Lunch today was a Famous Pepper’s Spud Islander pizza (yes, it has slices of potato on it). We got one to go from FP’s new Summerside location and decided to find a shady spot in Memorial Park to snarf it down.
St. Mary’s Church and Hall
We parked in front of St. Mary’s Church Hall across from the park and spied a nice little picnic table under a tree in front of the hall. Next to it was what looks like a newly installed water tap, free for all to use, and I would guess specifically targeted at unhoused people who often use the park as a gathering place. Pizza consumed, I topped up my water bottle, and we were on our way.
Seeing this thoughtful act of love and care for others filled me up way more than the pizza did. I think if church had included this type of social action when I was a young person, I could very well have still been a believer.
If you are looking for a quiet, green, welcoming space in Summerside, I can’t think of a better spot.
Memorial Park. Someone came along and started to paint a canon, as you do.
My great grandparents, Thomas and Agnes Phillips, lived on a farm on the Ellerslie Road. Agnes died in 1920 at age 66 and Thomas four years later, aged 72. Their youngest son, my grandfather Alvin, married my grandmother, Gladys, in 1912, and I assume they lived with Thomas and Agnes as Alvin eventually took ownership of the farm.
On September 30, 1925, all nine of Thomas and Agnes’ children returned to Ellerslie for a reunion. The rapidly growing clan would meet regularly over the following decades, into my lifetime. The last Phillips picnic I can remember was held at the West Point Lighthouse, 10 years or more ago.
My father knew most of his 38 Phillips first cousins quite well, though I could never keep them straight. Using a genealogy app (the reliable and powerful Reunion) for the past twenty years has definitely helped me with the “who’s yer father” game.
Those who met that September night are long gone, the last, Penzie (Martha Penrose “Penzie” Millar), in 1975. Their children are all gone now as well, the latest to die probably being my father’s brother, Sterling, in 2022, the youngest son of the youngest son.
I attended the funeral of what I believe to be one of the last spouses of my father’s Phillips first cousins just last month, a woman I had heard about from my parents, and who I no doubt met at a long-ago picnic. She lived to be 105. I didn’t know anyone at the funeral, her children being older than me and having moved away many years ago, but I was glad I went to represent my branch of the family. May the circle be unbroken.
FAMILY REUNION
On the evening of September 30th the family of the late Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Phillips of Ellerslie assembled together with their husbands and wives at the old home. The family were all present namely: Mrs. Joshua Millar and Mrs. E. S. Burleigh, Ellerslie, Mrs. Leslie MacLean, Arlington, Lot 14, Mrs. Russell MacArthur, Enmore, Willard of Summerside, Sanford, Sargent and Forrest of O’Leary and Alvin on the homestead. After partaking of goose and other delicacies all gathered in the living room where the evening was pleasantly spent in games, music and singing till after midnight when all joined heartily in singing “God Be With You Till We Meet Again” after which all departed for their homes, hoping to meet again on many such occasions in one unbroken family circle.
From the Charlottetown Guardian October 7, 1925, p6.
Cousins and more cousins at a Phillips picnic at Green Park, 1971. Still from 8mm film footage.
