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Issue #1015
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From Russ

The Ontarion

Hi All,

November. How the heck can it be the official November already given that they still owe us September and October. Oh well. However, being that is this late in the year I’ve decided to challenge you with a small silly yet simply contest. As some of you may remember, I send out CD’s of my music each year in time for Christmas to anyone who may want one. So, just to be different, anyone who wants a copy of this year’s music must come up with their own ‘saying’, You know, like an ‘old saying’ such as “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. But you have to make it up yourself. I’ll kick it off with 3 examples of my own ‘old sayings’.

1) For while having to wait for someone….
If you have time to kill, bore it to death.

2) For something you normally didn’t do but now do on a regular basis….
I use-to didn’t but now I do.

3) For when waiting for an item or service that you will have to pay for upon receiving….
The sooner it doesn’t come, the sooner I don’t have to pay for it.

I’ll post each person’s entrance in the Squamidian regardless of how silly or how insightful it may be. That seems only fair.

This year’s CD will obviously be made up of the audio covers I’ve done over the past year and most have been posted in the Squamidian throughout the year as they became available, just like in past years. These CDs simply give you a hard copy. Make sure you indicate that you do in fact want a copy of this year’s CD. Now, for those of you who don’t want a copy of the CD, thats fine, you are not obligated, but, I would encourage you to come up with a ‘saying’ of your own and send it in. That way you are participating along with the others. Just mention in your email that you don’t want a copy so that I don’t waist resources and postage unnecessarily. Its that simple. And, if we want to take this one step further, we could all decide on who came up with the best ‘old saying’ and the winner could receive a full year free subscription to this letter, just like everyone else gets anyway but it would be ‘official’.

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For this week I’ve got a Lightfoot song. I don’t do many of his songs, in fact, almost none. As un-Canadian as it sounds, I’m not much of a Lightfoot fan. But, there are a few of his that I do like and this is one of them. Its probably the wrong time of year to do this song as its an ‘end of summer’ song, called ‘Christian Island’, and summer ended a while ago. Most of you know that Christian Island is in the south east part of Georgian Bay, out from the Midland area. Half a century ago I spent many nice summer weekends in that area and even did some boating out on those waters. Also many years ago when there were family jam sessions out at the homestead, one of my nieces would request this song. Ironically, she is not a member of this letter and so won’t be able to hear or see my cover of the song. However, for the rest of you, here’s a double-header of Christian Island. It was enjoyable to do, hope you enjoy it too.

Christian Island

Audio Version

Video Version

doug

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From Russ

Things.....

Things you don't see much anymore....

Hudson. Desota. Plymouth. Studebaker. Oldsmobile. My dad always wanted a Cord, but settled for a Cadillac. Gas stations called 'Service stations' where the attendant checked your oil, tire pressure, and cleaned your windshield (with the same old rag he just used to check your oil), and 2-Bucks bought you 4 gallons of gas. A Model T Ford with an awwwoooogaa horn. Flight Attendants we called Stewardesses that looked good in their uniforms and brought food and drinks.

Aladdin oil lamp. One hung over my in-law's kitchen table which was the main lighting in their cottage in Point Clark until a young electrician (in love with their daughter) wired the cabin (for free).

Home-made 'sling-shot'. Did anyone ever make one out of a cherry tree branch and old bicycle tube? If you brought one to school the teacher took it away from you, and you never saw it again. They were dangerous - but not as dangerous as the teacher!

The 'strap'. One hung in our kitchen, but was never used. One (made from a drive-belt from a thrashing machine) hung behind the teacher's desk made use of liberally, as a 'teaching-aid'. Ronald Brandt got the strap regularly, but never cried. My baby sister got it once, and cried until she got home from school. Evelyn was only 6 or 7 and 'not guilty' of anything.

Hand-cranked tools & toys. Breast drill. Generally used in the upright position for drilling metal. Called a 'breast' drill because the operator uses his/her breast to apply pressure while hand-cranking the tool. No, Rose Mary - not in anyway related to the 'breast pump'. Pencil sharpener. Mine not only sharpens, but 'consumes' half of the new pencil before I get a point! Egg-beater. We still use ours - this handy, hand-cranked tool will beat almost anything you want - eggs, whipping cream, flour & water, and unwilling husbands. Wind-up toys made of tin, provided many hours of fun for kids Now, they are 'collector's items worth $$$$

Farm tools. Sickle, scythe, and grain cradle. We boys got 'familiar' with each of these when we were 'farmed-out' to help our grandfather who owned property along a country road which is now Edna Street, Kitchener. For safety reasons, he gave us strict instructions in "how to use these extra-sharp tools". He carried a hone in his breast pocket, and would constantly sharpen the blade of the implement he was using - he would NOT allow us to attempt sharpening.

"Let's begin with the 'sickle'. He'd say, as he'd show us the lightest of the three tools. "It is short with a wooden handle and a curved metal blade, and this is how you use it", he explains, and is now holding it with one hand, while moving the sickle in a short, swinging motion and grabbing a handful of wheat in the other hand, slices the base of the grain laying it down - repeating this action again and again, always laying the cut grain with the heads facing the same way. "Now, you try it".

Nothing to it, we thought. Yeah?

"No!" Not like that! Do you want to cut your hand?" He scolds. "Here - give it to me - I'll show you again!" (and again, and again) After some 'chops' into the ground, requiring additional sharpening by angry grandpa, we finally get the hang-of-it.

