The article in the September 14th edition of the Gazette left a sort of bittersweet taste in my mouth since I had an extreme arm’s length association with the East and Main Restaurant, established there in 2009.

My grandfather, John Alexander Wallace purchased the Wilder Department Store located in the building at the time and ran a successful business there with his son, George Richard Wallace through depression and flood in 1936 which eventfully caused my grandfather to have a stroke, pneumonia and eventfully killed him. The stroke arose from his wading in ice water attempting to move his stock upstairs to drier quarters. I culled that info from my brother’s article in the Spring edition 1996 of Steve Campbell’s County Magazine from Georges’ encyclopedic book aptly called Who Cares? in which he wanted to get down on paper his experiences throughout his life for his grandchildren. We as a family are indebted to him for his hard work as well as that of his widow, Elaine

You gave it a good shot, Kimberly, a really good shot. 14 years in the restaurant business is no piece of cake.I had a couple of good and memorable experiences in East and Main. I took my wife, Carol, there for our 50th wedding anniversary dinner and made her cry when she opened the card and out fell two airline round trip tickets to Paris! She was going to Paris to see our grandson, Will, a fledgling perfumer, who articled with Chanel. They wanted to keep him but he was not French and tradition holds, he has Kate Winslet as a client and an agent in Berlin. So he’s moving!

I won’t trouble you with your memories but at one time when you were under construction I wanted to do a framed pictorial of the ownership of East and Main property indicating the original land grant to Captain Whatever -his – name was who received all the property rights from Bancroft to Lake Ontario including all of Wellington. for his service to King George the third. I got that info from Krista Richardson our very capable archivist but regrettably I have misplaced the list. Oh, well, my road to Hades is paved with my good intentions.

I think I’ll just close with a best wishes for you, Kimberly, the middle name of my daughter. Maybe I’m partial to her name. Have a good one, Kimberly

Ian Inrig

The Wellings of Picton