Monday Morning Musings
Posted on September 8, 2014 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet
Anna MacDonald formerly of Colindale Road
I go to mass every Saturday at my mother’s apartment building. We pray, we sing and we always have a chuckle or two before or after mass. It is a wonderful group of people and do they have stories to tell! Just before mass last Saturday, one of the residents, Anna ( pictured above ) showed me this Syperek painting of the Colindale Road. If you read my story, “Happy Trails,” you might remember the picture that went with the story. Anna grew up on the Colindale Road and assured me that there were many side roads along that roadway that were even more breathtaking. It seems like we’re always in such a hurry to get places that we don’t have time to enjoy the journey. Take this drive someday. You won’t be disappointed.
Don’t you just love a face full of spider webs? Yes, it’s that time of the year when spiders are particularly industrious. I walked out the side door of our house ( the entrance to our former home office ) on the weekend and was immediately encased in fibrous cobweb material. This is not the grossest thing to happen to a person but there’s something about it that has a mild disgust level. I don’t think I could write an entire story about this topic. Can you describe the experience?
Shinerama. Apologies to those of you who have never lived in a university town but this fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis is a rite of passage for freshmen students every September. When we were children, our mother often referred to us as “screaming banshees.” No surprise that the origin of the word came from the Irish ( she was an “O’Flaherty ). According to legend, a banshee was a female spirit whose wailing warned of impending death in a house.
There is fundraising and then there is Shinerama. Hordes of newly minted university students don their “house” t-shirts and converge on every sidewalk and street corner in the community, exhorting people to give money for this worthwhile charity. And they scream…like banshees. They are in your face, they are loud and they are determined. Walking down Main Street is like running the gauntlet. I looked up this phrase and here’s what it said: “ Often, to run the gauntlet implies a sort of initiation or hazing, or to endure a prolonged test.” Yup. It’s an endurance test. I know people who won’t venture out of their house the first Saturday in September.
Many people find the whole Shinerama thing a bit much and voice their displeasure. People with Cystic Fibrosis don’t nor do I. You see, for many of these young people, this is their very first taste of fundraising. And, even though they think that they are going to grow up to become lawyers, teachers and nurses, they will come to learn that these are hobbies. No. They will become fundraisers. Fundraising makes the world go round especially if you have children.
So, I say, let’s celebrate Shinerama and thank these young people, even if they get on your nerves. They mean well and we are going to need them to do the heavy lifting after we sell our last 50/50 ticket.
Coming up tomorrow is the story “Credit Card Crazy.” Have you ever tried to cancel your credit card by phone? Sounds simple. NOT. This is my account of attempting to cancel a card with a 30 cent credit. It will make you laugh… or cry.
Have a great week.
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