The Cyclist - Metal Sculpture at Blue Mountain

Georgian Bay at Blue Mountain

View of Georgian Bay, 

from Blue Mountain, Ontario, Canada.

Jozo Weider

JOZO WEIDER Boulevard

Blue Mountain Village, Ontario, Canada

Born in Zhilina in 1908, in the eastern or Slovak part of Czechoslovakia, Jozo Weider's
destiny would forever be linked to mountain environments when, in his early 20s, he built
an isolated chalet in the Carpathian mountains. It would remain his home throughout the
1930s and from which he was able to earn a living as an innkeeper, mountain guide and
photographer. In 1939, Weider took a trip to Britain to promote tourism for his resort. He
was still in Britain when the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939. An
urgent telegram to his wife enabled her to leave the country with their one year-old son
and join him in England where they applied for status as political refugees. In the summer
of 1939, they emigrated to Canada and to a hard life as settlers in what was then the
frontier settlement of the Peace River.
Later that year, he travelled east, to Quebec where he found work as a ski instructor at the
Chateau Frontenac. A year later, after deciding to return to the ski business, he moved
back to Quebec with his family to teach for another season at the Alpine Inn in Ste.
Marguerite. It was there that he met Peter Campbell, later appointed to the Senate, who
was involved in the development of the ski area at Collingwood, Ontario. He would become
Jozo Weider's financial partner and backer throughout most of Jozo's career. Arriving in
Collingwood in the spring of 1941, Jozo Weider's legendary enthusiasm and capacity for
hard work were quickly confirmed; it was perhaps inevitable that Collingwood's Blue
Mountain would become one of Canada's largest and most dynamic ski areas with 28 trails
and 15 lifts on 800 acres of escarpment land.
Shortly after his death in 1971, the Collingwood Enterprise-Bulletin noted in its October
6th, 1971 edition, "There are very few men who are born with the gift of vision,
perseverance and physical ability which this undertaking (Collingwood) required." it would
go on to say, "It has always been difficult to consider Jozo a Canadian...He was a citizen of
the world, in mind, in knowledge and in experience. However, he was one of the greatest
promoters of Canadian life that we will ever know, He was good to Collingwood, and he
was good for Collingwood. He influenced out thinking, swayed our opinions and often
influenced our decisions...but he never led them astray...It is doubtful if the complete
contribution to Collingwood and district, and its people, will ever be known."
To those thoughts might be added that Jozo Weider's influence was not restricted to
Collingwood but also to the larger arena of international skiing traceable through the
exploits of well-known Canadian alpine competitors who grew up on the mountain, Todd
Brooker, Liisa Savijarvi, Kellie Casey and the legendary Ernie McCulloch, Director of the Ski
School, in particular.
(The history of the Blue Mountain ski area has been thoroughly documented by Jozo Weider's son,
George, in his publication Blue Mountain, published by The Boston Mill Press, 1990)

Historic Snowbridge

Quarter Moon over Blue Mountain, Ontario Canada.

Quarter Moon at Snowbridge Way, Blue Mountain, Ontario, Canada.

Snowbridge Way, Blue Mountain, Ontario, Canada

Optional Routes by Car

from Mississauga to Snowbridge Way,

Blue Mountain, Ontario, Canada.

View from Blue Mountain

Blue Mountain is an alpine ski resort in Ontario, Canada, just northwest of Collingwood. It is situated on a section of the Niagara Escarpment about 1 km (0.6 mi.) from Nottawasaga Bay, and is a major destination for skiers from southern Ontario. On average, Blue Mountain sells more than 750,000 lift tickets per year, making it the third-busiest ski resort in Canada, after Whistler-Blackcomb in British Columbia and Mont Tremblant in Quebec. It is one of the largest resorts in Ontario and has been extensively built out, featuring 42 runs, 16 chairlifts and 3 freestyle terrains. Majority-owned by Intrawest since 1999, the resort has recently undergone major renovations, including new high-speed lifts and a new "village" similar to those built at Tremblant and Whistler at its base. The local area forms the newly incorporated town of The Blue Mountains, Ontario. The resort is owned by Alterra Mountain Company after it bought Intrawest in 2017. ~ Wikipedia

