Those Were the Days, put on by the Western Development Museum, offered some much needed entertainment for the sometimes boring summer days.
People young and old took in the many shows that were offered. Near the top of the "must see" list was Will Gough's Australian Whip Show.
Gough, 51, has been cracking whips since he was just four years old. The Australian now living in Borden learned from his grandfather at young age and never stopped.
"He showed me what it was about cracking whips and what to look for in a whip and all the different timing and stuff like that," said Gough. "Then he mostly got me to use my imagination and see how far I could push that. Once he gave me the fine pointers and how to fine tune things I kind of took it from there."
Gough's show is heavily volunteer-based. Not surprisingly, his first trick had the crowd somewhat hesitant. It's not easy to convince someone to have a whip travelling approximately 1,400 feet per second anywhere near them. But, after successfully cracking the whip through a piece of paper no more than a centimetre from a volunteer's face, he earned more trust. By the end, getting willing participants became much easier for him.
Gough does shows throughout Canada and even into the United States with his neighbour, Louise Saunders. Aside from the shows, the pair also teach classes and they even make their own whips. Each one is handcrafted and takes around 36 hours to make. They use kangaroo hide to craft them.
That's another skill Gough's grandfather contributed towards.
"He was one that knew exactly what to look for and how a whip needed to be in order to be good, because he knew how to handle a whip tremendously. He could put a cigarette in someone's mouth then just walk ten paces away, come back and take the cigarette out. He had incredible accuracy," Gough said. "By him knowing what he really needed in a whip, he was able to pass that information along to me and I was able to produce my own type of whip, my own recipe for making the whip."
Gough also uses horses in his show. Amazingly, the horses were very comfortable around the whips, much more so than the participants of the human variety. Two horses were used, and one had been familiarized with the whip only three days earlier.
The Australian whip cracking show wasn't the only thing to see at Those Were the Days. There was a trade show, barbecue, dog show, pioneer competitions, live entertainment, light horse demonstrations, a miniature horse obstacle course demonstration and the Parade of Power just to name a few.
The grounds were packed and the weather played nice for the event. It was a fitting way to take in one of the final weekends of the summer.
