What’s in a name?

What’s in a name?

I am fascinated by names, particularly first names.  I especially notice them when I read birth notices and obituaries.

Here’s one that tells the story of names through the generations:

“Bernard passed away peacefully in his sleep on January 9, 2010. Beloved husband of Constance. Son of the late Clarence & Inez. Brother of Hazel, Clara and George. Bernard will be dearly missed by his children, Michael, David and Sandra. He was a devoted grandfather to Ashley, Tyler, Ryan and Zachary, and greatgrandfather to Chase and Sienna.”

My ‘Hood Part Four

The Edgars
Margaret and her husband had two children when they moved to Rand Avenue. Over the next number of years they adopted three more. Their adopted children were of mixed race. Margaret was the founder of an organization called The Open Door Society, whose purpose was to encourage mixed-race adoptions. This was the 50’s, remember! 


Margaret and her husband didn’t go out much, but when they did, I babysat for the children. The thing I loved most about babysitting for them, was looking through ‘The Albums’, after the children had gone to bed. You see, Margaret made an album for each child, documenting their arrival into the family, and their early years. I was in awe of these people! I was 14 at the time and I made a decision -- that one day I would adopt a child.

My "Hood Part Three

Red Fisher 
A few doors down from us on Rand Avenue, were the Fishers.  The young dad, Red Fisher was a sports journalist with the now defunct, Montreal Star.  Even though he was only a few years into his career, the walls of his study were full of photographs of him with all the famous Montreal Canadiens hockey players.  As a teenager I was a huge Montreal Canadiens fan, so this really impressed me.

What impresses me now is that Red Fisher, who started his journalism career with The Star in 1954 as a hockey writer and went on to be the Sports Editor of The Montreal Gazette, is still at it today – 56 years later!  He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Sports Media Canada in 1999.  


Way-to-go, Red Fisher!

My "Hood Part Two

Gerald Batist 
Gerald was just a boy when we were neighbours on Rand Avenue.  A very nice boy.  A very nice family.

Gerald is now Dr. Gerald Batist, the Chairman of Oncology at McGill University, the Director of the McGill Center for Translational Research in Cancer, and the Director of the Seagal Cancer Center.

He runs a very active research laboratory, which examines the molecular pharmacology of carcinogenesis and of chemotherapy resistance, and novel approaches to gene-targeted pharmacotherapy.

We’re proud of you Gerald! http://www.mcgill.ca/translational-research-cancer/researcher-biographies/batist

My ‘Hood in Montreal

My 'hood: Part One
When I was 12 my family moved from our Barclay Street apartment to our first real house.  It was 1956.  They paid $19,500 for the brand new split-level home on Rand Avenue in Cote St. Luc, which was one of 20 identical homes built that year, ten on Rand Avenue and ten on Westminister.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONEYGU_7EqU&feature=related

But it’s my neighbours on Rand Avenue that I want to tell you about.

First, The Bermans:
Norman & Claire Berman lived next door to us, and I was their preferred babysitter for Jonathan, age 3, and Elyce, age 1.

Norman & Claire were a lot younger than my parents.  They were very good looking people, and they were rich.  Norman’s father, Joseph, was one of the founders of the Cadillac Fairview Company.  He didn’t approve when his son Norman bought a small airplane and took flying lessons.  Flying was Norman’s passion.

Around that time I was given my very first camera.  I decided to document the lives of Jonathan & Elyce.  I was only 12, but I was already interested in child development and family dynamics.  Since the Bermans had a very active social life, I had many opportunities to babysit Jonathan & Elyce, and thus began my first documentary.  I took lots of pictures and glued them in a scrapbook, and I wrote ‘commentary’ about each one.  Sometimes I had a chance to take pictures of the children with their parents.   I made notes of my impressions of every member of the family.  I decided to continue documenting their lives for ever.

But that was not to be.  One Sunday morning in 1961, Claire stayed home while Norman took Jonathan and Elyce for a plane ride.  Their plane crashed.  All three were killed instantly.

A Poem About Fish

I don't know how old I was when I wrote this poem, but I know I was very young.  :-)

FISH

I don't like fish

I don't like the way they look

I don't like the way they feel

I don't like the way they taste


So, please leave them in the water
and let them swim

I like the way they swim

They never even come up for air

The Ice Storm of 1961

February 1961 
Montreal was paralyzed by one of the worst ice storms in its history. Wind gusts reaching 130 km/hr at times coupled with 30mm of freezing rain caused heavily loaded utility wires to snap.  A week after the storm, parts of the city were still without electricity.  Damage was estimated at 40 million dollars.

I remember it well.  I was 17 years old and everything had shut right down - schools, businesses, transportation.  The radio, when we could get reception, described the hardship this was causing.   I decided I had to get out there and help.  Against the protestations of my mother, I bundled up in my ski clothes and ventured out.  I walked through the ice storm, carefully dodging fallen trees and electrical wires.  My destination was the civil defence headquarters, three miles away.

What possessed me to do that?  I was a girl, after all; and this was 1961.

I made it.  But, I was very disappointed when they told me I would not be allowed to work with the civil defence team; I hadn’t been trained, they said; I was too young, they said. Go home, they said.

I didn’t want to go home, I wanted to help.

And so, I spent the evening and that whole night making coffee and sandwiches, and serving the exhausted workers as they came in from ‘war’.  In the morning, the storm had calmed and someone drove me home.  

GUESS THEIR AGE

Three words that reveal the age of the storyteller:
So, she says, "_____".
So, she goes, "_____".
So, she’s like, "_____".

