This week for Frosty Friday we are taking a trip back in time to hear about memories of the early years of the Frosty Festival. One of our interviewees, Agnes Murphy, has been involved in the Frosty Festival since its inception and had many great memories of the early years and the creation of the beloved Frosty Festival. Keep reading for her memories and the memories of some of our other participants.
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. At the time I was involved with the Mount Pearl Figure Skating club and all the clubs and organizations at the time, formed the first Mount Pearl Frosty Festival. City Hall at the time, was on Park Avenue, where Les Thistle is today, with his law office, and that is where we had our first meeting in nineteen and eight-three. - Agnes Murphy
Keith Johnson, Frosty, Gordon Seabright, Harvey Hodder, Neil Windsor and unknown, 1983.
Image courtesy of the Frosty Festival.
 |
| Figure skating at the 1983 Frosty Festival. Image courtesy of the Frosty Festival. |
I remember way back, I think it was Harvey Hodder was mayor and Gordon [Seabright] the first chairman. - Patrick Walsh
Harvey Hodder and Frosty in 1985.
Image courtesy of the City of Mount Pearl.
At that time, we had a steering committee and like I said, I was involved with the figure skating club at the time and there was - I am just thinking now how many of us it was at the time - I think we had a 9 day - believe it or not, in 1983 we had it for 9 days and we had 40 events and it went perfect. -Agnes Murphy
Frosty Festival planning meeting in 1985.
Image courtesy of the City of Mount Pearl.
Frosty Festival planning meeting in 1985.
Image courtesy of the City of Mount Pearl.
Mount Pearl Frosty Festival is a big thing for Mount Pearl... and it all started when we had MHA Neil Windsor, we go back to 1983. - Agnes Murphy
Neil Windsor at the 1986 Frosty Festival torch lighting.
Image courtesy of the City of Mount Pearl.
You know we started off at the old Mount Pearl arena, and all we had was a first aid room to work in. Can you imagine? A little first aid room, that’s where we started off...Yeah. Until minor hockey, who was Derm Connolly, spearheaded us getting an office, so we had a little office there in the Mount Pearl arena, and that’s where we worked from, and it was very cold, very cold. Now we have the Mount Pearl Glacier, which is a biggie, it’s excellent. - Agnes Murphy
Well my earliest memory is winning that prize, the very first year that Frosty Festival was implemented. I actually won the first Grand Prize for that year. I remember what they used to do was sell the Frosty Festival buttons, that’s how it started. On the buttons there were numbers, so you bought your Frosty Festival button. I remember back in those days when I was going to school up at Mount Pearl Central High, everybody wore their button on their coat. It was a big huge thing, everybody wore their button. I actually bought my button off my best friend, who is now my sister-in-law, and she was selling buttons as part of her Girl Guide movement, she was a Girl Guider. I remember the story, I remember being in her bedroom and we were curling our hair or doing something getting ready to go out on a Friday night or whatever. She had these two buttons left on her dresser, and she said ‘now are you going to buy one of those buttons?’ and I said ‘Yup, I’m going to pick this one’. I looked at it and said no I don’t want that and I put it back on her dresser and said I’m going to take that one instead. She said ‘alright, you take that one’. So I took it and sure enough, at the end of the Frosty Festival, that week or two weeks of events, they had the big grand prize draw, which of course was a trip for two to Montreal, and I remember it clearly when my name was drawn. I couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe it. Of course, the dig of course was she said ‘you stole my button, you stole my prize”, but anyway I ended up marrying her brother after and we are still friends to this day. - Stephanie Collins
 |
| Children's choir at the Frosty Festival, 1983. Image courtesy of the Frosty Festival. |
The Frosty Festival button can be seen on Neil Windsor's left side.
Image courtesy of the Frosty Festival.
I remember during those early years, Judge Seabright was very involved and I believe it might have been Judge Seabright that actually came to my house and presented us with our airline tickets and you know there's a letter and that kind of stuff. Myself and my mom, we went to Montreal, we flew to Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke Quebec. We took in the hockey game, it was the Montreal Canadiens versus the Boston Bruins, and that was the year Guy LaFleur was playing with the Canadiens. I remember it was a big deal, I remember seeing him skating around the ice and he ever wore a helmet right, and I remember thinking oh my gosh, you know. and it was amazing. I can remember we stayed in a hotel downtown. Of course everything was paid for and we did the subway and of course for me that was a big thing and we did shopping and we ate in restaurants. You know a young girl from the Pearl it was a big thing back in those days of course we didn’t travel back then like we travel now. - Stephanie Collins
Guy LaFleur in 1983.
Then when in 1983, before 1983, when the city was organizing a winter festival they put out for a contest for a slogan or what do you call it a logo and a theme for winter activity. It was one of my students, someone who actually used to volunteer with me at the library and a very artistic girl, she, her theme, and logo was picked for Frosty Festival, the first one back in 1983. - Patrick Walsh
 |
| Frosty Festival Booklet, 1983. Image courtesy of the Frosty Festival |
No comments:
Post a Comment