View from the Strip
By Casey Lessard

I’ve heard a lot about memories this summer. From tributes to Bill and Helene Regier, to scrapbooking in this week’s issue, reflecting on the past has helped a lot of people in this area, I’m sure.
One of the actors I interviewed for Legends, the musical tribute to rock’s icons playing at the Huron Country Playhouse until this weekend, said we live in a very nostalgic age. If you look at this issue of the Grand Bend Strip, you might think we have nothing but nostalgia to talk about. But sometimes it’s important to reflect on where we’re coming from to know whether we’re going in the right direction.
As young people (and some older ones) return to school this week, it’s a good idea to reflect on the experiences of others, like Elinor and Fred Clarke (page 3). They’re in their 70s and show no sign of stopping. They love life and have made choices that make them feel good about what they have done with the time they have.
I’ve made some bad choices over the years (who hasn’t?), but I’ve learned from them quickly and make more good choices now than bad (I think). I’m glad I’ve made the mistakes I have, because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be writing this column, that’s for sure. I’ve taken a long road to return home, and I don’t remember much I regret.
Oddly enough, it’s hard for me to remember what I did before the Strip. When something consumes you, sometimes it’s important to pause and reflect on how you got to be in the situation you are in. I know I wouldn’t change a thing.
Nancy Gibbs of Time magazine recently compared September’s arrival to the New Year, complete with resolutions fit to be broken.
Looking ahead to this fall, I encourage young and old alike to think about their pasts, but forge into the future without regret. You can’t change your past, but you can definitely make decisions that affect your present and your future.

Regarding the immediate future of the Grand Bend Strip, a lot of people want to know whether it will continue every other week through the winter, and yes, that is my intention. I have a lot on my plate this year, so I may take a week or two off this winter, but my goal for the future is to maintain and improve upon the standard you expect from your free community newspaper.

Advice from mom
By Rita Lessard

Laundry problems – I’m sure we’ve all had them to some degree or other.
For instance, how is it that we always seem to lose one sock or forget to take things out of the pockets? And how in the drying process do socks and underwear end up in your pant legs? Who knows!
Since last October, my husband Tom has had some major problems with his right leg, and with all the pain and suffering he had to go through it was a very trying time. The end result was the doctors decided to end the pain and amputate his leg on July 7. Tom is doing very well and now he’s ready to have an artificial leg.
On Thursday we had a meeting with a group of people to get him into Parkwood hospital so the process of getting him fitted for a new leg can begin.
We had a question and answer period and filled out a bunch of forms and the group explained what we can expect once Tom is in the hospital. Once the technical stuff was done, the doctor wanted to see Tom’s stump.
Tom was wearing long pants and on the stump part he had the pant leg pinned up – all his pants are now like this – so he unpinned the pants to show the doctor his stump. As he did this, a piece of material fell to the floor.
Since everyone was talking or looking at the stump, nobody paid any attention to what was on the floor. Nobody, except of course me, but I was distracted by the nurse who started asking me something. Suddenly, the doctor looked down and asked, “What is that?”
Tom thought he was talking about his stump and it kind of fazed him, but I spoke up and said, “Is that your underwear, doctor?” He replied, “I don’t think so.” Then Tom looked down and said, “That’s my underwear. How did it get down there?”
Meanwhile, everyone was choking with laughter. Tom was undeterred as he delicately bent over and picked up the underwear and stuffed it in his pocket.
I apologized because I do the laundry so it was my fault the underwear got stuck in the pant leg thanks to the pins. At that point, it didn’t really matter because everyone wanted to leave to laugh out loud.
The doctor finally got a hold of himself and said, “Well, I guess you’re good to go.”
All in all, the meeting went well. As soon as a bed becomes available, Tom will be admitted, and I’m sure he’ll be in a ward this time. Good luck, Tom.

