Posted on April 18, 2016 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

One that didn’t get away. A fillet from a 50 pound halibut that Peter caught Saturday in the Juan de Fuca Strait

 

I am a big fan of Calgary Mayor, Naheed Nenshi.  Are you?

I read a letter that he posted in  Saturday’s Globe and Mail. Here is a snippet:

“ In Calgary, we’ve started something simple called 3 Things For Calgary. It’s a simple idea that asks each Calgarian to do three things each year to make our community even greater. It could be something as small as cleaning up trash, or hosting a barbeque for your neighbors in your front yard , or something big like joining a non-profit board. Now imagine 3 Things For Canada. Imagine everyone of us doing three things this year to make our community and our world stronger.”

3 Things For Antigonish?   Are you in! Let’s see if we can get a hundred people to say “ I’m in.”

I hope you’re not getting turned off with my shameless boosterism of Antigonish!

Thank you for the terrific response to two posts this week. There was a lot of feedback on the story of Martha MacDonald and the incredible Boyd clan. It is obvious that this family is well known and well respected in the community.

 And I appreciate the comments about the rather harmless piece that I posted on Saturday called “ Why I Love Antigonish.” I wrote that piece in under 10 minutes and it was one of those stories that took on a life of its own. I guess that I am not the only one who feels the way I do about our community. I well remember a dear old friend, Rev. Leo “Pops” McKenna who taught me a lot about golf and life. He was forever expounding the virtues of the area. “ We live in paradise and we don’t even know it’” was one of his favorite expressions.

Hopping to post a full length story this week ( for old times sake ). It’s about me losing my vehicle in a mammoth parking lot at Walmart!

And coming up on Thursday, my “Faces in the Crowd” story will be about someone from the area who received a double lung transplant a number of years ago. Stay tuned for “Breathless.”

Have a great week.

 

Posted on April 16, 2016 under Storytelling with 2 comments

Bonfires on the Beach

 

We’re not perfect.

We still have poverty right in our back yard. We don’t have enough affordable housing. We grapple with income inequality.

On the other hand, we are a caring lot. When the going gets tough, we roll up our sleeves . We help those you can’t help themselves. We possess goodwill in abundance.

We are extremely lucky to have a University and a Regional hospital to anchor our economy and supply us with stable work.

We are blessed with natural beauty. Our air and water are clean. We have pristine beaches and wonderful hiking trails.

We’re not perfect but we are getting better at accepting those who practice different religions, have different customs, and speak different languages. We acknowledge that we are all immigrants, with the exception of our First Nations people.

We are becoming more accepting of people with different sexual orientations;  a work in progress.

We have a spirit of generosity that is unparalleled. Any worthy cause is supported with time and money.

We are not perfect.

We are blessed with many young couples who have chosen to stay here, raise families and operate businesses. Oh yes. They always seem to be among the first to volunteer when assistance is required for some worthy purpose.

We are a community that oozes culture.

 We have The Park Bench Players.

 We are blessed with world class artists, musicians, dancers , actors and  writers. We love our sports and are good sports. We have it all.

We’re not perfect but there is nowhere else I’d rather call home.

 

Posted on April 14, 2016 under Faces in the Crowd with 4 comments

 

“Until death do us part” … the Danny Angus Boyd clan took their wedding vows very seriously.

Meet Martha MacDonald

Martha was one of 14 children born to Danny Angus and Margaret Boyd.  One child died in infancy.  They lived on a farm and knew the meaning of hard work, as they raised a variety of animals and tended large gardens.  They were a self-sufficient lot, like so many others back then.

Music was a big part of family life.  Everyone sang, often in harmony, even when doing mundane chores like the dishes.  Occasionally sibling rivalry between the washer and dryer was anything but harmonious!

Martha attended the one room school in Lakevale which eventually expanded to two classrooms. After high school she did a brief stint in Wellesley, a suburb of Boston, but the call of home was too strong.  The next time she left home she went to Sudbury, and eventually she and her husband Deanie moved all the way to the west coast to Vancouver.  When children appeared on the scene they decided to raise them in Lakevale.

Once the brood was in school Martha worked at the cafeteria at the Regional High School along side Peggy “A.B.” and Sally White.  She bought the canteen at the wharf in Ballantyne’s Cove one April Fools Day and operated the business for 16 years.  She served a lot of famous people over the years.  One man arrived for a meal sporting a diamond ring the size of a mandarin orange.  Martha asked him if he got the ring in a box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.  He had a great laugh over this.  She loved working with people and notes that having a good sense of humour was essential.

She still plays bridge, sings in the church choir and even dabbles with the paint brush from time to time.  And she’s an avid walker.  On May 31, 1997, she was one of approximately 75,000 people who walked across the 12.9 kilometer- long Confederation Bridge between P.E.I. and New Brunswick, to officially open the bridge.

A little over a year ago, her husband of 62 years passed away.  Being married this long is a remarkable achievement in this day and age but, as it turns out, this was very much the norm in the Boyd family. Twelve of the thirteen siblings were married for at least 50 years, and the thirteenth died just short of his fiftieth wedding anniversary.  The total number of years married collectively … 721 and counting.  Surely they are candidates for a Guinness World Record.  If you’re looking for a definition of commitment, look no further:

Joe and Helen: 53 years; Marguerite and Myles: 56 years; Tada and Jim: 55 years; Buddy and Terry: 50 years; Alex and Tena: 59 years; Blaise and Jean; 56 years; Martha and Deanie: 62 years; Chris and Forbie: 61 years; Marie and J.P.:59 years; Lucille and Walter: 58 years; Rita and Russell: 54 years; John and Cordis: 50 years; Jerome and Kay: 48 years.

And what is Martha’s wish in her golden years?  “I hope to live long enough to see the Leafs win the Stanley Cup.”

With such longevity and loyalty in the Boyd genes, that is a distinct possibility!