COOK, Beatrice; PICKLES, P. Leslie "Chips"
This one-of-a-kind item was found in Chesley, Bruce County. Canadian poet Virna Sheard (1865-1943) was born in Cobourg, Ontario and wrote four novels as well as poetry. Beatrice Cook, P. Leslie "Chips" Pickles, and Bob Ford may have been instructors or supervisors at Silver Beach YMCA camp, Fisher's Glen, Norfolk County, Ontario. This YMCA camp first opened in 1908 and soon attracted boys from all over southwestern Ontario. The camp could accomodate as many as 150 individuals and was usually full for about two weeks every summer. In 1938 it became available to the YWCA as well. By 1955 the number of campers began to decline as private cottages began to encroach on its space and it finally closed in 1962. A 1934 London, Ontario street directory lists a P. Leslie Pickles, teacher, living at 336 Ridout Street South. He may have been the Philip Leslie Pickles born in London to Sugden and Mary Ellen Pickles in 1906. "Chief" J. Gordon Gould was an ordained minister. Is this unusually-bound work a craft class activity? Was the legend read to young campers around a campfire? Are the remains of the chapel still to be found in a forest on the shore of Lake Erie?
