The evening of Friday, November 6th, was cold and blustery, but our members sallied forth in anticipation of viewing, in the warmth of the Marine Museum, the various movies which we had secured for our Annual Film Night. But what did they find upon arriving at the Museum? A crowd of shivering people standing in the parking lot or lurking in their automobiles.

And why did they find such a scene waiting for them? Because, although we had long ago confirmed our meeting nights for this season with the Toronto Historical Board, someone there screwed up and neglected to ensure that an attendant would be at the Museum that night to let us in. And so we found the building locked and dark. And why had we not confirmed the meeting with the Board that day? Because they told us it no longer was necessary to do so! And for this sort of service, we are now required to pay a fee per evening rather than simply making an annual donation to the Historical Board...

Committee members Gordon Turner and Lorne Joyce did their best to arrange other facilities on the spur of the moment but could not do so in time to salvage the evening, and the shivering members drifted off home after "Scanner" was distributed in the windy darkness of the parking lot. This was even more annoying as we had in attendance a number of members from the Hamilton area, from the Niagara Peninsula, and even from Kingston, all of whom came especially for the meeting. And those locals who came by transit had no warm cars to sit in while they waited to see if there would be a meeting.

Never have we been so embarrassed in the twenty years during which T.M.H.S. has been in formal operation. Thanks to the efforts of a member of the Historical Board who appeared on the scene during the debacle, we have received profuse apologies from the Board, a waiver of fees for the next two meetings, and assurances that the problem will never occur again. Rest assured that we will reconfirm every date to ensure that it does not!

We would also like to assure our out-of-town members that this is not the way meetings usually turn out; we hope that they will not judge us by this unfortunate occurrence. Perhaps we can get the films back for a future meeting. Our sincere thanks to Roger Chapman for taking the films over to Niagara on the evening following our meeting night to show them to those who had not been able to come here to see them, or who did come but were disappointed.

Return to Home Port or Toronto Marine Historical Society's Scanner

Reproduced for the Web with the permission of the Toronto Marine Historical Society.