The Squamidian Report – Dec. 1 / 18
Issue #862
Including:
From Russ
The Ontarion
Hi All,
December. How did that happen? Shouldn’t a year take about year to go
by? To the very young it probably seemed like it took forever assuming
they even gave it any thought at all. To the rest of us it went by in a
flash. Yes, I know, this current year isn’t over quite yet but blink
about twice and it will be. The only thing faster than the speed of
light is ironically, the speed of ‘perceived’ time. Speaking of speed
of light, did you know that light never ages? Light is made of photons
and photons travel at the speed of themselves, the speed of light. But,
at the speed of light, time (as opposed to perceived time), does not
pass, it is stopped. So, even though you may see the light from a
distant star or galaxy and that light you are seeing has been traveling
for years of billions of years, to those photons no time has passed.
They are the same age as any new photon just created. Their life is
instant, pop into existence and back out with zero time passing. So I
guess, that must mean we are all getting slower because if time slows
for anything accelerating toward the speed of light, time must
therefore speed up as the object slows down. Our years are passing us
at a burring speed therefore we must be experiencing our existence at
an every reducing velocity. Interesting.
And speaking of the year flying by, a year ago I was doing a count down
that would have ended this letter at the last Saturday of last year.
Due to interest and pressure from several readers, the decision was
make to keep on going, on the understanding and agreement that each and
every member would be involved to some degree. Several stepped up
wonderfully, you know who you are Russ and Lorne. Thank you and please
keep it up. I certainly must not over look Greg. He’s been with us
almost from the beginning and I can’t possible express my gratitude.
Others have contributed occasionally and/or simply did a ‘reply to all’
which also qualifies with the requirement to be at least somewhat
involved. A big ‘thank you’ to them as well. That therefor begs the
question, where are the rest of you? If you don’t want to be on the
list, or don’t really care one way or the other, let me know and I’ll
drop you off the list as I did with half a dozen readers a year ago.
Some of those never even noticed. Otherwise, the cost of continuing to
receive this weekly is involvement. Sounds easy enough.
*
It
got a tad wet here for a few days. We’ve actually had some pretty nice
weather for November with sunny days and not too bad temperatures while
November can and often is just one long rain event from the 1st to the
last. But this week was more normal with some rather incredible
downpours that created lots of local low land flooding and the usual
rock slides along the highways. At the same time, we were having King
Tides, those high tides that are quite a bit higher than normal high
tides. I took a drive around just to check things out. The Mamquam
river was just about ready to burst it’s banks while many of the
smaller streams had already done so. Along Loggers Lane where the
marina is the high King tide had raised the level of the Sound to the
point where sea water was encroaching on the road and cars parked in
the marina parking lot were sitting in sea water as well. From out at
the water front I sat and watched the little logging boats that are
used to round up logs into boom as they scooted around trying to round
up logs that had escaped from the sorting yards that were now under
water. By afternoon the tide had dropped and the areas that should be
high and dry were. Just the rivers and streams were still raging and
continued to do so.
*
Now
I know that some of you are probably getting tired of my recording
attempts but hey, its a hobby and if I’m in the mood when the
opportunity arises, well, thats what I sometimes do. Last week I did
that old CCR country rock song Lodi. It was fun to do even if it did
come out rather laid back. This time I dragged up something a bit
older, a bit more western. Western in the true sense, not in the
country & western sense. There was a song writer named Ed Bruce who
wrote a lot of the cowboy poetry songs that showcased the real cowboys,
the real west. He wrote a lot of the material that Waylon & Willie
did as well as many other singers that didn’t sell out to Nashville.
This song that I’ve just finished trying to do is in fact truly
dedicated to the old original cowboys of the original old west. Called
‘The Last Cowboy Song’, its written with a clear deep base voice in
mind but that I certainly don’t have. You’ll just have to put up with
what I’ve got to work with, as do I. Enjoy.
http://www.thedougsite.net/Songs/Covers/Last%20Cowboy%20Song.mp3
doug
****
From Russ
‘exhume" (cont'd) 'bums'
“No visible means of support”
A quaint, if not cruel law......”Vagrancy”
Today we call them “Street people”, and encourage them to seek warm
shelter, and free food which is lovingly provided by municipalities,
and many churches. But, when I ‘walked the beat’ back in the 50’s, they
were considered ‘bums’, and “an eyesore to the community”. Us cops were
required to “rid the streets of these no goods”, and we did it as
follows:
“Where do you live?”
“Every where, and nowhere”
“How much money do you have on you?”
The person would pull out all the cash he carried, and if it were less
than $20 (I think), the then price of a cheap room and a meagre meal,
he was considered a “vagrant”, as he had “no visible means of support”.
He was then arrested, and taken to the police station ’lock-up’. In the
morning, after receiving a hot breakfast, he appeared before a Justice
of the Peace and because he couldn’t pay a fine, he was Remanded to the
County jail, and after being well fed and housed for 30 days, he was
“ridden out of town”.
Times were tough, and we had many “pan handlers” stopping pedestrians
and “plying their wares”. It was annoying to say the least, and down
right inconvenient at worst, so City Council passed a By-law, called
(naturally), the. “Pan-handling By-law”.
I never actually saw any attempting to sell ‘pans’, but usually were
‘hocking’ watches, jeweler, and gadgets, shop-lifted from some local
stores.
