Growing up Canadian This article in today’s Toronto Star hit a sympathetic nerve with me. It appears that the Great Canadian Tradition of outdoor hockey rinks is going away. In Southern Ontario at least.

On Melting Pond

Skating on a natural pond or a homemade flooded rink: What could be more exhilarating, healthy or fun? And, more recently, doomed?

Not one of Toronto's natural ponds, for years maintained by the city for public skating, opened last winter. Centennial Park in Etobicoke closed its natural ice rink in 2000. L'Amoreaux Park in Scarborough, also closed. Toogood Pond didn't open last winter for the first time in five years because it didn't freeze to the 20-centimetre (eight-inch) thickness the town of Markham requires for safety. (Markham, which has no artificial outdoor rinks, has optimistically introduced an ice-rink program for community volunteers to flood rinks in their neighbourhoods.)

As winter temperatures appear to be rising, skating on natural ice may be a thing of the past, something we remember, the way we remember wearing scratchy woollen socks when we go out in the cold instead of smooth, modern polypropylene ones.

I grew up in a place called Musselman’s Lake. The lake froze pretty much every winter and we could skate and snowmobile over it. Plus there was Mud Lake (a small pond really) that we’d all shovel off the snow and practice our figure skating, and play a shinny game of hockey. Heck, the street I grew up on would flood and freeze and we could skate and play hockey on the street! Or skate right from our front door to the hockey rink cleared off on Mud Lake. We learned to skate fairly young, even me and my sister, daughters of an Englishman who’d never had a pair of skates on his feet, and the Canadian Mum who had the worst balance in the country and couldn’t skate. She got the older girl up the street to teach us. Bernadette. That was her name. I think I was 5 when I got my first pair of skates. Kids these days get skates about the time they can walk 5 steps without falling. ;-)

But, they can’t skate outdoors like we could. The ponds and lakes aren’t freezing like they used to. Flooded back yards and parks aren’t freezing either. The only rinks that freeze are the ones artificially made and refrigerated, and the indoor ones. Its such a shame. It really is a lot of fun, playing hockey, or practicing your triple lutz and falling face first into a freshly shoveled snowbank. If you’re properly dressed of course. When I was 12 I got a horrible case of frostbite from my middle back down to my toes because I was out skating and the boys decided to tackle me and hold me down on the ice. I only had jeans on, no long underwear, and no snowpants. I had a light winter coat on, and a couple pairs of socks. But I got frostbite and man o’ man did it hurt! I still suffer from it to this day. 25 years later. Gods, I’m getting old!

Its such a shame that my nephew and niece will probably never get to skate on a frozen pond, unless my sister and brother in law take them far enough up north where its still cold enough to freeze. But they won’t likely ever be able to put their skates on at the front door and skate down to the rink. South Central Ontario hardly ever gets enough snow anymore, let alone cold enough to freeze a community outdoor rink.

*sigh*

No one here that I work with in Morganton has ever skated, has never frozen their backyard, or the park, or the tennis courts to play hockey. One of them has a cousin in Minnesota who plays hockey, and loves to skate. They just don’t get it here. They don’t even have an indoor rink.

Perhaps if we move to higher elevations there will be a rink somewhere. Apparently some of the ski resorts here in Western NC have outdoor rinks sometimes. And its already snowed up in the mountains, and more than one of the resorts have started making snow and plan to open next week. So maybe…

Maybe when I go home for my visit I can rent a pair of skates at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto and go glide on the ice. Or fall and break a hip…I haven’t been on skates in a few years!

Here’s hoping for a cold winter, and some smoothe firm ice.  ¶ 11:56 AM 1 Comments

  mmmm Haggis I'm gettin' haggis! I'm gettin' haggis! Among other things :-)

From British Pantry

AND Canadian Favourites is adding Campbell's Tomato soup to their products. Just for me! I emailed to ask them to add it, cuz all the stuff here in the US has high fructose corn syrup :-p

Yay! Food, glorious food!

And I'm goin home in 14 days for early Christmas!  ¶ 7:42 PM 1 Comments

  I think I'll get me a sign! Free Hugs

From Wiki:

The Free Hugs Campaign appears to have begun in 2004[1], and was widely publicized in 2006 by a music video. It involves individuals who offer hugs to strangers in public settings. The campaign is an example of a random act of kindness, a selfless act performed by someone for the sole reason of making others feel better. The original organizer has stated in interviews that the purpose is not to get names, phone numbers, or dates.[2]


[edit] History
Juan Mann in the original Free Hugs video at the Pitt Street Mall, Sydney, AustraliaA video on YouTube was released on September 22, 2006, and by November, 2006, had gained over six million[3] views. According to the video summary, it was recorded in Sydney. In the video, the main character who is giving out hugs, (identified as "Juan Mann", a pseudonym[4]), walks through the Pitt Street Mall holding up a sign with the words FREE HUGS written on it. Music for the video is provided by Sick Puppies, an Australian band that "Mann" met a year earlier.[2] Shimon Moore, the lead singer of the Sick Puppies who worked at the mall, shot the footage which he later compiled into a video for the song.[2]

Initial distrust of Juan's motivations gives way to a gradual accretion of people willing to be hugged, with other huggers (male and female) helping distribute them. After some time, security guards, then police tell them they must stop, as Mann has not obtained public liability insurance for his actions[4]. Mann and his companions then began a petition which reached 10,000 signatures. At that point, the authorities walk away, but not before being hugged by some of the participants.