Next day he shows us a "scythe". It's longer, larger, with two handles and a much longer blade (this won't be a walk in the park!) "This is how you use this grain-cutting implement" he explains as he places both hands on the single , upright, handle. And, in a standing position he swings the scythe in a sweeping motion with blade slicing the grain at its base, then on the return motion, he lays the grain down with the heads all facing the same direction as when using a sickle.

"Now, you try it". My big brother Howard, is handed the scythe. He grabs the handle with both hands- walks bravely toward the standing grain - 'winds-up' like a pro-baseball pitcher and, with a mighty swing, misses the grain, and twirls to the ground. "Strike one!" hollers grandpa. Howard swings again. "Strike two!" shouts grandpa, as the blade is swung too high.

"Before you strike-out - let me again demonstrate how its done" he chuckles, as he again shows how it's done. There's no point in me even trying - I'm only 12, and the scythe is designed for a man. Howard, on the other hand, is 14, and almost 'full-grown'.

Finally, out comes the "grain cradle scythe". It's a modification to a standard scythe to keep cut grain stems aligned. The cradle scythe has an additional arrangement of 'fingers' attached to the snath to catch the cut grain so that it can be cleanly laid down in a row with the grain heads aligned for collection and efficient threshing. It looked to me like a large 'claw'! This thing was definitely beyond our capabilities at that time of our development. Our kind, old grandfather showed us how to use it, but never asked us to try it. I used one later in life when working for a local farmer in our village. But, not for long!

And finally, be sure to wear a poppy November 11th, as this is the 100th anniversary of the symbol "the war to end all wars"

Russ

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

This week has been a strange one indeed. What with the rain and sunshine as well as the first snowfall of the season! We’ve woken up to snow on the ground for the past three days now and luckily it’s melted by midday each time. I guess it’s that time of year but it could at least wait until I have my snow tires on! I mentioned last week that I had to get Adam to help me install my snow tires but I guess I’ve waited too long this year! Oh well, they say we’re still in for some sunny days before we can expect the snow to stay on the ground. Hopefully we’ll get those sunny days this coming week and I’ll get at the snows and have them on before the first big snowfall!

With Halloween in the rear view mirror all the fall decorations are put away and Carole is getting ready to put out our Christmas decorations! She usually has them out the first weekend after Remembrance Day. That means I’ll have to get the plastic tubs of decorations down off the mezzanine in the garage soon! Luckily I managed to close down the back yard pond two weeks ago so I won’t have to do that task in the bitter cold weather. We’ve managed to dig the winter coats out of storage already so at least we’re ready to keep warm when the cold of winter does hit this month! I mentioned last week that I’m still mowing the lawn but with the snow in the offing it appears as though I’ll be working the snow blower before I will the lawn mower any more this year. LOL! Maybe I jinxed the season’s appearance by talking about my snow blower last week! I wonder if I mention warmth and sunshine this week we’ll get another few weeks of that sort of weather before having to break out the blower! Speaking of blowers, I finally or should I say “Adam” finally sold my old leaf blower for me from his on-line efforts! Back in the early 90’s I had a driveway sealing business and at that time I had purchased my leaf blower brand new from a dealer in Wellesley for use in cleaning off the driveways before spraying them with fresh sealer. That leaf blower started and worked faithfully for the past 30 years up until it finally gave up the ghost last year. I had purchased it for just under $200.00 and sold it for a mere $20.00 yesterday! I guess I had been very lucky to get that many years of service out of the blower. Last Christmas Carole and Adam gifted me with a new leaf blower and I hope that I’m around for many years to come so I can outlast my second blower! Unfortunately it will most likely outlast me if it’s anything like my first leaf blower!

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The big item in the news this past week has been the government’s implication of a booster shot for the fourth wave of Covid-19. We are looking forward to getting the third jab as soon as we qualify! I have no doubt it will take a little while to get in for that third shot but in the meantime, we’ll be following all the proper behaviour to protect ourselves from becoming infected with the virus! I still can’t for the life of me understand why people are resisting getting fully vaccinated! Especially those health care workers that resist the process. To me it just makes no sense that anybody working with patients in any environment, especially those working in hospital settings would resist having the vaccination shots! Surely to heck they can see that they are the ones perpetuating the spread of Covid-19 and having the vaccination shots will only help to eradicate this dreaded virus! To me it is just pure selfishness on their part! If they don’t want to protect themselves, at least they should consider the health of those around them! Do they not care about the health of their own family members as well as the health of the patients they are entrusted with caring for while performing their jobs? I’d say the government should mandate vaccination for all health care workers! What the heck, this emergency is in my opinion every bit as important as mandatory seat belt wearing and even stopping smoking in public areas. The general public has complied with the rules when these mandatory items have been instituted by the government so why would the government not think mandatory injections would also work! It’s not treading on the rights of Canadian citizens, it’s looking after the health and welfare of our citizens! Shame on those who resist having the health of others in mind as well as their own well being!

I’ve about had enough of this “no-masker/no vaccine” crap attitude. As far as I’m concerned, if you don’t have the vaccine shots you should stay the hell home and not be allowed out in any public space at all! Of course that’s pretty much impossible but it would be one way of clearing up the virus! If they had to stay within their own domain, they could have their necessities of life delivered to their homes! Selfish selfish people indeed! This is not just my opinion, it’s the common feeling of those of us who have had the good sense to get vaccinated already!

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…. Greg

PS: Something To Think About>

Your Christmas list for both others as well as yourself!

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Take Care And Be Safe
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.