Here we are in windsor, nova scotia!
[cheering & applauding]
An hour northwest of halifax,
Gateway to the annapolis valley.
This town was home to an enormous textile mill,
A cotton mill, specializing for a long time
In windsor wear underwear,
The kind that has the trap door in it.
[laughing]
But that's not the only canadian classic
From your history.
Windsor, nova scotia claims to be
The birthplace of hockey.
[cheering & applauding]
In fact, when I do a search for the birthplace of hockey,
Most of the top hits are windsor.
Thanks in part perhaps to your cleverly named museum,
The birthplace of hockey museum.
[laughing]
But there's a lot of evidence that suggests
The puck dropped here first.
[cheering & applauding]
People in montreal might think that's offside.
People in kingston, ontario,
Might say you crossed a line.
However, even if you did cross a line,
If the puck was here first, then it's not offside.
[laughing & applauding]
When you grow up in a small town in newfoundland,
You see that people have a sense of humour
About hard times.
Check, check.
I turned that into a career and hit the road.
[announcer] mr. Jonny harris!
Now I'm on a mission to find the funny in the places
You'd least expect it,
Canada's struggling small towns.
Towns that are against the ropes,
But hanging in there...
Still laughing in the face of adversity.
This is windsor, nova scotia.
♪
[cheering & applauding]
Let's say it's true.
If this is genuinely the birthplace of hockey...
That would still make hockey
The second biggest thing
To come out of windsor, nova scotia.
Have you seen the pumpkins?
[cheering & applauding]
There's a metal sculpture of one downtown that
I was looking at, and there is a plaque there.
The plaque is a bit warn.
I couldn't quite read all of it.
The whole thing kind of reminded me of
The tragically hip.
Here you have a gourd that's become legendary,
Even if you don't quite get all the words.
[laughing]
♪
I met a woman who was a legacy at the mill.
She made long underwear, but gave me a brief history.
-How are you, joanne? -Hi jonny!
-Welcome to windsor. -Thank you.
Joanne galley!
[cheering & applauding]
You had a bit of a list as far as
Immediate family who all...
All worked there- my mother, my father.
As did her grandmother, her brothers,
Sisters, cousins, everybody.
She said it wasn't easy work.
For most people in the community, that was...
A place you really didn't want to work 'cause
It was hot, it was dusty, it was dirty.
A lot of people couldn't last one day in that mill.
She said, every day, at the end of her day...
I could knit a pair of socks...
From all the dust that might have been in my lungs.
-Really? -[laughs] yeah.
And cotton's supposed to be breathable.
[laughing]
So whatever colour they were doing that day,
That's the colour you were when you went home.
And let me tell you, there was fuzz,
Coloured fuzz in places you wouldn't expect it to be.
[laughing]
When she talked about inhaling fiber,
It sort of reminded me of whenever I would see
My nan drink her vodka metamucil.
[laughing]
She could inhale fiber.
[laughing]
The hardest part was working with the dryer...
And you're talking a dryer that's like 250 degrees,
A big industrial dryer.
I learned very quick the first day,
Do not wear earrings.
'cause the metal would absorb so much heat,
It could scorch you.
It's like, "oh my god, I think somebody
Is talking about me. My ears are burning."
[laughing]
It made me wonder,
What if you just got your ears pierced?
You're not supposed to take them out for at least...
I know for a bellybutton ring, it's...
[laughing]
I've got two weeks left, and that was canada day.
[laughing]
Despite the heat and the hard work,
Joanne has fond memories of, of working at the mill.
One of the ladies I was taking work to
When she was sewing men's briefs...
Her friend was making underwear.
She was making the y fronts, the opening in the briefs.
And the foreman came along, and he said,
"you're leaving the gap in the front too big."
The opening is only supposed to be three fingers wide.
She said, "you don't know my husband.
He needs four."
[laughing]
I thought the pumpkins were big.
[laughing]
It doesn't tell us exactly how long john was,
But his girth was beyond question.
[laughing]
♪
But it wasn't just windsor wear underwear they made.
