Spirit Quest

Back to Batawa: A river runs through us and our lives - the beautiful Trent River,
draining from the Kawartha  Lakes to the Bay of Quinte.

By The Rev. Dr. Hanns Skoutajan

Years ago I read a book by Norman Maclean and later saw a film based on the book called: A River Runs Through It. It pictures the stunning Montana countryside, its mountains and a river teeming with vigorous trout that runs through it.  Ontario doesn’t have mountains like that but it has some beautiful rivers.

I recall in the summer of 1942 moving to the small wartime community of Batawa, eight kilometres north of Trenton. I was riding on the back of a truck that was carting our meager possessions from Toronto.  It was rainy and a tarp protected us on the three-hour journey. When we arrived in Trenton I became aware that the weather was changing. I sensed the warm rays of the sun on the canvas and lifted up a corner of the tarp to get a view of where I was.  What I saw put a lump in my throat. We were following a lovely river. There were hills surrounding us and everything was beautifully green so different from the big city we had left behind.  Indeed, it reminded me of my home, Bohemia, which my parents and I had been forced to flee when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia three years earlier. 

From a small plane Tom Bata had glimpsed that same scene as he looked for a place to locate his shoe factory. It too reminded him of his homeland  which he also had been forced to leave behind and thus chose the Trent River Valley as the new home for the Bata Shoe Company.

Seventy years later, last week end, some 500 people gathered at Batawa to remember the arrival of 150 Czech families and the establishment of this “shoe town”.  Much has happened since, the change from shoe production to the manufacture of war equipment, the return to peace time manufacturing in the post war years, the arrival of newcomers from displaced persons camps in Europe and finally 9 years ago the cessation of shoe production and what  seemed like the end of the Bata story in this part of the world. 

Those of us who had connections with the company were elated to hear that Sonja Bata, wife of Tom Bata and the founder of the famed Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, had plans for a new development of this site. On Saturday afternoon architects and town planners along with Mrs. Bata explained with pictures and diagrams what it is hoped lies in store for a “green” community.  The five story plant that I glimpsed from under the tarp of the truck, where once upon a time both my mother and father as well as I had worked, will be turned into condominiums with wonderful unobstructed views of the river and the surrounding hills. Ecologically sound and innovative homes will be built.  There will be shopping, entertainment, sports and school facilities. Once again, as it was in the early years, Batawa will be a model community.

Last week in my column I wrote about the Homecoming that I was attending. Now I can affirm that this event has been an unmitigated success. On Saturday evening we enjoyed a gala banquet presided over by Roy Bonisteel of CBC Man Alive fame. He had grown up in this area and had briefly worked for Bata before launching into his journalistic career. We heard speakers, were entertained by Slovak dancers in their colourful costumes, and a string quintet of the Quinte Symphony orchestra.

In the afternoon Tony Daicar, a retired professor of gynecology at Queen’s who had grown up in Batawa presented a production  of the Primary Class, a reenactment of the first day of school  for Czech and Canadian children 70 years ago. Miss Mikel, now living in Hamilton, was on hand to preside over this unique class half of whom could speak no English. Only 19 years old and with little teaching experience she proved to be an outstanding educator and one who loved each of her charges.

For the Czech children the challenge of course was coping with a strange language and for the Canadian children it was a matter of getting to know their new classmates with much puzzlement over their customs and habits. It proved to be an evocative and spirited production. 

At the end of our homecoming the Batas entertained all for brunch at their beautiful home up on a hill that overlooks the river, valley, and village. 

There was a spirit palpable, a community spirit, even a sense of destiny. For us from abroad it reawakened a gratitude that our lives had fallen in such pleasant places. 

A river runs through us and our lives - the beautiful Trent River, draining from the Kawartha  Lakes to the Bay of Quinte. Once upon a time floats of logs made the journey, now it is luxury pleasure craft but also canoes and kayaks that ply these waters. A river runs through our lives and all of us who have lived and worked and were schooled on its shores are keenly aware that there is spirit  a’ movin’.

The Spirit is alive in many ways, It is what makes life worth living.
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