Posted on September 29, 2014 under Monday Morning Musings with 2 comments

Sometimes you just have to have a big breakfast

 

 

Can you believe the weather we had this past weekend? It was absolutely sensational and perfect for The Antigonish After Dark event. We went down to Main Street on Friday evening. It was a soft, warm night, just like one might find in the middle of July. The street and the various venues had lots of curious onlookers and admirers. The amount of work that goes into an event like this is quite staggering. Hope everyone feels as grateful as I do, to the organizers and the volunteers. This was a premium event.

Ok. So what if I watched about 18 hours of television this weekend. No, I wasn’t on Netflix watching multiple episodes of a television program. I was watching the Ryder Cup which is an amazing made for television golf event pitting a team of Europe’s best golfers against their peers from the U.S. Typically golf is an individual sport but this is a team affair which provides compelling story lines. The Americans took a good old fashioned butt kicking.

I was thrilled to hear that Bernie “Bo” Chisholm will be elected into the St.F.X Sports Hall of Fame in a few weeks time. I have known Bo forever. We were even next door neighbors for a period of time. Here’s hoping that the local running community will jog on over to the Keating Center for the awards dinner. Anybody can go.

I have finished up three brand new stories which will be unveiled at the fundraiser in Heatherton on October 26^th. Spoiler alert: one of the stories is a follow up to “Lou’s Last Laugh,” a story I did about the infamous skunk in Lou’s grave when he died just over a year ago. Actually, it’s more like a prequel.

When I was at the Antigonish After Dark event, I watched a screening of an excellent short film by Corrine Dunphy at the Capitol Theater. The cool thing is that it wasn’t on the big screen inside. It was projected on the exterior wall of the theater facing the library. As I watched, my mind drifted back 50 years ago when I used to go to the movies on Saturday afternoon. Usually it was a new release from “The Three Stooges,” a Western or some superhero flick.

In 1964 there were some memorable and not so memorable movies. It ranged from “Mary Poppins” to “Sex and The Single Girl.” That is a pretty “broad” spectrum if you ask me. I dusted off the computer keys and wrote a story about movies of the early 60’s. It’s actually more about the experience of going to the movies rather than the films themselves. Coming up soon, “ A Capitol Idea.”

And later this week, ( Wednesday to be precise ), the story of my brief football career with the “blue and white” oh so many years ago will appear here and in The Casket. I could have titled it “Black and Blue.” It’s actually called “Run For Your Life.”

Hope everyone has a great week and let’s salute the weatherman ( weatherperson ) for dishing up one more scoop of summer this past weekend.

Posted on September 27, 2014 under Storytelling with no comments yet

Keeping my distance from the sawmill

 

 

I became so proficient at the green chain that I got a promotion. From time to time businesses and government offer incentives in order to retain promising employees.  How anyone can determine that a worker on the green chain has potential boggles the mind.  Like the Jeffersons, I was “Movin’ on Up”.  They offered me more money and the chance to work on the celebrated construction crew at the mill.  The guys on the green chain didn’t have a going away party for me, although we visited The Colony for a few pints when I got the good news.  More like a “good riddance” celebration.

You’re all familiar with industrial vehicles that have a beacon on the roof and make a beeping sound when they are going in reverse? They may as well have put one of these ornaments on my construction helmet that lit up with the words “rookie” flashing on it.  Construction guys, I have learned, love to play games with greenhorns.

Being a very large mill, there were always construction projects on the books. The mill was installing a new piece of equipment and our job was to build a concrete pad for the apparatus to sit on.  The old equipment was dismantled and carted away.  The base for the new pad had to be reconstructed, which required removal of the old concrete. This required a jackhammer.  You know who gets this job on a construction crew?  The rookie, of course.

I had studied Shakespeare and Chaucer and I understood democracy and Pavlov’s dog from my years at university. Nowhere did I ever learn about the art of the jackhammer.

