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Recently there was a song running through my mind. I couldn’t place it. So, I delved into youtube to see where the words would lead me. The words that kept repeating in my head were “ Too much monkey business.” I was surprised to find this song was written and performed by Chuck Berry in the fifties. I have never been a particular fan of Chuck Berry’s, but for some reason, this song stuck. I read the words and then had an epiphany. I felt pressure from all sides until I was ready to block all articles, Facebook messages, and ads. Chuck Berry e...
I’m sure everyone remembers parents and grandparents talking about " making do." I have used that expression also. Out of any beef, you might turn to using cans of tuna in a recipe. Sometimes that making do is due to not wanting to make another trip to the store, but it can also be because you can’t afford the beef right now. My mother made a great casserole with cans of mixed vegetables and a biscuit topping. I liked it as a child and didn’t realize she was " making do" till she could afford meat. My maternal grandmother was a wizard stretchin...
It all started with Mary. Since then, the expectation has been that women do everything central to Xmas. The men may bring gifts, I say may, but that’s pretty much it. Oh yes, I hear a man yelling as he sets up the Xmas tree. Well, sometimes you don’t. I know. My experience and a lifetime of hearing other women, older and younger, tell me the Xmas story. The Xmas story is carried on from woman to woman. She is the one to send cards, bake numerous goodies, get in groceries to feed the hungry armies, decorate, buy and wrap gifts, and vol...
If you have watched any of the Hallmark Christmas movies, as I have, you will notice a pattern very quickly. The story begins with a problem, be it a person’s job, boyfriend/girlfriend/ lack of money, etc. The movie then slowly twists and turns until you get the perfect Christmas ending. Good people get rewards and live happily ever after, along with perfect Christmas decorations and gifts. I have read about why we watch. It awakens the hopeful child in all of us that wish for a happy ending in life. The story I am about to tell is like a H...
I am a great believer in equal opportunity when it comes to animals. People have heard that a particular cat is “ just “ a barn cat. So if we follow that line of thinking, people born poor are just “ poor,” so Because of the circumstances they were born into, they shouldn’t expect anything decent. Hogwash!! We have three barn cats working for a living. We have had them for around six years now. Mom ( Clementine) showed up with a large tummy. She was feral for sure, hiding out under our horse trailer for better than a year. We knew she ate f...
So much has been written about mothers and so much misunderstood. So many topics concerning mothers have not become newsworthy. We, as mothers, know this. It’s only been relatively recent that miscarriages have been acknowledged as the traumatic event they are. That grief can continue no matter how short the pregnancy was. Popular sentiment amongst the medical profession was to “get over it; you can always have another.” Despite the fact, of course, that some would never have a viable pregnancy. Even though this pregnancy represented a son o...
A person can immediately think of tons of negatives caused by the pandemic. Some are terrible, and others are just irritating. News articles and general talk amongst people have concentrated on the downside. I know I am a constant complainer because I saw my family in Canada twice in the last two years and have not seen them since September 2021. Right now, the risk in Saskatchewan is very high, and so I sit and chafe at the bit, bemoaning all I am missing. However, on reflection, all has not been lost. They talk about absence making the heart...
In newspaper parlance, the type of article I write usually is called a “ fluff “ piece. It’s not news or information nor does it provide instruction or commendation of others.It’s just for fun or conveys a feeling about something. I personally have always been a fan of fluff pieces. When you are depressed with the news and financial statements or reading about others who seem to be doing so much better than you, you go to a fluff piece. The following is a double fluff piece. I’m all for second chances for people and animals. I always advocate a...
Valentine’s Day is over for another year. For that day, it seems as if everyone is madly in love, with partners, children, and even pets! Special meals are prepared, cards given and received, and candy abounds. How wonderful to love and be loved is undoubtedly the theme of the day. Lord Alfred Tennyson was the person who originally wrote, " Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved." I have always questioned that sentiment. We all know those people who love meagerly, shallowly, and mildly. There will never be any extreme highs...
Editor’s note: Part 3 of 3 First dates published: 1/19 and 2/2 You will think that nearing the end of this terrible journey, I was in the clear of trauma. How wrong you are! We arrived in Regina, driving up to the storage center where I had booked a unit. I had family and friends waiting. This had to be a fast unload as JC had to return the truck to Great Falls, boarding a plane the next morning. Organized mayhem. Another friend, whose name also happens to be Shirley, was there with her family. I will call her the “ good” Shirley as she calls h...
Editor’s Note: Continuing story first ran January 19 page A5. What could possibly go wrong? If you read the previous article, you will probably have guessed many things could go wrong on this arduous trip. Before we could pull out of the driveway, I had hired some men to load the truck. Everything was loaded on except for some bedding. The morning of the leaving, I was racing through the house, making sure everything was packed. Getting birds and the cat into travel containers was especially fun. One parrot( Plato) clung with desperation to the...
