the privileged few. This in turn brought much discontent and suffering to Mexico and eventually led to the 1910 rebellion that toppled Diaz in 1911 and became the Mexican Revolution.

While most gardeners are satisfied if they grow at least one pumpkin big enough to make into a Jack O'Lantern for Halloween, Ashley Hickey is more ambitious .

The 13-year-old farm girl, who lives in the Cole Lake area between Parham and Godfrey and attends St. Patrick's School in Harrowsmith, is a member of the GVGO (Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario), whose members have grown 100 plus pound cabbages and 1400 plus pound Hubbard squashes.

Giant pumpkins are Ashley's specialty, and the weigh-in at the Prince Edward County Pumpkinfest in Wellington is the moment of truth for her every year.

Last year her pumpkin came in 4th place at 877 pounds, and it was larger than any of the pumpkins grown in Prince Edward County and vicinity. The three larger pumpkins in the competition were grown in Eganville, Shawville and Pembroke.

“This year I wanted to get over the 1,000 pound mark,” said Ashley who grew her pumpkin from a seed from her 2014 pumpkin.

When it came time to bring her pumpkin to the festival this year, the family tractor was not big enough to lift it onto a pickup, and a special harness had to be used to ease it onto the truck.

The result – 1,011 pounds. The competition has grown so fierce at the Wellington Pumpkinfest however, that Ashley only received a 7th place ribbon this year, but again all the pumpkins that were larger had traveled a long way. The winner, at 1654 pounds, came from Ormstown, Quebec and used seeds that came from a 1,873 pound pumpkin.

To put Ashley's pumpkin into local context, the largest pumpkin from Prince Edward County came in at 784 pounds.

Incredibly, the Hickey pumpkin patch is a small plot of land, maybe 30 feet by 10 feet, with black, rich soil from all the manure and compost that they use to enrich it. Ashley starts her large pumpkins indoors in late April and puts out only the strongest plant, but she does not cull off all the other pumpkins aside from the one that establishes itself as the largest one.

“I like to bring 300 pound pumpkins to the Perth Fair with my friend,” she said, “that's also a lot of fun.”

She was pretty nervous when it came time for the weigh-in in Wellington because, “Although I knew it was close, or I hoped it was close to 1,000 pounds, I did not know for sure it was going to make it. I was pretty happy that it was that heavy,” she said.

Ashley started growing large pumpkins about three years ago, with encouragement from her parents, learning about what seeds to use, how much water to add, how much to fertilize, all of the ins and outs of growing giant pumpkins.

“The people I have met at Pumpkinfest have all been nice about sharing ideas about how to grow,” she said.

The giant pumpkins do not have a massive amount of seed, and Ashley said that she gives 100 seeds to the GVGO for their archive, and saves enough for herself. Although she was willing to share the growing techniques she used, that did not necessary mean she was prepared to hand over any of her spare seeds.

“It's not just the seed, anyway; it's also about how much water and how much fertilizer and what the weather is like during the summer. Also there is the problem of frost in the spring and the fall. I noticed, when we went to Wellington on October 17, that closer to Lake Ontario, they have had no frost at all.”

Her goal next year?

“1,500 pounds.”

Bethany Garner is a long time quilter and quilt collector with an impressive collection of heritage quilts from Frontenac County. At the Trinity Quilters Heritage Quilt show in Verona on October 17, she had on display 27 quilts from her personal collection. For anyone interested in heritage quilts from Frontenac County, Garner's collection was a gold mine. No less than 24 of her quilts were what she categorized as Frontenac County farm quilts, which span a time period from 1870 to 1970.

One quilt of particular note was a red flannel-backed log cabin quilt, a piece she acquired at the Kingston Farmers' Market back in the early 1990s after she moved to Elginburg with her family.

Garner recalled how her “heart gasped” as she watched a woman unpacking her wares one market day and she first laid eyes on what she described as a 100 plus-year-old log cabin “field and furrows” quilt. “I tried to appear just slightly interested,” she remembered and quickly purchased it for $85. She then rushed home immediately with it in order to “savour each little log.”

Garner believes that the quilt came from a farm in Portland and was pieced together in 1880. The quilt boasts indigo prints, madder and clock prints and flannels and other wool and flax seed materials, all of which Garner said are staples from Ontario homes. The quilt's later backing shows that it was finished likely at the turn of the 20th century.

A second quilt of equal interest and one of Garner's favorites is a red and white feathered star quilt, which she holds in particularly high esteem for the complexity of its piecing. “The small pieces and the complexity of the angles are amazing and are why I think this quilt is so spectacular.” The quilt, which was made in Sharbot Lake, comes from two sister quilters and Garner said a similar sister quilt is in the permanent collection at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston.