There are a few things you need to know about this tool. First, it is heavy.  Back then I was a 155 pound weakling.  Today I am a 180 pound weakling.  The only major difference in the ensuing 41 years is that I have far less hair now.

I began the task at hand.   I pressed the button to activate the device and instantaneously I felt every fibre of my being convulsing.  Shards of concrete blew up towards my face (protected by goggles) and dust filled my nose and lungs.  All of this happened in the first thirty seconds, and this was an eight hour shift.  Ten minutes later, my arms trembled from the vibrations and I was already anticipating the first coffee break.  I thought I saw a few guys on the crew grinning.  I spilled the first mouthful of coffee.

When I crawled into bed after my first shift on the jackhammer, every muscle in my body ached and the bed felt like there was an earthquake percolating directly beneath it.

They say that you can get used to anything, and eventually I got the hang of it. I decided quickly that I didn’t want to become good at this job.

Once the forms were put in place, it was time to pour the cement. As the pad covered a very large surface area and the cement mixer could only get so close, the wet and heavy sludge had to be wheeled across a narrow plank to get to some of the more remote areas.

There is a real knack to transporting cement in a wheelbarrow. Unfortunately, the History of Western Civilization course that I had taken in university made no mention of this ancient skill.  Once again, the experienced members of the construction crew gathered around to watch my maiden voyage across the slender bridge with a fully loaded wheelbarrow.  Another form of “walking the plank”.  I learned that you can’t manhandle cement.  You have to use the laws of physics … but I hadn’t majored in science.

I managed to get the barrow moving forward, but in a matter of seconds its entire contents, along with me, were splayed on the ground.

Right then and there I started to contemplate a new line of work. I needed to come up with a concrete plan that didn’t involve concrete.  Wet or dry.

Posted on September 25, 2014 under Thursday Tidbits with one comment

FREE TICKETS

 

 

I hope the picture above has garnered your attention. By now that you are aware of the fundraiser that’s coming up on October 26^th. at the Rev. H.J. MacDonald elementary school in Heatherton. It will be an evening of story telling and music featuring Len and Phil ( stories….no music! ) and the MacDonald family. ( Peter, Betsy, Ellie and Margaret ).

So here’s the deal. I am prepared to donate two pairs of tickets to the show. All you have to do is contribute some stories about dieting. They don’t have to be your stories and they don’t have to be true. I want to write the definitive piece on the subject and I plan to call it , “Lost and Found.” Private message me on Facebook, send me an e-mail ( len.macdonald@eastlink.ca ) or stop me on the street. I will put your name in for a draw and will name the winners once I have enough material for the story. Put down that bag of chips right this minute and send me your tale of woe.

I saw this excellent quote the other day. “ As long as everything is exactly the way I want, I am totally flexible.” I got a kick out of it but the sad truth is that there are a lot of people like this. I am very flexible. I just do what I’m told.

I’m on a roll. I plan to unveil three brand new stories at the fundraiser. I already have two of them written and the third is well along. It will be fun to do some material that no one has seen or heard before.

Next week I will be publishing my story about playing football at St.F.X. in 1972. I had no right whatsoever ( or talent! ) to be playing on that team , with zero football experience but a funny sequence of events had me punting a football for the blue and white.

The other evening, I went over to the university to take a picture to go with the story. The football team was practicing and when I mentioned that I wanted an action shot of the punter, one of the assistant coaches piped up that the starting punter was injured. He looked at me just to see if I might still have a little leg left in me. Before I got any ideas, he said that there were age restrictions for playing university football. I guess that does not include people collecting their CPP.

“Run For Your Life will appear here next Wednesday which is also Casket day.

I am putting the finishing touches on my story about provincial examinations. Are you old enough to remember them? Easily one of the most pressure packed and stressful experiences of my life. Your entire grade 12 year was riding on one set of examinations. I didn’t matter how well you did all year or whether your teachers loved or hated you, you either passed or failed provincials. My palms start to sweat just thinking about them. Coming soon, “All or Nothing.”

Have a great weekend.