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The Squamidian Report – Dec. 23 / 17
Christmas 2017 Addition Issue #813 Including: Rosy From Russ From Lorne From Wayne North Nova News From a Non-Subscriber From Sue The Ontarion Hi All, Traditions tend to be a big part of our lives this time of year. I guess its our inherent need to relive those memories that establish the need to repeat or try to repeat activities and once the activity has been set, we have a tradition. We left many traditions behind when we moved 16 years ago but have created a few new ones. One that fell into our laps a few years ago was the making of home made fudge and peanut brittle to hand out to the employees at the gondola. It started off innocently enough. We thought it would be nice to give a small token of our appreciation to the many people we had met and gotten to know. Well, that went so well that we did it the second Christmas they were open. Then the third. Now we've reached the fourth and for a while we thought perhaps we could drop the activity. Face it, making enough fudge and peanut brittle to hand out to over eighty people takes a lot of work and a lot of the stuff needed to make the treats. (Sue does most of the work, I supply the encouragement). Then as we got closer to the week before Christmas we started getting little hints as to how much some of them were looking forward to the fudge, or peanut brittle. (We give each person a choice as some like one, and some like the other). New employees have no idea of whats going on but the long-time ones seem to have good memories, or at least sweet tooths. In order to catch everyone we have to be prepared several days ahead so we can start handing the stuff out several days ahead and spread it over about three days. Different people there work different days and are off on different days. We wouldn't want anyone mad at us for missing them, now would we? So, it takes several days of hard work to make all the treats then several days to hand it out. There are office staff people, customer service staff people, all the lift attendants, all the trail and out door workers, all the retail staff and all the coffee and food counter people. It adds up real quick. But it has become a Christmas tradition for us and its something we really enjoy doing and get a kick out of doing. As expected it went over very well again this year. It helps that we know all their names and pretty well all of them know ours. No one turns down the offer of a small treat given in the spirit of the season. There are lots of hugs given back, luckily aimed at Sue because thats not something I'm very comfortable with. Perhaps next year we can let it slip and be forgotten but probably not, its become a tradition for them as well as us. *
I would be remiss to not point out that as of 2 days
ago, the days have been getting longer. Not 'longer' enough for anyone
to notice yet but definitely headed in the right direction. Before we
know it, it will be spring, then summer, then fall, then right back to
winter. Wow the time went fast.*
A very big thank you to everyone that sent in an
article for this letter. See how fun that was. And, I'd like to point
out that for the very first time in Squamidian history, we have 3
brothers all contributing to the same issue. And face it, 3 brothers
beats 3 wise men any day. A very Merry Christmas to everyone.doug
**** From Rosy OK, you guys who wrote this week have inspired me (or shamed me) into contributing something. My 4th grandchild,Myles, was born last June. He had a rough start. He inhaled a lot of meconium (look it up) while still in the womb and immediately upon his birth was put on a ventilator as he was not breathing. He was a week in ICU and another week on the paediatric ward. Scary stuff. My daughter's breast milk was given through the feeding tube. How cool is that! When the tubes were finally removed, she was able to breastfeed him which she is still doing. We are feeling very blessed this Christmas. Myles suffered no brain damage and is the smilingest, most responsive baby I've ever seen. He is now 6 months old and as you can see, is enjoying the Christmas season with his 3 year old sister, Devan. I'm feeling a lot of gratitude. Merry Christmas all and special wishes to Greg for a next successful surgery and a healthy 2018. Dev & Myles
 Rosy **** From Russ Hey Doug, here is a little Christmas time story from my days/nights as a beat cop which appeared in my book, “Memoirs of a 50’s Cop”, which you might consider including in the Christmas Edition of the Squamidian. (the wording is a bit different) A rookie cop walking the beat around Christmas time, really put me in the spirit of giving. The main street of Kitchener was called King Street, and that’s where most of the successful merchants were located. Great effort was put forth to encourage downtown shopping....and it paid off! Why the city installed parking meters (we called “one-arm bandits) I’ll never understand, as they tended to drive shoppers off main street and into the ‘burbs. There’s nothing more discouraging than having to “feed” the meter, do your shopping, and try to get back to your car before that damned thing has expired! Often you don’t make it, and you find a ticket pinned snugly under the wiper! The ticket had to be paid at City Hall where you encountered a VERY large, totally unsympathetic cop, Tiny Farnham. The “damage” was minimal, about $6, but it was the inconvenience that burned your ass. So, in an attempt to “spread good will”, and keep the shoppers happy, I thought up a scheme “fitting the Christmas Spirit”; the meters took pennies, nickels and dimes, and as I always had a pocket-full of change (along with 6 rounds of .38 Cal. Ammo. Jingling in said pocket....not only dangerous, but stupid.....but that’s another story), I began “spreading good will”....... Oh, here’s a meter with the time almost expired. I pull out a hand-full of bullets/pennies/nickels/dimes, and feed the Bandit.....giving the shopper/victim extra time. (You have no idea what a warm feeling that gave me!) They say, “No good deed goes unpunished”.......and they are right! A parking meter cop caught me in-the-act, and was very upset, and threatened me with the quasi-crime of “Obstructing Police in Lawful Performance of Duty” I try not to remember the cop’s name, Anthony “Tony” Herzog, but I can’t forget the Christmas music being “piped”onto King Street....Silver Bells, Silver Bells, it’s Christmas time in the city....... MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL YOU SQUAMIDIANS
