While people continued to work during the long, sweltering summer months, they did have one occasion to look forward to – the company picnic. This was a major event.

Picnics and Excursions

Workers dressed up for the occasion and rode in decorated wagons. Several factories, including Bell Piano and Organ and Raymond Sewing Machine factory, incorporated a parade into the affair. The company’s mascot or special wagon headed the parade. This was good advertising for the company. At the same time, it strengthened the idea this was something special.

The parade also incorporated other members of the community. Guelphites could line up and view the parade as it wandered through town. This introduced an element of community involvement or investment. 

Common destinations for picnics and excursions were Waterloo Park in Waterloo and Swastika Beach on Puslinch Lake. When Riverside Park was created in 1905, employees could take a trolley and enjoy everything the park offered.

At these destinations, picnickers swam and held various sporting events. Baseball games were common. They also ate a picnic lunch. It was a day out of the city (Riverside Park was at the far extreme of Guelph) and everyone enjoyed the time away from work.

These events were immensely popular in the late 1800s but were also common well into the 1930s. The workers from Bell Organ and Piano, Lancashire Felt, Standard Brands, the Guelph Lumber Company, McCrae’s Woollen Mills and Northern Rubber all celebrated this summer pleasure. Even the city’s tailors, bakers and retail clerks spent a day on a picnic or excursion.

Some unions also held a picnic as a group. However, it did not necessarily mean employees got the day off from work. Employers tended to pick a Civic Holiday to hold the company picnic or excursion.

As transportation became faster, and roads more accessible, excursions farther away from Guelph became popular. Guelph workers joined the exodus. They or their company purchased discount railway tickets. They boarded the train and left for larger cities en masse. As government legislation altered the patriarchal industrial landscape and people began to choose their holidays, company picnics became rarer.

Today

While a few people still swim in Guelph’s rivers, many more choose to splash in the city’s splash pads, wading pools and swimming pools – including Lyon’s Pool. The rare exception is Riverside Park. People continue to enter the river and play in its waters as they have for more than a century.