The Opeongo Line

The Opeongo Reader’s Theatre presents a unique collection of eye-witness accounts by young men and women who went off to the Second World War. It includes everything from two letters written by a young woman from Barry's Bay to her older brother serving overseas, to a daring escape from a POW train under cover of darkness as it hurtled through the Ottawa Valley.

The Opeongo Readers' Theatre presents its annual Halloween show, five classic ghost stories including: Anatole France's 'The Mass of Shadows', Guy de Maupassant's 'The Flayed Hand,' Algernon Blackwood's 'A Woman's Ghost Story,' Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Masque of Red Death,' and Myla Jo Closser's 'At the Gate.' Performed by Lesley Betts, Jeff Bowman, Cathy Chapeskie, Lynn Stewart and Mark Woermke.

Local historian Mark Woermke presents a fascinating look at 31 German-speaking families who emigrated to Renfrew County, Ontario between 1858 and 1900, looking closely at six particular families who settled near Rockingham and noting what happened to them after they arrived. 

Martina Coulas talks with Beth and Johnny Hilderbrandt about how they first met, Beth's first trip to Barry's Bay by train, and Johnny's early life growing up here on a farm.  Forever young, the Hildebrandts offer up great stories about hog-wrassling in the old railway stockyard, sneaking into the Exchange Hotel underaged, and helping to save the old Barry's train station.

The Opeongo Line presents Martina Coulas in conversation with two Lorbetskie women; first, Martina speaks with Julia Lorbetskie who was born nearly 101 years ago near Paugh Lake, four miles north of Barry's Bay. After she married, she moved into town where she and her husband Johnny raised six children, including their youngest daughter, Connie, who Martina speaks with and learns of her abiding joy in having the good fortune of growing up in Barry's Bay in the 1950s and 1960s. 

This second interview conducted by Martina Coulas deals with the local history of two Lorbetskie women. First, Martina spoke with Julia Lorbetskie, the nearly 101-year-old mother of her youngest daughter Connie, who in this second interview speaks about growing up in the village of Barry's Bay in the 1950s and 1960s

Lesley Betts and Mark Woermke of The Opeongo Readers' Theatre present new documentary evidence that reveals in significant detail the early life of John Samuel James Watson, Rockingham's man of mystery. An inspirational leader and founder of one of the most productive and progressive villages in Renfrew County in the latter half of the 19th century, Watson was also a man with a shocking secret that he successfully managed to hide until now.

Back in the Day host Martina Coulas talks with William J. Goulet, a young man who arrived from Eganville in the early 1960s and established Barry's Bay's first funeral home. And when Bill wasn't getting ready for the next funeral, working in a hardware store, checking hydro meters, driving ambulance, or working for the school board, every Saturday night he was dancing up a storm down at the Lakeside Pavilion. 

'The Local' host Sean Conway chats with Joshua Blank, author of "Stills in the Hills: Moonshine Memories from Around Canada's First Polish Kashub Community," an award-winning article about illegal moonshine made in the Wilno hills.