Bellowing!

It’s a beautiful gorgeous Sunday this June 3rd of 2012, not so on the Thames River in London kicking off the Queen’s Jubilee. It would be considered somewhat soggy here in Canada. However with a stiff upper lip the Brit’s carry on with their 1000 float flotilla parade on the Thames. Here a couple of colonist are considering a “Fish Fry” in our very own scenic setting of La Riviere. Now as an outing on a world scale this for all practical purposes just doesn’t cut the mustard at all, but there are always surprises in life, and this would be one of them. As me and my bud Ron stand in line, we finally get seated, we devour our fine pickerel dinner, topping off the dinner with ice cream. Well it doesn’t get much better than that, for two fellas approaching the so called “Golden Years”. We tour around the streets of the tiny hamlet for a while, when I ask Ron if he’s ever been to Suicide hill he response, No! well we are going there now, Ok! he response. Now it’s a wee bit of a drive south on the broken up asphalt road #242. Just before reaching Snowflake I turn east on a municipal road and after 3 or 4 kilometers we arrive at the top of Suicide hill overlooking the Pembina Valley. It is quite a view to behold, before our steep decline straight down to the bottom of the valley, thank goodness the road is not wet like in London England. As we travel south 1.6 km, then east for 1.6km, then north again 1.6km we come upon a very large herd of cattle crazing in a pasture. The largest I’ve seen in these here parts as they say! Ron and I take guesses at the herd size and stop at the side of the shale road. Then to my complete and utter surprise Ron lets out this bellowing calf/cow call, a few more bellows and every cow and calf has lifted their heads and are looking directly at my van. The cattle all of about 200 started coming towards the fence and are walking and running from as far away as a as ¼ mile. It was an incredible sight to see and experience and I was awed by the sheer magic of the entire event. It was a total You-tube event/experience never to be recreated. again. I know Ron is gifted in mimicking every Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters known, and every accent he comes across from Icelanders to Hutterites to Chief Inspector Clouseau of the French Surete. But to attract cattle by bellowing as he can, even amazes a farm boy like me. What I’m trying to say here is: I would not have traded that moment, for the very best view on the banks of the Thames. Thank you Ron Warkentin for that memorable moment in time.

Morden - So You Want To Be A City ?

So everyone is aching, itching, and yelling for Morden to become a city are they? I see little evidence, or hear much talk of it at all.

Don’t cities have zoos, high rises, potholes, rapid transit, universities, traffic congestion, stadiums, large areas, casinos, patio restaurants, daily papers, food vendors, concert halls, rampant crime, overpasses, Police Homicide units, large grand hotels, food banks, and such?

 So, Mr. Mayor and council members, with 2 gas bars, 2 furniture stores, 2 car washes, and a Tim Horton’s, just how do we qualify for city status here in Morden ?

 Council seems to thinks we can lure people and business here by just calling ourselves a city. Smartphones and Google have the capacity to easily obliterate those kinds of myths.

With this mayor and council’s bungling of the  Arlington file, the Humane Society file, the Minnewasta Lake development file, can we have any assurance they can handle City files?

The mayor and every councilor should be mandated to spend one week at the Chamber’s tourist booth for a town/city reality check by tourists.   That might end the madness of it all!

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Hear Yea! 2011

Hear Yea! Hear Yea! Hear Yea!

If you are a taxpayer of Stanley, I bring you tidings of great despair during this 2011 Yuletide Season. Seems like Stanley council construction of the New Jerusalem Offices next to the Co-op Gas Bar on Hwy #14 has run amuck, with an 66% oversight cost.

The Stanley taxpayer on Dec 22^nd, should NOT be a hearing about proposed borrowing at the municipal council chambers, at all. It should be an inquiry about council actions to date, and why they should all remain in office, for the rest of their terms.

Overages on projects of 66% are not acceptable, in fact it is absolutely contemptible. How many other projects have gone array with this council? Did the BDO building have a cost overrun of 66%, Will Access Credit Union have a 66% overrun. How can this council be trusted any more?

