Last call for Order of Good Cheer

When the original Order of Good Cheer dinner was held by Samuel de Champlain in 1606, legend says it was to provide a bright spot in a long winter that was tough on the early explorers.

Although circumstances are now different, the Aylmer Order of Good Cheer was a bright spot in the winter for many.

However, four decades-plus and $350,000 raised for the community later, the local Order of Good Cheer held its last dinner in 2023. Members gathered again recently for a wind-up dinner and to reflect on their successes.

The dinner traces its roots to the late 1970s when several hunt clubs had a dinner featuring the game they harvested over the year. Duncan Sinclair Sr. and Herb Kebbel thought this was a great thing and could be a way to help the community.

“They came up with the thing of selling it to the public,” said Kim Black.

Initially known as the Sportsmen’s Dinner, the function started small at Pleasant Valley Golf Course in 1979.

The private dinner continued until 1993, but the dinner that started as the Sportsmen’s Dinner flourished. There was some overlap between those organizing the two events, but the Sportsmen’s Dinner committee grew rapidly.

“We went for two or three years then Herb and Dunc went to the east coast,” Mr. Black recounted. “They went to an Order of Good Cheer wild game dinner in Nova Scotia. They said they would allow them to use the name.”

History is a little cloudy about the original dinner and if it was held during a good winter or bad winter for the early settlers, but the common theme is it was a way to raise the spirit of the settlers and it featured wild game. Some consider it the original Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. The Province of Nova Scotia celebrates this piece of its history, and it’s that function that Mr. Sinclair and Mr. Kebbel attended.

Today, the province still celebrates the Order of Good Time, with the lieutenant governor as its Grand Master. Mr. Sinclair, Mr. Kebbel and Mr. Black were presented with certificates of membership into the Order by MPP Rob Flack at the 2023 dinner.

In the early days, Dr. Sinclair and Mr. Kebbel were the Grand Masters. When Dr. Sinclair stepped back, Mr. Black stepped up, although as the Order of Good Cheer committee grew members were assigned tasks and it became a team effort.

The dinner moved from Pleasant Valley to the Springfield Lions Club hall, and then more recently to the Saxonia Hall.

The early years were a smorgasbord. As the banquet evolved to servers bringing plates of wild game and fish to the tables, the menu items became more exotic.

“It was something that started taking off. We started to hone it in to a more complex dinner,” Mr. Black said.

A staple over the years, and a highlight of the evening, was Mr. Kebbel’s bouillabaisse soup. Venison and moose in some form was a constant. Pheasant medallions, which were replaced by wild turkey, were another favourite. The hunting escapades of members, in particular Dan Elliott and Gary Austin, added caribou, antelope, muskox, bear and elk on the menu. And then there was more exotic food, often sourced by Dr. Sinclair, that included rattlesnake, alligator, snapping turtles, frog legs, and Cajun Crawdads. Lake Erie perch, walleye and smelt were a regular part of the menu. Then, there were the oddities, such as groundhog, muskrat and raccoon, that the members worked to make tasty.

Ducks and geese were a big part of the food served up until 2000 when government regulation changes took these off as an option at public events.

“The ducks and geese were integral. We had to find ways and means to make up with other things,” Mr. Black said.

The solution to this problem included having new members clean freshly-killed barnyard geese to moving on to other things. Another regulation change allowed ducks and geese back on the menu the last couple of years.

The change to served food brought with it a new rivalry amongst Order of Good Cheer members. The cooks loved to chase the servers out of the kitchen, while the latter reminded them there would be no one to deliver the food without them.

Mr. Black did say proudly that in the entire time the servers never lost or spilled one tray.

He figured that, between the nine to 11 courses, there was a total of 1.5 pounds of meat per person.

In the last 10 years, Troy Spicer and Wade Fitzgerald were the most experienced cooks.

“They enhanced the menu incredibly,” Mr. Black said.

The first years saw $2,000 to $5,000 raised. That increased to more than $8,000 in later years. Various community groups were the recipients in the early years, but in the mid-1990s there was a decision to focus more on conservation. In particular, attention was paid to youth conservation programs, including those organized by Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl, the Elgin Stewardship Program and the East Elgin Secondary School Environmental Leadership Program.

“It was a cause all the members believed in,” Mr. Black said.

On the topic of members, it seemed once someone joined the Order of Good Cheer, they continued to contribute until they moved away or died.

The dinner started as a men’s-only function, but the last few years saw a few daughters accompanying their fathers or wives with husbands.

At the last call for the Order of Good Cheer, Mr. Black said their tradition would become a memory like that of Samuel de Champlain more than 400 years earlier. But maybe other individuals would revive the Order in the future.

Jeff Helsdon, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Aylmer Express