This time of year brings cold hands and warm hearts, and reunions of friends and loved ones sharing memories of Christmases past and sharing great food. Oh, the food. One delicious traditional Christmas Eve dinner up here features tourtiere, a festive meat pie with French Canadian origins. One Christmas Eve, with visions of tourtiere dancing in my head, crisscrossing Ontario backroads, I missed the turnoff to Highway 7. I knew that if I got to Omemee, I would be back en route to make it to our traditional family Christmas Eve dinner in Peterborough. In the dark, I found a side road that took me northeast to get me back on track.
Approaching the crest of a hill, off in the distance the sight from the east was so stunning I pulled over and got out of the car. There, over the Pigeon River Valley, a yellow moon on the rise levitated over the old town that once had five gas stations, a bustling train station, and a river to spawn dream comfort memory to spare. Omemee was also the former home of the Young family. Scott Young was one of my favorite authors.
On top of that hill on that silent night, maybe the star of Bethlehem wasn’t a star at all.
–With quotes from Bob Dylan and Neil Young
Tourtiere by Jake Walton
Lloyd Walton