During the annual general meeting of the Central Alberta Regional Museums Association, local playwright Mary Hays performed highlights from a play about Olds she's writing.
The meeting was held April 4 at St. Paul's Lutheran Church.
The play, called See Olds First, will be performed June 17 at 1 p.m. during Summer Oldstice, which features attractions and sales by Uptowne businesses.
It will be performed on a stage set up where the old railway station used to be, on 50th Avenue, just south of 51st Street.
The play consists of six scenes about Olds and area, including a scene during which Mayor Billy Dean convinces the Board of Trade in 1906 to donate money to build a second railway crossing in Olds at 49th Street.
That crossing was later eliminated and the uproar around that plan sparked the so-called Battle of Olds - a confrontation between Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) officials and townspeople who wanted to keep the crossing.
Hays wrote a play about the Battle of Alberta, which has also been performed in Olds.
Following are some lines from Scene 1, where Billy Dean speaks to the Board of Trade to convince them to fork up money for the rail crossing.
"My goodness, Olds is busting at the seams. Oats are selling for 27 cents a bushel and flax a dollar a bushel. And we shipped 150 carloads of cattle, 685 loads of grain and plenty of chickens and vegetables.
"We're getting $14 a ton for bales - timothy hay - and we shipped 450 carloads of hay too. They don't call us Hay City of the West for nothing.
"We depend on the rail to move our produce out to the East. The CPR is our link (to the outside world).
"But Olds is hampered because there is only one rail crossing. We need a second rail crossing. As you well know, the tracks go right through the centre of town. So when the train stops, it blocks the crossing.
"This causes a huge disturbance. Business and commerce comes to a standstill. People can't get through to do their shopping, store owners can't get to their businesses, and workers can't get to their jobs," Dean says.
"Your businesses will benefit: the restaurants, the laundry, the store, the drug store, the real estate business -- and my machine shop," he adds later.
Dean estimates the cost of the crossing to be $500, and in the scene, gets donations of $10 each from some Board of Trade members.
"We're not going to stand around waiting for a handout from the CPR," Dean says. "Let's get busy and get the job done."
During the museum association meeting, members voted on what the descriptor line underneath the title of the play should be. The winning line is "a play of stories told by the folks who lived them."
"We're not going to stand around waiting for a handout from the CPR. Let's get busy and get the job done."MAYOR BILLY DEAN FORMER MAYOR OF OLDS