View of Blue Mountain Village

Jozo Weider was born in Žilina in 1908, in what was then Austria-Hungary present day Slovakia. In his twenties, he built a ski chalet in the Carpathian mountains and lived as an innkeeper, mountain guide and photographer through the 1930s. He also travelled abroad to England to promote the chalet, and was on such a trip in 1939 when World War II began. He telegrammed his wife, Helena, who was still in Czechoslovakia to leave the country. She met Jozo in England with their son, and the family applied for political asylum. The entire family emigrated to Canada later that year, settling in Peace River, Alberta. Later that year Jozo travelled east, working a seasonal job at the Chateau Frontenac as a ski instructor. The next year he moved the entire family to Quebec, working at the Inn in Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson.

While working there he met Peter Campbell who was involved in developing ski areas in Collingwood, and the two started a partnership to develop Blue Mountain. Development started in 1941, with the Weider family moving into an existing farm at the base of the escarpment. The family farmed the fields around the base of the hill during the summers. Weider built a small chalet at what is now the north end of the hill, the "Blue Mountain Lodge", and started clearing trails by hand. A single lift consisted of two sleds pulled up the hill by a cable running on the ground and powered by a truck engine, serving three runs, "Schuss", "Granny" and "Kandahar'. At the time Collingwood was primarily a shipbuilding and apple growing region, and had limited tourist access via road, so the first skiers arrived via train at the nearby Craigleith station.

In 1948 Weider signed an agreement with the Toronto Ski Club and the Blue Mountain Ski club, giving them a 999 year lease for chalet areas just south of the Lodge. Later that year he purchased another 150-acre (0.61 km2) farm to the south, opening that area as the Apple Bowl. The next year the barn on the new land was turned into "The Ski Barn", and became the hill's primary day lodge, drawing the centre of the hill to the south. Weider later sold the Lodge, using the money to fund the purchase of a poma lift which replaced the original sleds between Schuss and Granny in 1955. In 1959 the "Old South Chair" opened at the extreme south end of the hill, the second chair lift in Ontario. The skiable area now covered the entire two and half mile frontage the hill still has to this day, although the most southern 50 acres (200,000 m2) have been closed for extended periods. During development Weider noticed that the soil was mostly clay, and started a hobby making ceramics, which later developed into Blue Mountain Pottery. ~ Wikipedia

Goan Balcão (balcony) A place for everyone and everything

Goan Balcão (balcony)
A place for everyone and everything

One of the prime features of a Goan house is a Balcão (Portuguese) or balcony. In the summer months one could spend more time in the balcão than inside the house. Balcões (plural in Port.) are constructed in different shapes and sizes. Some have mud/stone/red cement benches with reclining rests to rest on, while others have wooden benches. It is a place for everyone, everything and every occasion - a place for serious or idle conversation, for local gossip, a place to rest after a long journey before entering the house, to enjoy afternoon tea, for a thirsty stranger asking for a glass of water, a comfortable sit-out for an afternoon tea, for the spill-over of late comers at a sung litany or for a impromptu singing session of the Goan mando (folk songs). In the old days of the 1960's we brought the portable transistor out and placed it on the cement bench, and neighbours came over to listen to the popular evening English request program broadcast by Radio Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and All India Radio Goa.

When we were young, sometimes on rainy days of the monsoon season, the village boys and girls could not play outdoors after school in the evenings. So, we played carrom, draughts, games of cards, ludo, and at times, one of village elders would relate stories in the balcony of his house about his good old days. To hear him relate old stories was a pleassure. He regaled us with colourful accounts of his younger days and other short stories of wit and humour. It was getting dark as he still went on. It was dusk, and as we heard the chimes of the Angelus bell of our village chapel, we would all rise as he recited the Angelus prayer at the end of which everyone wished him 'Boa Noite' (Good Night) before we walked to our individual homes.

