July 1st, Canada Day in Amherstburg.

Having taken full advantage of the quieter day ( the day before a public holiday ) in Point Pelee National Park, July 1st, Canada Day was a day for wandering the festivities in the lovely little town of Amherstburg, Ontario.

There was a bit of a delay to the start of the day to miss the road closures for a 10K/5K walk/run happening through the town…then we wandered downtown…..stopping for a gander through Park House Museum..

…..where the first of our heritage demonstrations was happening with the local tinsmiths .

…….to the park along the river that is the Fort Malden property.

Amherstburg has a fair bit of history…being right on the Detroit River….and the US/Canada border.

We were heading through the town to Fort Malden National Historic Site, checking out the food trucks/vendors and museums along the way. The museums were open for the day and we were promised some heritage demonstrations in the park.

Fort Malden was built by the British army in 1795 to defend Canada against those marauding Americans……it has quite the interesting story.

The food trucks were basically the ice cream truck and the burger truck….but the demonstrations involved fully costumed re-enactments.

So we had the great pleasure of chatting with this young man…Ben…..

….in his full ‘redcoat’ attire (complete with his grandfathers hobnail boots and fob watch which he proudly showed us…!!!) as he guarded the guns which were being prepped for the demonstration firings on the hour at 12.

The uniform also had the ’34’ buttons of the 34th Cumberland Regiment of Foot.

We took a stroll through the museum as we waited for the gun firing demonstration.

…and then back out to the riverside for the demo……we also learned that with the loud ‘BANG’ apparently you don’t cover your ears….you cup your hands in front to deflect the sound around your ears…..I learned something new…!!!

Theres a whole process to prepping and loading the barrel…..

….and then…….’BANG’…..

My intrepid blogtographer positioned himself to capture the fiery shot….!!!

….I gather there was no actual shell fired as none of the sea-doos out on the water seemed concerned…or were harmed..!!!

With a walk through the museum and out the other side to the barracks rooms we met more young people all fully dressed in period uniforms…..

..some practicing marching drills and many acting as tourist information. All very friendly and helpful.

On our way out of the Fort there was a blacksmithing demonstration…..they were branding wood blocks with the royal ordnance symbol…

I have no idea how those young folks managed that day…it was very hot…and they were in full uniform…with those wool jackets on….but none of them were complaining…and all of them were very polite and personable.

The only way to finish the day was with an ice cream on the way home….and a cold beer when we got there….!!!

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