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Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Pride in the Glasstown; some interesting TV; and another ginormous blockbuster…..

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

This week, I want to write about something that is near and dear to my heart – my adopted hometown of Wallaceburg. Much has been written about the incredible economic battering that the Glasstown has taken over the last 10-15 years. Indeed, I would argue that no community in Canada has been hit so hard during a period of rampant globalization. And yet this is a community like no other – it has a heart the size of…..and here you can insert the name of anything really large. Over about two weeks at the end of January and the beginning of February, Wallaceburg dug deep. First, for the Haitian relief effort when 267 people sat down to dinner and raised a huge amount of money to help people far away. Then, to honour its sporting heroes, past and present, almost 400 gathered at the Oak’s Inn for the Wallaceburg Sports Hall of Fame Banquet and Induction Ceremony. And, then, just to keep rolling, a record number of Wallaceburgers – this time over 400 got together for the Hearty Soup Luncheon to raise money for Diana Mathany’s Heart and Stroke Foundation. It was an unbelievable effort and made me know why I am fiercely proud of Wallaceburg and its people. From the time I moved to this community 25 years ago, I have seen it pull together and its people support one another in a magnificent way. I didn’t plan to move here for a long time back in 1985. I came for a year….and here I am. But I could not have come to a more caring and giving place that just sort of makes me feel good. Pat yourself on the back, Wallaceburg….at times it’s felt like we were being hit while we were down….but we’re on the road back. And it will be the people of this great community who will make it happen!!!

Watched a super interesting show on CBC TV last week called “Hyperparenting and Coddled Kids”….it’s well worth watching for anyone with an interest in today’s children and how they’re being raised. It shows a generation of parents and children where the parents are so enormously involved in their children’s lives as to border on the ridiculous. Parents who scratch and claw to get small children into the “right” pre-school so they’ll get ahead faster in the world. There was one example of a parent who tried to negotiate their child’s wage after they finished school and joined the workforce. The show also talked about how the current generation of parents are super paranoid about their children and over protect them wildly. There’s talk that soon parents will be implanting their children with GPS chips so they can track them. You know, when I was a young guy, my parents, thankfully, didn’t heavily involve themselves in my life – especially when I was a teen. They were always there to support me if I got into a problem, but basically, I grew up on my own and, for better or worse, learned my own way in the world. My Dad would never have thought of choosing my courses in high school or university. When I used to go out with my friends for an evening of socializing on a Friday night, my Dad would say, “Have a good time. See you in the morning.” A whole different world back then – I understand that. And I’m not saying this hyper level of parental involvement is good, bad or indifferent. But it sure is different from the way past generations did it. Check out this show on the CBC website…..it’s interesting as heck….

Haven’t had a chance to see the big blockbuster Avatar yet, and will be waiting until it comes out on video. Can’t go to the theatre much anymore these days. Can’t stand the noise and flashiness of the movie going experience these days. Literally makes me sick to my stomach. Used to get bad motion sickness as a kid and still can’t stand a lot of rapid flashing in a confined space. So, I have to watch most of my movies on video these days – which is okay. Remember when there was talk that videos would kill the movie theatre business. Well, seems someone was fairly wrong there. Seems each new blockbuster that gets released earns more money than the last one. The blockbusters just seem to keep getting bigger and bigger and earning more and more money. I think Hollywood set some kind of record for box office last year. But if you read this space regularly, you’ll know I’m not sure most of today’s movies are really all that good. It’s just that today we need to escape from our real lives quite a bit more than we did in the past….and you read that here first….

Well, out of time for another week and hope everything is going okay out there is the real world….things are okay here in cyberspace…take care and 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.