Every year our staff arrive to work on Halloween with costumes that make us smile. We love their positive attitude and welcoming spirit…and also their incredible creativity.
Last year, the gang at the Dartmouth Millstone won top prize & bragging rights for best group costume with their awesome rendition of “The Dudes” that adorn our walls. That stunning photo, which is a major focal point of our pub, was taken in 1895 at the Provincial Normal School (PNS) in Truro. Those young men were studying to become teachers in a time and place that was dramatically different from our modern world. What I love about this photo is how stunning the contrast between the lives of those two groups of people spaced 124 years apart.
The dudes from 1895 are about the same age as the women in the photo from 2019. They had youth and opportunity and their whole future in front of them…just as we do now. In 1895 the PNS wouldn’t have allowed women to attend; in modern times these women can do anything they set their minds to. In 1895 those dudes wouldn’t have had indoor plumbing and faced two world wars and the Halifax explosion, but these women now have access to education, health care, pluming, central heat, wifi and vaccines that would have blown the minds of every Nova Scotian back in the day.
As we walk through the final few months of this difficult year may we take a moment to be grateful for all that we have and how far we have come. If those dudes could see the world now, what would they say? Would they ask us to be gentle on ourselves and savour all the good that comes from being alive? Would they nudge us towards having fun and laughing and loving? Is it possible they would ask us to raise a glass to life?
From all of us at the Millstone Public House we wish you a safe and happy Halloween. Come as you are…and stay a while. You are a stranger here but once.