Garner, who is currently studying to be a professional quilt appraiser, has been making quilts herself for 50 years and is a past president of the Canadian Quilters Association. She said that she is actually “more interested in the encyclopedia of fabrics that every quilt contains rather than the actual pattern of the quilt”. Her collection was one of the highlights of the show for those especially interested in heritage quilts from Frontenac County

It has been a strange week here at the News. A Tuesday power failure certainly put a kink in the works. Seven hours sitting around waiting for the power to come back so we could put the paper together was not exactly part of our plan.

We attempted to fire up two different generators. The first one ran smoothly but did not put any power out. The second one certainly put out power, but just as the computers began kicking into life, one of the surge protector power bars popped, and seconds later sparks started flying out of another one. We shut the beast down and decided to wait it out.

Some other odd things happened as well, nothing major, just enough to throw us a little off kilter as we carried out the normally straightforward tasks of putting out a newspaper.

I think I know the reason why. Monday was the last day that Dale Ham came in to help with typing, proof-reading and formatting.

Dale has been coming in on most Mondays since about 1995. She was here before all of the rest of us. But now that Dale and her husband Tom, a dedicated community volunteer in his own right, are moving to Ottawa, she will no longer be coming in on Mondays.

Dale said that when she first applied to be a volunteer with the North Frontenac News, she got all dressed up for an interview with Linda Rush, who was then the executive director of North Frontenac Community Services, which ran the paper as a not-for-profit enterprise for almost 30 years.

“I quickly learned that there was no need to dress up to work at the News,” Dale said this week, a situation that she added has not changed since the paper became a private, for profit enterprise in the summer of 2000.

When I started at the News 18 months later, Dale was driving her friend and fellow retired teacher, Doreen Howes, in to volunteer at the paper each Monday. They pored over the columns, gossiping some of the time but considering the fine points of grammar most of the time.

The first Monday when Dale came in after Doreen died a few years later was certainly a poignant day, more difficult than it will be next Monday when Dale is not here. That's because we know that Dale and Tom, after spending over 20 years making Central Frontenac a more livable community, are looking forward to enjoying life in the City of Ottawa. They are leaving on their own terms, with no regrets.

They arrived as young seniors in Parham in the early 1990s, built a home, and each took on their own volunteer roles with a long list of groups and organisations, including: the Festival of Trees, Northern Frontenac Community Services, Community Living, and Rural Legal Services. They played bridge together on Fridays and once a month Dale went to the book club she founded. When they weren't volunteering they were entertaining grandchildren, visiting with friends or just enjoying life on the lake. Life has been an adventure for them in this community and they are looking forward to the next adventure, this time with no property maintenance concerns to worry about.

We will miss Dale's guidance, and the work she does on the paper, and we will miss the interesting conversations during breaks from work even more. Over years you learn how someone thinks, the specific ways they react to things that happen in the community and in the world at large. You get used to them being around.

We'll certainly miss Dale and Tom in our community and at the News, and we wish them all the best in their new life in Ottawa.

Widely known for his aviation art, 84-year-old Canadian artist Don Connolly demonstrates that he is an artist who has covered a wide range of styles and subject matter during his close to four-decade-long career as a professional painter.

Connolly, who has been drawing and painting since he can remember, served as a navigator in the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1950s during the Korean Air Lift and later became a squadron leader in the Defense Research Board before resigning from the RCAF in 1966.

Following a second career as a partner in a bookstore/picture framing chain in Ottawa, Don then chose the life of a freelance artist and quickly began to focus on aviation art, a subject close to his heart and mind. These works, totaling over 2000 in his long and illustrious career, have made up 50% of his output; one hundred of them are currently included in museum collections throughout Canada and the United States. Many are also front and center at the Grace Centre show in Sydenham.

One such work titled “Flight: Dream, Myth and Realization” demonstrates Don's fascination with the history of aviation. It is a collage of images highlighting numerous early attempts at aviation through the ages, beginning with the myth of Icarus and his waxed and feathered wings and including a depiction of the Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon as well as Sir George Cayley's and Clement Ader's early flying machines.

Other works focus on more modern aircraft, which Don paints in highly realistic detail. One work depicts two Sea Furies of the Royal Canadian Navy, and a second a Norseman flying over the Hood River in Canada's Northwest Territories. Another large work, more autobiographical in nature, shows Connolly as a young man visiting what was then the earliest version of the National Canadian Aviation Museum in Rockcliffe, Ontario. He is shown with his in-laws and Don painted himself looking out at the viewer, camera in hand as the family inspects a Junkers bush plane on display.

Not surprisingly, Connolly has always had a fascination with space travel and the most recent work in the show titled “International Space Station - Approaching Toronto” is a precise depiction of the space station while in orbit on a south-easterly course approaching Toronto.

