I sought to cultivate a yen for baseball, curling, cards, and then

I pinned my hopes on homelike joys, but they were not the true decoys; And so I waged a losing fight, as can be seen on hockey night;

I still bolt meals and gulp a drink in a mad rush to reach a rink.

I’ve bunted the old Ford through drifts with angry forward-backward shifts;

I’ve shivered in a tarpaulined truck, and perspired freely when it stuck,

I froze six toes, two thumbs, an ear, waiting for buses to appear;

I’ve landed home at streak of dawn too tired and cold to stretch or yawn.

My family scold; ‘We cannot sleep; there ’s too much noise for counting sheep’.

I shout the war-cry of the rink in all my dreams, then wildly sink

Back on my pillow to re-pick the latest game with Merv and Vic.

‘The boards’... ‘a goal’... ‘assist’... ‘bad spill’; at5 am. I’m raving still.

My better-half’s condemned for life to be a hockey-widow-wife;

For when Iget too old to be an active fan, we’ll have TV.

And when I pass to the unknown, you’re sure to see carved on my stone: ‘Although we laid him here, we think you’ll find him at the hockey rink ’.

Stanhope Golf and Country Club

In the spring of 1969, a company was formed for the purpose of building a golf course at Stanhope. This company, the Stanhope Golf and Country Club Inc., comprised the following: —- President, Harry MacLauchlan, Stanhope; Vice-President, Howard Douglas, Charlotte- town; Secretary, Sterling MacKay, Charlottetown; and Directors: Ernest Matheson, Charlottetown; Reagh Bagnall, Charlottetown; Robert Dawson, Crapaud; Edward MacCallum, Brackley Point; Bev. Simpson, York; and Gideon MacLauchlan, West Covehead.

A previous agreement had been made in 1962 to purchase 108 acres of land from Patrick and Kathleen Horgan; with additional land purchased from Joseph Horgan, Harry Lawson, Alvin MacLauchlan and Erma MacLauchlan (approximately 70 acres of additional land), this company undertook to construct a championship golf course. The architect for the course layout was C.E. Robinson Associates Ltd. of Toronto, and superintendent of construction was Doug Kirkpatrick. Work was begun in May, 1969 and completed in the spring of 1970, with the following construction firms taking part: — Island Exca- vators Ltd., Island Coastal Services Ltd., D.B. & J. Inc., MacKay Construction, Matheson and MacMillan Construction, Hayes Paving 00., King’s County Construction, Edward MacCallum and Son Construction and H.W. MacLauchlan Ltd.

During the general construction of the course, a swamp (Mont- gomery’s bog) was drained, making way for #3 and #6 tees, fairways and greens; a causeway was built connecting #14 tee with its fairway across Parson’s Creek, thus creating a lake, which could be crossed

196