The
Squamidian Report – Dec. 25 / 10
Christmas
Addition
Issue #448
Including:
As I Perceive It
Merry Christmas From Vivyan
North Nova News
From Carol
The Ontarion
Hi All,
The Wife and I were watching a PBS station the other evening and they were doing one of those pledge drives where they feature music and artists from a given era. This particular program was covering the ‘50s. What was quite amazing and a little scary was how many of these artists and their songs we were both familiar with, and how many of those old songs we both knew the words to. Of course, the whole idea of programs like these is to get you to make a financial pledge, which we did not do. However, the program sure got us remembering memories from way back then when we were young kids.
Some of my best memories as a kid are from up on the farm, and the link to the PBS program is that my grandparents would turn the radio on over the noon hour, from just before the 12:00 news started and then listen until after the 1:00 stock reports were over. In those days there was not as many types of music available, distinctions between country and mainstream were not yet defined to any great degree. So we heard many of those popular 50s songs as well as new comers like Johnny Cash and June Carter and Elvis etc. What we also heard on that radio, which was tuned to the Wingham station (CKNX), the only station available up in the wilds of Grey County, Ontario, was the noon news and I can still remember the voice of the news announcer. His name was John Strong and not only did he read the news but he also read the commercials for the two companies that sponsored the news. One of those companies was the maker of Suregain (not sure of the spelling), a feed product for livestock. The other company was Sunoco and its product was Blue Sunoco fuel, which according to the accompanying jingle, could be “custom blended just for you”.
That radio was battery powered. They did not have hydro in that area until I was about 13, so battery power was the only available option. It explains why the radio was only turned on for that short amount of time each day. Batteries were expensive and did not last very long. That radio was a luxury and their only real contact with the outside world. Perhaps that was why the farm meant so much to us as kids, it was a world unto itself. That world included hours of long backbreaking work that we loved to do, no matter how young we were. We shoveled out pigpens and cattle stalls on rainy days. We bailed hay and stooked oat sheaves under hot summer suns. It also included our first exposure to real, homegrown guitar music. Vivyan’s brother Carman was also on the farm in those days and he was a very accomplished guitar and banjo player. It was his influence that inspired several of us to become interested in stringed instruments.
On Saturday evenings the acoustic guitar and banjo would be pulled out from under the bed and the music would begin. Carman would play and sing, Grandma would shuffle around singing in her high choir voice. Grandpa would sit at the table under the oil lamp playing a card game. Then old Barny the dog would bark, announcing that someone was driving up the long dark lane. Out would pile a load of friends or relatives and the party would be on. The card games would get loud with excitement, the music would get louder as it tried to be heard over the conversations. Kids would play outside in the night mist or try to follow Carman on their own guitars, or sit in on the card games. If it were winter, Grandpa would occasionally tend to the big Dutch oven, the only heat source in the farmhouse.
One winter my grandparents were away from the farm, visiting their other son on his farm way up west of Sudbury. I spent part of that Christmas vacation keeping Carman company and we were snowed in. It was desperately cold and a howling blizzard pounded relentlessly. We were running very short of food and the only way ‘out’ would have been on the old Fergusson 2085 tractor but tractors back then did not have heated cabs or any kind of shelter to protect the driver so heading out in the endless blizzard was out of the question. We managed to find frozen eggs in the barn, and we managed to make a huge pot of oatmeal porridge. What we ended up doing was slicing off slabs of cold congealed porridge and frying it along with the eggs. Made for interesting meals. To keep warm we sat by the Dutch oven. It got so cold that we could not even keep the room the oven was in warm. In fact, my grandmother’s houseplants that were in that room froze. What didn’t freeze was the plumbing because there wasn’t any. What also didn’t freeze was us, we found we could sleep though the bitter nights by sitting on chairs pulled up in front of the wood burning oven, with the oven door open and our feet resting comfortably inside the oven. Unfortunately for me, the blizzard ended and the weather cleared just in time for my parents to retrieve me and bring me back home in time for school. I was pretty ticked about that.
Anyway, it’s Christmas again. Don’t know how it got here so fast but it did, it always seems to come and go like a speeding bullet. This is our 9th Christmas out here in the mountains of BC so that means we have been absent from Christmas at the Homestead for 9 years. We now have our own traditions here that include Ryan and Lauren and Warren and that’s what its all about. We’d like to make it back at some point, perhaps next year, who knows, we shall see.
