cktimes.ca Archives for Notes from a Garage


Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

My cousins from Ottawa, bridge closings and trapped in a sci-fi movie

Tuesday, April 8, 2003

I shed a few tears the other morning as I watched my three cousins from faraway Ottawa turn the corner to head for home. The three of them, Raymond, Walter and Alfie, and Alfie's wife, Vera, had travelled the distance from the nation's capitol on two separate missions – the one the happy occasion of my Dad's 75th birthday – the other to go see my Uncle Stew who is seriously ill and at home in the care of my Aunt Fran. The cause of my tears was the knowledge that when these folks disappeared around the corner for a faraway land, there was the possibility that we might not meet again – at least not on this mortal coil. I often wish when I'm at these family functions like Dad's birthday that I could freeze time for a while to better let the warm feelings of those times wash over me. I'm an odd fellow – I like my life today, but I mourn for yesterday and wish I could make things like they were every once in a while. Still, it was great for the boys from Ottawa to make such a long journey to visit the family in Hanover and to still remember us after all these years. I well remember the long car trips to Ottawa and Camp Pettewawa (sp.) with my Dad and Mom and brothers and sisters to visit Uncle Alf and my four cousins – all just slightly older than me, so that much more exciting to spend time with – I suppose they hated having me hang around for a couple of weeks, but I thought it was great. Can't believe Dad has reached another milestone in his life – we celebrated Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary last year. Wow! Kind of takes your breath away to think how time passes. As I told a friend I'd not seen in quite a while as we again parted company – perhaps forever – remember, take care......and don't let them get you.

So, we've got a bridge closed in Wallaceburg these days, the Murray Street Bridge to be exact and it's causing some traffic chaos in the community. So, in case you're reading along, here's some advice for the traffic gurus in Chatham-Kent. First, cut back on the green time for the Murray to Main Street intersection – for one thing, its green time was extended when all the trucks were using Murray during the Highway 40 construction and that's long since over – for another, the Murray Street bridge is closed now, so there's almost zero traffic going through that intersection from Murray to Main. Second, considerably lengthen the green time for the light for traffic crossing from Wellington to McNaughton at the Bank of Commerce corner – with Murray Street closed, there is a whole lot more traffic heading down Wellington and through that intersection – right now, about four vehicles are getting through with each green – and that drops to three if there's a truck. Also, there should be some consideration to getting in touch with Chatham-Kent Police to perhaps put an officer on the Bank of Commerce corner at peak times. Still, Wallaceburg folks will well remember the summer they closed the Selkirk Bridge before we had a bridge on the Baseline and we still had about 8,000 jobs in the industrial park. I ran photos of those back-ups on the front page of the old Wallaceburg News. Anyway, just trying to pass along a little advice.

I've probably said this before and can't remember (that happens as you get older), but it bears repeating in any case. I feel like I'm inside a science fiction movie these days. I sit watching television (early in the morning), and there are images of people walking down big city streets with masks over their faces – there is war in the Middle East – there are dogs sniffing out explosives in our airports. This is very weird, folks...very weird indeed. If I was back in 1965 and at the Paramount Theatre in Hanover, there couldn't be a better feature on the screen than the one we're living in right now. Strange, but true. It's also very strange watching this war stuff on the TV. And there are body counts on the news just like back in the Viet Nam days – that's sad, but true. I'm not sure what you're supposed to do when life imitates fiction, but I'm not so sure it's a good thing. Anybody else out there having the same feeling – I'd like to hear from you.

Sorry I missed some events on the weekend, but I was attending Dad's 75th over the weekend. I thought I had someone lined up to fill in for me, but it fell through at the last minute and I was stuck. It's part of the price of being a little guy and trying to do this all myself. Again, I'm sorry if I missed your event. I'll try to do better next time.

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Almost out of time for another week. Can't believe how the weeks keep whirling by. Hope things are going well for you. Remember..."Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may.



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.