Posted on April 7, 2014 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

Masters Week

 

 

It’s my favorite sports event to watch on television. If you are a golfer, or a former golfer ( like me ), there’s nothing like watching The Masters golf tournament. I will go out on a limb: my two choices for a winner are Adam Scott ( in the picture above ) or Matt Kuchar.

I have great news. Bernice MacDonald, photographer extraordinaire, has been added to the program for the fundraiser on the 24^th. She will be showing some of her amazing photos up on the big screen. And one lucky person will receive one of her photos. You will be able to choose the one you want. There will be other door prizes as well.

Five of us gathered at the Prissy Pig on Saturday and swapped stories for an hour. It was a great time. Everybody has so many stories to share. We all agreed on the importance of writing some of this down for posterity. It seems that everything is so fast and fleeting these days. We are blitzed with snippets of information that pass across our screens and are relegated to  “trash.”  I am planning to have another get together at the end of the month.

Speaking of stories, I have two that are fresh off the press. The first one is true. Let me clarify. The circumstances surrounding the story are true. I still don’t know how the story “officially” ended so I concocted my own. A couple travelling home from Calgary for a family emergency, arrived at the airport in Halifax. The instructions were to pick up a vehicle that had been left in the parking garage with the keys under the gas cap. They managed to do this and travelled to the family home in Pictou county. One small problem.  They took the wrong vehicle!  Seriously. The story is called “Taken For a Ride.”

Do you have any idea what a $1200 phone bill in 1976 would equate to today?  Apply an annual inflation rate of 3% over 38 years.  I will tell you the answer but you’ll have to read the story “ Wrong Number” to find out. When I started my teaching career in the fall of 1976 in the Peace River country of Alberta, I had a two bedroom apartment. For the first month, five other guys lived with me. Two of them had serious relationships with women back east. There was no Skype, texting or e-mail back then. The phone was it. Find out what happened when the first phone bill arrived.

Here’s a new fundraising idea. You host a party at your house. I will be the guest. I will bring some stories and my guitar. You collect a donation from every person who shows up. We donate the money to the Hot Meal program. If anyone is game to try it, let me know.

Easter is fast approaching and if you’re looking for gift ideas, I have two: you could buy tickets for the fundraiser or you could get a personally autographed copy of my book to give to a friend or relative.

I submitted 54 stories to my book editor on the weekend so we are officially off and running with book #2.

Have a great week.

P.S.  Take a look at this Youtube video by JP Cormier and consider how lucky you are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq0X0bwMprQ#t=151

 

Posted on April 5, 2014 under Storytelling with no comments yet

 

 

Let me tell ya ’bout the birds and the bees
And the flowers and the trees
And the moon up above
And a thing called “Love”

Jewel Akens, 1964

When and where did you get your initiation into the incomprehensible world of sex education?  I can say, with utmost confidence, that those of us over the age of 60 did not get this life-altering information from our parents.  It was probably “Dirty Johnny” somewhere behind the pool hall who put you in the picture, or Hef.  In Hef’s case, he showed us the pictures.   I never understood the importance of the months of the year until Playboy magazine entered my orbit.  This iconic magazine has shared space with decaying food and dirty socks under many a teenage boy’s bed.

Travelling to the airport a while ago with a friend, I was flipping through the dial on satellite radio.  While sampling the usual menu of Pop, Country and Rap I stumbled across a 24 hour sex chat station.  I would like to confess that I kept the dial moving but then curiosity got the better of me.  It only took about two minutes to get the drift of the conversation.  Another station was dedicated to the “shock jock” himself.  Let me give you a “Stern” warning.  If you are in the least bit prudish, you might find Howard a tad offensive.

There was no such thing as sex education in the school system back in the day.  We had precisely one class on the subject in grade twelve.  Male teachers did the honor for the guys and, bless their hearts; the nuns handled the delicate chore for the girls.  Wouldn’t I love to have been a fly on the wall for that discussion?

The 1960’s was a time of societal upheaval, and nowhere was this more evident than in the world of sex education.  Masters and Johnson were a pair of researchers who tackled the subject with zeal … like two crows in heat.   And one of the most popular books of that era (150 million copies and counting) was “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)” by Dr. David Reuben.   This tome brought sex education out of the closet and into mainstream society.  It had a profound effect on the liberalization of attitudes towards sexuality.

PDR, or personal development and relationships”, was all the rage for a period of time in the school system.

And then we got married and, to echo the words of Valdy … “We were kids and we’ve grown,
we’ve got kids of our own …”

We thought we would do a much better job at educating our own kids on the topic of sex.  How did we do?  Abysmally, by any count.  We may have discretely slipped a book on the subject on their night stand, but as far as an all-out frank discussion?  It just wasn’t that easy.

So here we are in 2014. The age of innocence is gone forever.  Where once there was too little information, today there is way too much information.  Schools and parents are doing what they can but let’s face it; it is a free-for-all out there now.  Most 7 year olds can access more information about sex in five minutes than some of us accumulated in all of our formative years.

Let’s go back to that age of innocence and talk with our grandkids about important things, like the Friendly Giant and Mr. Dressup, or Sharon Lois and Bram and the characters on Sesame Street.

Other parts of their education will come sooner than we’d like.

 

 

 

Posted on April 3, 2014 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

GOLFING SOON?

 

I will do my very best not to utter the “w” word anywhere in this post. “W” has something to do with the shit that continues to pour out of the sky with regularity. I know the “w” has got a lot of people down but if you need a reality check, talk to someone who is going through cancer treatments.

I attended the Blood Donor clinic yesterday. It is one of my favorite things to do. I love looking around the room and seeing people from all walks of life taking an hour out of their day to give blood. It doesn’t matter about status, body shape, color or creed. Everyone who attends is thinking about the welfare of others. I wrote a story about these clinics in my book. It’s called “Bloodlines” ( pg.87 ). If you’ve never gone before, why don’t you give it a try. It doesn’t hurt and you may very well save a life.

Ok. It’s time to start beating the drum once again about the big fundraiser coming up in three weeks from today in support of the Hot Meal program. The show is going to be a lot of fun and it will be even better if we can fill the place and turn over every nickel to help feed the hungry. If any of you would like to try and sell a handful of tickets, please give me a shout. A dear friend of mine who graduated with me from X in 1973, sent me a cheque for 4 tickets the other day. Impressive and appreciated but even more so because she doesn’t live anywhere near Antigonish. I will be giving those to some people that might not otherwise be able to afford to go.

The Hot Meal program, Day 2, is still set to launch in May if we can put all the pieces together.

And speaking of meals, I once again invite you to join me for breakfast ( or coffee ) this Saturday ( the 5^th. ) at 10:00 a.m. at the Prissy Pig. I thought it might be fun to sit around and share story ideas or simply shoot the breeze. I have very few regrets in life but as I get older, I sometimes lament the fact that I don’t see a lot of people socially. Everyone seems to be so caught up with work, family, extended family, caring for elderly parents, babysitting grandkids, that there is very little time , or energy, to just sit and chat with old friends.

Lots of fresh stories coming your way. I haven’t decided about Saturday’s story yet. Are you ready for my take on sex education?

Have a great weekend.

P.S. Not all of you are on Facebook. FYI… I have been nominated as a finalist for a journalism award.