33The Old Town Hall

The Mt. Brydges community hall was built after the Great War as a memorial and served as the community gathering place for most functions.

The Town Hall was a two-storey edifice. The upper floor or auditorium was reached by a flight of stairs. This multipurpose area, complete with stage, hardwood dance floor, folding plywood seats (after two hours on one of these seats the gathering could be termed the association of deadenders), a balcony, natural ventilation and poor lighting, was utilized for dances, card parties, political gatherings, assemblies of many kinds, dramatic performances and on occasion an evening of silent movies.

The basement was utilitarian, a large area with a cement floor, a pipeless furnace that belched heat into the auditorium, a kitchen used during church or other association suppers, a small room that contained the public library with its archives of literature, and along one side the cells for the town lockup. The village could not boast of any famous criminals, so the cells were reserved for a few overnight transients and a place to store the wood for the furnace.

One of the uses of the village hall was for a medical clinic. Several times a year Drs. Pardy and McFadden would hold a Saturday tonsil clinic. Tonsils, during earlier decades, were considered unnecessary appendages and mothers brought whole families to the tonsil clinic to have these attachments removed. Strange as it may seem, the doctors never lost a patient while operating in these makeshift conditions.

Friday nights during the fall and winter usually had some form of entertainment in the Town Hall. The Agriculture Society held a dance with the music supplied by the three-piece local orchestra and one of the members to call the square dances. Progressive euchre parties were a favorite evening's entertainment. Shin kicking was the signal from your partner to play the right card.

The Appin Players or some other group of church thespians would stage a three-act play and fill the hall to capacity for "Charlie's Aunt" or "Mail Order Brides". Great performances were staged and anticipated annually.

Another annual event that always drew a large crowd was the Continuation School Commencement. One of the highlights of this production for several years was musical numbers rendered by the school orchestra under the direction of Professor Gordon.

Sometimes a travelling group of players would come to the village and stage such great productions as "Uncle Tom's Cabin".

One three-act tear jerker had a death scene in the last act when the little girl died and the bed and dead person ascended to the upper area by means of ropes and pulleys. It was said that some people went home and attached ropes to their bedposts to have them ready for the final days when they would be pulled into heaven.

A political meeting caused considerable furor in the community. You were either a Grit or a Tory, depending on how your father voted, and during election time each party follower demonstrated disdain for the other party's political judgement. During the election of 1926 the Grits staged a political meeting and The Right Honorable William Lyon Mackenzie King was the speaker. J.C. Elliot was the Minister of Public Works and the Liberal member for the riding of West Middlesex.

Box socials would be held on the occasion of a Friday night dance or some other function. The girls prepared a box lunch for two and the boys bid for the box and the pleasure of having lunch with one of the local beauties. Sometimes the young ladies would devise a secretive means of identifying their box: a bow, the way the paper was folded, the type of box, etc. The boy of her choice would be alerted to this connivance during one of the slow, cheek to cheek dances, as it was unthinkable that all the preparation that went into the box lunch should be wasted on some less attractive individual.

There are many memories connected with the village Community Hall. Life was not as complicated in earlier decades, entertainment did not have to compete with T.V. and the gathering of neighbors for an evening of dancing or card playing was always a joyous time.

One event that took place in the Community Hall that might recall a few memories was one Christmas concert for which a very large Christmas tree was provided.

John Hawse, the custodian of the hall, was an ingenious man and devised a way of having the tree in the attic until such time as it was required before the candy and books were distributed. When the time for this ceremony arrived the tree was lowered from the attic through one of the ceiling openings. This was a great sight, except John had hoisted the tree up bottom first and lowered it top first. An upside-down Christmas tree sure added to the hilarity of the evening.
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