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Committee and Parish were becoming experienced in the opera— tion of Picnics. A special train was even scheduled from Summerside which, by 1894, had been extended to Charlottetown.

But the main social activity for the rest of the year was in homes. There were card games, storytelling, and soirees (house parties) which were sometimes part of a wedding celebration. Wakes were occasions for memories of the deceased to be resur- rected, mostly humorous and occasionally exaggerated. Song makers such as Larry Gorman, were often on the program, though his biting wit could cause some hesitation about inviting him, (e.g. Gull Decoy). Some songs concerned tragic deaths, such as Complainte Sur La Mort de Jerome Maillet by Laurent Doucette. The evidence which exists is only the “tip of the iceberg” of the full life people lived in spite of the continuous drudgery and sea— sonal hardships.

THE NEW CHURCH PREPARATIONS

The young parish of the Immaculate Conception was faced with replacing its church prematurely after the fire of May 24, 1890. As the Parish Historical Booklet of 1973 tells us, a neigh—_ boring barn was renovated to serve as a temporary church. A num— ber of people were buried or married in “Cadigan’s Barn” — an unusual distinction! The old barn still stood in the 1950’s with trim that was testimony to its brief “day in the sun”.

THE CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AT PALMER ROAD:

AN ARCHITECTURAL EVALUATION by REG PORTER

The Gothic—style church of the Immaculate Conception at Palmer Road is an architectural treasure of which both local resi— dents and Islanders might be proud. The Gothic style, which developed in France in the 11th Century, did not survive much beyond the European Renaissance of the 16th Century. It was abandoned, and only in the first half of last century did churchmen and architects begin to feel that the clear classical forms of ancient

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