They could have just gone with some simple wrapping paper, or one of those dollar-store gift bags. But a fiddling group from Williams Lake, B.C.
, instead stumbled upon something much more interesting and meaningful, when they needed to wrap some gifts for their host in Whitehorse — an old fiddle case that once belonged to Yukon's beloved "fiddler on the loose," the late Joe Loutchan. It happened last week when the Cariboo Chilcotin Youth Fiddle Society was in Whitehorse for the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Competition. They'd brought along some gifts from Williams Lake — some fresh honey, a hand-carved spoon, and a tea cannister made by a local potter — as a way of saying thanks to the event's local organizer, fiddle teacher Keitha Clark.
But they didn't have anything to put their gifts in. That's when Mary Forbes, who's with the Williams Lake group, happened upon the perfect thing when she wandered into an antique and curio shop in downtown Whitehorse. "I was telling her [the shop owner] about what we were doing in town and she said, 'well, maybe you want to see these,'" Forbes recalled.
The shop owner pulled down a few old fiddle cases that were tucked at the back of a cabinet. They didn't have prices on them. "They were fairly old and worn, but still beautiful in their age — and the stories that are inside them," Forbes said.
The shop owner opened the last case, revealing a golden velvet lining with a name roughly inscribed. Forbes said she had trouble reading i.