The explanations given by the C.A.O. and Mr. Peter Klassen is as weak and feeble as they come. Mr. Klassen we do not amortize the errors of Council borrowings, until the time of the rapture.

It may be a Merry Christmas elsewhere, but not here in Stanley.

Open letter to Morden Town Council

Perhaps at the next council meeting you should consider removing the yellow signs on Thornhill Ave. indicating Historic down town Morden, if it’s not to be? At the same time they may also consider changing the town slogan from See History Unfold to just See History Folding

Since previous councils seen fit to pack up the old Morden Museum and gradually disperse it about.

The most recent issue the Arlington Hotel is most tragic.

The two parties involved, yourselves and Rudy Enns seems to be at logger heads over it’s future or it’s demise.

Does the Town Council not have the wherewithal or mechanisms to deal with this issue in a appropriate and open fashion, it seems not.

Surely, in the heat of accusations, a competent unbiased mediator could be sought to not only diffuse the issues, but work towards implementing a feasible and acceptable plan for all concerned.

Just as the residential development at Lake Minnewasta was put under community scrutiny so can the Grand Old Arlington.

One can more easy accept whatever the out come of the Arlington, as long as that due process has occurred.

"The Arlington Hotel"

It’s been a busy week around Lake Minnewasta.

The most recent collapse of a wall on the vacant historic Arlington Hotel brought a morning flurry of activity to the downtown, which has been dying from a lack of business activity in the past few years. The collapse of the wall brought about eerie morning activity to the usual empty main street. Coffee sales were brisk

this morning, as the fire and rescue department attired in their bright orange colors, enhanced the circus atmosphere to the otherwise desolate main street landscape.

The Arlington has had it’s share of fights throughout the years.

Usually it started with the bar room brawl inside and then moving on to the streets. But this time it’s different. It’s a fight which the Arlington itself is a direct participant and not just a facilitator, and the final outcome will decide if the Arlington lives or dies on the streets of Morden. It’s a fight to the death and the Arlington if it loses, it will become it’s own Arlington cemetery,

burying with it all the memories good and bad, from the earliest beginnings of town itself. Anyone for playing the song streets of El Paso?

Taking a walk in historic downtown Morden, visiting the past or seeing history unfold, are slogans that will become obsolete overnight with the loss of the Arlington. And even if it fell down is there anyone that would hear it? Morden’s loss of downtown business activity is comparable to the old saying, “if a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? If a building is demolished and there’s no one who remembers it’s history, does it really matter?

Of course the individuals eager to have it removed, always pull out the public safety defense, their morals and values

for the safety of the citizenry, because of the office they hold, are higher than those of the citizenry who value our past. What background of history with the town do they hold? Were their grandfathers and great grandfathers part of the history of Morden or are they just transplants to the area after the fact? Coming up with the generic argument of public safety, sounds very caring and concerning, but so too would the premise that the building is an unsavory incubator for disease and rodent infestation.. As well the shear height of this 3 story monolithic eyesore shaded and curtailed the full potential of the trees the Town planted to line main street. There are always arguments, but in this instance you get only one chance to do the right thing. The 72 hour demolition deadline being issued scared me. It spoke to the fact that the decision makers, those we elect to

give us sobering thoughts and well thought out judgments, would indeed hasten to order demolition in what appeared to be a predetermined resolution.

You cannot recreate history. When it’s gone it’s gone and you can’t rebuild it or wish it back after the fact.

byline - Terry Titchkosky

AS I SEE IT

I'm usually hesitant to express my thoughts, whether they be right or wrong.
Occasionally though I sometimes create a photo or cartoon that expresses my feelings at the time. Here are just a few of my creations that have been gathering dust in my computer, that I thought I would share.




