By Phil Egan for The Sarnia Journal

(2016)  In 1925, Sarnia decided to throw itself a weeklong party.

It invited “old boys and girls” from across Canada to return to the city for a week of celebrations, beginning July 18th and running through July 25th. The event was promoted as “Old Home Week.”

By all accounts, it was a roaring success. Many hundreds of former Sarnians and their families returned to the city to celebrate Old Home Week.

The eight-day party was a whirlwind of receptions, parades, sporting competitions, brass bands, horse and yacht races, and a massive historical pageant. It was, without question, the biggest event in Sarnia’s history to that time.

Following an official welcome on Saturday morning by Mayor Barr and other notables, the throng joined a parade led by a band and the Sarnia Fire Department, replete with decorated automobiles.

They marched to Athletic Park for a baseball game. On Saturday evening, three bands performed from the bandshell in Victoria Park.

Special church services were conducted on Sunday, and that afternoon aged veterans of the 1866 Fenian Raids, the Boer War, and the Canadian Expeditionary Force from the Great War marched. Some visited Lakeview Cemetery to decorate graves.

The following day featured a lacrosse game, with a massive masquerade ball in the evening in the downtown streets.

On Tuesday, Point Edward held its own party for returning former citizens with a baseball game and reception that evening, Athletic Park (today’s Norm Perry Park), was the scene of a huge boxing tournament – an “exhibition of the manly art,” as it was described in the program of daily events. Nine bouts were offered, with the suggestion that “ladies need not hesitate to attend.” Every bout, the organizers promised, would offer “clean, upright boxing.”

Visitors were invited to tour the three-year-old Sarnia Collegiate (SCITS) on Wednesday, and that night the highlight of Old Home Week took place with the ‘Great Historical Pageant.’ This massive re-enactment of historical events in the life of the city featured a cast of 500.

More sports on Thursday were followed by an impressive civic reception for Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig on Friday. The distinguished visitor was billed as “the man who led the British forces to victory” in the global war, which had ended only seven years earlier. That evening, the huge historical pageant was repeated yet again in Athletic Park.

Saturday was devoted to Imperial Oil, the city’s largest employer. Past and current employees enjoyed baseball and soccer games, with an afternoon picnic.

A band concert and street dancing that night brought a joyous end to Sarnia’s one and only Old Home Week.