Flashback February

Celebration of County heritage goes online

For the past couple of years, the County museums have celebrated the heritage of Prince Edward County with a week-long series of events called Flashback February at their various locations, starting on Family Day. This year, however, the ongoing pandemic and associated restrictions on the size of gatherings has meant a change in approach, with all but one of the planned events taking place online, and the celebration of heritage has the tagline “The Living Room Edition”. There will be 13 online events starting on February 15 and ending on February 20. They include presentations by members of the Seventh Town Historical Society, the South Shore Joint Initiative and Friends of Wellers Bay on topics ranging from the practice of gifting daughters with bed linens, to restoration of heritage homes, to the natural and human history of the County. There will also be a presentation on Canadian connections to the Holocaust, as well as a live-streamed mystery at Macaulay House. One of the signature events is a presentation by Lorraine Johnson on how to grow native plants in your garden. “Native plants have developed all these adaptations within a particular place, so they are part of a web of connections and they’re intrinsically a part of what makes a place unique and special,” she said. “I’m going to focus on how we can create landscapes and gardens of native plants and what the benefits will be.” She also noted that many of the plants that are referred to as weeds, such as dandelions and creeping Charlie, are actually introduced species that are out-competing native species, and she will look at techniques to help native plants thrive.

Jasmine Bowen will portray one of the characters in a mystery set at Macaulay House during Flashback February.

Assistant curator Jessica Chase said the planning for Flashback February started last October, and a number of events that were considered at that time—such as live music—had to be dropped due to lockdown restrictions, but she believes the goal of bringing heritage to the forefront can still be met. “The goal is to show people there is a lot of value in our local heritage and encourage them to explore some of it. There are a lot of interesting and fantastic things to learn about, and hopefully it will cheer some folks up,” she said. Many of the planned events are no charge to participate, but there are a few paid events such as the Macaulay Mystery and the Graveyard and Gallows tour. The one component that is not online is an escape room game devised by Escape Camp Picton. This is a limited edition hand-crafted play-at-home game with the Avro Arrow as the star. Players have to solve a number of challenging puzzles to discover the Arrow’s secret. “I’m really excited about this one,” said Chase. “I have played one of the escape rooms as Escape Camp Picton, and I did it virtually when the pandemic started and it was fantastic. The quality of their puzzles is top-notch. Glen [Wallis] is such a talented builder so there’s no doubt that the kit will be very well made and I think it will be a great offering.”

While the museums have been closed to the public during the pandemic, there has been a lot of work going on. Curators have taken this time to catalogue items in the collection, and had been offering virtual education programs to schools. These were tailored to the curriculum, and offered at various levels. “With really young kids we talk about the history of the County, and it’s about showcasing the difference between how these people lived and how we live today—the differences in their kitchen or living room or dining room, and how they went to the bathroom. It’s these basic needs that we all have, and yet they were achieved a lot differently in the 1800s that they are today,” said Chase. The virtual tours for educators are on hold right now, but generic tours are still being offered to homechoolers. There are plans to offer March Break activities, and museum staff are looking ahead to the summer with walking tours and special outdoor events when conditions allow. For more information about Flashback February, please visit visitpec.ca/flashbackfebruary/.