While not technically part of the Maritimes, three towns in Newfoundland should be mentioned. There is Belant, where a train was once to stop until a proposed aggregate quarry fell through, and Squashberry Cove, no longer included on maps (despite a recent increase in population to 112 people or 98 souls). Wilty Bay, Newfoundland, is, by uninteresting coincidence, the birthplace of two provincial cabinet ministers who both held the portfolio of Culture, Recreation and Youth; and while each served with such little distinction as to deserve notice here, they were occasionally in the company of some fast-talking shysters. That Shelton preserves the architecturally nondescript and unfurnished Youver House as birthplace of little-known regional poet Leo McMackie recommends it as a candidate for Prince Edward Island’s most tedious place, but this has to be considered in light of Poseydale’s numbing almost-flatness and the closure of the local store. The archaeological dig at Lower Point, Nova Scotia, revealed no earlier settlement by European or indigenous peoples. Recently discovered documents suggest there is no longer any reason to believe that the wife of former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, Olive, actually visited Loamingville Extension. Knollview is almost equidistant from Turnington and the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway and Route 16. Owing to the construction of the Borden Bypass there has been a 96-percent reduction in traffic through the Hanover Junction.
Middleville, Nova Scotia, is just that — no more, no less — which might be noteworthy if the same could not be said for a town of the same name and identical circumstance in New Brunswick. These two towns, separated by hundreds of kilometres, are also similar in many other inconsequential respects, a fact of some note — thereby disqualifying it — to persons with an interest in matters trivial. It is not even ironic that two places cannot both be “the middle of nowhere.”
Low-level excitement, in the form of petty crime committed by teens and the adulterous shenanigans of their parents, disqualifies the outwardly dull bedroom communities Mount Villard, Falmouth, and Lower Georgeville. Mount Villard is really little more than a hill…well, “hillock” — okay, “mound.”
The influx of summering Toronto literati and cbc types makes for some pretty monotonous times in sleepy Mud Bay, but this is merely seasonal tedium.
Longbridge, New Brunswick’s “Instructional Videotape Triannual” has evolved into a fascinating event.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, will be familiar with the handcrafted whirligigs of Dalton, New Brunswick, but it must be remembered that there are those with an interest, however passing, in folk art.
Though “Buoy Week” does not liven up things in Dillpool, Nova Scotia, there are “an awful lot of flies” on account of the meal plant, which is, at least, something. The village has also twice been awarded a certificate of merit by the Canadian Dental Association for the council’s successful efforts to promote flossing.
While the goods on offer at the flea market held every other Tuesday in nearby Outerton are almost never in demand, something potentially curious sometimes, if rarely, shows up. Such was the case only two years ago when a carton of vintage, canister-type vacuum-cleaner bags turned out to have been unopened, causing if not a stir, then a quiver.
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