Posts with the Elgin Park tag

Barris Beat

Where have all our sentries gone?

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Spruces, pines, basswoods and maples were Ronnie’s sentry trees on our street.

I remember a sultry afternoon in the 1990s, a few years after my wife and I and our two daughters had arrived and put down roots here in Uxbridge. I was sitting on our neighbour’s porch. The July sunshine beat down on Balsam Street North with all the intensity of a mid-summer heat wave. My neighbour, Ronnie Egan, had invited me to sit for a few minutes’ rest from cutting grass. We were both enjoying the shady respite, when she pointed to the Manitoba maple trees that deflected the intense rays of the afternoon sun from both her house and mine.

“Sentries,” she said. “They’re like sentries up and down our street.”

I noted her military terminology referring to the trees – she being a Second World War veteran of the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service – and wondered why she’d chosen that word to describe the mature trees along our street. (more…)

Barris Beat

Need for charity no greater than now

Written by Ted Barris on . 1 Comment
Jonathan Wilson (red shirt) and Cagney, the black Lab, at launch of 2017 walkathon.

Jonathan Wilson will graduate in about a year. He’ll complete the Journalism and Mass Media program at Durham College. Despite having to adapt to online learning for the past year from his home in Uxbridge, he’s getting A’s in his grades, and earning praise for his portfolio of stories.

Once he graduates, Jonathan will start beating the bushes for full-time work as a professional journalist. His mom, Lisa Wilson, is proud of her son’s accomplishments. She’s also thankful for the charity of others.

“If it wasn’t for the Lions Foundation and Dog Guides Canada,” Lisa told a handful of us this week, “none of this would’ve been possible.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Sixth or seventh sense of Nature

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Soothed here by his favourite toy, the household pet has always felt upset as a storm approaches.

Sometimes it’s as subtle as the songbirds in the backyard going silent. Other times in the house, the cats curl up together in a corner. In a more obvious example, my pet Kerry blue terrier pants as if he’s just completed a marathon run cross-country, and I know there’s a thunderstorm in the area.

I remember the story, a few years ago, about an earth tremor in the state of Maryland. And Mike Blanpied, a U.S. Geology Service expert, reported that just before the quake, animals responded because they were more sensitive to the slightest shaking.

“Animal earthquake prediction,” he called it. (more…)

Barris Beat

Township crown jewels

Written by Ted Barris on . 2 Comments
1967 tree planting crew (l – r) Theodore Kontozoglus (my grandfather), Colin Kaiser, Allan Bourne, myself and Michael Clancy. Oh yes, he’s holding a bundle of 2,000 seedling evergreens.

One spring weekend in 1967, I managed to convince several of my friends to accompany me to the family’s property in the country. The weather forecast promised to be sunny and warm. My mom promised some of her renowned Greek cuisine. My dad said he’d allow us a few beers at the end of the work day.

“Work day?” one of my friends, Michael Clancy, wondered.

“Yeah, just a bit of planting,” I said, “about two thousand evergreen trees.”

(more…)