cktimes.ca Archives for Notes from a Garage


Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Strong numbers, finishing the Capitol, the boys\' weekend and the Faire at the Forks

Tuesday, October 5, 2004

cktimes' numbers remained strong in September with over 126,000 total hits for the month. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your support on this project. I simply must do something to counter the rampant negativity and sensationalism in the mainstream media and this is it – and you're helping me make it happen. Together, we will prove that the public will seek out and read good news as readily as the bad stuff. I'm convinced the mainstream media doesn't even really realize what it's doing. It's just that editors and news directors have been programmed into believing that something has to have negative consequences for it to really be news. I couldn't disagree more strongly. The many good actions that passengers on Spaceship Earth carry out are just as worthy of news coverage as all the bad stuff. Help me change the way the world thinks. Together, we can make it happen!

I missed the strategic planning workshop that was held on the weekend at the Union Gas Education Centre. I was invited as both the publisher of cktimes.ca and the organizer of the Glass Onion Folk Club in Wallaceburg. I would really have loved to attend, but there was something else I had to do over the weekend. Anyway, the first strategic direction to come out of the workshop was to finish the Capitol Theatre. Wow! Great job by anyone who suggested this! You folks know that I'm a huge supporter of the Capitol project and I really want to see us finish this job and get on with the task of seeing if we can make it go. I have seen firsthand the enormous benefit of having a vibrant and functioning theatre community within the community proper. The Capitol could be the jewel around which we could create an entire artistic community that would do nothing but make the local economy tick. Let us get on with this job so we can put the naysayers to rest. Good work to the people who attended this workshop.

Now, the reason I missed the workshop. I was in Sauble Beach with three old high school friends making merry and remembering old times. I'm sorry this took priority, but my buddies and I have been doing this for 12 years every fall and it's something I'd get off my death bed to attend. One of my friends flew back from Vancouver just to attend one year. I grew up with these guys and I now get to see them once, maybe twice each year. They are precious like gold to me and I value our weekend together above nearly everything else that happens in my life. We play golf and cards and pool and, generally, hang out with each other. It's the only time all year I really feel comfortable about who I am. Why? Because there are no pretentions with these guys – they know exactly who I am and what I'm about and I know them just the same. For the other guys, it's the same. Our weekend together is a brief respite from the storms of life. In fact, when I arrived at Stan's cottage in Sauble on Friday evening – and I was the first there – and I sat alone with my thoughts out the front, I felt tears in my eyes – relief, I'm sure, just to be away for a couple of days. And when I left, driving down the highway and leaving the boys behind, there were more tears – just like every year. Tears at not being able to grow old among such good friends – tears at the memory of what it was once like when we were the kings of Hanover and it seemed like there was no tomorrow – tears because I'm heading back out into life from an oasis of calm. No, I'm sorry I missed the strategic planning workshop and a couple of other events over the weekend, but I need to see my old friends for that special weekend each year. It helps keep me together – and i hope you understand that.

Even though I was going to be away on the weekend, I wouldn't have missed the Faire at the Forks for anything, so I cheated and went on Education Day on the Friday. Wow! I never fail to be impressed by this event. Thames Grove Conservation Area is truly transformed into a 19th century pleasure fair. In fact, I told one of the founders, my cktimes' columnist Jim Gilbert, that I think the Faire is a jewel in the crown of Chatham-Kent – one of the hallmarks of this community for sure. I'd not been to the event on Education Day before and you have to be there to believe it. The kids are so excited – it's like Christmas morning for most of them – I could see the excitement in their eyes as they rushed from one thing to another, trying to make sure they didn't miss anything. A huge hats off to all the people who have made this happen and who have stuck with it. I told Jim that I had attended the Faire in its first couple of years and, man, how this thing has grown over the past 13 years. I know Jim gets frustrated with the ways of our modern world and the fact that most of us are ignoramouses when it comes to the arts and culture, but Heritage Days is a living, breathing example of how things like this can be made to work. Great job!

Kerry and Bush are now neck and neck in the polls and watch for Kerry to pull ahead after each of the next two debates. Unlike Bush, Kerry is articulate and comes across as being sincere. Bush, on the other hand, can't be trusted and he's proven that in spades. Bush must be beaten. The future of the free world depends on it – remember, you read it here first.

Pretty well out of time for another week. Thanks again for reading along and supporting the cktimes' project. Remember to support our sponsors and click through on their banners. 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.