Russ. **** From Lorne Strange happenings around here. The most recent and unusual is the clock on the kitchen wall. Electric powered and has been in reasonable service since the editor of the Squad was a kid. Suddenly and without power interruption, it stopped then went into reverse and has been running backwards since 7.30 am, Dec. 18. The timing appears to be 'on time', so as I am reporting this, 8.45 am Dec. 20, the clock would be back to Dec. 16. and proceeding away from now. My choice is to live by the clock on the wall and get younger all the time. However, society and natural progression will not permit that. This is no bull. I wish all a merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Only a few days away by most watches and calendars but that evil time piece on the wall would have it almost a year away with New Years coming a week sooner. Lorne Lorne
**** From Wayne ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ should be banned! This 53 year old Christmas traditional song popularized by Gene Autry about 1964, created by Robert L. May in 1939, promotes bullying and should be removed from broadcasting, public address systems and definitely from schools. Some of the phrases perfectly fit the Wikileaks’ definition of bullying. And bullying is a key ingredient when developing young minds to go to war! Oh yes, we need kids to grow into young people who must learn to hate and kill our enemy dejour, but kids will have time later on to become suitable bullies and join our wars of aggression. Leave it to video game training. Here are the offending phrases (please don’t let your kids see them). “All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names”! Name-calling worst form of bullying. “They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games”! Exclusion! Just as bad! Then we get the kicker during the song’s bridge. Oh sure! He was called upon when they needed him to guide the sleigh! “Then all the other reindeer loved him”. Yes, but only after he had EARNED their love! In other words he had to perform first, and then get the reward – much like in the crass business world. They should have loved him first and then, if Rudolph felt like it, he could have helped Santa – but there shouldn’t have been pressure. Those who know me will say that this rant is out of character, that I am too conservative to think about a Christmas song being offensive. Well they are correct except for this one thing. I am pure liberal when it comes to this song and I have impeccable credentials to back it up. I actually want it banned because I hate the song. Wayne
**** North Nova News We are so lucky this year in our area of Nova Scotia with very little snow leading up to Christmas. What we always wish for is a shorter winter. For those who like to snowmobile, Cape Breton and northern New Brunswick have plenty and there will be lots of people heading that way. It has been quite cold at times so the ski hills will be able to make snow. It looks like Christmas day may give us 5 to 10 cm. just to make it look pretty. My Toro snowblower is all ready to go. Its over 5 years old now and runs great. I had it in for a 5 year check up and it passed with flying colours. Thanks to Doug and Greg for recommending a Toro. The store in Scotsburn that sells them says to their female customers to give me a call if they have any doubt whether they could handle the machine. So I feel kind of important! I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, good health and happiness for 2018. And a thank you to Doug for continuing the Squamidian. Sus
**** Hi Carol, this is my write up re: Christmas in Philippines, please forward it to Doug. EVELYN. CHRISTMAS: PHILIPPINE STYLE
As the song goes "Chistmas is the best time of the year" is really true in every Filipino family. It is the kind of spirit that brings everyone together as part of culture and tradition. It is been noted that Philippines celebrates the longest Christmas in the world as majority in the society starts putting up Christmas decorations from the 1st of September ( the beginning of "ber" months) then put all decorations away right after 6th of January (day of Three Kings). Songs, TV programs, movies, churches, schools, etc -- all bring the spirit of joy, peace and love: the true Christian Spirit. Festivities usually begin on the24th of December with fireworks at daytime, dinner i @ midnightt-- we call it Media Noche, anybody can come over, friends and friends of somebody can bring friends for dinner hopping and singing Christmas Carols until whenever...Dining tables are not cleared until the end of Chistmas day as people continue to come in and out, exchanging gifts and different kinds of food on and on. Santa Claus is a famous character in Philippines during this season. Let me tell you a brief example: In December 2015, Gary Brubacher (my husband), dressed in Santa costume, made a big difference in the lives of my neighborhood in San Pablo City, Laguna. Young and old -- posed for pictures with him as they received small gifts in cute little holiday bags (toys, vitamins and other useful items,etc -- used,old and new as well that we collected from family and friends within North America). Now, young and old call him Grandpa Santa.--feeling so lucky and happy that at last, they met the real Santa Claus, the same Santa Claus some believed that they just see in Christmas cards.every year. In Filipino or Tagalog language we say to everyone,"Maligayang Pasko at Masaganang Bagong Taon", meaning - Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year..... ALL THE BEST IN 2018 from my whole family ..... Evelyn Brubacher.