Keeping the Peace
By Tom Lessard

In 1953, I was having a difficult time at my high school, St. Jerome’s in Kitchener. It was an all boys’ school. My grades were bad. I missed a lot of classes and didn’t appreciate the teachers. I’d rather hang out at the pool halls or be caddying at the golf course. I made pretty good money caddying during the summer and setting up pins in the winter, which allowed me to buy my cigarettes, etc.
My 16th birthday was at the end of October, at which time my mother – who was fed up with my shenanigans – told me that if I wasn’t going to go to school full time she would take me to the army recruiting office in Kitchener. It so happened that there were openings for the apprentice-training program. All you had to be was 16 years old. I signed up and my mom co-signed. I received my call up in mid-October. Enclosed was my train ticket and meal tickets to get me to Sunnybrook in Toronto for my physical. About a week later I was ordered to report to the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps School in Montreal (train and meal tickets again provided).
The apprenticeship included two years education Military Basic Training and group one trades training.
We were the RSM’s favorites in the camp and we could do no wrong. There were officer-training courses going on at the same time; they received all of his wrath.
The majority of the apprentices were borderline troubled kids. But the mess of us turned out all right depending on how you decipher ‘all right.’ Our pay was $49 per month less $17 deduction that included income tax and paying for a blue blazer, gray slacks, white shirt and regimental ties ($5 per month from J.P. Morgans Department Store). We could leave camp during the first year so we didn’t use our civy clothes until second year. It wasn’t much pay, but beer in the taverns was only ten cents a glass, so on Saturday nights a group of us would climb the fence behind the barrack block, take a bus most of the way downtown and find a tavern where no other servicemen were hanging around. Because we were in uniform and the Korean War was just over no one questioned us about age. Two dollars went a long way. No one in our group could handle more than ten glasses at one sitting. We stuck close together and made sure no one got left behind. Getting back over the fence caused a few of us some tears in our clothing but we could always find an excuse when questioned as to why our pants or jackets were sewn up. During the week we had homework sessions from 7 to 9 p.m. but our weekends were free unless we screwed up. There were regular forces N.C.O.C. who trained us in the military aspects of our courses and who also monitored the barrack block. Civilian teachers looked after the academic training.
The two best parts of my two years there were the firing ranges at Mount Bruno outside of Montreal and our driver-training course. Our driving instructor was a WWII vet Sgt. He was quite a guy. Every morning we had to do a thorough inspection of our 3-ton stake truck. The Sgt. insisted that we drink a couple drops from our radiators and taste it to ensure it was antifreeze. We were only kids and didn’t know any better. It was always drilled into our heads never to question a superior. So we didn’t and we tasted the poison.
Most of our driving was done on the back roads of the island where every afternoon coffee break just happened to occur outside a tavern (the Sgt. loved his beer). Anyone without money had to stand guard over the vehicles. As we progressed and became familiar with the trucks and the rules of the road he took us downtown. We never had an accident or a ticket driving during our whole course. It being 1954, there wasn’t near the traffic there is nowadays. It was a great training experience.
When I graduated in 1955 I was posted to 27 Central Ordnance Depot on Highbury Ave in London. I billeted in K Block at Wolseley Barracks, where the 2nd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment was camped.

Elinor and Fred Clarke love to share their experiences of life on all seven continents

Seventy-four year old Elinor Clarke leads an aerobics class for seniors at the Grand Bend Legion Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays starting at 8:45 a.m., with classes resuming the first week of September. Participants pay $3 per week, regardless of how many days they come, and all funds go to charity.
“It’s very important to be in shape,” Clarke says. “It’s not just keeping in shape but we work on balance, flexibility, strength, and cardio. We stretch to begin with. We walk. We lift weights. I’m up to five pounds in each hand. That’s the max I’m going to go. I’m exercising far more now than I was 10 years ago. When I first joined this group they were exercising for 40 minutes. When I start at 8:45 we don’t stop until 10:00 at all.”
It’s hard to pin the Corbett Line resident down; finishing with a trip to Antarctica this year, she and her husband Fred have visited all seven continents.

As told to Casey Lessard by Elinor Clarke

I think I was born with an itchy foot. My father had an itchy foot too. Until I reached Grade 10, I never went to the same school two years in a row. We moved continuously.
As a child I lived all the way from California, Oregon to North Bay. I ended up at high school in London, and then lived in London for a long time.
When I was 17, my grandfather was going to England and wanted a companion. I said, “Sure, I’ll go with you.” That was sort of the beginning of really travelling. I love learning about different cultures, and in the 1950s England was a different culture compared to Canada.
Fred and I believe in traveling with our children. When they were very tiny we traveled North America and in 1967, we took our first big trip overseas to Europe.

Tanzania

In 1983, Fred and I were watching PBS and we saw the movie The Flame Trees of Thika. Fred said he’d like to go there. We had no idea where Thika was, so I went and explored and it’s in Kenya. He said he’d like to go, so I started looking and I thought we should go from one end of Africa to the other. We’d start in Egypt, because I always wanted to go to Egypt, and we’d travel all the way down. Well, Fred said there was no way he could go away for that length of time because he was still working. He said, “Let’s just zero in on one thing.”
In one of the books it had ‘Safari.’ A two-week safari. This was in Tanzania. That looked pretty good to do. Well, turning the page over, there was another trip you could tack onto the safari – climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. So I said, “I’ll go on a safari and sleep in a tent and all the rest of it if you climb Kilimanjaro with me at the end.” That was the first big trip by ourselves to do something like that.
Of course I took a lot of pictures. When I came home I started showing these slides. I’ve got cheetahs and wild dogs. I’ve got some good pictures. When we were climbing Kilimanjaro, the guide who helped me reach the top was asking me if we had somebody that could send them clothing. The borders were closed in Tanzania at that time and there was nothing in the stores. We went into one shoe store and there were three pairs of shoes. No children’s shoes at all.
When I showed my slide presentations people would ask what my fee was. I’d say, “Bring me used clothing – good used clothing – and let me sell my etchings of animals, so I could raise the money to mail this stuff.”

