Issue #932
Including:

From Russ
From Sue
The Ontarion

Hi All,

Have you ever been awakened in the middle of the night by being hit in the head by some cold heavy object? You lay there puzzled as you try to figure out what happened. You then go to roll over in order to go back to sleep only to get hit in the head again by the same cold heavy object. It is then that you realize you can’t find one of your arms. You try to move it but there is no response. You then feel for it by using your other arm and low and behold, its still there, still attached, but stone cold asleep. No feeling, no movement, nothing. It only moves as a result of your movement and thats when it swings out of control, clunking into anything it may come in contact with, like you head. You use your awake arm to pick it up and place it properly beside you. You are amazed at how heavy it it is. With it laid out beside you, circulation begins to flow and the arm starts to wake up. That’s not at all a very pleasant feeling. You try desperately to fall back asleep before the full sensation of reawakening hits but to no avail. You must endure the throbbing and tingling. Once life has returned to the offending limb you may with some luck slip back into sleep. But, be relieved. It could have been a leg instead of an arm. Had it been a leg, and had you tried to stand up, you’d have instantly fallen and instead of that arm hitting you in the head, it would have been the floor.

I’ve tried to do some more recording of other people’s music but finding opportunities has proven to be hard. Recording requires a sound proof room, or at least a quiet house if one is not too picky. I don’t have that. You’d be amazed at how much noise there is in a supposidly quiet subdivision. A ‘sort of’ work around is the use of my stage mic rather than one of Ryan’s good mics like the one he’s left here for that purpose, a Rode recording mic. That mic will pick up the sound of a dog scratching a flea at the far end of the street. So, I use my stage mic, a Sure SM58 and while no where near the clarity and tonal quality of the Rode, it gets good enough results and therefore will just have to do.

There is a song I like that was written and recorded by Dave Rawlings. Interestingly, he started out as Gillian Welch’s vocal and instrumental backup. Then, at some point they switched it around and she is now his backup, they call themselves the Dave Rawlings Machine and do a form of southern folk / country / bluegrass music. This particular song is called Midnight Train and when they do it, its a real toe tapper. When I try to reproduce it, it seems to definitely lose something but then they are lifetime pro’s and I’m just me. Anyway, this link will take you to my version of their song. It was fun to do and that’s really all that matters for me. Enjoy. If opportunity permits, I’ll try to have other covers ready for future issues just to shake things up a bit, something we all need.

Midnight Train

doug

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From Russ

April

She was the prettiest girl I’d ever seen in my whole life (up until this time - I was about 14), even her name was pretty – Avril Cluthie. She was about 13 and I was instantly, deeply, hopelessly in love! I would give all my worldly possessions ($8 and 11 cents) just to kiss her pink cheek.

Every time the month of April comes around I think about Avril. It’s a French name meaning ‘April’. All French girls are sexy. (‘sexy’ is French for ‘horny’) My cousin Geraldeen “Jerry”, used to play with Avril who lived across Sheldon Avenue from her. It she who introduced us.

I can picture Avril, dressed in a knee-length white skirt flowing in the April breeze - running toward me - her silken, long blond hair, falling gently upon her ‘training-bra’ size breasts. And when she was very close she smelled like the sheets that had been washed and hung outdoors on the wash-line to dry in the sunshine and fresh air. YUMMY!

Maybe, just maybe – I’m still in love with her image. But, our love (mine) was not to be – turned out she was a typical, spoiled rich girl. Her father owned CLUTHIE MANUFACTURING, a plant, that among other things made very durable “Amber” handles for hand-tools like screw-drivers, pliers, wood-chisels, etc. (which happened to be what I used as an electrician thereafter).

I wonder what she’d look like today. In her late 80’s, no longer having that silken blond hair, now likely turned grey and sparse; and that cute little turned-up nose from which she looked down on me, now bulbus and turned down; those eyes so blue they were beyond description, now looking sad from behind thick glasses; those pink cheeks now wrinkled and sallow. I see her today, as she shuffles along, pushing her walker, that sexy young body all lumpy and ungainly.

What cruel things ‘age’ does to us! But, in my vivid memory she’ll never grow old!

As I write this it’s Thursday, April 2nd, the sky and the lake are competing to see which can be bluer; the Sun is shining, the air is as sweet-smelling as Avril, and it’s beginning to warm up a bit – from a frosty minus 1 at 8AM to plus 7 now.

Please try to stay home. Hope you don’t get “cabin fever”. (or any fever!)

Uncle Russ.

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From Sue

Thought you guys might enjoy a morning smile. Doug was eating his breakfast when he told me he had noticed something unusual with his Cheerios… apparently his round Cheerios were magically turning into heart shapes as they floated in milk in his bowl. On closer inspection of the box, it appears this is a new “Limited Edition Heart Shapes”. We need to have reasons to smile as we listen to Cvid 19 updates on the morning news.

