Posted on February 4, 2016 under Faces in the Crowd with one comment

 

Two artificial hips occasionally cause a stir at airport scanners. Her body may be breaking down but she refuses to let it take her down.

Meet Darlene Rushton.

Darlene was born in Oxford, Nova Scotia and spent most of her working life in Ontario before moving to Antigonish in 1990. She immediately rolled up her sleeves and got involved, which is hardly surprising as she is a self -starter and one of the most gregarious people you’d ever want to meet.  Volunteer organizations don’t go looking for her.  When she sees a need, she just steps in.

She loves music and sang in the St. Ninian’s senior choir for many years. She’s apt to bust out a tune at a moment’s notice … anywhere, anytime.

Her passion is cooking. She cooks for herself and for lots of worthy causes.  The “pattie lady” is legendary in the community.  “Cooking is good therapy.  It is good for my head and good for my arthritic hands.”

She wears her heart on her sleeve and a ribbon over her heart. The Kente cloth is worn in February during African Heritage Month.  Ask her what it means when you bump into her on “The Main.”

Darlene has become an early riser out of necessity. A flock of about 300 noisy crows, perched in trees outside her residence, provide an unwelcome wake-up call every morning around five.

Asked how she would like to be remembered she says “I’m a woman on the move.”

Darlene is a doer and our community is better for it. Her specialty – large servings of generosity.

Posted on February 1, 2016 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

Winter wonderland on Main Street

 

Ok. Hands up. Who wants to fly with me to Tucson, Arizona, rent a convertible, pull the roof down and drive through the desert listening to Eagles tunes? Thought so. You’d rather stay here breaking your backs shovelling, doing the Sudoku by candlelight and bathing in ice cold water. You either love winter or you hate it. I’d rather be “standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona” if I had my druthers.

I’m getting closer and closer to being a vegetarian. Well, I was until I started paying attention to the price of fresh vegetables. We used to have a small garden behind our house but now that we are apartment dwellers, we rely on the Farmer’s Market and the grocery stores to get our veggie fix. I have no complaints about the prices for locally grown produce but at this time of the year ( see paragraph 1! ) when we have no options, the sticker prices of certain items gets ones attention.

Have you noticed the price of cauliflower lately? After recently making a “Fall Vegetable Paella” I was somewhat horrified to discover that one small head of cauliflower was $7.99. Stay tuned for a story that I simply had to write. It’s called “ Cauliflower Crunch” and will appear at Week45 soon.

Have a great week.

P.S. Hamish …. 32000 views!

Posted on January 30, 2016 under Faces in the Crowd with 3 comments

Hamish’s home away from home

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your exuberant support of my latest project called “Faces in the Crowd.” ( FITC ).

Antigonishers and other people who live in small communities, are not easily fooled. We don’t fall all over celebrities and we’re not terribly impressed with the rich and famous. We know who the real people are: people like Hamish MacGillivray, Lalitha Natarajan and Bill Ryan.

The response to their stories is both heart warming and somewhat overwhelming. The three stories combined have received over 60,000 views on Facebook and several thousand likes and hundreds and hundreds of comments about these beautiful people.

Many of you are formerly from Antigonish. You left by choice or by circumstance but you all have some things in common: you pine for the East Coast and you love your old town.

Some of you are new to my writing and I would like to invite you to visit my website and become a regular visitor. There are lots and lots of stories about the old days. Also, I have published three books of short stories about everyday stuff. It’s sort of like FITC on steroids. Check it out when you have some time to browse. www.week45.com

Have a great weekend.