PS. During New Year's celebration, our midnight dinner is called - Noche Buena, which means - first dinner for the year.. ****
From Sue A Memorable Christmas from my Childhood At this time of year, memories of Christmas past come to mind… When I was in grade school my Dad bought a Christmas tree that was just beautiful. He brought it home and Mom, Sherry & I admired it. A pail was produced from the garage for it to sit in, but we didn’t have any sand for the pail. My Dad, always resourceful took the pail and drove down to the local green wooden sandbox that was at the end of the street. The City Works department always put these boxes out on major roads with hills (Victoria Street) as they didn’t keep things as clear of snow and ice as they do now. With the sand in place, the tree was set up in a place of honor in the living room and decorated. Within a couple of days, the tree started growing amazing white icicles on every branch that looked pretty but were very puzzling. Then the smell, started….. It turned out that the sand was laced with road salt and the poor tree was being poisoned with a salt slurry. Our beautiful tree had lasted less than a week and Christmas was treeless after it was hauled to the road as garbage. Sue
**** THE ONTARION REPORT Hello everyone! The big day is almost here and I sure hope you are all ready for his arrival! Ho Ho Ho! At this time of year I can’t help thinking back on Christmas as a kid. There were several Christmases that the three of us (me, my brother and sister) actually slept on the living room floor near the Christmas Tree to see if we could catch Santa in the act of dropping off our presents and eating the cookies we left out for him. Now that I think of it, he was a tad messy as an eater! He’d always leave cookie crumbs on the coffee table beside the plate but the half dozen chocolate chip cookies were gone every time. I used to think he needed that many to give him enough energy to make it through the night and around the world! LOL! As it turned out, his helpers (mum and dad) managed to place the gifts without waking us and we’d awake every Christmas morning disappointed that we’d missed him again, DARN! Oh well, maybe next year but it never happened! It’s just as well we slept through it so that mum and dad didn’t have to deal with three tired kids the next morning! I’ve been thinking back on some of the gifts that I received from “Santa” over the years of my youth and I wish now that I’d have kept as many as possible to this very day. I had some pretty cool items that would be interesting to have in today’s world. I remember asking for a set of boxing gloves and I actually woke Christmas day to find two pair of “EVERLAST” pro style boxing gloves under the tree. I was ecstatic in the thought that I could finally beat the dickens out of my bully of a big brother! He had a bad habit of punching me with his bony knuckled fists right on the upper arm and every time I’d wind up with a black and blue whopper of a bruise that hurt like crazy for a few days afterward. Little did I realize that the other pair of gloves had to be worn by an opponent who turned out to be, who else, my bony knuckled brother and his punches still hurt like Hell, even with the padded boxing gloves on! Oh well, that was just another lesson learned as a kid. Some of the other cool gifts I received over the years were more fun than the boxing gloves and I didn’t have to share them with anyone including my bony knuckled brother! LOL! One of my favourite toys was a large tin airplane that had detachable wings. It was easier to put it away and of course took up less space with the 2-foot wing detached. I played with it so much that I finally burned out the “friction” style motors that were part of the wheel assembly. I could make it travel all over the room by giving it several good pushes to get the motors going and then the wheels would carry it across the floor. There were two sets of double wheels each with a friction drive motor attached and there were springs that led from the side of each motor through the wing above and attached to the shaft of the propellers on the big tin engines that protruded from the front of each wing. It was loads to fun to pretend that I was actually flying this toy around the house. The propellers would spin and the motors on the wheels would roar as it rolled across the floor or flew via my imagination throughout the house. I wonder what ever happened to that silver and red twin engine DC-3? I guess it eventually got tossed out when I hadn’t played with it for years. My last recollection of playing with it was when I was about 7 or 8 years old and got my first bicycle. Then the “kids” toys became too childish for