Sue

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We had all hoped that someone out there would have been willing to fill this spot!

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The Ontarion Report

Hello everyone!

I’ll start off by saying I hope everyone is staying safe during these trying times!

We’ve been sitting out in our beautiful back yard enjoying the lovely sunshine of the past few days. I sincerely hope the spring weather keeps on coming! I was getting tired of all the dull gray weather of the past few weeks so it’s nice to see the sun for a change! I’m even looking forward to getting out on the driveway to change the tires on the Jeep from snow to summertime rubber! Just to breathe the fresh air and get out of the house for a while will be lovely! It’s times like these that most of us haven’t experienced before that make us all think of relatives and others that we don’t see all that often. I myself contacted my cousin Colin Hoy yesterday after not seeing him or his mother or brothers for a couple of years. They all live here in the KW area but we just don’t make contact all that much. Colin wrote back to say he and his wife and son are doing well and staying safe. He told me that his mum who was the wife of my mother’s brother Ken is living in a senior’s residence on Westmount Rd and is getting bored with the lockdown of her facility. I have no doubt that she’s feeling cooped up like the rest of us who are staying inside during this time. His mum who is my aunt Rita is about to turn 100 next month and she’s still quite healthy. She and my mother used to get together and make long sleeved shirts for my brother and I a well as for my three cousins who were her sons back in the 50’s and 60’s while we were all in school. The shirts were of flannel in the winter time and of lighter materials in the summer.

Aunt Rita worked for years at Cluet’s Shirt factory in downtown Kitchener and that’s where she learned to produce our great shirts. Her three sons are around the same age as me with one older and one younger than me. Patrick the middle one is my age. Bob is the eldest son and Colin is the youngest. Colin is a motorcycle race driver and he helped me to choose the type and size of motorcycle to purchase back about a dozen years ago when I bought my first motorcycle in many years. He is about three years younger than me and he and his son are both still racing motorcycles to this day. His son Sean is sponsored by a major motorcycle manufacturer by the name of KTM and he and his dad both race on dirt tracks all over Ontario and Quebec and in the northern states. These bikes run an oval track and reach speeds of 100 mph plus on the straight away! It’ amazing to see these drivers running at full throttle and not letting off when they make their way around the turns at either end of the track. They spray up what is called a rooster tail of dirt as they accelerate around the track amidst the other bikes. I wouldn’t have the nerve to do that kind of racing even if I were still in my 20’s let alone in my late 60’s like Colin! His son Sean is in his 30’s and loves the sport that his dad got him into as a young boy! I’m sure they both have more seasons of racing still ahead of them since they are both so entrenched in the sport! It was great to hear from Colin and to see the pictures he sent to me of he and Sean at the race track with their motorcycles and racing gear on! Kind of makes me wish I still had my Kawasaki! Oh well, those days are well behind me now but I still have the great memories to look back on!

There is one more situation on my mind these days and that is the friendship that Carole and I have with people we met a few years ago and have grown to like very much. His name is Peter Padalino and his wife Margot. Peter is an amazing guitarist musician/singer who was the lead guitarist for the Lulu’s Roadhouse Band. He also played as the lead in Major Hoople’s Boarding House band back in the 60’s, 70’s and right up until a few years ago at nostalgic concerts around the area and places like Port Elgin and other beach towns. Peter and I met through another musician friend of mine by the name of Rich Wamil who was the keyboardist for Copper Penny! Some of you may remember both of these bands from the 60’s and 70’s. Hoople’s and Copper Penny were both quite famous and popular back then. Peter and I have stayed in touch since I was in Hospital for my heart surgery and he contacted me through Carole on Facebook to wish me well and success with my surgery. Then Peter became ill with a lung disease. I stayed in touch with him to support him and wish him well during his medical adventure. He finally had a lung transplant which put an end to his musical career. He still plays for his own enjoyment and is working on getting his singing voice back. He’s lucky to have survived his surgery and is doing quite well at this time. I have been keeping in touch with him via computer. He and his wife Margot have a home on the island of Santa Maria in the Azores off the coast of Portugal. Peter as you may have guessed was born in Italy and speaks the language of the islands of course. They were at their summer home there when this Covid 19 crisis hit the world but are not coming home to Canada. Peter told me that the island they are on has no Covid 19 cases and he is able to have his medications sent to him via the Canadian Consolate. So with that in mind they are staying put in the Azores and are well stocked with food wine and gasoline for their vehicle there. In some ways I envy them for being that isolated. Peter said they miss their family members but are safe and sound for the time being. They live high upon a cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and are enjoying the peace and quiet of the isolation.

What a great place to be stuck during this Covid time.

We should all have a lovely isolated place to call our own during this situation.

I wonder if they want some company on their island of retreat?

That’s about it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now and stay safe … Greg

PS: Something To Think About>
Enjoy this warm spring weather and be careful if you have to go out of your homes!

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