Swaziland

Just before Fred retired, he came across this article in the London Free Press, and it said, ‘Are you looking for new direction for your life? Would you like to volunteer overseas?’ There was going to be a talk at the London Library that evening. I asked if he was going, and he said he thought he would. I asked if he was going alone. He said, “I kind of thought maybe you’d come with me.” So we went.
The young fellow that spoke had just come back from doing some work in Swaziland. This was Canadian Crossroads International – a university organization. So we applied. When we first applied it was really for university people. But then they sort of had a change of thinking and decided that newly retired people had stuff to offer too as well. They got back to us and that’s how we ended up going to Swaziland.
You have to raise your own money and it has to raise public awareness. I used one of my etchings on a T-shirt. We sold T-shirts and I sold hasty notes and this sort of thing.
We were supposed to go to Zimbabwe. Just before we were to leave – we were to leave New Year’s Day – we got a call saying we weren’t going to Zimbabwe because a missionary family had been killed. But Christmas Eve they phoned and asked if we’d be wiling to go to England and wait there until they find us a country to go to because they’d already paid for the plane ticket to England. So we went to England.
We were in England for a month not knowing where we were going. While we were in England we got a phone call towards the end of the month saying we were going to Swaziland. We had no idea where Swaziland was. (It’s in the southern part of Africa.) Off we went. You don’t know what you’re going to do. I’m a craft person; I knit, I sew, I do all those sorts of things. Fred’s hobby is carpentry. He was to teach carpentry in English. I was to teach dressmaking and bookkeeping as well. We were there for five months.

Papua New Guinea

Before we went to Swaziland, we had already applied to the Anglican Church to volunteer overseas. When we came back, they wrote us asking if we were still interested. We said we were, so they said, “Would you like to go to Uruguay or to Papua New Guinea?” Fred said he’d always been interested in Papua New Guinea. We’d read Margaret Mead.
(The reason we went to the Arctic in 1987 was because Fred had always wanted to go the Arctic. He’s read all about Frobisher. He knows all about it so then you want to go and experience it.)
So we choose Papua New Guinea. We were there for over two-and-a-half years the first time, living in the bush. We got to where we were working by Cessna 206, which would fly Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, weather permitting. To do my grocery shopping I would fly out on Monday and fly back on Wednesday because it only came once.
I managed a Westpac bank agency, and I was the village postmistress and paymaster. We had a small airstrip and health center and school. The teachers would get paid by cheque; then, of course, I would have to cash the cheques. I was the secretary for the station, World Vision committee and all these sort of things.
Fred maintained the airstrip. He was advisor to trade-stores. He looked after an airstrip that was flying time away or two days walk (he never walked there). He built the water system. He built two houses and he tore one down.
We were administering an Anglican mission station, which was in an expatriate’s house. We were living in a bush house a ways. Some rascals broke into the office. They didn’t get the safe out – they just broke it so we couldn’t get it open. We figured out how to get it open, so now I can add ‘safe cracking’ to my résumé. So then of course I had to fly out to buy a new safe.
When I went out to do grocery shopping I would also have to do my banking. I’d have to take all my paper work and all that sort of thing. My first stop would be at the bank. It was only open from 10-2. There were three big grocery stores. I would keep a list on my kitchen counter top of what I needed because I only grocery shopped once every six or eight weeks. I would go to all the grocery stores and price the items because there could be a difference of $3 or $4 on a pound of butter. Then I would go back and buy at each store what was a reasonable price. (Cont. on p. 4)
(From p. 3) If there was something that you saw, and you mi
ght not need it now but you might like it for Christmas, you bought it. I would take it on my head or in a pillow back to the mission home where I was staying. They would freeze my meat. I would do this between Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday I would pick up my banking stuff. And then Wednesday somebody would take me out to the airport at 7 a.m. and I would sit there until the airplane was going to the Jimi Valley. I might get home at 2 p.m. I might get home at noon. If it was raining in the Jimi Valley I might not get home at all.
There were two places you could buy a safe. Burns Philips and the Christian bookshop. I went to both of them and I looked them over. The one at Burns Philips had a dent in it. But the one at the Christian bookshop was a bit cheaper, so I bought that one. Fred had to make arrangements to borrow a truck, and it was a three-and-a-half hour drive over three mountains to get this safe and bring it back.
On Easter Monday they broke in again. This time they got the safe out and rolled it down the mountainside and broke it open. Our passports and our traveler’s cheques were all found in the mud on the side of the creek. Bartholomew, the headmaster, took it and wiped it all off and dried it and brought it all to us. We did lose all the stamps for the post office. Some of the money was found dug underneath a beer club. We got a little over two thirds of the money back. The bills when I had closed the bank on the Saturday at noon were still all folded, all the 50 Guinea notes, all the 20 Guinea notes.
All the rolled coin was broken up. That upset me because I hated rolling the coin. There was about 1300 or 1400 Guinea. That’s about $1500.
The police came and they said to the villagers that we will be back next Saturday and if you haven’t got the money they’d ‘cook em house and kilim pek’ which means burn their house down and kill all your pigs.
By the next Saturday they had collected all the money. Some of it was in cheques from the fathers of the rascals, who were health workers.
Things were stolen all the time. They didn’t think of it as stealing. If you weren’t using it, you didn’t need it. So it was beneficial to anybody else. I almost lost my shoes. If you left at the back of the church when you went in they’d be going down the mountainside. So I’d say, “I need those shoes. Give them back.”
One time we had the only broom and dustpan and hoe and hammers and things like that. Fred would lend things out to his workers to do something. Then he would say, “I need my hammer. Where is it?” “I lent it to so and so.” Of course he’d lent it to so and so. Fred would just say, “I NEED MY HAMMER.” And the next day it would be back.
Anyway, they paid me the balance of the money with cheques. They were signed and I just sent them all out with the police officers. The police weren’t above suspicion either. I could have lost it all. But I didn’t. They honoured me.
We lived on the side of a mountain. Fred was doing heavy manual labour, digging ditches, building houses; he was not a young man. We felt we needed something, an ATV or something. We found this Mitsubishi Pajero, which is like a Jeep. That was really useful because it also became an ambulance. Several times Fred took people out. He took a pregnant lady to Tabibuga in the rain at night. We lived on mountainous roads that were treacherous. There was one time when we were taking some people up to a village and it started to rain. It was like coming down the back of a greased pig. I almost jumped out of the vehicle I was so scared because of the precipices and all. Not easy. Land slides.
When you give of yourself you get back in friendship. It broadens your life, your world experience.
I also worked in Thailand by myself for about five weeks. The camaraderie I had with the women, and what they do for you too.

