DIARY
Not
good morning, Vietnam, but good morning Alert!
by
Robert LaFrance
The city of Halifax just declared
the Donair to be their Official Food, that that gave me an idea: how about if
all the good folks of the Scotch Colony got together and voted on a similar
idea (actually, the same idea) for here.
I know the boys at the club would be
delighted, and would stand as one when it came to voting for…you guessed
it…hops. Others would vote for the rare flower found behind the Perfessor’s
outhouse.
I can see it all now: the Perfessor would be sitting
on the throne and reading a Playboy magazine when all of a sudden a gaggle of
flower ladies would stop by for a look at the flower, and I’m not referring to
any part of the Perfessor’s anatomy.
It seemed like a good idea when I
thought of it.
***********************
This past week or so the major news
story seemed to be the one about Dennis Oland and whether he should be freed on
bail – denied by the judge – or should have his murder conviction overturned
altogether.
He was found guilty by a jury on
Dec. 19 and later sentenced to ‘life’ (as the lawbooks say) and all was quiet
for a while until that sunk in, then his battery of lawyers (no minimum wage
folks there!) started thinking about appealing, and decided it shall be so. The
appeal will take place in the fall. A bit unusual that, but I’d be the last one
to suggest that the family money made this possible.
Minutes later these same lawyers,
who weren’t that successful in keeping him out of jail in the first place even
though it seemed like a slam-dunk, applied for bail while he was waiting
for his appeal. It’s an appealing case to be sure.
Clearly there’s an organized
campaign – Facebook and otherwise - to get his conviction overturned. I must
say I was surprised at the guilty verdict but that doesn’t mean I think he was
not guilty. There just wasn’t enough proof presented.
**************************
On the February 20 episode of The
Debaters, the CBC Radio comedy show that features comedians…well, debating, the
contestants were arguing about whether the phone book should continue to be
printed.
I say YES. In fact, I think that
publication should not only continue, but should be expanded to include
cellphones, shoe sizes and music preferences. Oh wait! I’ve just described
Facebook and Linkedin.
Although it is called a LAND line,
it doesn’t touch the land unless there’s a gale that blows over a hydro pole. I
was on the phone one day last week and my cousin’s voice suddenly became very
deep. Looking out my living room window, I could see that down by the church a
hydro pole (the phone line is on the bottom) was almost touching the ‘land’,
but soon swung back so my cousin’s voice was now normal. Too bad he’s not.
****************************
About four years ago I decided to
indulge my love of local history and started a Facebook page called ‘Old Photos
of Victoria County’. I was astonished this morning to see that the group now
has 3551 members who share my interest.
Although the name refers to Victoria
County, it mostly deals with the area that includes Perth-Andover, Tilley,
Arthurette and places I know best. Rowena, Plaster Rock and the upper Tobique,
Grand Falls and Carlingford have their own own Facebook pages. I especially
enjoy the ‘History of Rowena’ group because Mary Jean Boone has a great
collection of local history and family photos. Also, I want to boast right now
that it was I who persuaded her to share these with Facebook viewers who can
now see all the great photos from Rowena.
One of the earliest contributors to
my own group was Sewell Shaw of Andover. I never met anyone who remembered so
much local history. He came to Perth about 1928 and it seems he remembered
every detail of every building on the Perth side. He was one of the fundraisers
for the Perth arena, since burned down, and his father owned the Perth Hotel,
torn down this winter right next to Carolyn’s Takeout. He was there when the
provincial government put in Beechwood Dam (1957) and before that when they
moved all the buildings off the Perth riverbank. Another guy who remembers all
about Perth was Joe Farquhar.
A couple of quick notes: As one of
the small number of people who had been born at home, I was interested to learn
that on May 11, 1948, Dr. Steven Rabatich of Plaster Rock came down to Tilley
to see me first, and that my sister (age 7) and my brother (age 9) were hustled
across the road to eat scrambled eggs made with milk. Not much detail, but
interesting to me.
A final note: I often mention
spending 54 weeks in a row at Alert, NWT in the 1970s. This time of year
reminds me that on March 4 the sun, gone since October 9, peeps over the
mountains for a few minutes at what is now Alert, Nunavut.-end-
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