They supplied clothing companies like roots.
We were doing roots maybe 15, 18 years.
They also did work for the dnd,
Department of national defense.
Talk about supporting the troops.
[laughing]
Especially the privates.
[laughing]
How many people worked there at the height of...?
Probably 300, 350.
And she said when they had big rounds of layoffs,
It was hard, because a lot of families,
Both parents worked at the mill.
And you're looking at people late 40s, 50s...
To go back into the workforce
When you're that age, what do you do?
Any particular household could find itself
Down two incomes.
It's sort of like putting all your eggs in one...
Putting all your fruit in one loom.
[laughing]
One last-ditch effort to keep the mill alive was
A contract to make firefighters jackets.
They use nomex, a fire retardant material,
For their jackets.
But then she said when the war in afghanistan ramped up,
The material they used, the fire retardant material,
Was getting shipped overseas for the war effort,
And they lost the contract.
That was it. The company had no other options...
Nothing else they could do.
That was a bad year right there.
There's no fireproof jackets...
No t-shirts, and no underwear.
Although your firefighters put out
A hell of a calendar that year.
[laughing]
♪
In 2005, your textile mill closed its doors
After 106 years of operation.
It was the end of an era.
There had been several rounds of, of layoffs...
And people tried to make it last as long as they could,
Which is the same way I am.
With long underwear, if I have a pair of long johns,
I would make them last as long as I possibly could.
I would, dammit. Darn it.
Sorry, I would darn it.
[laughing]
[applauding]
♪
After struggling for nearly two decades,
This town is growing.
Growing, among other things, gargantuan gourds.
-Here's jonny! -How are you?
I met a man who is still standing on the
Shoulders of giant pumpkins.
Danny dill!
[cheering & applauding]
Big pumpkins. Whose idea was it?
Well, it actually would have come from my dad.
He was a farmer during the 50s,
Grew a lot of vegetables,
And every fall they'd have the fall fair here.
The winter agricultural fair,
The oldest agricultural fair in north america.
All the farms, local farmers, loved to take their livestock
Or produce, and enter it, like any fair,
And they had noticed how the public,
Or mostly the children, would take to the
Size of these pumpkins.
No matter what agricultural fair you were at,
The biggest pumpkin was a rock star.
Even if they had booked kim mitchell...
[laughing]
...The biggest pumpkin was always the star of the show.
He decided to grow them bigger.
So he basically, what he did, he taught himself genetics.
♪
Danny's dad began genetic experimentation,
And through selective breeding, he created...
His own species or variety, they say, of pumpkin.
You know, there were some different names
Floating around, but at the end of the day,
It was giant, and we're in the atlantic area.
He named it atlantic giant.
When your dad was experimenting,
How does he fertilize the female with the
Male of your choosing?
You know, it's first thing in the morning.
♪ [saxophone] ♪
The female flowers open on the plant,
And the male flowers open up, so...
He can do his pollination, and basically...
You take the male flower from the pumpkin you want
And the female flower and,
And you peel all the petals off the male flower,
And you're sort of left with the pistol.
And he basically just takes the male flowers and,
Gently like pollinates the female flower
That's opened up.
It's like most reproductive methods on this planet.
It boils down to poles and holes.
[laughing]
After he's done, he might just put a bag over it
For the day, so the bees can't contaminate it,
Because you know them bees...
Who knows what they're doing.
Those bees, right? I mean,
You don't know where they've been.
You don't know what they're carrying.
[laughing]
So you got to put the protective bag on
After fertilization.
That's the birds and the bees
When it comes to pumpkins.
Not to confuse any of the young viewers...
For any of the young fellows viewing,
You want the protective bag to go on before fertilization.
[laughing]
Three years in a row, he had the world's largest.
I mean, he had to take these down to the united states
To prove it.
He would tell me that he'd get to the border,
Every customs agent came out to get
Their photo taken with it.
There's his dad with the 350 pound pumpkin
In the back of the pickup truck, and the border guard
Sees it and tells them to wait.
