• Happy National Bean Counter Day! 🫘🔢🧮

Pass around Chestnut Canoe history book

G

Guest

Guest
Robin was kind enough to send me a copy of Roger MacGregor’s When The Chestnut Was In Flower.

https://www.amazon.com/When-Chestnu...t+was+in+flower&qid=1560971180&s=books&sr=1-1

I had a bedside stack of unread military history from the library, and have at last gotten into the Chestnut book, should be finished tonight.

Robin generously approved my sending it along to someone else interested in canoe history. Not just Chestnut history, but Old Town and Peterborough and early others, up into vintage glass versions produced off the same molds. And patent lawsuits and “stealing” employees with builder expertise and where the molds went and elder folk reminiscence about their days in the canoe business.

Canvas canoe history, peoples, anecdotes, old photos and hull line drawings. This is the book if you are canoe history curious about the heyday of the wood & canvas canoe.

I propose one mail-it-forward stipulation, and a suggestion:

Stipulation: Sign your name on the flyleaf before mailing it on to the next Canoe Tripping Reader. Unless I miss my guess the signature the flyleaf is Roger MacGregor. My crudely block printed name below his adds zero value to that page, but whatever.

Suggestion: For book-rate shipping let’s maybe keep it in the US to start with, and once it makes its way to Canada keep it circulating there for a while. When it finishes its rounds please mail it back to Robin fully autographed.

How to start the chain? First come, first serve? Tell us why you should be next in line in 25 words or less? Beg and plead?

Bribery?
 
I used to be on some classic camera forums in another lifetime. They were similar to this one. Not a ton of users but good honest folks who shared a unique interest most people didn't understand. A few times someone would start something like this with an old camera. People would sign up to the list and the camera would make the rounds. Each person would shoot a roll of film and pass it along to the next person. It was a fun idea but invariably the camera would go AWOL. It would be missing for weeks or months until it finally got passed along again but eventually it would just disappear. I don't think anyone was intentionally stealing the cameras (these weren't really worth anything) but life gets in the way and people procrastinate and forget.

A couple years ago at BWCA.com they tried a Christmas present thing. Some random camping/canoeing goodies were placed in a box and sent to the first person. He'd take something he wanted and then add something else to the box before sending it to the next person. It was going fine until someone added paper clips and staples to make up for what they took. I believe the whole thing was called well before it made all the rounds.

I'm not saying it shouldn't/couldn't be done here. Just that these things don't have a great track record and if Robin wants his book back at the end I wouldn't hold my breath.

Alan
 
Robin said:
I like Mikes idea, but if the book never makes it back to me I'm ok with that. It was sitting on my shelf and I'm happy Mike enjoyed it.
Click to expand...

Robin, again, very generous of you. I was kinda mystified when the package arrived, and thrilled when I opened it to discover the book. It took me a couple of chapters go get into it, but then it starts rolling.

Alan Gage said:
A few times someone would start something like this with an old camera. People would sign up to the list and the camera would make the rounds. Each person would shoot a roll of film and pass it along to the next person. It was a fun idea but invariably the camera would go AWOL.

A couple years ago at BWCA.com they tried a Christmas present thing. Some random camping/canoeing goodies were placed in a box and sent to the first person. He'd take something he wanted and then add something else to the box before sending it to the next person. It was going fine until someone added paper clips and staples to make up for what they took. I believe the whole thing was called well before it made all the rounds.
Click to expand...

I have had a similar sharing circle experience. Years ago we tried a multiple book circle; 5 or 6 canoe people each selected a book they enjoyed but didn’t need back from their library. Each person mailed their book next along the circle, read the new book they received and then send it on.

In theory after multiple mailings the book would have eventually returned to the original owner.

“In theory”; the books made it less than halfway around the circle before the plan crapped out. Similar to “Paper clips and staples” one guy decided “book” could also mean some old woodworking magazines, which I found interesting, others less so.

In this case I’d regret just leaving the Chestnut book shelved and not paying it forward, and if it goes to the next recipient via the thread at least we’ll know who has it.

One well loved book on my shelves is an early 80’s Guide to the National Parks of the Desert Southwest. Too well loved; well travelled, well battered and well thumbed. I have taken it on a half dozen western trips, and seven different friends have borrowed it for desert SW trips. Actually 14 different friends, four trips with families and the kids signed it too.

That guide is 35 years out of date, and while I would still loan it out I would want it back. It’s a memory treasure.

Alan, you were the first to respond. I’ll be at the Post Office next week, care to be first on the mailing list?
 
