Like a lot of people during the pandemic, I’ve been getting rid of some stuff. Most is not worth talking about, but this 19th-century pewter mug (with a glass bottom) is different.

I was sent it many years ago by someone in Ontario whose name I no longer recall. At the time, I was living in Cape Breton and working at the Fortress of Louisbourg. The gentleman in question somehow came across my name and obtained my phone number. Maybe he had visited the Fortress and heard me give a talk? Or someone recommended me to him?

In any case, he told me on the phone that he wanted the mug to return to Nova Scotia (from whence it had come). Had he inherited it? Purchased it? If he told me 25 years ago, I no longer remember those details. What I do know for sure is that he said the mug belonged to one George J. Drillio who was a contemporary and friend of the renowned 19th-century politician Joseph Howe. Wanting to see it back in NS, the gentleman asked if I would accept it. I said I would, and not long after the mug arrived in the mail.

For the next 25 years it was on shelves, first in Sydney and then in Halifax.

Yesterday, following an exchange of emails, I handed the mug over to Lisa Bowers of the Nova Scotia Museum. Lisa said that the NSM collection did not have anything of that kind in their collection and that Drillio had been a Halifax alderman back in the 1800s.So, I handed the glass-bottomed, inscribed pewter mug over to Lisa and signed the necessary form.

So, now the NSM has the mug, which is a much better place for it than any shelf of mine.

If you have read Caste already, you know how powerful and persuasive it is.

If you have not read it, I urge you to consider it. Maybe think of it as a Black History Month project? Though it’s definitely worth reading any month at all.

I finished the book a week ago and I continue to think about what Isabel Wilkerson presents in the book about both history and the world we are in right now, especially in the USA. Yes, the focus is on the USA, but I grew up in and live in Canada and the “caste” analysis fits here as well, to a lesser degree.

Not a day goes by without something happening in the world that demonstrates the relevance of Wilkerson’s in-depth analysis. She is also a terrific writer.

It’s been a long wait, but I can finally see a specific time and place where I will be able to offer a live presentation (with people in the room!) on Kings of Friday Night: The Lincolns.

There are still a few details to firm up, but the presentation is now set for mid-July 2021 on the South Shore, and the event will involve two other authors as well.

Stay tuned, for more details in the days ahead.

To mark this year’s African Heritage Month, I’d like to say a few more words about the influence Murray Dorrington had on Nova Scotia’s premier 1960s band, The Lincolns.

That influence was especially strong on singer, Frank MacKay. It was an important mentorship. Frank liked to say that he went to UMD: the University of Murray Dorrington.

I offer a few pages on the topic of Murray Dorrington’s influence and how The Lincolns broke down racial barriers in Kings of Friday Night: The Lincolns.

With this post, however, I’d like to share a photo that I saw for the first time only recently. It was taken during the opening night performance of SOMA at Delmer’s Barn (outside Truro, NS) in 1969, after The Lincolns had broken up. In this photo you can see some of the 13 musicians who played with the band in the beginning, with Frank MacKay singing at the mic. And there in the background (on the left) is none other than Murray Dorrington!

One of the sub-themes of Kings of Friday Night: The Lincolns (Nimbus Publishing, 2020) is the degree to which the legendary Nova Scotia band was influenced by Black musicians and by R&B and Soul. And moreover, how The Lincolns themselves were a force for change in 1960s Nova Scotia, breaking down racial barriers.

To mark 2021 African Heritage Month, here is a photo of some of the Black musicians who played roles in shaping the musical choices of The Lincolns.

Left to right, we see Wilfrid Connors, Goby Chase and Murray Dorrington. Thanks to Helen Dorrington-Price for sharing the photo with me.

Many other Black musicians were also huge influences, and I hope to say something about them in the month ahead.

“This was me in Grade 9, Baby” is an oft-repeated line in a song by the Barenaked Ladies.

Well, these two photos are also me (and others) in Grade 9, baby.

Thanks to Diane (Webster) Kennedy who found them in a photo album. Apparently, she and I were king and queen of the Grade 9 prom. I don’t remember that title, or indeed the rest of the evening, but here’s the photographic proof.

One of my kids commented that we all look like we stepped off the set of Mad Men. I guess that’s true.

The second photo was taken the same evening before the dance, with me, Craig Stanfield, and Peter Cox.

Grade 9, baby.