Goes into the office, then comes out
With all the other border guards.
They all want to get their picture taken
With the pumpkin.
[laughing]
I would just like to know once and for all
What the rule is for fruit and vegetables at the border.
[laughing]
'cause last time I tried to cross at niagara,
I had to throw out a banana. -[laughing]
That wasn't even 300 grams!
[laughing]
Then when I thought things couldn't get any crazier,
I found out that it's on his property
Where you will find long pond.
♪
Some call it the 'pond of dreams'.
This, apparently, is the birthplace of hockey.
Of course, that's been a debate for...
Many, many years.
He said in 1988 they were going through
Some artifacts from king's college,
The oldest private school in canada,
And they found a book that referenced a game in 1844,
With boys from the college playing "hurley"
On that pond, in the winter, on ice.
Hurley's the old irish game that hockey comes from.
But if you need more convincing,
They found another article that referenced those boys
Playing the game on ice using skates.
Now, if that's not hockey, I don't know what it is,
But I'll do you even one better.
One of the researchers came across another passage...
About the boys, john kinnaird,
Getting his front teeth knocked out by
Pete delancey of annapolis.
He got his two front teeth knocked out.
Now if that's not hockey...
[laughing]
[applauding]
♪
Along with hockey and giant pumpkins,
I found out how puppetry plays a part in putting
Windsor on the world stage.
To learn more, I had to pull some strings.
Luckily, they led me to the artistic director of
Mermaid theatre, jim morrow.
[cheering & applauding]
Jim morrow studied under...
The most famous puppeteer in history, jim henson.
Did you see some of the famous muppets
That we all know from?
Yes, maybe kermit. [laughs]
-Kermit the frog? -Yeah.
-You met kermit the frog? -Yeah, I met kermit.
Kermit was to be in all the videos that we were creating.
We were told though,
Under no circumstances were we to touch kermit.
And so, myself and jacques from quebec, two canadians,
Arrived back to the workshop early.
It was just him and his buddy,
Alone there with kermit the frog.
So I picked kermit up, and put him on my hand, and...
And I'm dancing kermit around.
Give the kermit the frog voice,
Do the little arm wires and being kermit the frog,
And jacques said, "gimme it!"
They're trying to do the voice.
They're dancing around with him.
And while jacques has it on his arm, we hear a cough.
And this was jim. Jim had come back early...
And he caught us.
-And he's not impressed. -[laughing]
-He caught jacques. -Right.
I just happened to be there.
"jacques, what are you doing?"
[gasping]
So anyway, all jim said was, "lads,
I would appreciate it if you'd put kermit down."
Although, it's better that they
Got caught by jim henson.
If you're fooling around with kermit the frog,
It's better that than if they got caught by miss piggy.
[laughing]
She got a hell of a karate chop.
Hiyah!
[laughing]
♪
So, jim, what is mermaid theatre?
So we're a puppet company creating plays
For children based on popular storybooks.
And like most things, it started modestly.
There was no performing arts in the school system
In nova scotia at the time,
So the three founders of the company decided that
They should fill that void,
Got the money to start this little, tiny theatre company.
Jim told me how mermaid theatre has been active
In the community for almost 40 years.
In the world of puppetry, there are traditional puppets.
Stringed puppets, which is a marionette, or a hand puppet,
Something you put on your hand.
I promote the idea of objects as opposed to puppets.
Around this room are objects that are
Simply sitting there inanimate.
When a puppeteer, a skilled puppeteer,
Picks them up and begins to give them life,
Then they become puppets.
He said, "here, I'll show you a demonstration."
[humming]
He got two other puppeteers to help, struan and alex.
So they took one of their characters, dobo.
[jim] and stop.
[jonny] and at first, I found it kind of strange 'cause
The three of them were all holding on to dobo,
And I was very aware of them.
10 seconds into it,
I was just watching dobo do his thing.
[jim] mm-mm... Look behind.
And sit.
[groaning]
I can see why he's such a popular character.
