Gananoque Love

Susan W. Smith -

Love your town, proud of your town, and most of all want to do something for your town? Alan Code did just that when he created the Gananoque Love Facebook page.

First of all, Alan is not your typical citizen – he is a doer. He is serving on the board of the local Thousand Islands Museum in Gananoque and the Gananoque Lion's Club, and most of all, he is a talented man behind a video camera and its technology. So starting a Facebook page dedicated to his hometown was natural.

"I wanted to take all the positive things about Gananoque and share them. Only the positive aspects are shown through archive photographs and readers' comments. No politics, please!" he told me.

The first page was created in 2015, but over time he's changed page names and it has gained more followers.

"Now, we make a concerted effort to collect and display the things that make us nostalgic. We have found our niche," Alan says, "So  now we have wonderful history and photographs to share with those who live close by and even better, with those who once lived here and have moved far away."

The Facebook page is a place for everything we love about Gananoque and the Leeds and Thousand Islands.

Gan resident Paul Scott, former publisher of the Gananoque Reporter, has a wealth of photographs all generating interesting comments. 

Lately, the page has been a focus for the Lion's Club 50/50 draw. Every month, the Club's draw allows its members and everyone who wants to support the Club's efforts, to raise badly needed funds.  With COVID restrictions and no events, this allows the Club to continue much of its community involvement  and support.

So, as a follower of Gananoque Love, and as a community member who appreciates all that citizens like Alan Code do, as doers, I thank you Mr. Code, keep up the good work.

Here are just a few of the posts:

Followed by comments such as:

Mitchell & Wilson built my parents house on Maple Street backin the 1970s. (with a photo of the house being built) Tom King
My dad, Eric Glancie, worked there for many years selling appliances and TV's. My first job was there at age 15 working in the lumber yard, helping with deliveries and unloading box cars of lumber that would arrive down at the station house.  Dave Glancie
Fun Fact . . .when my parents built their house on the Parkway back in the early 50's, they didn't get a mortgage, they had a line of credit at Mitchell and Wilson, which they paid off over the years. And I'm sure a lot less interest that the banks wanted. Kevin Gray

Ross Richardson also put pointers to two TI Life articles with the history of Mitchell & Wilson, Part One and Part Two.

This was followed by comments such as:

I love that image, and on a glass neg! I have a photo of one of the churches from Delta taken at the same time. Amazing. Roger Irwin.
My grandparents immigrated from Scotland to Gan in 1905 . . . my grandfather worked at the Jones Shovel (behind the Umbrella, I believe) To think that this is what it looked like to them. Cathy Faubert

Michelle's photo and question were followed by 145 comments, some with photographs.

Marie Thomson captured the deer on Stone Street, while Ian Arnett saw them returning to Tremont Island. Lyrae Wand said, "They were in my backyard yesterday afternoon.  Finally, PJ Haynes said.. That's my granddaughter and I! We tried to get a pic, but they were too fast. Thanks so much.

Pam Code is Alan Code's wife and you can see she is a photographer too! 

By Susan W. Smith, Editor, TI Life.