When we went back to Papua New Guinea in 1995, after we built this house, we went back for six months because that’s all OHIP will cover you for. To buy health insurance for these sorts of things is expensive.
So we went back and we were working in Lae in a small city. Fred renovated five buildings. I spent five months going through 11 filing cabinets that people had been putting stuff for the church in since 1961. It wasn’t in any order. So I had to go through everything and read it and decide whether it was archival or whether it was currant or whether it could be burned. When I emptied all these filing cabinets Fred took them all apart and I sanded and primed. I put two coats of paint on them and he put them all back together again. We gave about six of them away.
This was in Lae, which is a costal city. While we were there the people of Koinambe, where we were working before, made the three-day trip down to see us. Three days. That’s with walking over mountains.
John Pin brought little Fred (several of the children there are now named Fred or Elinor). One of my sewing girls came with her father just to see us. Then we went back to Koinambe for a Christmas holiday and slept in our old bed in our old house.

The Arctic

Fred’s oldest niece was a nurse in the Arctic. She was in the eastern Arctic first then she moved to Saks Harbour on Banks Island, which is right in the Arctic Circle. It’s the furthest northwestern settlement in Canada. She asked to come visit, so we went for a month. We had time in Inuvik; we went to Tuktoyaktuk. I took slides of Ontario into the schools and showed the kids. I also took my African slides and showed them. We lived in the community. Although we were only there for a month, we did everything they did. I drove a snowmobile – I had never driven a snowmobile before in my life.

Peru

When we come home from one trip we’re already talking about the next one. Some of the trips are on the spur of the moment; Peru, for example. We were at the Santa Claus parade in Lucan just before Christmas and my daughter said to me, “Can we come and stay in your house over the Christmas holidays?” They wanted to refinish some floors. I said yes. When I mentioned it to Fred he said, “Good. Now we’ve got a chance to go away for a holiday.” I asked him where he would like to go. He said he’d like China or Peru. I said that I wasn’t going to China in the wintertime. It will be summertime in Peru so we’ll go to Peru. That was just before Christmas and we left Boxing Day.
Fred wanted to see Lake Titicaca, which is the highest navigable lake in the world. I found everything on the Internet and booked it out of Miami. We had tours of Lima. We also had time to walk the streets ourselves. We went to Lake Titicaca. While we were there part of what we had organized was to go out to an island where the Indians still live and stay overnight in an Indian home. The toilet was a hole behind a wall down through a potato patch. We ate our dinner by a candle – literally a candle. The food was Peruvian Indian food. I really enjoyed staying with an Indian family.
We took a bus trip through the mountains to Cuzco and from there we took a train before hiking two days to Machu Picchu and sleeping in a tent.
As we were traveling from Puno from Lake Titicaca to Cuzco, the bus stopped and there was a herd of llama and one of them giving birth. We stopped and I have pictures of this baby animal not quite born yet.

China

The first time we went to China was in 2001. We went with our daughter Pam to bring home a Chinese baby. We have ten grandchildren. One was born while we were in Swaziland. One was born shortly after we came home from Papua New Guinea. Pam has two children of her own and wanted more. They weren’t coming. So they decided to adopt and felt there were girl babies in China that needed homes. It takes almost two years to get your application through and get over there.
We got this picture of this little round-faced, spiky-haired child when she was about six months old. Robyn was 13 months when we got her and she was absolute
ly beautiful. Just beautiful. She still is. A precocious seven-year-old going into Grade 2. Very, very smart. She reads chapter books, as she calls them, and has been writing since she was about four.
In that trip we flew to Beijing and overnight flew down to Guanjo. We got the babies that day. We had four days in Guanjo. We were taken on a bus tour back to the orphanage where she came from. We met the woman who runs the orphanage, which she runs in conjunction with a senior citizens’ home. The senior citizens look after the gardens and talk to the babies and that sort of thing. It was a nice orphanage for a baby to come from.
When we got back from Guanjo we had to go back to Beijing. We had about six or seven days because we had to go to the Canadian Embassy and through medical tests. On the trip, only six of us went for three babies. It wasn’t a big group. We had five-star treatment. We stayed in a five-star hotel with these three babies. Normally one parent will do the sightseeing and another parent stays with the baby in the hotel, then vice versa the next day. But all these parents wanted their children to go with them.
So we had one day where we did the Great Wall of China. We had one day where we did the Forbidden City and the summer palace and all these things. The days in between that should have been tours were free. Mothers went off shopping.
Fred and I put Robyn in the stroller and we walked the streets of Beijing. We would go through parks and we found that in the parks there were mostly grandparents looking after grandchildren. So we were part of the local scene. We went to school. We saw senior citizens. This is like daycare.
We again were experiencing the actual culture of the people in the city. And that’s what we like to travel for.