[edit] Publicity and expansion
In the video Juan Mann is interviewed by reporter Angela Bishop from Ten News.
The video clip has received a largely positive reaction on YouTube, with over 23,000 ratings at an average of 4/5 stars, and more than 5.4 million page views (as of November 5, 2006), making it the 18th most viewed of all videos on the site.
On September 27, 2006, the video was played on Good Morning America in the United States.
A college student, Yu Tzu-wei, began a local campaign in Taipei in October 2006 to "hug everyone in Taiwan".[5]
On October 7, 2006 A free hugs in Tel-Aviv Israel video was uploaded to YouTube.[6],
A mass "free hugs" day was scheduled at Pitt Street Mall for the New South Wales Labour Day (October 1, 2006) following the massive YouTube and media coverage.[7]
On October 15, 2006 the Free Hugs Campaign was broadcast on Channel 9's "60 Minutes" as part of a segment on YouTube.
In late October 2006 several Free Hugs Campaigns were organized all over Italy, in a number of city centres: Milan[8], Rome[9], Novara[10] and Bari[11].
On October 27, 2006 Students from McKendree College were featured in news media, including MLB.com, for giving free hugs before game five of the World Series in front of Busch Stadium.[citation needed]
The Free Hugs creators were interviewed by WHO.com.[12]
On October 30, 2006, "Mann" was invited by Oprah Winfrey to appear on her show Oprah after her producer's doctor saw the Free Hugs video on YouTube. Juan Mann made an appearance outside her studio that morning, offering free hugs to the crowd waiting to see the taping of that day's episode. Oprah's camera crews caught several people in the audience hugging Mann as the morning progressed.[13]
On November 4, 2006, a new video entry was added to YouTube by Juan Mann thanking the people that watched the video for their positive response to his video as well as the support they've shown in addition to starting Free Hugs campaigns in other countries. Mann took the opportunity to promote the launch of a charity initiative founded by himself and Shimon Moore called Free Help, intended to cut out the middle man by allowing dedicated good Samaritans to render any assistance they can to those in need.
On November 6, 2006 an eleven-strong group led by a twenty-four year old man named 'Baigu' tried the same campaign in Shanghai, only to be detained for one hour for not having a permit to hold a gathering in a public place[1].
Since the clip first aired on YouTube, Free Hugs Campaigns have been started in over 24 countries.

  ¶ 9:53 AM 0 Comments

  on the 11th day of the 11th month, at the 11th hour, a moment of silence please This was posted at a forum I frequent, grab a tissue, its a tear jerker. Click here



Here is a true story and video I have been saving to share with you for Veteran's Day:

"On November 11, 1999 Terry Kelly was in a Shoppers Drug Mart store in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. At 10:55 AM an announcement came over the store's PA asking customers who would still be of the premises at 11:00 AM to give two minutes of silence in respect to the veterans who have sacrificed so much for us.

Terry was impressed with the store's leadership role in adopting the Legion's "two minutes of silence" initiative. He felt that the store's contribution of educating the public to the importance of remembering was commendable.

When eleven o'clock arrived on that day, an announcement was again made asking for the "two minutes of silence" to commence. All customers, with the exception of a man who was accompanied by his young child, showed their respect.

Terry's anger towards the father for trying to engage the store's clerk in conversation and for setting a bad example for his child was later channeled into a beautiful piece of work called, "A Pittance of Time".

I think that you will find it to be a moving video and song. "  ¶ 9:50 AM 0 Comments

  Something I think the US should adopt I miss the poppies for Remembrance Day. Here in the US its “Veteran’s Day” sans poppies. So, I saw one on the Toronto Star.com today, and printed it and I will wear it tomorrow and Saturday. I hope it survives. I’ll have to ask Mum to get me a few and save them so I can bring them back with me after my trip home next month.

Anyhoo. Canadians, Brits, and other Commonwealthers wear a poppy on November 11th to remember and honour the dead from World War I initially and now also dead and veterans from WWII, Korea and others since.

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.


And about the poppies from today’s Toronto Star

Lest we forget...  ¶ 7:10 PM 3 Comments