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"Bill and Brenda Vernon's home on the 9th Concession was the scene of a family reunion, barbeque and flag raising on Canada Day. Bill Vernon built a new 33' flagpole for the occasion, and spruced up the yard with landscaping that included putting in new gate posts, a decorative old-fashioned water pump - and a wagon wheel.
The wheel is part of the family history, all that remains of the turn-of-the-century 4 wheeled "Democrat" that belonged to Brenda Vernon's grandparents.
Her mother, Mrs. Murphy, now in her 80s, remembers one trip in the Democrat, when she was only 6 years old. It was Christmas, but a green Christmas with no snow, and the family decided to take the four wheeler, rather than a sleigh, for the annual trip from West Gwillimbury to her grandparent's farm in Uxbridge.
Normally, the whole trip took three days - one to get to the farm, with a stopover in Holland Landing for lunch and to feed the horses, Christmas Day with the family, and a day to return home.
That year, however, it snowed heavily on Christmas day. "They had a long, long lane, and it was full of snow the day after Christmas," says Mrs. Murphy. The entire length of the lane had to be shovelled out before they could begin their return journey, a trip that took substantially longer than usually."