I don’t remember my very first day at George P. Mackie Public School, just off Kingston Road in Scarborough. But my parents would probably have remembered. Soon after I entered Grade 1, my teacher, Ms. Watkins, sent a note home for my parents.
“Why is Ted squinting?” she asked in the note. “I moved him to the front of the class, but I don’t think that’s enough.” (more…)
As she spoke this week, a circle gathered around her. Everybody in the group was genuinely eager to listen, to discover, to be inspired. In fact, that’s where author Ruth Walker started her discussion with members of the Uxbridge Writers’ Circle. She asked those gathered on Tuesday afternoon:
“What inspires you?”
“Nature, the outdoors,” said one.
“My family and relationships,” suggested another.
Then, we asked Ruth the same question back. (more…)
I had worked late into this particular winter’s night. I could have stayed in the city overnight. But I felt I should try to get home through the snowstorm. In Saskatchewan, that wasn’t a smart idea. And when I left the highway that February night, I encountered snowdrifts too deep and broad for my 1967 Valiant to penetrate. It was 3 a.m. and I was stuck in a snow bank miles from anybody. (And this in a day with no cell phones).
“Never abandon your car in a snowstorm,” I recall all of my experienced prairie friends telling me. And yet that’s exactly what I did to try to get help. I managed to reach a farmhouse, call my brother-in-law and he roared down the grid road in his four-wheel-drive truck and pulled me out.
“Don’t ever do that again,” he scolded me.
“Except, I know you’ll rescue me,” I joked. He wasn’t amused.
Winter weather is not to be trifled with, whether in the middle of a frozen prairie or on a frigid downtown street. (more…)
Last week, I received an email from one of the young reporters in our journalism program at Centennial College. The message proved a bit alarming. We had sent this young man, in his 20s, and one of his female classmates – both senior students in our program – to a national forum in Ottawa. The message said that the conference organizers were preventing our two reporters from gaining access to many of the forum proceedings.
“Apparently media people are not allowed into the meetings,” our reporter told me in his message. “We hope to get into workshops. Wish us luck.” (more…)