Frosty Friday: Names to Faces and a Week in Review

To say that we are overwhelmed by the response to the launch of our Memories of the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival project would be an understatement. 

We knew going into this project that the Frosty Festival is a meaningful and iconic part of the Mount Pearl community, but the number of comments, messages, emails and submissions we have received this week, really drives home how important the Frosty Festival is. We want to thank everyone who has contributed to the project so far. 

Names to Faces

For our inaugural Frosty Friday post we are looking for help to identify the people in this picture. If  you know anyone in this image (or any of the images shared in this post), let us know in the comments or tag them on our social media platforms. 

Mount Pearl Frosty Festival 1997.
Image courtesy of the City of Mount Pearl photographic archive.

A Week in Review

This week our team interviewed four members of the Mount Pearl community about their Frosty Festival memories!

Dave Lythgoe has volunteered with the Frosty Festival for the better part of a decade, and participated as a community member for even longer. He discussed the role of food in the Frosty Festival and how it helps bring people together.

“Well if anyone knows Newfoundlanders, or mostly anybody, the gatherings are always around food. Whether it’s your Sunday dinner, your Thanksgiving, Easter, or Christmas meal or if it was just having somebody drop in for a cup of tea. And true to Newfoundlanders, we never just say drop in for a cup of tea, because you knows what goes along with a cup of tea, the cheese, the crackers, the jams, the butters come out of the cupboards, and everything, so you sit down and yeah, but I think with the food as regards to, it brings people closer together. The Jigg’s dinner is a sell out every year, the dinner theatre is a sell out” - Dave Lythgoe, 2020

Spaghetti Dinner at the 1997 Frosty Festival.
Image courtesy of the City of Mount Pearl photographic archive.

Agnes Murphy has been involved with the Frosty Festival since its conception in 1983. She described the early years of the festival and the dedication of Neil Windsor, Harvey Hodder and Judge Gordon Seabright, along with the clubs and community organizations. 

“When the festival started in 1983, there was a meeting with Neil Windsor, who was the MHA at the time, and Judge Seabright, and Harvey Hodder was the mayor of the city, and it was a brainchild of Neil Windsor actually, and they decided to form a Mount Pearl Frosty Festival. So at the time I was involved with the Mount Pearl Figure Skating club and all the clubs and organizations at the time, we all formed the first Mount Pearl Frosty Festival.” - Agnes Murphy, 2020

Frosty Festival planning meeting in 1985. 
Image courtesy of the City of Mount Pearl photographic archive.

Pat Walsh has represented Admiralty House Communications Museum at the Frosty Festival planning meetings, and has even been known to have appeared as Frosty himself over the years. A long-time educator in the Mount Pearl community, Pat has always enjoyed watching his students perform in the lip-sync competition over the years. 

"As a teacher I used to like to go to the lip-sync, and the students from grade 3 up, different age groups would go to impersonate, and lip-sync their favourite singers and to be absolutely fantastic entertainment. As a teacher I'd just laugh at the younger students and I look back now and say I remember when you were in Grade 3 and you did this and here they are now all kinds of occupations and you look back and say, yes you started out at lip-sync". - Pat Walsh 

1995 Lip Sync Competition. 
Image courtesy of the City of Mount Pearl photographic archive.

Stephanie Collins is a born and raised Pearl Girl. Currently a teacher at Morris Academy, Stephanie rose to Frosty Festival fame after she claimed the grand prize trip to Montreal at the very first Frosty Festival in 1983. She fondly remembered attending the Pageant, dances and other events with her friends. Stephanie, along with our other interviewees, found the Kentucky Cup to be a highlight of the Frosty Festival. 

"I remember the hockey games, I can't remember was it the Kentucky Cup was always during the Frosty Festival? Well it was a very, it was a competitive game of hockey, but you know it was good hockey, like people in the stands didn't get out of control or anything like that. I mean it was really good hockey, back in those days. And of course you always went to cheer on your team and things like that." - Stephanie Collins, 2020

1998 Kentucky Cup champions - Mount Pearl Senior High Huskies. 
Image courtesy of the City of Mount Pearl photographic archive.

Stay tuned for more fun memories and stories next week on Frosty Friday. 

Admiralty House is encouraging anyone with memories of the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival to share their memories online at https://bit.ly/2H6vrZb.

Admiralty House Communications Museum will also be collecting photographs from the community to scan for this project. If you have photographs you are willing to share please contact the research team at 709-748-1124 or admiraltyhouse@mountpearl.ca.