Christmas is about tradition and memories, and memories are what both Greg and I, and our special guest writers have written about. Thank you to everyone and Merry Christmas to all.
doug
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As I Perceive It
As a young child, 5 or 6, my parents went to do their Christmas shopping Dec. 24th in the afternoon. I don't recall a baby sitter, but there may have been [give them credit and say there was] While they were gone, the dog and cat started to chase each other around the house, then up the tree went the cat with the dog right behind. A good sturdy tree might hold a cat but not a dog. Down went the tree. My parents returned and to their shock at seeing the tree in a flat pile on the floor, led my mother to utter a phrase I have never forgotten, 'well, it can just stay that way' and it did.
Lorne
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Merry Christmas Everyone!
Happy Birthday Doug!
My most memorable Christmas was that of 1948. My parents lived on a farm about 20 miles north of Arthur and were having a family re-union on Christmas, so everyone was invited, uncles, aunts and cousins etc. Although it was a little bit stormy Lorne agreed to go so we picked up my sister & brother-in-law and their two girls, we had Gale and we all headed north. Between Elmira and Elora we got stuck in a snowbank. They wouldn't let me push so I drove until we got through the bad part. My parents had moved to a new farm where the roads weren't plowed so Dad met us in Conn and took us the last part of the way in his Model A Ford. I'm afraid that I then went into labour although it was 4 weeks early. My parents' doctor was already at a birth the other direction from his home and there was no other doctor or way to get to a hospital. Anyway doug wouldn't wait and at 10:30 Christmas night, with my mother "in attendance" he made his appearance; "a nice, healthy 7lb. boy". There were 42 people snowed in at the house when the doctor finally made it about 2 hours late. It was unforgettable for me.
Vivyan
*****
North Nova News
Well it’s been a long time since I have written into The Squamidian and way overdue. I do look forward every week to receiving it and applaud Doug and Greg for their dedication. A lot has happened in the last year, one being my marriage break-up, but that’s certainly not the worst thing life throws at us. The worst was Ward’s battle with cancer this past year. I could write about the hardships, the emotional highs and lows, his tremendous strength and attitude but I’d rather tell you that he has come through this ordeal amazingly. He is on the mend and with a bright future, as he says it; “I got my life back”. Actually I think he could write a book or even better go on the road as a stand-up comic. Through it all he saw the humour and he told endless stories about his experience leaving “us” in stitches!
Warren flew in for a visit in early November. It was so great to have him here. I took a couple of weeks off work so we could be free to visit. Ward had just come out of surgery so he wasn’t up for his usual partying but it did him a lot of good to spend time with Warren and play some music together.
I have new neighbours living in my Dad’s house. Ward’s daughter, Danielle, has moved back to the Maritimes with her partner, Jeremy. They have been a great help to Ward and Mae as they are landscapers and tree experts and can carry on Ward’s business while he has been unable to work. It’s been great fun to have them here for me too. We’ve had dinners, games nights, movies and many parties. Their dog has become my part time dog. I haven’t really been a dog lover but he is so well behaved and great company. His name is Frank. He’s part husky and yellow lab and looks like a polar bear. I don’t even care that he leaves lots of white hairs everywhere.
Zane, who started out being my Little Brother from the organization, Big Brothers Big Sisters, has become way more than that. He is more like the son I never had. After knowing him for over 10 years he is and always has been family. He spends lots of time here helping me with whatever needs to be done. He loves working in the barn (workshop). He brings his friends and they work on cars mostly and I feed them. This past summer we cleared out some of the lower branches on my property looking down towards the pond. As a result I can now see the water from my patio. Then we built a bridge over the creek so I wouldn’t have to jump the brook to get to the pond. It’s absolutely beautiful. A couple of weeks ago Zane and I took the Firearms Safety course since Zane wanted to do some hunting. That was a real challenge for me not having much to do with guns. I passed. Zane passed with flying colours.
Well I really wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I will be up to Ontario in April so we’ll have a get-together then. How about it Doug? Are you up for a trip in April?
Until next time,
Sus
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From Carol
Merry Christmas Everyone,
I am writing from the Homestead as our Christmas Eve celebration winds down. Dad, Mom, Al, Ewan & Jamie are sitting around the table in the sunroom sharing childhood stories of winter and Christmas' past. Listening to them I am wondering how any of them survived to adulthood! We are enjoying the peace after a good Christmas dinner and the wonderful hours of very noisy, fun chaos that is part of a large family gathering. The parents had 3 of their children, 8 of their grandchildren and all of their great-grandchildren here for a total of 24. Doug, Tim and Jackie all called and tried to carry on conversations with as many as possible over the noise. The crass face of commercialism didn't show itself here. Personally we only buy for the children and certainly do not go over board for them. Gale always hands out the family calendar, which each of us count on to help us remember all the birthdays and anniversaries during the coming year. I always hand out my homemade chocolate truffles. We are not here for gifts, nor out of a feeling of guilt but because this is where we find that Christmas Spirit of love, acceptance, warmth, caring, peace and hope. We are very blessed to still, at our age, be able to come home. Tomorrow Gary, the parents and I will go to Beth's for dinner (3rd meal out in a row since Gale always has a wonderful gathering on the 23rd for Ewan's birthday). Gale will be hosting Dave's side tomorrow and Tara will be serving Christmas dinner to Nathan & Anton's family. I guess everyone in the family and also in the Squamidian family will be needing to make New Year's resolutions to burn off all those extra calories we indulge in over Christmas.