While aviation art is what Connolly is most celebrated for, his curious mind and hands have led him to explore other styles, many of which are included in this show. As an experienced wood worker who has tackled both home and boat building, plywood became the chosen material for some of his more abstract works. These works, often created from carved and painted plywood, demonstrate Don's interest in abstract ideas, but also show his practical need to make work that would appeal to a wider range of art buyers, especially those less interested in the art of aviation. The results are works like “Abstract in Blue and White”, a work that deals more with formal design concerns and ideas. These works show an artist who has a knack for creating eye-pleasing abstractions where colour and shape taken together create stimulating forms and relationships that allow the mind to wander and the eye to delight, unconsumed by any particular subject.

“Planetary Gothic”, another wooden piece painted in shiny gold, merely suggests planetary forms, and its earthiness makes a nice contrast to his more realistic pieces.

Don has no fear of breaking long-standing traditional molds, specifically the typical rectangular canvas format and he made a number of circular works like “Rock” OCO. This work uses curvilinear pieces of particle board laid out in a pleasing decorative pattern and is painted in iridescent colour.

Connolly possesses a wide-ranging knowledge of his subject matter and loves to share that information with his viewers. The show, at the Grace Centre until December 4, is open every Sunday and Don himself will be present on those days from 2 - 4pm. It is a fascinating show and well worth the trip to Sydenham. The Grace Centre is located at 4295 Stage Coach Road in Sydenham.

Eleven-year-old Leah Neumann, of Tichborne, has returned from The War Amps 2015 Ontario Child Amputee (CHAMP) Seminar in Ottawa, which brought together young amputees from across the province. This year marks the 40th anniversary of CHAMP, which has provided generations of child amputees with financial assistance for artificial limbs, regional seminars and peer support. Leah, born a right arm amputee, attended the three-day seminar with her mother where they learned about the latest developments in artificial limbs, dealing with teasing and bullying, and parenting an amputee child. She is pictured showing the special bike adaptation she uses to hold onto the handlebar.

CHAMP is funded through public support of The War Amps Key Tag and Address Label Service. For more information, call 1 800 250-3030 or visit waramps.ca.

Fred Fowler has worn multiple hats over the years: one as police officer, another as a plater, another as a para-legal fighting traffic tickets, and more; but the one hat that has always remained is that of artist and painter.

Fowler has been painting since he was a kid in kindergarten. His home and studio, nestled on the shores of the Mississippi River near Snow Road, is an ideal spot for an artist inspired by nature, and those who popped in for a visit on this year’s North Frontenac Back Roads Studio Tour on September 26 & 27, likely noticed that landscapes loom large in his repertoire.

As a native of Nipigon, Ontario on the north shore of Lake Superior, Fowler said he has always been enchanted by landscapes. Some of his works are huge, with canvases stretching from four to five feet long. They have a commanding presence while transporting the viewer to a place they may have never been before.

As a youngster Fowler studied drafting in high school and won many awards, which likely landed him a spot at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He also attended the New School of Art in Toronto and said that his training has allowed him to appreciate and paint in a number of different styles. Fowler is a multi-media artist and paints mostly in oils and acrylics but has also painted in watercolours in the past.

He is also a printmaker and in this medium he explores more intimate subject matter. In his monotype print titled “Frantic Pursuit”, two dogs are caught mid-stride chasing a ball. The work is mysterious and possesses a mythical quality. Fowler admits though that because of where he is from and where he now resides, landscapes have become his primary focus. He and his wife Sarah, who is also a painter, make regular trips to the north shore of Lake Superior. They take numerous photographs there and use them as the basis for their paintings.

Equally inspired by his local surrounds, Fowler also paints what is close by. One work titled “On the Beaver Pond” was inspired from a scene he found on Brooke Road just south of Highway 7. It shows a winter beaver pond and a stand of cedars on drowned land, and the work is painted from a very low angle with the cedars showing up in dark silhouettes against the snow and the expanse of the late afternoon sky shimmering above in pinks, greys and purples. Fowler recalled being “attracted to the strong shadows that the sunlight was casting through the trees.” With camera in hand he laid down in the snow to capture the low angle he needed to get the shadows he wanted to depict. Other works, like one titled “Mazinaw Reflections”, shows Bon Echo's majestic Mazinaw Rock. Fowler is donating the work to the Friends of Bon Echo upon their request, and it will be raffled off next year at their annual exhibition and sale.

Another large piece titled “Calabogie Bridge” is a work that demonstrates Fowler’s love of winter scenery. “This is one of my favorite locations and my goal here was to capture the various planes in the landscape including water, ice, rocks, horizon line and the sky and to try to draw the viewer’s eye into the scene”. Fowler says that winter scenes are what inspire him most.

For those who did not make it to Fred’s studio you can see his work on display at the Fall River Restaurant in Maberly, on line at www.fredfowler.ca or you can also make an appointment by calling 613- 699-3686. If you happen to be traveling the back roads near Snow Road you can also drop in by chance. His studio is located at 4005 Elphin-Maberly Road.