As seen by the Young !
Martin et Mathieu Dagenais
The twelfth annual Perron gathering was held in Shawinigan this past August. As early as Friday evening a good number of Perrons were on the site of the City of Energy to take in the magnificent show Kosmogonia presented on the shore of the Saint-Maurice river. That high-voltage evening filled with light effects, legend, songs, music, fire works, and graced by the superb performance of dancers and acrobats, was followed by two beautiful days of cultural events and activities of genealogy and family history fused together for our pleasure. But first let’s listen to our young crowd to give our readers a breath of fresh air, a zap of youth. Then to the young at heart who sent us their impressions of the week-end. Here are Martin (806) and Mathieu, then Justin and Jessica. (The Bulletin Committee)
For us young people, it is a very special occasion when we take part in the Perron annual gatherings with our grandparents. As you may well know, our grandparents are extremely busy people so whenever we get the chance to get together, we are thrilled. For many years now, our mother, Lise, has been attending these gatherings with our grandfather, Rhéal, and she always returned so happy for having met such pleasant people, and for having had the opportunity to visit various corners of Quebec… so we also wanted to accompany her.
Our first gathering was in 1999 in Hull – it was so close to our home – and we had a great time. My brother, Mathieu, went to the Quebec gathering a couple of years ago. He still talks about it, the Old city, the visit to Deschambault, the Saint Lawrence river – he reached the St Lawrence by walking on the rocks when the tide was low. He also loved the café-chantant evening with Félix Leclerc’s nephew and despite the fact that he did not know about Félix, being much too young, by the end of the evening he was humming the tunes.
I attended the Joliette Gathering in 2002 and was presented with the AFPA Prize for Excellence of which I am tremendously proud. Naturally, we wanted to come to the Shawinigan gathering. After all, we wanted to encourage our grandfather, Rhéal, the president. We are so proud of him!
We left Ottawa that Friday driving behind my grandparents’ car all the way to Shawinigan. In spite of a small problem with our hotel room at first, everything went well. Who wouldn’t love to stay in a hotel, enjoy the swimming pool, the hot tub and eat at the restaurant?
It was a pleasure to listen to historian Mario Lachance on Saturday morning. I can tell you this: he was so interesting and told us all about Shawinigan in such a way that time went by just like that. And he never hesitated during his speech. In the afternoon we had guided visits. My grandmother and I took the bus tour of the city because unfortunately there was a problem with the cruise. Mathieu visited the Cité de l’Énergie with the family. That visit started with a short film – IMAX style – that related the history of Shawinigan, emphasizing the importance of the falls to its economy . It was said that Shawinigan has four main industries: electric power generation, aluminum, electro-chemical, and pulp and paper. The guide had a great sense of humour. We will not soon forget the legend of the « trou du diable ». And how can we describe the paronamic view from the tower? But if there’s one thing we would have liked to see , well it’s the falls… we heard so much about them during the weekend. However, this was not possible because, as it was explained to us, at this time of the year the water spill from the dam has to be cut off to direct all the water through the turbines so that enough energy can be supplied to all.
In the late afternoon we went to Notre-Dame-de-la Présentation church for the special Perron mass. Even though the heat was unbearable, the paintings on the walls, the choir and orchestra were so absolutely incredible that we just forgot about the heat. Everyone loved the evening led by a DJ; even we teenagers. We danced a lot and with adults we did not even know before. The Perrons love to dance – we have pictures to prove it.
As usual the weekend ended with the brunch and we ate enough to burst at the seams. It’s quite easy to please the young; serve us a brunch and we’ll be happy. Mathieu and I would like to call on all the young Perrons to take part in the annual gatherings with their parents or grandparents. It is an opportunity to get together, to meet new friends and to see new and different places in Québec. See you next year!
From JUSTIN & JESSICA: « We just loved going for a swim at the hotel pool and shopping downtown. The buffet was super because we could choose whatever food we liked best. We had a fun evening and we danced with a lot of new acquaintances, and we laughed a lot because we are not expert dancers, especially at line dancing. It was cool to go up in the tower at Cité de l’Énergie, but we found the visit to the museum too long … yes, even though our mother says it was great. The rotating auditorium was cool and we had fun trying to guess how this was possible. We are looking forward to attending next year’s gathering with our parents. »
From GEORGE (491) & THÉRÈSE: « It was again a great pleasure for us to be with all the PERRON cousins for the reunion at Shawinigan. I am ever so glad to be received and met by the good friends I have made since 1995 when I first met everyone. The Kosmogonia show was just beautiful as well as the boat trip, the banquet reception and all the new people we met from the area. For those people who did not go to the art museum for the showing of ‘The Body Transformed’ you missed something beautiful and should go and see it. As you enter, the first thing you see is the very large face of a baby about 15 feet in diameter that looks so real you want to touch it. The persons in charge of the gathering did a fantastic job from the reception to the closing. We know a lot of effort was spent on this project as seen from the results. How nice it was to go to Notre-Dame-de-la-Présentation church and see such great paintings by Ozias Leduc. The mass was wonderful and it was great to see Father Perron at the altar with abbé Marcel. The choir and music were exceptional. I have been asked to be regional coordinator in my area and I have accepted. It would be a good time to try to get more Americans to attend the gathering at La Prairie. »
From ALCIDE (457) & LUCILLE: « Just a few lines to say a BIG THANK YOU to the members of our Board of directors for the magnificent job that they’re doing in finding a location and organizing committees for our annual meetings. Every year we look forward to our annual gathering. This year the gathering was exceptional because members had several well organized activities to choose from. Lucille and I chose the guided tour of Cité de l’Énergie and tour of Shawinigan and its history. We also enjoyed the show Kosmogonia on Friday evening. Memories not soon forgotten. And a special thank you for keeping our ‘Vue du perron’ bulletin bilingual. I am proud to be a member of an association that is ‘Toujours en marche’. »
A good number of door prizes were given among which some were the creation of Perron artists; let’s mention a painting by Lise (316) and two dainty miniature lace works by Micheline Perron, local lace-maker. And as Martin said so well ‘The Perrons love to dance’ and they did just that for the remaining of the evening. It was particularly pleasant to see them line dancing in perfect harmony. As for Sylvain and Lina, what a style!
The Perrons do like to have fun but they also attend to their duty. At 9 o’clock on Sunday morning, more than 60 members, some accompanied by their spouse, took their place for the general meeting. Presentations of various reports, ratification of committee activities… all went smoothly. Even the election process did not linger and all vacant positions were filled. The 2003-2004 Board of Administration is composed of: Rhéal, president; Cécile, vice-president; Normand, vice-president; Gaby, secretary; Bernard, treasurer; and Thérèse, Gaston, Léopold and Michel, administrators. The general meeting was completed before 11 o’clock and all hurried with checking out before gathering for the brunch that marked the end of the weekend. Next year, we’ll meet at La Prairie, with Léopold at the head of the organizing committee. Come all!