One thing always frustrates me after Christmas Day. The commercial world acts like Christmas is over. Christmas Day is the first day of the 12-day Christmas season yet you will not hear a Christmas song on the radio nor see a Christmas program on TV after the 25th. In fact I saw a Valentine display in a store this week. I'm glad Judy will be leading a Carol filled worship for the 2 Sundays of Christmas at our church. With all the pressure of preparing for the "big day" I'm sure too many of us have lost touch with the true gift that came with the birth of Jesus all those years ago. Now, with the expectations over, is a good time to meditate on peace, hope, birth, faith, life and death. So I'm going to try and embrace the gift of Christmas for the rest of the season. Wishing each of you peace, joy and prosperity this Christmas and always.
Carol
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THE ONTARION REPORT
FOR CHRISTMAS 2010
Hello Everyone!
Well, this’ll be my 61st Christmas and I still didn’t get that pony I asked for every year until I reached the age of twelve I think it was! Oh well, I guess I’d have had a heck of a time finding a place to keep it anyway. Being a city kid pretty much made it impossible to keep anything bigger than a dog in the back yard. It’s not like we had a “back 40” to graze in and hay was in short supply in the North Ward of Kitchener! When we were between the ages of eight and twelve a couple of the neighbourhood kids and I would spend Saturdays at the Stock Yards out on Victoria St N watching all the animal sales and using wooden canes to help the farmers prod the cattle in and out of the pens when it was their time to be auctioned off. It was a lot of fun and the farmers usually would give us a couple of dollars for helping. To make our way to the stock yards we would trek from Floyd St north until we reached River Rd at the end of Guelph St and then we’d hop the fence there and hike through the fields to the back entrance of the Stock Yards. During this adventurous part of the hike we had to pass through the fields that belonged to a farmer. He had a small herd of ponies and horses that grazed in that field and there was one little Palomino pony that was always friendly. We called her Queeny and we would always take along a few carrots and an apple or two as a treat for her. She was a sturdy little pony and she would let us ride her around the pasture after we fed her some veggies.
I think she was the reason I was wanting a pony for Christmas! She was a nice substitute for a pony of my own but of course I only saw her in the summer months. I think that relationship lasted about three summers and one day on our way to the Stock Yards we were confronted by a huge bull dozer in Queeny’s pasture and the guy operating it stopped and told us that Queeny and the other pony’s from her farm were being sold at the stock yards that day and the farm had been sold to some land developer. They were building a row of commercial and industrial complexes on the site of her old farm. We rushed to the Stock Yards to see if we could find Queeny in the pens. We searched the entire pen set up and didn’t find her. It was a sad day for me and the guys from Floyd St. We had built up quite a good relationship with Queeny and the other pony’s and to not even get to say goodbye was heart breaking indeed!
Every time I passed by the area that was transformed from a pony farm into what became Shirley Ave I’d think of the sunny days we spent playing with and riding Queeny in the fields above the Grand River. Until this very day I still think of her when I’m in that area. Christmas has come and gone many times since those early years and most years my thoughts turn to what might have happened had my mum and dad actually allowed Santa to bring me a pony! Sounds corny but it’s not only little girls what wish for ponies around Christmas time, little boys do too and I was one of them! I’m sure Queeny is up in animal heaven looking down every Christmas to see if one more time I’ll add “a pony please” to my list of requests from Santa.
“Sorry Queeny, that wish and request disappeared a long time ago but Merry Christmas to you if you’re reading this on your iMac!”
At this time, I want to wish each and every one of the readers of the Squamidian and the Ontarion a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and may Santa make all your wishes come true!
Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next year in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Ho Ho Ho! … GREG.
PS: Something To Think About>
I believe! Do you?
PPS: Thanks to each and every one of our Squamidian and Ontarion readers for you continued support. We may not hear from many of you very often but Doug and I know you’re there every weekend and we DO appreciate that you take the time to read what we write!
God Bless you all! Greg.
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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.