cktimes.ca Archives for Notes from a Garage


Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

A bad cold, the Glass Onion and Michelle and Karen in the spotlight

Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Well, folks, a nasty spring cold laid me low over the weekend and I missed a couple of events – I missed the Westover Treatment Centre's Alumni Variety Show and the community of Ridgetown's Hall of Excellence inductions. Extremely sorry about that and will try to do better in the future. One of the drawbacks to being a one-person operation is that it's tough for me to be everywhere – and there is just so much going on out there. For example, last Wednesday evening, I covered five things is rapid succession – all great events, but it really kept me running. Still, if you're involved in a community event and you want to share your message with your friends and neighbours throughout Chatham-Kent, please get in touch with cktimes. I'll do my absolute best to try to give your event the attention it deserves. Get in touch and I'll try to make you glad you did.

Since I started this grand experiment, much headway has been made. My foray into Chatham-Kent is a bit like trying to invade a foreign territory – I have to move into new areas and attempt to establish beachheads from where I can expand my base of operations. And let me tell you that this is one huge community to try to cover. I've managed to make excellent connections down in the Ridgetown area and in Dresden – I've met the fine folks down at the Tilbury Information and Help Centre so I have a connection down there. I've got most bases covered in Wallaceburg, but it's been the Blenheim area where I've been lacking. If there's anyone down Blenheim way who's like to help me solve this problem, give me a call at 627-5978 – I'd appreciate the help.

I must talk a little about the Wallaceburg Arts Council and its Glass Onion Folk Club series this week. With the help of the Arts Council, I've operated the Glass Onion for most of the last decade and, during that time, I've brought some of the finest blues and folk performers in Canada to little old Wallaceburg. Names like David Essig, Cedric Smith, Penny Lang, David Bradstreet, Harry Manx, Michael Pickett and a huge array of other wonderful artists have visited the Glass Onion over the years. Our next show is fast approaching and will feature Greentree recording artist Richard Knechtel at Roxxy Tap and Grill in Wallaceburg. This will be another fine evening of entertainment and folks who enjoy great live music should be marking Saturday, May 10 on their calendar for an 8:00 p.m. show. Come and join the Wallaceburg Arts Council and Harry and Maria at Roxxy Tap and Grill for a great evening.

My wife and I have a bit of a joke that when I pass into the great beyond, she'll have the following words engraved on my marker – "Dazed and Confused". Now, this is in relation to the way I feel about life most of the time these days. The older I get, the more confused I am about the way the world works and how it could have gotten this way. I mean, you can't really apply much logic to the situation. I sit even now and listen to the CBC news report and the reporter is talking about more death and carnage in th Middle East. Don't people understand that it's far more comfortable to work things out in a civilized manner? You'd honestly think people were happy to be living in misery and suffering – I mean, what other explanation could there be for the fact that so many people wallow in misery on a constant basis? Surely, through 10,000 years of history, we'd have figured out a more humane way to run the planet than this sort of piecemeal approach we've got now. Take a step back and do a little planning for the future. Not really a bad plan. Think about it.

I greatly enjoyed attending part of the United Way's annual meeting last week at the Salvation Army in Chatham. It was great to see community volunteers like Karen Kirkwood-Whyte and Michelle Hetherington being honoured for their dedication to the community. And I thought it was somehow fitting that Greg Hetherington couldn't attend the United Way meeting to see his wife, Michelle, receive the Volunteer of the Year Award from Clarica – there he was across town at the Wheels MCing the Cancer Society fashion show. It's all about community service – and Greg and Michelle Hetherington are great examples of that.

Out of time for another week and hoping things are going well. I'm always looking for contributors to cktimes – if you'd like to do some writing about your community, get in touch with me through the website. We'll see what we can work out.

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.