the kids are left at home with a sitter. But in spite of a relatively reduced membership, the Institute still manages to achieve quite a bit in home, school and community affairs, and to maintain a keen interest in handcrafts, cultural matters, and local history; and all this, with stiff competition from television, radio and improved communications generally.

In the home, the past half-century has seen the change from oil- lamps and wood-stoves to electricity, propane gas and oil-fired furnaces and back to wood stoves again! from handpumping water to turning a tap; from the wooden tub and washboard to automatic washer and dryer; from the outhouse to indoor' plumbing; Eaton’s catalogue to ultra-soft tissue; from Everything except sugar and tea grown on the farm to T.V. dinners and instant convenience foods; from homespun to polyester. But our members still swap recipes and cleaning hints, and are still concerned with serving nutritious and appetising meals, even though some of the instructions are metric or for microwave ovens. Each year there is at least one program on Home Economics, and interest is high in the courses and workshops offered on a large selection of domestic subjects. In 1961 under the guidance of the President, Mrs. Eric Kipping, our Institute took first prize for a collection of recipes entered in the Guardian-Patriot Cookbook Competition. And this same year our President won the title of “Mrs. P.E.I.” at the Summerside Lobster Carnival.

Programs on food seem to have switched over the years from a preoccupation with infant feeding to “Nutrition for Senior Citizens”, reflecting our aging population trend; and care of the elderly is a more frequent concern than formerly, though the three-generation family is more common in rural than in urban areas. In 1962 the Institute started visiting 80-year-olds and over in the district with a gift and cake on their birthdays, and we have held a number of Senior Citizen’s teas and get-togethers. We have maintained the early Institute tradition of visiting the sick and “shut-ins” of our district, and giving flowers, or donations to charity, for the deceased, as well as welcoming new-comers to Stanhope (including new babies!) with gifts, and similarly saying good-bye to departing residents. In June, 1963 the Stanhope W.I. had the honor of entertaining our National (F.W.I.C.) and International (A.C.W.W.) Presidents at a clam-bake and bonfire on Stanhope Beach.

Our School has evolved from a small one-room, one-teacher place housing Stanhope children from grades 1 to 10, to a much larger building, since regional consolidation serving grades 1 to 6 from the three districts of Stanhope, West Covehead, and Covehead Road. Recently Stanhope and Grand Tracadie schools have been “Twinned”, and for several years grades 1, 2, and 3 have been at Stanhope and

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