Given that we live within an easy drive of the longest non-military international border in the world, many western Mass residents enjoy spending time in Canada and remain ardent fans of the vast and beautiful country to our north, despite current political tensions. I follow the lead of my large Canadian family and choose to focus on the positive, celebrating personal and cultural ties between the two countries.
Shelburne Falls resident Ann McCormack loves researching her Canadian roots, which date back to the 1600s. McCormack’s mother, Gertrude Rose Leahy, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia; long ago, their Irish ancestors first immigrated to Prince Edward Island. McCormack was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, because her mother moved to the U.S. in her late teens.
“My mother was raised from age 5 in a girls’ [Catholic] seminary by Sisters of Charity,” said McCormack. The Sisters of Charity also ran a hospital in Brooklyn, where they sent 18-year-old Gertrude to study nursing. Gertrude met and eventually married Francis Xavier McCormack, who lived near the hospital.
Ann McCormack had no cousins in Brooklyn.
“I met my Canadian cousins for the first time when I was a teen,” she said. “I fell in love with my whole Canadian family.”
McCormack added that while her mother sometimes longed for “up home,” she adapted to life in the U.S. with patriotism and pride.
“My mother was an immigrant who wore American flag earrings and displayed the flag at our home,” she recalled.
As an adult, McCormack brought her own two children to Nova Scotia to nurture family connections into the next generation.
McCormack is sad and concerned about current tensions between the governments of her two countries, yet she tries to remain light-hearted, including by offering snacks sourced from Canada when she hosts house concerts in space at her home, which she calls the Water Street Barn.
“Canada has become my other home,” she said. “When I’m up there, I’m referred to as ‘from away,’ but not in a mean tone. I find out more about who I am when I’m there. I soften my New York accent and attitude.”
Still, McCormack continues to deeply love her New York roots, too. “I was in Brooklyn for 65 years; my heart is where I grew up.”
McCormack brought many aspects of her diverse roots to Shelburne Falls, where she’s lived for a decade. In Brooklyn, she hosted cultural events, earned a Doctorate in Theater Education and spent decades encouraging people of all ages to freely express themselves: “I worked with kids, immigrants and people whose education had been interrupted.”
McCormack is known for bringing pizzazz and sparkle to Franklin County through her house concerts. Her post-retirement life is also heavily influenced by community-based, warm and friendly traits for which Canadians are famous.
“My roots also include Indigenous ancestry,” she noted. “My ninth-great-grandmother was Mi’kmaw.”
McCormack is a magnificent example of how citizens of Canada and the U.S. can regard each other as family, regardless of politics.
For Leverett resident Craig Hollingsworth, traveling to Canada is about fun and learning. He often attends the Carrefour Mondial de l’Accordéon, an annual international accordion festival held in Montmagny, located on the south shore of the Saint-Laurent River across from Québec City. Hollingsworth recently returned from this year’s festival and said, “Thousands of people take over the town, which at its central point has an accordion museum. There’s music indoors, outdoors and everywhere.”
The festival’s workshops are all in French, Hollingsworth said, “but they’re pretty basic, so it’s possible to get by even if you don’t understand the language.”
This year, in addition to many Canadian acts, featured performers hailed from Italy, Belgium, Finland and other places; no Americans headlined. Yet Hollingsworth said the vibe was as congenial as ever.
“I didn’t hear a cross word,” he said. “The Canadians I came into contact with were stereotypically friendly. The only remark I heard that was even remotely political related to disappointment with the U.S. president, not the American people. We were at a music festival. People were there to have a good time.”
Hollingsworth began playing the accordion at 9 years old, but he quit about five years later.
“I wasn’t relating to standard accordion repertoire, the marches and whatever was in the method books,” he recalled. One piece sealed the deal: “When the Rachmaninoff in D got stuck in my mind, I knew I was done.”
He later reunited with his accordion during his college years in Alaska.
“My mom came to visit and brought me beer and my accordion,” he said. “After that, it followed me everywhere, and I eventually picked the instrument back up in grad school.”
While living in Oregon, Hollingsworth discovered square dancing and a traditional music scene.
“I saw the (famed music ensemble) Boys of the Lough, and they played concertinas, so I bought a used concertina,” he said, an instrument he played often while living in a cabin with no electricity as he conducted entomology field work. “It was just me and my concertina. I played for hours every night.”
After being hired at the University of Massachusetts in 1984, Hollingsworth became acquainted with the local traditional music community and continued to play the concertina. After encountering swing music, he picked up the accordion again. These days, he plays with Silverback Swing, as well as French Press, a trio concentrating on Québecois music.
Hollingsworth is already looking forward to Carrefour Mondial l’Accordeon 2027.
“The town of Montmagny is very, very French,” he said. “But they’re so accepting. Even though the residents generally don’t speak English, they’re good-natured about our attempts to communicate. And they’re always smiling.”
Columnist Eveline MacDougall grew up on both sides of the border and can be reached at evelinemacdougall@gmail.com.