Always love seeing the prices of out of print books on Amazon
Mike McCrea would you like a companion book? I have the Story of the Chestnut Canoe by Kenneth Solway published in 1997.. The two side by side would be interesting.
The dilemna of course is inventing a shipping container. To put it in a box in the mail is simply too plebian... I feel challenged by you the master packer..
 
Last edited:
I would like to read this book. Not going to risk getting a package in the mail labeled "Use Condoms", so will use the more discrete Inter-Library Loan at the public library.
 
yellowcanoe said:
Mike McCrea would you like a companion book? I have the Story of the Chestnut Canoe by Kenneth Solway published in 1997.. The two side by side would be interesting.
Click to expand...

Kim, thanks for the offer, I had forgotten that we had that book in the canoe library. Having finished When the Chestnut was in Flower this seems like a good time to pull it out for a re-read.

Boreal Birch said:
I would like to read this book. Not going to risk getting a package in the mail labeled "Use Condoms", so will use the more discrete Inter-Library Loan at the public library.
Click to expand...

I promise not to do any faux package labels when I mail out the book. Unless the recipient is Doug. I just mailed him some of Alan Gage’s industrial strength 50 grit RO sanding pads for his current canoe project. The faux company label reads:
“This is not” in tiny 4 point font.
“PORN” in giant 70 point font.

At this point my postmistress just flips every package over and looks at the back with an expression of 50% horror and 50% amusement.
 
Ok, maybe I had too many pass around stipulations. The Chestnut book has been wrapped for shipment for a week.

How about this, the first person who asks for it gets it. Hopefully I’m not mailing it to New Zealand. I would still like to see When the Chestnut Was In Flower change hands and be autographed along the way.

Mike McCrea said:
One well loved book on my shelves is an early 80’s Guide to the National Parks of the Desert Southwest. Too well loved; well travelled, well battered and well thumbed. I have taken it on a half dozen western trips, and seven different friends have borrowed it for desert SW trips. Actually 14 different friends, four trips with families and the kids signed it too.
Click to expand...

P6190002 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
 
Mike McCrea said:
Alan, you were the first to respond. I’ll be at the Post Office next week, care to be first on the mailing list?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer, Mike, but I'm far too busy for much reading this summer and don't know when I'd get to it. When things wind down a bit I might try to get on the list.

Alan
 
Because I might have put the stink eye on your pass around idea and because I have forgotten to ask the local librarian to inter-library-loan the book for me. I would like to read Robin's book. I will get over to the Personal Message section with my address.
......Birchy
 
Keep me in mind once it circulates in the lower 48 please.

Christine
 
Well thought out Mike, and a generous offering from Robin and you.
I will sit in the pews way in the back of the Church of Canoe, and wait patiently for the congregation to pass the good book around.
 
Out in the mail yesterday. Media/book rate dirt cheap, even to Alaska.

Birchy a favor when you get it. I wrote my name on the flyleaf, but forgot to add “Maryland” underneath, to better illustrate the book’s eventual travels.

Before you mail it on please write “Maryland” under my name and, if you have a mind to do so, include “Alaska” under yours.

Let me know when it arrives; I meant to include a (non) business card bookmark with my Gmail, and likewise forgot that before it was wrapped; my facsimile of Benjamin Franklin’s business card is taped underneath the address label.
 
Canadians or Americans..
Canadians get first pick
Padding the Yukon River and its tributaries Dan Maclean
Canoeing Ontarios Rivers.. Reid and Grand 1984
Canoe Routes of Ontario.. Rough shape 1981
Canoeing Canadas Northwest Territories
The Story of the Chestnut Canoe Kenneth Solway
Riviere Dumoine Hap Wilson

Going to Canada Monday... need to know by then.

Books do not need to circulate though you may do so if you wish. They do need a good home..or foster home.
 
Canoeing the northwest territories or the Story of the Chestnut
 
I would be interested in Canoeing Ontarios Rivers and/or Canoe routes of Ontario with full intentions to pass then along.
 
Rob H said:
I would be interested in Canoeing Ontarios Rivers and/or Canoe routes of Ontario with full intentions to pass then along.
Click to expand...

PM sent for mailing.. You got them.. Its up to you to find them a home if you are done.. I no longer need them !
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Benson Gray
Solo Canoe History
Replies
2
Views
829
Jim Dodd
Jim Dodd
G
Fundraiser Raffle Prize List
Replies
13
Views
2K
Guest
G
Back
Top