Meet me in St Marys is a very pleasant name for an even more pleasant event. Recently my sister and I attended this event in “St Marys”:http://www.townofstmarys.com/en/discover-our-town/Discover-Our-Town.aspx , Ontario, a small town in-between London and Stratford. I had noticed the promotion on Facebook and thought it looked interesting: a day of shopping in downtown and a lunch and fashion show. It turned out to be much more.
When we arrived at the St Marys United Church on Church Street (so named because at one time there were five churches on the street) we were greeted with biscuits (supplied by Barista’s) and tea/coffee (the latter from Snapping Turtle Coffee Roasters) while we registered for the day and had the chance to look through our package of coupons from the participating businesses. Our goodies (soaps, candles, jam, bookmarks, etc.) were in individually made quilted bags stitched by the Stonetown Quilters Guild. Stonetown is a nickname for St Marys due to the limestone quarry in town. To help organize our day we were also given a map of town with the businesses identified and two lists of the participants – alphabetical and geographical and their contributions (either goodies in our bags or to be picked up in their shops and/or the coupons we could use). St Marys is a hilly town so any walking will entail going up and down some steep hills. After a few words of welcome from the mayor, we were sent on our way to explore.
We picked up our free carnation at The Flower Shop and More, my sister bought some glass ear rings from Glassy Girl above the flower shop, we got lost in Eclectic Treasures (a second hand store that goes on forever), and bagged our free sample of BBQ spice at Troyer’s Spices along with a few purchases as it’s a treasure trove of spices. Shopping was thirsty work so we stopped in at Snapping Turtle for a drink then headed for our free cookie at Kitchen Smidgen; I also snagged the last cinnamon bun for later. To keep everyone on the straight and narrow there were Stonetown guides on the streets handing out town pins, answering questions and pointing out places not to miss.
After checking out some of the businesses we wound our way back to the church for lunch at 12:30 – fresh sandwiches and veggies followed by a variety of baked goods to nibble on during the fashion show put on by O’Grady’s and Sun Rayz Boutique.
We also signed up for the brief historical walking tour after the fashion show which was informative about the history of the town and the lovely stone Victorian buildings. We learned about the ninth Prime Minister of Canada, Arthur Meighen, who hailed from St Marys and the statue that his family did not like that now rests in Lind Park. The statue reminds me of Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean)! We were also told about the Eaton brothers who each had a store in town before one of them ventured to Toronto and started the T Eaton national department store chain that is no more.
After the walking tour we walked over to St Marys Station Gallery for an art exhibit (Two Views by Annette Goodale and Chantalle Marshall) and checked out the WWI memorial at the Town Hall. Then we returned to Troyer’s Spices for the demonstration of how to make some Indian Punjabi samosas – they were delicious!
It was not possible to get to everything we wanted to see so we’ll be back another day to check out the St Marys Museum and go on an extended self-guided walking tour courtesy of one of the pamphlets in our quilted bags and maybe get a pedicure after a walk along the Grand Trunk Trail on the old Grand Trunk Railway Line. Although some of the coupons we received were only good on the day of the event, happily many we received are valid for another few months so we still have time to put them to good use. I gave my sister my 50% off entrance to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum – something her husband will enjoy more than I!
At $40 each, it was a very good deal.