When we went back to China in 2002 we drove in a Jeep across China. There were five of us – Fred, myself, Tony the guide, Mark the other driver and a mechanic. I have a Chinese driver’s license, but they wouldn’t give Fred one because he was too old, (but the guys let him drive anyway). The other man was supposed to be a mechanic, but when we had a flat tire he didn’t know anything about cars and he couldn’t speak any English. I think we were paying a person’s salary.
We were there 28 days. We started in Beijing. We went to Xi’an to see the warriors. We stayed in everything from one-and-a-half-star hotels to five-star hotels to a Taoist temple on the top of a mountain. We ate in everything from five-star hotels to truck stops to little cafes where we sat out on the sidewalk. We ate all the local food. Tony would order what he thought we should try. We ate 1001-year-old eggs. We figured they were 1000-year-old cause they were a year past their prime. (Ew!). We ate everything. Shrimp with the total shrimp, eyes and all. I have a whole list of everything.

Cruise life

We’ve also gone on working freighters. We were the only passengers and I was the only woman. There may be a crew of 22 or 24. The first freighter went out of Florida, across the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal. We stopped in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile. And all those places coming back again. We made 13 stops all together. (Cont. on p. 6)
(From p. 5) The second one was out of Long Beach, California. We went to Tahiti and the Samoas. That is also experiencing another culture. The culture of a working freighter. You’re sharing food with the workman. We didn’t even help with any of the work. They did call Fred ‘Navigator’ because he had his GPS and he would check that we were still on course and all this sort of thing. But that is another way of experiencing a culture.

Antarctica

Going to Antarctica was a spur of the moment thing. Actually we just got something in the mail that said ‘Antarctica’ and Fred said, “I think we should do this.” It was the one continent we hadn’t been to. We’ve been to all seven continents now.
Why did we go to Antarctica? (Laughs) To experience another culture. Again this is the only cruise we’ve ever gone on. A cruise ship is another culture again. And Fred has said that he wouldn’t do that again. That’s not our cup of tea.
My highlight is when you get to Deception Island, which is an extinct volcano, and the harbour is inside the caldron of the volcano because the wall is broken in one place. It’s considered the safest harbour in the world. But on the outer wall, ships run aground including the sister ship of the one we were on. When you get there, and this is right on Antarctica, you have the opportunity to swim in the Antarctic Ocean if you would like. So I did.
The water temperature was 2 degrees. The air temperature was 2 degrees. It was 8:30 at night. The sun was starting to go down. They have a contest. It’s based on the number of people per country. There was one person from Argentina and he swam. So they got 100%. There were 16 Canadians. We had I don’t know how many Americans. Well over 100. We had 16 Canadians and 11 of us swam so we came 2nd with 69%. I was one of the 11. Fred is one that didn’t so he wrecked our percentage. (Laughs).

Global Warming

I’m in a quandary over global warming. I still think we are a global world now. Television brings it right to us. It can be a bit of a guilty thing to think about travelling, but I do it anyway.
By travelling to these places I think we do enough good that it balances it off. A lot of people travel and they take their own baggage with them. That I don’t agree with. As Fred says, we ate in the streets of Irian Jaya. We’ve slept on rusty camp beds. That’s what the people there do, so that’s what we did. I’ve tried to educate the people back home about how other people live. And how they are.
Not everybody is as fortunate as we are. When we were in Papua New Guinea we had quite a bit to do with World Vision, and we sponsor a World Vision child. It’s a question of putting your money where your mouth is, I guess really. When I was in Thailand I taught a sewing skill to village girls so that their families wouldn’t sell them into prostitution.
Going to Antarctica I have tried to talk about global warming in that. Global warming and travelling is one thing, but if you notice, I don’t have my air conditioning on. We haven’t run it all summer. We haven’t run it for about three years. Conservation starts at home. I took my garbage out last night. From three weeks I have one (grocery-sized) bag.
I compost. We compost in the field and in the garden. Fred says we built this house with a lot of the stuff he has saved over the years and used up. If he has to cut trees down he makes boards out of them. He made the tops of my compost box out of lumber that he’s made. We do our bit. We don’t rake leaves. We don’t rake grass. It composts.

Slide shows

I was showing slides of Newfoundland to a group of people one time and a man in the audience recognized his grandmother’s house. That really makes you feel good.
I will show my slide shows to anybody, anytime; all they have to do is ask. We have done them in private homes. People hear about it. And they say they’d like to see the Antarctica ones. So we go and do them. If people would prefer an evening here at my home we have a sort of projection room upstairs.