Ah, I remember this lady! She was part of our Chautauqua celebrations. The banners were hung on the Highway with care, in hopes that our Town artists could celebrate the arts with some flare! Unfortunately I saw the banners in a somewhat different light. They appeared to me as the “pants” of a somewhat heavy woman, and thus the result was this attention grabbing welcoming pose. Perhaps they could have been used as an alternative advertisement for our “Farmers Market” produce after the Chautauqua celebrations ended! Fresh Veggie Eating Capital of Canada!

Then there those discussions regarding the viability for the construction of a museum to lodge the artifacts that are being discovered in our surrounding landscape. I wondered just how the two worlds that exist in our area would cope with the convergence of two beliefs.

As always, if you’re going to build something, just where is the best location?

Everyone seemed to have an opinion. The dig site location or the more visible corridor location. Ah, such a dilemma! Maybe it should be decided by the those who are directly involved. Maybe let the dinosaur decide by a “flip” of a coin.

Heads, Thornhill or Tails, the Corridor.

And then of course we’d require new signage on our highways, and the dilemma of where to put those Dinosaur Crossing signs.

I remember when I thought my internet service was extremely slow and wasn’t at all pleased when my internet service provider MTS did not respond quickly to my needs.In fact they refused to set an appointment time with me. They would only say they’d be out to my place sometime next week Friday.

As if I was to stay at home and wait for them to arrive at their leisure? That’s when I heard Telus, another supplier was competing for business and created this cartoon depicting the MTS buffalo being done in by the competition. I actually sent this to MTS

Then came our own Canadian Election which coincided with the Charlie Sheen antics. What was even more strange was that Charlie Sheen’s character on his show, had the name Charlie Harper……no I’m not kidding. Both he and Stephen Harper had one goal……WINNING and thus

But overall the best things in life tend to be free…like a coupon. I came across these being handed out by a friend of mine and I thought I would share one with all you who read the blog and might need a hug.

Images and comments by Terry Titchkosky

"Mennonite in a Little Black Dress"- A Review

This book review is the result of a young Mennonite waitress in a Black Outfit (black outfits are the unofficial color of the waitresses at this restaurant) scoffing at my reading of The Housecoat Diaries by John Scoles. After glancing at a few passages she determined it was unsuitable reading for an older person like myself, and she bluntly told me so. I completed reading the book at the restaurant - under the duress of her glances - over a period of several weeks.

I then suggested that she read it to stretch and broaden her scope of the humanities. She would do nothing of the kind. Perhaps she felt she would become tainted, who knows?

Now that she had skewered my psyche, I decided the next book I read would require her impartial consent. That book would be one suggested by my niece, who had yet to fail me literature-wise, with the exclamation “Uncle Harold you should read this book!”

After reading all the glowing accolades on the back cover of the book “Mennonite in a Little Black Dress” by Rhoda Janzen, it certainly made sense to me to get the stamp of approval from The Young Mennonite Waitress in the Black Outfit at the restaurant. Once again she glanced at the book, and approval was conferred quickly, but with a proviso, that she receive a review of same.

Here goes!

Dear Senior Intervener,

(or Young Female Mennonite in a Black Outfit)

I labored over reading this book. For me, it did not live up to the glowing praise it received from other reviewers.

It is a memoir that could be applied to a host of other ethnic and faith groups, with the Mennonite flavor only touched upon, in my opinion. Tragically, Rhoda Janzen’s tale, like those of many other bright young Mennonite girls who have left the traditional Mennonite lifestyle for the mainstream via marriage, have found their partner wanting. I can attest to these situations. Rhoda does find a process for her own reconciliation, which may be the best part of this memoir. Mennonite humor has always escaped me , except for mimicking platt deutsch (low German), which, as a friend told me, now would probably be considered racist. I found some amusing dialogue, but no laughter.

I would rate it an average read.

When I get older and much wiser, hopefully, I will be able to select my own books to read again, until then the Young Mennonite Waitress in a Black Outfit at the restaurant holds sway!