I felt energetic and decided to make the trek to Villeray in the late evening as opposed to the early morning. My experience says that people put their trash out the night before fairly inconsistently but I had a theory that yesterday’s warm sunny weather, following a bout of cold rainy days, would make people more likely to take out the trash early.
The theory may have had some validity as there was certainly a lot of trash on the streets. Inside these bags were lots of fabric and sewing materials.
This box was full of yarn. I left the yarn for others to take and kept the box which I thought could have mild value (and plus, I just like old ephemera). It’s definitely older as there’s no French written on it, which I’m pretty sure would be illegal under Bill 101.
I brought home some miscellaneous sewing / knitting stuff, including a honey tub full of buttons. I imagine that this stuff was part of an older woman’s supplies. Some of it is pretty old – those De Long pins in the left tub for example are dated (Copyright) 1941. They promise not to rust and indeed over 70 years later there’s none to be seen!
A bunch of sewing patterns that date from the early 60s to mid 70s. They seem to be complete but I have no way of being sure.
I also found this board game made by Hydro Quebec, which is the publicly-owned electricity company up in these parts. The postmark on the envelope it was shipped in is dated 1966. I found another Quebec government sponsored board game from around the same time period which makes me think that making promotional board games was a fad in the late 60s (at least in the Quebec government).
This one is a snake-and-ladders knockoff. You win by getting to the last square which represents the development of the massive hydro dams in the Manicouagan Lake (“Manic”) area. They still provide much of Quebec’s power, a lot of which is also exported to Ontario and the States. You jump ahead based on things like getting new electric cables in your house and you fall back when you get wet hands, which means you should be more careful about the potential of an electric shock.
I wonder how many of these games are left sitting around in people’s closets? Chances are lots were thrown out (or will be) or somehow ruined. This game is probably pretty rare. Rare doesn’t necessarily means valuable but it’s a cool historical artefact nonetheless.
I’m heading out soon to explore the Plateau. I’ll let you know if I find anything!