Lesson learned

People are the same the world over. You can be in Papua New Guinea and there’s a little old lady that reminds you of Auntie Winnie.
If you are friendly and put yourself forward they will be friendly back. We’ve walked the streets of Cairo. We’ve climbed Table Mountain in South Africa. We climbed Kilimanjaro. We hiked to Peru. People asked us if we are afraid.
If you treat people well, they will treat you well back. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you really.

To contact Elinor and Fred Clarke regarding their travels, slide shows or Elinor’s exercise classes, call (519) 294-6499. span>

Grand Bend teen earns top honours at Canadian championship

Fourteen-year-old Dylan Kaelin, who lives south of Grand Bend, swept the motocross racing categories he entered at the Canadian Amateur National Championships in Walton, Ontario, August 15-19. Dylan took home three top-honours and the Bronze Boot award for best all-round amateur rider.

As told to Casey Lessard

Amateur motocross is what I race. I started riding when I was three, and started racing when I was four. I’ve been at it ever since. It’s what I want to do when I’m older – become a professional motocrosser and make a living off it.
When I was younger I just rode around on a pedal bike. We had an old Honda Z50 mini-bike – my sister rode it and then I starting riding it. It had training wheels on, and I told my dad I wanted to ride without training wheels. He didn’t believe that I could do it. A week later he bought me a PW50 and then a couple months later I went to my first race and I got dead last (laughs).
When I was six years old, I won the four-to-six 50 CC class at the Canadian national championships. I went to Loretta Lynn’s (US championships), which is the biggest amateur national championship in the world, when I was nine years old riding 50s; I’ve tried to qualify for Loretta Lynn’s a few more times. At Walton (the Canadian championships), I should have won the 50 CC seven-to-eight class in 2002, but I broke my femur. In 2005, I got a third place in the seven-to-12 class. This year, in one week, I won three classes, becoming Canadian champion for all three. Plus I won the Bronze Boot, which is for the most accumulated points throughout the whole week. That’s the biggest award you can win there.
The very first moto (race at the Walton) I just wanted to go out there and win and get it out of the way and just have a good mindset for the rest of the weekend. Luckily I did that. I had a mid-pack, top-5, top-10 start. It was pretty good. I got up front and I won that moto so that was good.
In the second race, my friend crashed in front of me on one of the big jumps. I ran his bike over because I had nowhere to go. Then I went down and I was back in about 15th or so. I worked my way to second. I was right behind the leader by half a bike. I was behind him five feet or so when we came across the finish. I needed to win that one to make sure I would be in a good position for the third moto to get the championship.
Everybody really started getting into it after that crash. I was walking around the pits and everyone was saying, “Good ride! That was awesome how you came from the back of the pack and almost won.” The rest of the week everybody was cheering me on. It was great.
After my first day of motos I went 1-2-1. The next day I got 1-1-1. Then after that I was kind of starting to figure it out. I just had to go for the third day and ride like I did the rest of the week. I knew I could probably win all the championships if there were no bike problems and I didn’t crash.
I was so nervous. That morning I didn’t want to eat – I felt like I was going to throw up. Mentally it’s a big game. Coming up there that week I knew I could do well but I was second-guessing myself.
You always fear getting injured. Crashing into somebody else, somebody crashing in front of you, bike problems.
Winning the Bronze Boot and the three national championships is definitely going to help out for next year. I’m sending résumés out to gear sponsors and bike sponsors right now. Next year I’m moving up to intermediate class so that will be a big difference. In that class, a lot of people sponsor the faster riders. A lot more people come and watch. It’s a bigger deal, for sure.
I’m going to try to stay in the intermediate class as long as I can because I’m only 14. Most people who are pro are 20 or 21. I’m probably going to run intermediate Canada for about two years, then I’ll go to the States and run their ‘B’ class for a year. I might go ‘A’ in the States, then come and race in Canada.
Without my family I wouldn’t be able to do it at all. Having the business here (dad Rob started a motocross sales and repair shop in Dylan’s early racing days) basically was to help me out in the beginning and then all my parts were cheaper, and it helps us find sponsors.
I’m going to be home-schooled this winter for second semester. Last year I missed three weeks of school to go down south to go riding. My teachers helped me a lot.
I think I was born to do motocross. I’m not really good at anything else. There’s a chance to make millions and there’s a chance you’ll be working at McDonalds if it doesn’t work out.

“I hope he can fulfill his dream and make it to a factory ride,” says dad Rob Kaelin, owner of The Cobra Shop (thecobrashopmx.ca). “I just hope he stays healthy. I know receiving the Bronze Boot was a dream of his. I was pretty fortunate to be able to witness him have a dream come true.”
“Every weekend since the time he was four years old, my daughter, my son and my husband and I spent the weekends together,” says mom Teresa, who takes care of the nutrition and cleaning. “You grow extremely strong and close as a family. It’s very much a family affair.”
“As far as academics,” Rob adds, “he must carry a B+ average to be able to go and ride and go train like he does and take x-amount of weeks off school. As long as he keeps up his end and we don’t get too many injuries, everything is good.”