While I was ‘seconded’ to teach at the Ontario Police College, both
these By-laws were ‘scrapped’, as “encroaching on the Criminal Laws of
“Vagrancy” and “Possession of Property Obtained by Crime”.
And then, there was Calvin Kaufman. He looked every bit like a ‘bum’.
He could be seen riding /pushing his very over/loaded bike along
Highway #8 running through the Villages of Sunnyside, Centreville,
Dellevue, and Freeport. But, a BUM he was not! He was well educated,
and came from a wealthy family in Kitchener. Lorne would know more
about Calvin than I, and maybe he’ll up-date us in a following
Squamidian.
This will be ‘short and sweet’, as my left hip is “killing me!”
What’s worse than a “pain in the ass?”
A pain in the hip AND a pain in the ass!!
Your old uncle Russ.
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone and welcome in December 2018!
We’ve gotten rid of our early snow and I figure it won’t be long before
we get blasted again. Like they say, “Stuff Happens” and it doesn’t
take long. With the ever changing weather we have here in southern
Ontario even the weather girl on CTV can’t get the forecast right most
of the time. LOL! In fact I’m sitting here in my office freezing and
we’ve now got the furnace working for what should be a nice even heat
in the house. Guess I’ll have to turn the thermostat up a little to get
it warmer in here. Putting on more clothes helps but they only help a
little and I’ve found the best way to warm up is to get into bed and
pull that nice thick duvet up around my neck and spend the night
snoozing. During the evenings of TV watching I generally pull the
electric blanket up around my neck and crank up the setting to high.
I’ve gotten used to sitting with that blanket on and now I can’t do
without it on the couch! It was a nice gift to keep me warm while
recuperating over the past year and it’s become a part of my everyday
life at this point. With winter setting in I have a set of lined
coveralls that I put on under my coat while blowing the snow and I
guess I’ll have to start wearing them again when I get back at the Toro
operation again this year. Sounds like I’m all set for the onset of
winter and the many inches or feet of snow that are sure to come. With
any luck, Doug will be right with his prediction of a green Christmas
and I’ll be sitting in my lined coveralls, looking at bare sidewalks
and lawns instead of a couple of feet of snow on the lawns and roads.
LOL! I wouldn’t be hurt if Doug was right about that but I am indeed
looking forward to getting out again and using the Toro after watching
winter through a hospital window for most of last winter. Oh well, I’ll
just have to take whatever comes or doesn’t come this year.
*
I’ve
been working on my collection of wooden toys but had to take a two week
break after catching my right hand in the running drill press. It’s
finally healed up for the most part and I’ve started to get back at
some wooden toy making this past Thursday. I now have a running total
of 17 toys made and hope to make many more than that before spring
arrives. If I am able to crank out at least two toys a day or evening I
should have a pretty good number of them finished and ready for my
driveway sale come spring and the good weather. Carole suggested I make
one of those trays like the old fashioned “Cigarette Girls” used to
have hanging around their necks when they walked the theatres and ball
parks hawking their smokes back in the early days of salesmanship and
walk the local malls with a selection of my toys on the tray for sale.
Hahahahah……. I’m sure it would work until the Mall management kicked my
butt out onto the parking lot! I told her I think I’ll take my chances
on the driveway sale in the spring. Besides, I’ll need the time between
now and then to accumulate a good-sized collection of inventory for the
sale. If the toy sale doesn’t work well enough, I can always dig up a
mess of seldom or never-used items around the house to have a good
sized normal driveway or garage sale. I’ve liked those over the years
and it’s always a fun time to shoot the breeze with whomever wanders in
to take a look at my rejects. Remember, “One man’s junk is another
man’s Treasure” and by “junk” I don’t mean the modern definition that
was coined by the Afro-American males of today, I mean refuse or
leftovers as was the definition of yesteryear! LOL! Oh well, take it
whatever way you wish!
I’ve had a few garage/driveway sales over the years at different
locations of the houses we’ve owned. Most of them worked well and we
managed to make a few bucks most times. One of the best sales we had
was a joint effort between us and another couple we used to hang around
with. We sold a console stereo, a couch and chair and I even sold a
“Pinto” station wagon we were desperate to get rid of! LOL! A fellow
showed up and asked about the Pinto and I got talking to him about a
few different things. He told me that he owned and operated an auto
upholstery shop in the Bridgeport section of Kitchener. At the time I
had a 1977 Dodge pickup truck and it was in need of a reupholstering of
the bench seat. I asked if he’d be interested in a trade, a Pinto from
me for a recovering of the seat in my truck and he jumped at the
chance! Within a week I had a new seat in my truck and he was the proud
owner of a classic Pinto “Woody” wagon! That was one of the best deals
I’ve ever concocted at a garage sale. We had a new seat in the truck
and also came away with about $600.00 in sales from the garage sale.
Not bad at all I’d say!
I could only imagine claiming anywhere near that much profit at another
sale after all these years. I’m hoping to do ok if not as well at this
coming spring’s sale!
I’ll be sure to keep you all posted if and when I do conduct another
sale in the coming spring. In the meantime, I’ll be working to amass an
inventory worthy of the attention of many curiosity seekers for such an
event one more time! Here’s working with fingers crossed and not
fingers in the drill press until spring!
That’s about all for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
Being the best at what you do paves the way to what you want in life! Work hard and work well!
****
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.
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