Harvest Homecoming Concert
Cooks Creek, Manitoba (PR212)
Sunday, September 4th, 2011
The Church of the Immaculate Conception
or as it is popularly known, the Cathedral of the Prairies is a Ukrainian Catholic Church
built in the middle of the Manitoban countryside.
Fr. Philip Ruh was a Oblate priest who liked to design churches wherever he was stationed.
Ruh started this church in 1930 and it was finally consecrated in 1952.
It was originally dedicated to St John the Baptist but was renamed and a massive grotto was started alongside.
Begun in 1954 by Father Philip Ruh, the Grotto is both a religious centre in its own right, and a tourist attraction during the summer months.
Ruh saw it as a logical setting for what he envisioned as a spiritual nucleus for Catholics in Canada.
In appearance, the Grotto resembles a ruined castle with a large central cave. Built of steel rods and cement,
the gray arches are rendered to resemble rock. The interior “caves” contain the Stations of the Cross.
There are two ramps, one on the north and one on the south, which lead to the elevated levels of the structure.
The higher levels which both provide a prominent view of the grounds and the surrounding prairies.
When Father Ruh designed the Grotto in 1954, he was seventy years old. He died in 1962 before it was completed.
Although he had produced many architectural drawings for his churches, he never put his final design for the grotto on paper.
It was completed after his death to what was thought to be his design. But no-one can really be sure what he intended.
At 2:00 in the afternoon, there was no security, so we just walked into the concert area.
Church of the Immaculate Conception from the rear. The Grotto is to the right.
A Sound Check was in progress by one of the bands to perform later.
On the road opposite were attractions, free entertainment, displays, games and food.
Local Entertainment
Dog Obstacle Contest
Local Entertainment
daughter - mother - father - friend
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The Gates didn't open until 4:15 and here is the first band up ...
Celebration
every band had a least one member from the local area
This was just some of the first of the crowd thru the gates.
45 minute sets and a quick setup brought the next band up
One Night Stand
One Night Stand hadn't played together in years.
I believe they could all be members of the Chabluk family.
The fellow playing base, on the far left, flew in from Vancouver to join the group.
Gerry, with runners off and feet up, having his afternoon siesta.
... but he's up now ...
Jim is beside Gerry ... and Sandi and JoAnne are in front of them.
Of a huge surprise to me, One Night Stand, harmonized two songs by The Sons of the Pioneers,
which were "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" and "Cool Water".
Both songs were written by the leader of SOP, Bob Nolan, who was actually born in Winnipeg on April 13th, 1908.
In this 1943 photo, Bob Nolan is in the checkered shirt, to Roy Rogers right, and some may recognize Pat Brady on Roy's left.
One of the younger members of One Night Stand, who is on the right of these photos, with the blonde fender guitar,
said they used to sing along with their parents and grandparents to these songs, when they were children.
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Ace Burpee (Hot 103) and a local to Cooks Creek, was the MC.
next band up ...
Juniper Drive
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Ray St. Germaine
Ray did it solo.
Phyllis and sister Cheryl came up a little closer to watch Ray's show.
Jamie Marshall
Phyllis' second son is a volunteer fire fighter with the Springfield Fire Department,
and I caught this distant pic of him on patrol in the upper levels of the grotto.
Members of the group volunteered to be security, and to stick around until the conclusion of the fireworks.
Ray St. Germaine
I lucked out with this image of Ray, so I made a bigger one below.
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Garry Gach and the Banned
The sun is just about gone and it's cooling off.
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Foster Martin Band
Sean Lyle Lyle Ray
Craig Fotheringham is missing from the group ... he had a previous engagement in Ontario.
Lyle Foster
With Country Dance People here ... of course there will be dancing ...
Phyllis and I joined them a couple of times.
FMB
I'm guessing that we haven't seen FMB for about a year.
... probably at Jaguars ...
All the voices of the Foster Martin Band - Awesome
Sean, Lyle and Ray signing cd's after their performance.
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Free Ride
Randy Moroz and Tom Pshednovak, the newest members (actually previous members) of Free Ride.
Jerry Hlady
Wayne Hlady
was one of the organizers of today's concert.
Randy Tom Jerry Wayne
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What A GREAT Day with all this wonderful entertainment.
All of the bands performed for FREE
All proceeds go to the Cooks Creek Community Centre Building Expansion Project
Ace Burpee even suggested that it not be the only one ... perhaps an annual event.
Fireworks followed and were fired off from the top of the Grotto.
Our congratulations to all the organizers, the bands, the light and sound people, the vendors,
and the Community of Cooks Creek. It was a HUGE Success.
If there is another concert next year, we'll certainly be there.
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For those who came from an external link you can
go to my main dancebob welcome page by clicking here
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