Scrapbookers unite for a full day of cutting and pasting

ScrapDay 2007
Saturday, September 29
9 a.m. to 9 p.m. – Grand Bend Legion
Twelve hours of scrapbooking, door prizes, raffles. Bring your own supplies. Vendors will have some materials for purchase on-site.
Sponsored by Creative Memories, Memory Lane, Close To My Heart, Stampin’ Up, and Studs For Your Duds
$48 entry fee includes lunch, dinner and snacks. Event catered by Ian’s Kitchen.
$2 admission to shop only.
Tickets: 519-238-6390 or Memory Lane in Zurich (519-236-7789)

Story and photos by Casey Lessard

“When I first saw the scrapbook mom made for me, I was so excited that I started to cry,” says Charlie Love, 18, of Grand Bend. Her mom Joan is a member of a scrapbooking group that meets weekly at the Grand Bend Youth Centre. Charlie joins them when she is home from university in Victoria, B.C.
“I got into it a few years ago for Charlie’s 16th birthday,” Joan says. “I wanted to do a book where her friends would each do a page. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to trace some of the family history, too? It’s been fascinating tracing how our ancestors came to Canada and the neat details of why. One book became two books. One with her friends and one with our family history.”
“It’s not just a craft,” says Lynn Wilber, who turned her interest in scrapbooking into a job. “It’s the importance of preserving the family memories. The company I work for (Creative Memories) works closely with the Alzheimer’s Society, preserving memories for people whose memories will eventually disappear.”
The 10 group members who meet Mondays to scrapbook can thank Grand Bend’s Kim Widdis for bringing them together in one place to share their hobby and ideas.
“I’ve been scrapbooking since I was a kid,” Widdis says. “Since it came into fashion about 10 years ago, I just got into it in a bigger way. I didn’t know too many other people who did it and it’s not fun doing a hobby by yourself. I started talking to people and they were interested. I thought, why not have a scrapbooking fundraiser? The youth centre can always use the funds. We did it at the legion. We had 50 people and raised $2,000.”
“After the fundraiser, I put a sign up on the blackboard at the youth centre and in the flyer. It’s just been word of mouth. We as a group are continuing Mondays all year.”
“Everyone here scrapbooks in a different way,” Wilber says. “Scrapbooking’s very personal. And that’s what I love about it.”
“When people see the books,” adds Nancy Chambers of Exeter, “they see real history. The history of these people.”
“Grand Bend and Parkhill have phenomenal resources with the stories people have,” notes Joan Love, “and if you don’t get them down, those people aren’t going to be around forever. A lot of them are older and you have to record this information while they’re still alive.”
“It’s great – now I know all the stories about my family,” Charlie adds.
But now that her mom has done such a good job of preserving the memories of her family and friends, Joan’s workload tripled.
“I ended up doing this for one child,” she says, “but I have three kids, so now I have to do books for each of them.”
As far as Lynn Wilber is concerned, it’s better than the alternative.
“You go to the Pinery Flea Market and you see boxes of family photos. They’re memories that are long gone. But my kids will have the story of my life and that of my family’s. It’s about journaling thoughts and feelings. It’s not just about photos. My kids will be able to look back and know how I was feeling.”

Chamber of Commerce summer student Amy Jennison noticed this male cat at the back of the chamber office, hiding under a tree, cold and weak. Executive director Barbara Gare suggested they should take care of the cat, which they believe was in the wild about six weeks. Staff and volunteers have paid for food, upkeep, and a vet checkup. They believe it is someone’s pet; if it’s yours, you can claim it by identifying some unique characteristics.
The chamber staff would like to find the owner soon so the cat, which they’ve named Tuxedo and which has been an attraction for tourists, is at its home as winter approaches and staff levels reduce.
Tourists also brought a trained kitten, which they found in Shipka, to the chamber office. Gare is taking care of the seven-week-old, mostly brown kitten at her home.
If the cats remain unclaimed, any good home would be welcome and can be offered by contacting Barbara Gare at the Grand Bend Chamber of Commerce (519-238-2001).

StarDust dinner theatre, Parkhill
September 8 & 9 – Shania Twin
(519) 294-1141 for tickets

