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Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

A bit of a reunion; conservative maniacs; and frozen fish

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Darren Wrightman and True Blue Hoodoo....

I had a great time on Saturday night celebrating a reunion of sorts. ‘Way back in 1994, I ran an ad in the old Wallaceburg News……”Wanted: Old Washed Up Rock ‘n’ Roll Musicians for a Blues Project”. And I had a good response to the ad and several local musicians gathered in my dining room a few weeks later. Among them were two fellows, a guitarist by the name of Bill Morrow, and a harmonica player by the name of Darren Wrightman. We formed a band known locally as the Baldoon Blues Band and did a series of great shows in town. We had some fun and made some pretty good blues music. And so was born the Glass Onion Folk Club. I got the bug for promoting shows and trying to expose local audiences to some of the best blues music in Canada. And that has been going on for the past 16 years – my wife and I have brought a who’s who of Canadian blues to Wallaceburg and we have had some amazing shows. This past Saturday evening saw Darren, Bill and I reunited for a blues show in Wallaceburg as True Blue Hoodoo took to the stage at the Wallaceburg Legion to open for Kitchener-based blues act Daddy Long Legs. It was a great thrill for me to be part of such a show, to promote the show, but especially to be able to play in a show of this calibre. Indeed, I’ve been playing in bands for 43 years and Saturday was one of the high points. A great joy to share the Glass Onion stage again with Darren and Bill, and, of course, drummer Jerry Gregson. As I’ve told people before, I don’t consider myself a great bass player – my main talent in life is as a writer. But I feel so fortunate to be just good enough to play with the people I do. And a big thanks to all the folks who have attended Glass Onion shows over the years and made us able to keep doing it. I hope it has added even just a little pinch of something to the social fabric in Wallaceburg and area.

I haven’t watched too much of the health care debate going on in the United States. I’ve heard the arguments on both sides for the past 40 years and didn’t need to hear them again. Can’t really believe that a country that seems sort of civilized at times could exist this long without some sort of universal health care system. It is a great credit to the conservative forces in the U.S. that they have been able to convince even a significant number of poor and middle class people that there is something evil about having a workable health care system that protects ordinary people in life. Anyway, I’m glad that the Americans are apparently going to have some kind of system down there, although I just hope they haven’t watered it down so badly that it’ll be worse than what they had……don’t know what to think about it. Conservative friends are saying that the Democrats are going to get slaughtered in the mid term elections this fall because most Americans are against this health care system. I find that hard to believe. And I’m hoping the reverse will be true. I’m hoping that the system they’ve decided on will work well enough before November to convince enough people that the Republicans have been maniacs for fighting this for so long. It’ll be interesting seeing how it shakes out.

Here’s a true story for you…..My wife recently set out in search of some frozen fish that we could heat up in the oven on nights when we were in a hurry. She started at one of the grocery stores in Wallaceburg. She likes to check labels and in this particular store, she couldn’t find any fish that hadn’t been processed in China. So, she moved onto another store in Wallaceburg where…..she discovered the same thing. So, she headed off down the road to Chatham in search of frozen fish. At one point, she discovered some Manitoba Whitefish that had allegedly been caught in Lake Winnipeg. She was excited and sure the search was over……this was the fish at the end of the rainbow. So, she checked the packaging…..processed in China. Unbelievable! How can that even make economic sense? How can they do something like that and make money on it – shipping fish around the world and back like that. Wow! Things just keep getting stranger and stranger…..and you read that here first….

Out of time for another week and hoping things are going okay in your life. I’m feeling better this week. Life is precious and good…..savour every moment like it’s your last……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.