a boy with a real bike! I remember gaining my independence when I was allowed to ride my nearly new red bike with the white fenders and the horn on the handlebars around the block without having my dad hanging onto the seat to help me balance. What a feeling that was! I look back on that first trip around the block and can still remember feeling that maybe I should turn around in case the sidewalk didn’t take me back to the house I started at! LOL! I figured as long as I kept turning left I’d most likely wind up back at my own driveway and be safe at home once again. Well, fortunately it worked and my internal GPS has been in good shape ever since! Some pretty wonderful and exciting gifts arrived with Santa over my childhood years and memories that stick with me to this day are indeed to be treasured! My folks didn’t have much money but they always managed to provide most of the items that we wrote on our “Christmas Wish List” each year. I must say that I was never disappointed with what was under the tree each year. Another of my gifts was a pair of roller skates. One year I asked for a pair of sidewalk skates and my brother teased me saying, “Only girls wear roller skates!” Well, of course after the winter was over and the sidewalks were clear who did I find trying on my new roller skates one Saturday morning? You got it, my bony knuckled brother! My catching him put an end to his going behind my back and although I could see the envy in eyes every time I skated by the house with a clickedy-clack of the sidewalk cracks he never touched my skates again. I remember also the numbness in my feet from the roughness of the concrete sidewalks as I skated up and down the street. I’m sure most of you can remember the steel roller skates that you installed on your street shoes by turning a key on the side of each skate to tighten a clamp that held the skates to your shoes. I had permanent divots in the sides of my shoes from the squeezing of the skate clamps. They were a lot of fun to wear and they are just another item from my childhood that disappeared somewhere along the line. There are many Christmas presents that I received that I either lost track of or just plain wore out over the years. It’s too bad I lost track of so many of the neat gifts from my youth but I’ll always have the memories of most of those years to look back on! There is one great gift that I have held onto since 1954 and I still have it to this very day. It was a joint gift from “Santa” between my brother and me and by the time we were adults he wanted nothing to do with it so, I claimed it and will always treasure it to the day I’m no longer on this earth. It was and still is a “Lionel” train set and as far as I know, it still works. I passed ownership of it onto our son Adam and I know it’s it good hands for the future! Of course, when my brother started raising a family, he asked about the train set (that he didn’t want) and I had to tell him that I sold it in a garage sale when we lived in Linwood during the 90’s. He never asked about it again! Some day we’ll have to pull it out of storage and set it up for a fun afternoon of reminiscing. I’m sure it’ll still run. It is a freight train and is the old style of Lionel with three rails on the track set. It even smokes when you put the droplets of “smoke” liquid in the smoke stack! How cool is that? Anyway, so many memories of Christmas sixty plus years ago that come to mind and also many memories that have been made during Carole’s and my 45 years of marriage and raising our son Adam. We’ve got so many wonderful memories that we treasure to this very day. We still sit at times and talk, just the three of us, about the happy times we’ve experienced at Christmas over our years as a family. We’ve enjoyed every moment of Christmas each year and hope to continue to do so for many years to come! I’m so very fortunate that I’m still here and getting healthier each day that just being able to share another Christmas with Carole and Adam is a true treasure to behold! God Bless you all at Christmas and I wish you all a Happy New Year as well! Thank you all so much for allowing me into your family over the past 15+ years. I’ve enjoyed writing The Ontarion this past 800+ issues and I sincerely hope we’ll all continue to enjoy reading and contributing to The Squamidian / Ontarion for a while yet! That’s it for this week and thank you especially to Doug for putting up with me long distance over the years! Bye for now … Greg
PS: I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report! Something To Think About> “Is there really a Santa Clause?” ****
Have a good one.. the doug The Fine Print! The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such. |