This photo was shot with an ASAHI-PENTAX S1a Manual 35mm camera using B&W Kodak negative film 100 ASA. Lens used was Sigma 135mm telephoto. Picture taken in Guirim (near Figueira Vaddo) on the road midway from Bastora to Parra.

HALCYON DAYS AT MONTE.

During the Portuguese regime there used to be what was called “Mocidade Portuguesa”. It was the regime’s youth organization. Enrolled cadets were dressed in full khaki uniform and all other smart gear that went along with it. The attire included badges, socks, shoes, belts and caps. Mocidade drill was held every month in front of grotto on the hill. At the time when this gathering of students was held, the school looked like a battalion, and especially so when Inspectors from Panjim visited and met the “Commandantes de Castelo” of our school.

Our school also had the honour and distinction of having some students chosen to participate in the Mocidade Convention in Portugal in 1955. A contingent from this unit was also chosen to maintain an orderly queue of devotees lining up to pay their respects during the exposition of the body of St. Francis Xavier at Old Goa.

Pre-liberation days also had one of the Fathers at Monte compiling his very own Chemistry Book especially for our School which was found to be exact and precise in meeting the standards prescribed by the S.S.C.E. Board, Poona.

We stood to attention and sang the Portuguese national anthem. And then at a transient time in the political history of Goa we learnt and sang the Indian national anthem from January 1962 onwards. 'Mocidade Portuguesa' was transformed into National Cadet Corps that followed after liberation. Basically it was an youth development movement adopted as a tool with enormous potential and incentive for nation building, with a sense for all-round development for duty, dedication, discipline and moral values for students so that they could aspire to become useful citizens and future leaders if they so wished with no liability or commitment for active military service.

Equally exciting and exuberant were the days when movies were screened at Monte. The school had a 35 mm sound projector that used an arc lamp as its light source on which cinemascope movies could be run. This projector had a separate cinemascope lens. It is also called a spreader lens. It is used to screen wide-screen format films. Adjustment requires special technique. We looked at it with awe and wonder. “Ten Commandments” was among the great epic films shown at Monte. Other great epics on celluloid shown were 'Ben Hur', 'The Robe' and the 'Longest Day'. The projector was maintained and safely stored in the Projector Room. The movies were shown by Bro. Salvador assisted by a young technical wizard called Camilo, who was a naturally gifted master of everything - from typewriter repairs, printing (cyclo-styling exam papers), binding, electrical work and various other things. He was a genius born before his time. He taught some students how to make Holy Rosaries using beads and wires. This was the time when devotion to Our Lady of Fatima was in full swing in Goa in the mid-1950's. The glow-in-the-dark bead rosaries were popular and much sought after.

Among the school’s other prized possessions were a full-fledged Science Laboratory for Physics and Chemistry, a microscope, a telescope and a real skeleton in one of the cupboards for Physiology students hidden behind a cloth drape. When Felicio was a young student there, he was afraid to go near that cupboard! One of the other creepy moments at the school was when as a young lad Felicio refused to turn his head towards the cremation grounds on the southern side of the football grounds on his way home after games at dusk.

Cheers to the halcyon days of a happy, joyful and carefree youth.

Adeus! Till we meet again!

Tony (Felicio) Fernandes - Class of 1964

Goan Old Style Measures

Goan Old Style Measures

Known as 'Paili' in Konkani. It is used for measuring grain. Made from hollowed out tree trunk and reinforced with metal bands. A wooden stick is used to level the grain.

A smaller measure known as 'Podd' is also used for measuring grain.

