On the evening of Tuesday June 18th, after we had earlier explored the Massey Ferguson dealership, Chris and I headed down to Fife Lake, to visit the hotel. We did not have anything pre-arranged for this visit, and it was just a cold call.
We arrived in the late afternoon and introduced ourselves and our project to Gail, one of the owners. She and her husband Lawson had been running the hotel for 50 years. They were very receptive, and welcomed us. This was one of the old school establishments that still operated a steak pit. Chris and I thought we would get our dinner out of the way, and we ordered steaks. We grilled them ourselves over on the indoor broiler. As with many of the small town hotels we visited, they got their beef from local farming operations, and it was really good. Served along with it was a baked potato, some coleslaw and some condiments.
The tavern was decorated with signs and brewery fixtures that had been accumulated over the decades. It was very interesting, and we spent quite a bit of time checking it all out. We had a nice visit and interview with Lawson and Gail and Chris recorded the audio so that we could use the information to provide a back story on the hotel for our project.
Years ago, Lawson wrote "Boss" on a $1 bill and tacked it to the wall. That started a tradition, and in the years since hundreds of people have signed dollar bills and put them up on the wall. There are several show cases full of them, and once they ran out of space more bills were posted on the upper walls. It started out with one and two dollar bills but with the advent of Loonies and Toonies, people switched to five dollar bills. There are also some foreign bills and collectors notes. We found one Dominion of Canada 25 cent bill dated 1923.
The hotel was quite busy as there was a shut down at a nearby coal mine and power plant and a number of workers were staying there. A number of locals came around for a steak, and the Oilers Stanley Cup playoff game was on the TV.
I managed to take some portraits with the big view camera. We got a nice image of Lawson and Gail at the bar, and later some of the other patrons obliged. I took the traditional exterior shot, and also did a bunch of shooting with my 35mm film cameras. As is always the case with Beer Parlour Project outings, it will be a while before I get all the film processed and have scans to share.
It was starting to get dark by the time we said our goodbyes and packed up all our gear. It was a long drive back to our base, and it was midnight by the time we got unloaded and settled down. A very long but productive day...!
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