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This poster was published in the August 2, 1978 edition of the newspaper La Victoire. At the top of the poster, we read that the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache will be held from August 5 to 12. At the bottom is the following motto: “However you can get there – on foot or on horseback, by car or by flying canoe – COME TO THE PARTY!”

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“Notice is hereby given that the Council of the City of Saint-Eustache and the Council of the Parish of Saint-Eustache have adopted, by an absolute majority of their members, a by-law (By-law number 637 of the City of Saint-Eustache), authorizing the submission of a joint petition to the Lieutenant Governor in Council, asking him to grant Letters Patent amalgamating the City of Saint-Eustache and the Parish of Saint-Eustache and creating a new city municipality.”

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Sylvain H. Boileau (SHB): After that, what impressed me was… how many people had come. It was, it was really… It wasn’t just Saint-Eustache. It was really – back then it was the County of Deux-Montagnes and there were a lot of people from outside the area.

We were pretty popular in, the party, in La Presse, the Journal de Montréal, you know, there were a lot of activities, I mean a lot of activities: exhibitors, craftspeople, a lot of shows, foot races, bike races, corn roasts … The Knights of Columbus made gargouille…

Sandrine Contant-Joannin (SCJ): Gargotte…

SHB: Gargotte!

SCJ: Yeah.

SHB: Thanks! Uh…. Disgusting… (laughs) They made gargotte, not far from here. Every venue where you could get a crowd of people together was used – you don’t see that in Saint-Eustache anymore, or even at other festivals…

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Donat Légaré: We had to spend the whole morning at mass. Mom got us little ones ready. She would help us get dressed, and we had to go along. Go to mass with our parents. Then, when we got back from mass, it was the noonday feast. The city folks arrived by train in the morning in family groupings: the father, the mother, some with five kids, some with four, some with two… There was one that had six.

Some of them went to my uncle’s house for dinner – my uncle Émile, who lived on rue Saint-Nicolas. So then we had dinner in the two houses. At around five in the afternoon, the people down there would come up to the village to have supper with us. And the people who’d had dinner with us went down to Uncle Émile’s house for supper. They’d swap houses. After supper, the people down there would put on their coats and shout… The first one to get up would shout: “We’re going to Magloire’s place!” And then they’d all come up to our place to spend the evening dancing in the living room, singing, playing cards in the dining room.

One of my uncles, Edmond, would gather the kids together in a corner and get us singing. He was our self-appointed choir leader. Two uncles would play the harmonica. Émile and Edmond Légaré. Several uncles came from Montréal. My uncle Dévilaire, a singer, a dancer, he would do the petit bonhomme dance. He wasn’t very tall, but he sure had the moves! He was a real ham! He’d make up songs about everyone.

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Christian Giraldeau (CG) : But you know, at that time, I’d say starting with Expo, starting with de Gaulle’s “Québec libre”* […] there was a lot of excitement, a growing interest, at least, in anything to do with traditional Québécois crafts, Québécois folk music… In the 1970s, at the beginning of the decade, in 1971 [in fact, it was 1975], I think, there was the Veillée des veillées, which was held at the École du plateau. Have you heard of it?

Sandrine Contant-Joannin (SCJ) : Yes.

CG : A whole week of veillées. Veillée des veillées – there was a group from Ireland, an Irish group who came. Zachary Richard, that was the first time he came to Montréal. Wow! We never wanted to let him go home! And La Bottine souriante, there was…

And at first, I was surprised that I enjoyed it so much because, you know, there was… It was that old stuff on TV – there was a program called “La veillée canadienne”.

SCJ : “La Soirée canadienne.”

CG : Something like that.

SCJ : Yes, and it was quite cheesy.

CG: Yes, exactly… And it was not, you know… But we were listening to Hendrix and uh… Pink Floyd and so on. But then we really started getting into Ti-Jean Carignan, who had played for the queen. When you heard him play live… You heard him there in person and you couldn’t help but be blown away!

We had a ball all week. There were uh, I think at least five concerts, five evenings; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Friday was the finale. It was incredible. So that was the environment with all the excitement about rediscovering our heritage and bringing it back.

*During a state visit for Expo 1967, General Charles de Gaulle, then president of France, gave a memorable speech in Montréal during which he proclaimed: “Vive le Québec libre!” (“Long live free Québec!”) Those words went down in history and had a significant impact on the nationalist movement in the province.

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