4 Podds make 1 Paili which is equivalent to .75 kg.

1 Paili is 3 kg.

MONTE TIMES - The Fifties & Sixties Remembered

FOR THE GOOD TIMES

(The Fifties and Sixties Remembered)

An interesting and nostalgic moment at Monte was being fascinated by the pump house next to the old football field at ground level and the large rectangular well below it. The Blackstone engine turned a broad v-belt that in turn pumped the water to the storage tank on the hill. It was a remarkable and impressive engineering feat for its time. We would often rest our ears on the exposed part of the water pipe in order to hear the faint murmur of the engine and the water gushing through it.


The electrical work and water supply system was maintained by the dedicated and hard-working Bro.Titus who did most of the work himself. He was an unassuming technical wizard and an unsung genius. He knew the power generator, everything electrical, mechanical and the water-pump system inside out. Tube lights were first installed in the chapel in the late fifties - a great novelty of the time. The generator, or dynamo as it was popularly known then, was used only in the night up to 11 pm. and sometimes in the daytime when the skies darkened during the rainy season. A new “dynamo” with more wattage was installed in the late fifties to cater to the additional demand created by newly added classrooms and other buildings. The old generator, being no longer able to generate enough power for the growing school, was then put on stand-by in case of an emergency.

The school also had a lightning conductor installed on the side of the steeple of the chapel in the early 1950's. This provided safety and protection from lightning strikes not only for the school premises, but also for a 2 mile radius of surrounding villages.

The Fathers saw that the students were physically fit and healthy. Periodic compulsory inoculations were done and records of height, weight and general health of students were strictly kept. General hygiene and cleanliness was maintained to the highest possible level. Inspectors from from the SSCE Board were very pleased with the overall standard of the school and met their criteria and expectations on their annual inspections. The boys were well instructed, well looked after, well-fed and passed as being robust and in general good health. Students lined up for the “drill” for physical training exercise under the giant nunerca tree. This tree was a wonder and a legend in its life time. It was like a mother that sheltered, shouldered and protected her children under her huge arms from the hot sun and rain covering a large shaded area. Its own hanging branch roots were very cleverly nurtured back into the earth with soil around it in tin pipes, thereby providing support for itself. This was another fine and unique Monte innovation. However, though botanists tried their best to save it, the good old tree did not survive. In its memory a new one that was immediately planted in its place soon grew to its full size and provided a nostalgic reminiscence to the visiting scholar of the previous years.

Some Inter-School Football Tournament matches were held at the school grounds. Students who watched the games cheered their chosen sides. Although the years seem to have drifted away I do still remember the bathing time for some boarders after playing on the western side of the hill in the evening of a full school day. The “Boarding Father” (Fr. Ephrem) assisted by volunteer senior students would shower the boys with buckets of water drawn from the rectangular reservoir near the grounds. This was more akin to accepting several modern day splash bucket challenges all in one go. Additional showers were provided up on the hill. Then upwards on the winding path through the clusters of cashew fruit trees the boarders trudged again after a busy day.. This went on for days, months and years on end during the schooling years. Though life might not have been easy the students took it in stride during difficult situations. Nevertheless, we miss those days.

Nearby in the fields, village folks tended to their vegetable patches and other crops in the fields till late in the evening. The sun cast its twilight glow over the Parra/Arpora hills. Bringing to an end of yet another school day, it was time for Felicio the day-scholar to head for home as it would soon get dark. It was late than usual, he thought. And mother would get worried! Walking home alone through other wards between some houses, and somewhere in the vicinity of the winding path, the voice of Pat Boone singing 'Speedy Gonsales' - a great hit of the time - pierced through the evening air on the once popular evening request program of English songs broadcast from Radio Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

Fond memories of our days at Monte willl ever remain in our minds and hearts. Till we meet again.


Incidentally, the vast and sprawling football and hockey grounds, proved to be a  very convenient place for the Indian Army soldiers to pitch their tents for a period of about one month, during takeover from the Portuguese in 1961, complete with the added benefit of water facilities et al, all on the house while the school had no option but to remain closed during that time.

Church of St. Diogo - Guirim / Sangolda - Goa

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