He should be a tv actor. In fact,
If it takes three people to get him moving,
That's classic tv actor.
[laughing]
♪
They do puppetry shows.
They got a 400 seat theatre.
They have a touring company.
They have a puppetry school and tv production.
They've got a series called animal lingo.
Trevor is teaching me all about the
Mi'kmaq language and culture.
So they asked me to help out.
I decided I'd teach a few newfoundland words
To a hare.
How about streel?
Ah... Streel?
A streel is somebody who is unkempt.
And jim's there, he's operating.
He's got his arm up the puppet.
Geez, you're a streel, buddy.
There you go, you got the hang of it now.
How about that?
Considering in some newfoundland dialects,
You drop the 'h' from the beginning of a word...
I think you could describe the scene as
"arris and the 'are".
[laughing]
Or even better,
"arris and a 'are with a 'and stuck up his arse."
[laughing]
[applauding]
♪
Windsor has a strong hockey history.
And it's more colourful than you'd think.
You'll never guess who I met down at the
John paris jr. Hockey rink.
-Nice to meet you, sir. -Jonny and john.
Yeah.
The first black coach of a pro team in
The history of the sport.
John paris junior.
[cheering & applauding]
John said he had a nickname from his playing days,
And he used it in the title of the autobiography he wrote,
"they called me chocolate rocket".
That's a hell of a nickname.
In fact, I think there was a missed opportunity
When you named the rink.
John paris jr. Rink is a fine name, but...
"chocorock arena"?
[laughing]
♪
After getting caught up on some black hockey history,
I was brought "black" to the future to check out
The aces kids hockey program.
I got the play by play from
Lawrence parker and jackie allen.
[cheering & applauding]
What is the aces program?
It's a hockey program for students of african descent.
There's quite a few black communities in nova scotia
That a lot of people don't know.
So, when we started,
It cost nothing for the families to come.
Skates were provided, so we would take the equipment back.
They'll come back in September.
We'll give them re-used, right,
From the previous years.
They have a program where they circulate the gear.
Cbc has a similar thing with clothing.
-This suit, ron mcclean. -[laughing]
Ron mcclean, I got this from.
[applauding]
It's not bad, right?
♪
I'm jonny, nice to meet you guys.
They were getting a game of ball hockey started.
No, I am not related to johnny depp.
So, I went in and played, and it was great.
♪
It was a lot of fun, but then it dawned on me
What that program is all about.
So many times in minor hockey,
The black kid on the team
Is the only black kid on the team.
And there I am playing with a bunch of black kids...
And it wasn't that I wasn't black.
It's that I wasn't a kid.
I was looking at them, and I was like...
They don't really understand...
-Joint pain. -[laughing]
Even trying to communicate, I was like,
"hey, team," I was like, "who's got that guy?"
"okay. Who's got advil?"
[laughing]
At one point, jackie said, "hey, kids, no hitting."
And I was like, "yeah, no hip checks
'til I get these hips checked."
[laughing]
Aces! [cheering]
♪
What do you call it when two different species of pumpkin
Get together to reproduce,
And make one of such a size, you stop and stare?
You call it an atlantic giant.
First bred right here in windsor in
North america's oldest agricultural affair.
[laughing]
There's an art to puppetry at mermaid,
Where objects come to life.
But you don't necessarily put your hand inside.
Women at windsor wear felt lucky,
And clocking out, looked surprisingly plucky,
Going home to a husband whose object
Is four fingers wide.
[laughing]
If I had to crown the birthplace of hockey,
I know montreal might mock me.
And the people of kingston, ontario,
Would give me hell.
But with the evidence, I could now show ya,
I'd have to bring it to nova scotia...
For the crown fits here, and windsor wears it well.
Thanks for coming, everybody, you've been great!
[cheering & applauding]
♪
This town's buzzing.
It's buzzing, you can tell.
♪
He really captured the essence of our community.
♪
It's a great little town with so many
Interesting things going on.
♪
The birthplace of hockey is windsor, nova scotia.