Story and photos by Casey Lessard

With four sold-out shows under its belt, the StarDust dinner theatre seems to have hit on the right combination to attract a nostalgic audience looking for a good meal and a good time.
“Really nice,” said Dan Fraser of Port Franks, who attended the August 18 performance by Elvis tribute artist Roy LeBlanc. “Food was great. Seating is great. We’re having lots of fun.”
Fraser is a fan of LeBlanc, whom he saw previously at the Western fairgrounds.
“I saw that he was going to be in Parkhill this evening and I gathered up a bunch of friends of mine. He really looks like Elvis Presley, from back here anyway. I don’t know him personally. I just know that he works at the St. Thomas Assembly Plant. That’s where I used to work. We’ve had a good evening and the entertainment’s great.”
A fan since LeBlanc was crowned professional grand champion at the 2001 Collingwood Elvis Festival, June Mogk of Stratford jumped at the chance to see him perform again.
“I think he’s one of the best,” she said. “He resembles Elvis and he sure sounds like him. I could look at him forever.”
That’s music to the ears of Dustin Pritchard, who owns the StarDust with his parents, members of the Satiniques music group that performed at the July grand opening.
“We talked to a lot of people and they want the most popular 50s and 60s music,” Pritchard says. “We try to get the tribute artists out for that kind of thing. We’re going to have Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers, Johnny Cash, and a whole gamut of different stars from the good old days.”
The dinner theatre will have to rely on more than the Parkhill crowd to survive, and Pritchard’s team is promoting it to markets within driving distance.
“If you take a look around downtown Parkhill, all the really successful businesses – especially the boutique businesses – are the ones that bring people from out of town,” he says, noting he expects about 10 per cent of his clientele will be from Parkhill. “Everybody else is from Grand Bend, Strathroy, London, Sarnia and even Stratford.”
“I think this is a good idea,” says Parkhill resident Joan Chittick, who came to the show. “It will draw a lot of people from out of town. Parkhill is a small town that’s struggling. The more people we get here the better.”
The StarDust will continue to bring in tribute artists every two to three weeks for the first season, including a Shania Twain tribute September 8 and 9.
“After Shania Twin we have Johnny Cash. Then we’re doing a Grease musical themed murder mystery show. It’s a dress up thing for Halloween. We’ve got the Fab Four with the Beatles. They play at Stage West all the time and are very popular. Then we have the Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and Everly Brothers. For our New Year’s party, we’re going to have an eight-piece orchestra and a soloist singer. It’s a nice classy event. Still kind of back-in-the-day, but classy, where the ladies can dress up and the guys can take out their ladies to a show.
“Because of the price that we offer the show, with dinner too, we think we are providing really good value for our customers.”

Royal Canadian Legion Branch 498
50th anniversary of current building
September 8, 3 to 9 p.m.
3 to 6 p.m. – live music with
5 to 7 p.m. – steak barbecue
7 to 9 p.m. – legion-style horse racing
Open to the public
125 tickets available at $10 each

Story by Casey Lessard

“I know most of the people who were involved in building this Legion,” says Gus Lukings, reflecting on the 50 years since the first part of the Grand Bend Legion was erected. “A lot of these guys fought pretty hard wars. Some of them were up through Italy, a lot of the air force boys. A lot of them didn’t come back.”
The ones that did come back wanted a place to socialize together, and by 1957 had outgrown previous locations hosting their gatherings. The first Legion was held in a cottage on Warwick Street, and the second in a Grand Bend theatre basement. On September 23, 1957, the executive decided to build a dedicated Legion hall that would cost $9800, including $1800 for land purchased from Harold Klopp.
“Most of (the work) was volunteer labour,” says Delight Rath, a ladies’ auxiliary member during the early years. “The electricians and plumbers, all they charged was the material that went into the work.”
“Everything was done for nada,” Lukings adds. “If you had time, you did it.”
“We ran penny bingos and we made a little bit of money,” Rath says. “We catered to meals, and we had to do all our baking at home. We had a little four-burner stove upstairs to serve roast beef dinners. Everything we did, we turned as much money as we could over to the Legion to keep them afloat. I believe that if it weren’t for the auxiliary, there wouldn’t be a Legion today. It was really hard times, and that’s why we had to channel all the money there that we possibly could.”
That’s not to say the men were always appreciative of the women’s role in making the Legion grow. The men occupied the lower level, which was the hall, and the kitchen was upstairs.
“I always held some office in the auxiliary, so one time the girls sent me downstairs to deal with something because they figured I was the bravest with the boys downstairs. As soon as I came down, one of the veterans said, ‘You get the hell back upstairs where you belong.’ And I said, ‘You can go to hell. If it weren’t for us, you wouldn’t be here.’”
Times changed and eventually women were allowed downstairs. Today, Legions across the country face growing concerns about membership and are being forced to open their ranks to include people who have neither military experience nor relatives who do. Membership at the Grand Bend Legion include 19 life members, 94 ordinary (or veteran) members, 201 associate members (relatives) and 27 affiliate members.
“I don’t think you can beat the organization,” Lukings says. “You can take your Legion card any place in the world and you can go into a clean establishment. It means a lot.”
Growing in 1984 to its current size, the Grand Bend hall became better equipped to serve as a community centre in good times and in bad times.
“This is the centre when there’s a catastrophe,” notes Glenn Bryson. “The town installed a generator so when the hydro goes out in town, there’s still heat so people can come in here for comfort or food if they need it.”
For Delight Rath, the memories will linger of friends she loved and lost.
“We had a lot of fun. Sad times and really good times. It’s sad to see so many of them are gone. But I think of all the fun we had. We worked hard, but we made fun out of it.”

Keep your left wrist (right for lefties) flat at the top

Golf Tips
By Cameron Rankin

One of the secrets to hitting straighter golf shots more often is the left wrist position (the right wrist for lefties) at the top of the back swing. Assuming your fundamentals are correct, this position can be achieved fairly easily. During your backswing, your wrists hinge on an approximate angle of 45 degrees to the ground; the shaft of the club should also be on this angle. Turning your shoulders to complete the backswing, you should still have your left wrist flat.
Cupping your left wrist will cause you to slice the ball to the right of your target. Arching your left wrist will cause your ball to fly low and left of your intended target. The arched left wrist is not very common, as golfers like to see the ball have some trajectory. Check your left wrist position for lower and more consistent scores.

Cameron Rankin: golf at grandbendstrip.com