"I want to thank all of the friendly people of Orillia who made us feel so welcome in their hometown."
Sunshine Sketches about the little Mariposa town is available to read on-line..if you enjoy satire, biting wit and a finely crafted use of the English language it's a fun read..
Leacock states at the beginning:
"In regard to the present work I must disclaim at once all intentions
of trying to do anything so ridiculously easy as writing about a real
place and real people. Mariposa is not a real town. On the contrary,
it is about seventy or eighty of them. You may find them all the way
from Lake Superior to the sea, with the same square streets and the
same maple trees and the same churches and hotels, and everywhere the
sunshine of the land of hope."
another website states:
http://www.123helpme.com/assets/17360.html
The final story of Sunshine Sketches titled L'Envoi. The Train to Mariposa is a departure from the preceding satire. It effectively ties the book together by offering a retrospective approach to the small-town.
It
fondly recalls the idiosyncrasies that make every small town across the country something that can be remembered with admiration. It suggests the feelings that everyone experiences when they leave the small-town atmosphere in search of bigger and better things, only to recall a childhood when the times and the people were less complicated.
The ironic quirks that are often the root of fond memories exist, and are emphasized
by Leacock as he finalizes his compilation.
He still jabs at small-town life from a distance, but it is no less effective than were he to stand in the middle of main street in downtown Mariposa.
It's so evident that Lightfoot has those wonderful memories of being a young boy in Orillia and that they still mean so much this many years later even tho he headed out for bigger and better things...