While the gas station in Sheenboro has closed and so too has the grocery store, the Parish Hall, on the other hand, is going strong and events there still bring Sheeners out en masse.
On Sunday, the hall was bursting at the seams for a fundraiser country and square dance hosted by the Sheenboro Recreation Association in what organizers hope is a return to the well-remembered and frequent dance evenings from times past.
The importance of the hall is at least partly attested to by its central location, standing on the main artery through the village and sandwiched as it is between the St. Paul The Hermit Church and that church’s cemetery. The hall has been around since the late 1800s and the church’s own complicated story of construction and financing played a role in elevating the hall from assembly point to community bastion.
Sherryl Fitzpatrick, one of the afternoon’s musicians, kickstarted Sunday’s event with a dream.
“I want to revitalize the hall and bring back the music and the memories,” she offered, “to see the community come together to fill their souls with music, dance, joy and laughter. How I’d love to see that happen again.”
To that cause, she brought her musical talent, enlisted fiddler and good friend Dennis Harrington, a definitive fixture up and down the Ottawa Valley when it comes to old time dances, and with him, Eldon Ostrom and Keith Selle. Together, they took to the stage and ignited the magic that ensued.
With every seat taken, additional chairs were unstacked and added to the fray, offering comfort and station to the more than 100 dancers. For, they were dancers, all of them. Even if the dance floor was not in their cards, they danced. Their hands, their eyes, their smiles and their auras: they danced. And the band gave them cause.
Every inch of the hall was alive and alert, and the magic Fitzpatrick had imagined was manifest. There was lively conversation at every table, laughter on the dance floor and clear fellowship amongst all. At times, it seemed more like a family reunion than a town dance.
The eldest attendee was Bob Meehan, at 97 years old. For reference, he was born at a time when Lindbergh was making history with a non-stop transatlantic flight, Laurel and Hardy starred in their first film together and Confederation was but 60. Sitting at the front near the band, his joy was clear and his cheeks, rosy. “They had dances here long before I was born,” he said.
“It feels good to be back,” said Meehan, likely voicing the sentiment broadly held throughout the hall. Born and raised in Sheenboro and now a resident of Pembroke, everything seems relative to him and everyone familiar. “Paulette? No, she’s quite new here – maybe 20 or 30 years or so,” he offered.
Like Meehan, attendees answered the call from near and far with license plates from Ontario equal in number to those from Quebec.
“Sheeners take their square dancing pretty seriously and they did that for years,” said attendee Pat Tallon between stints dancing up a storm. “If you came in here a stranger on a Friday or Saturday night, they’d take a good look at you before they’d let you into the square.”
Jeanie Gleason, president of the Sheenboro Recreation Association, gushed “I think it was a huge success and we want to do it again.” And by we, she means the whole community. When the call went out for volunteers and food donations for the meal, Gleason was flooded with responses resulting in an amazing day where, from the front door to the canteen to the kitchen, guests were welcomed and made to feel at home.
That is, after all, the Sheenboro Way.