People. You Gotta Love Them!

People.  You gotta love them!
Here are some things heard or 'overheard'.

•Rita, who didn’t want her picture taken: “My pictures always end up looking just like me, only more so.”
•By an mother who’s teenage son was giving her ‘attitude’: “Shut up when your talking to me.”
•As the money was dispensed by the ATM machine: “I won, I won!"
•To the server at the drive-through window: “I’d like this ‘to go’.”
•and finally....how’s this for two questions in one sentence: "Can I help who's next?"

Listen and relax!

I'd like to share with you my other favourite sound. 
http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Train_Sound_Effects.aspx

ADVERTISEMENT

I have been collecting vintage children’s clothing for many years.  I’ve now decided to sell some items from my collection.  From time to time, I’ll feature an item on these pages; hopefully some will put a smile on your face.

This one is a boy’s winter jacket and matching hat in the style of Sherlock Holmes.  It is circa 1950. 

Montreal 1956

Montreal 1956


My teacher invited her husband into the classroom.  His company was working on something new and he came in to demonstrate it to us.

He had, what I remember as, a contraption, made up of many electrical wires, with a probe at one end.  He also had several packages of hotdogs.  We watched with amazement as he stuck the probe into one of the hot dogs and within seconds the hot dog was fully cooked.  He repeated this ‘trick’ until each of us was chomping on a delicious hotdog.  I remember being absolutely riveted to this demonstration of what he called microwaves.

A Brief History of the Microwave Oven
The microwave oven was invented as an accidental by-product of war-time (World War 2) radar research using magnetrons (vacuum tubes that produce microwave radiation, a type of electromagnetic radiation that has a wavelength between 1 mm and 30 cm).

In 1946, the engineer Dr. Percy LeBaron Spencer, who worked for the Raytheon Corporation, was working on magnetrons. One day at work, he had a candy bar in his pocket, and found that it had melted. He realized that the microwaves he was working with had caused it to melt. After experimenting, he found that microwaves would cook foods quickly - even faster than conventional ovens that cook with heat.

The Raytheon Corporation produced the first commercial microwave oven in 1954; it was called the 1161 Radarange. It was large, expensive, and had a power of 1600 watts. The first domestic microwave oven was produced in 1967 by Amana (a division of Raytheon), marking the beginning of the use of microwave ovens in home kitchens. Although sales were slow during the first few years, partially due to the oven’s expensive price tag, the concept of quick microwave cooking had arrived. In succeeding years, Litton and a number of other companies joined the countertop microwave oven market. By the end of 1971, the price of countertop units began to drop and their capabilities were expanded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven

Now, here's a mystery!

I think this is a beautiful piece of produce, don’t you?  I was so fascinated by its appearance, I took a picture of it.  Now, a couple of years later, I can’t remember what it was?  (The colour has not been altered).  Can someone identify it for me?  Please. 

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

Happy International Women’s Day!!!


Today I am celebrating the following women:

• Molly - who at 95, wakes up every morning with a smile
• MJG – who makes it all worthwhile
• RD – who really knows how to be a friend
• KL – olympic gold winner for courage, resilience and friendship
• MV – who saved many lives before losing her own
• DM – my amazing life coach
• Malka – the great grandmother after whom I was named

Intoxication: a sobering experience

1967 London, England
While living and working in England I signed up for a Saturday afternoon art class. Knowing full well that I had never shown any aptitude for painting, I nonetheless, decided to try my hand at it.  At my first class – nothing.  I couldn’t think of anything to paint, and the resulting ‘abstract’ was not pleasing to anyone’s eye, including my own. Then an idea occurred to me.  I would ‘score’ some marijuana and smoke-up prior to the next class.  (This was the late sixties, remember.)  I had often heard that dope stirs the creative side of the brain.  Now, I would find out for myself; a noble experiment.

Buying marijuana in a foreign land, where I knew very few people and had just recently arrived, was tricky, but I accomplished it. Saturday afternoon came.  My brushes were cleaned and my paint supplies were packed.  I was excited, eager to see what would unfold in front of me on my brand new canvas.  Safely tucked away in the rented room of my boarding house, I smoked a full joint.  As I smoked, I imagined with considerable pleasure, discovering the great hidden talent within.

Now, I guess you want to know the results of my experiment.

Well, I’m not exactly sure how to explain it.  I got high, felt mellow, sat around for a while, high and mellow.  The art class?  I never did go.  

WWW Dot Calm

Care to listen to one of my favourite sounds in nature?  http://www.soundboard.com/sb/crickets_sounds_audio.aspx

Shingles - an evil that can be avoided

I've been afraid of getting Shingles since the early 90's when I witnessed the suffering it caused a neighbour.  You can imagine how pleased I was to learn that there is now a vaccine available to protect one from ever contracting this awful virus.


I was vaccinated last week - there was no reaction or side effect - and I'm a happy girl.  I highly recommend it.

My First Car

In 1960, Ford Canada introduced the Frontenac in order to give Mercury-Meteor dealers a compact car to sell. Produced for the 1960 model year only, the Frontenac was essentially a 1960 Falcon with its own unique grille, tail lights and external trim including red maple leaf insignias. Despite strong sales (5% of Ford's total Canadian output), the Frontenac was discontinued and replaced by the Mercury Comet for 1961.

I bought mine used, in 1962.  It was my first car and it was very exciting!

Faigel & Mordecai

I'd like you to meet my grandparents, of blessed memory.  Faigel died of the flu, during the epidemic of 1918, when my father was one year old.  Mordecai was killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.