The Huron County Museum is celebrating the county's history as a dry county with a Temperance Picnic and Ice Cream Social this Saturday.
Curator of Engagement and Dialogue, Sinead Cox explains one of their exhibits this summer is called "Huron County – the Dry Years," and those years were on and off from the 1800s to almost 1960.
The Temperance Picnic will be typical of picnics that were held all over the county during the spring and summer months during the dry years. They would be organized by different youth organizations, church organizations or temperance organizations and would have outdoor games, perhaps a missionary speaker and refreshments.
Cox says the Temperance Picnic this will will include a twist on the old box lunch idea in that instead of a ticket for the event, people are asked to buy a $10 tote bag of toiletries valued at about $20 and provided by Michaels Pharmasave to be donated to the Huron Women's Shelter and Second Stage Housing.
The Temperance Picnic takes place at the Huron County Museum from one till four on Saturday afternoon, July 8.
Cox adds the Museum exhibit goes into a little bit more details about what some people did to get around the rules when Huron County was a dry county. She says there were illegal stills scattered around the county and some of the hotels and bars that served that alcohol are still around today.