I’m sure we all would love to give the Ghost Of Christmas Future a script. We all have an idea of how we want future Christmases to go. Some would hope for a little more money to be able to give their children more gifts at Christmas. Some just hope for enough money that they can enjoy Christmas without worrying about money for rent or groceries. Some, like myself, really hope they can spend Christmas with their family once more. In " A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, Scrooge is not the best of people in Christmas Present. The Ghost of his...
Charles Dickens wrote that the three ghosts of Christmas visited Ebenezer Scrooge. Christmas Past, Present, and Future. I believe that once you get to my age and have had children, you, in fact, have three Christmas pasts added on to your present and future. Let me explain. Your first ghost to visit would be your childhood ghost. What a merry soul that would be, in most cases. A time when magic was possible, no, definite. The belief in Santa is absolute. This magic colors everything you experience around Christmas. I recall the large family...
As I mentioned before in my article, Christmas Pasts, I can’t return to Canada right now due to the virus. My tree and decorations, including my children’s homemade items, are stored in Canada. I remember the elves all my children had to put on the tree. My mother’s ornaments from the ‘40s and earlier and the paper candy cane I laboriously made when I was four usually go on our tree every year. My firstborn has a tattered old felt hobby horse that we always put around the top of the tree. I have none of that this Christmas. Well, that’s...
Every day in the news, we hear of people playing the race card or the gender card. Both cards are deemed to be in the wrong. The consensus is, don’t play the race card or the gender card! Well, I’m going to tell you about a card I have discovered that you can play quite happily and no one will fault you. When living in Arizona, I did not feel old at all. I was certainly not feeling like I thought a senior was supposed to feel. However, it came to my attention that you are considered old in the “snowbird” state if you are 60! Whoa, Nelly, I was...
When I return to Saskatchewan, I enjoy the peace and privacy of my backyard. Most houses in Sintaluta have large backyards with beautiful gardens. Mine is huge, with bushes and large trees surrounding it and a willow plop right in the middle. In nice weather, it’s wonderful to sit out there in the morning, having my breakfast in my PJ’s cocooned by nature. Friends who come to visit enjoy a picnic under my willow tree. It’s like having your own park. The dogs and I go for walks down my street and then down a rural lane. I am a block from farmlan...
Our George of the jungle is an African Grey parrot. He is black, grey, and white with a red tail. African Greys are the largest parrots in Africa. That's where George's ancestors are from, the rain forests of Central Africa. George, however, is not 'wild-caught' but was hatched in North America. Unfortunately, some criminals try to catch and smuggle parrots. When I moved George from Canada to the US, I had to go through a long process (four months) to bring him across the border legally. People...
If you have never been to an Omoxsee, you are missing something fun!! August 30 is the last meet for the season, but read this article, and you will be raring to attend next year. O-Mok-See comes from the Blackfeet word meaning "riding big dance." At the time, it was basically connected with war when horses would be painted, and all the warriors would race into the camp riding a prescribed pattern. Today, it's a time for people of all ages to gather and compete in different events. You see three...
A meeting of the Big Sandy’s Town Council was held on the evening of August 13. They were juggling many topics and concerns for the town of Big Sandy. An added facet of conducting a meeting occurred when there was a need to do a Zoom conference due to three people unable to attend in person. After a few tweaks of the system, they were up and running, with everyone participating in discussion and votes. There was no Deputy Sheriff’s report. All is quiet on the home front at this time. However, Dennis Hale was applauded for dispatching a rat...
By Anne Denning “The sunshine gleams so bright and warm, The sky is blue and clear. I run outdoors without a coat, and spring is almost here. Then before I knew it, Small clouds have blown together, Till the sun just can’t get through them, And again, its mitten weather!!!” This could have been written for Big Sandy this year. Our meeting was cancelled earlier this month due to bad roads and one month was skipped for the same reason. We are prepared for yet another storm in another day and then we have high hopes for spring to actually find...
“Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My piles of books are a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.” ( “ Books to the Ceiling”) by Arnold Lobel. Due to the fact that at this time the book club is all women, I changed the last part to “We’ll live on Mars by the time I read them.” This pretty much sums up the life of book club members from what I have gleaned through our discussions. We met January 9 at the library and had a two pronged discussion. We first discussed some books we had re...
“Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat etc” is the US Postal Service Creed. They vow to deliver despite the weather. Not so Big Sandy Book Club. We caved last Tuesday. We were to have met October 3 in Havre. As everyone knows we got that terrible snowstorm. Not only were we snowed in but our hostess was without power. However, last night, October 10 , we gathered in Havre’s old post office building for our meeting. Megan, Barb and Helen were our hostesses and as usual they did an amazing job! Our long meeting table was decorated with garlands of lea...
April showers bring May flowers, but we had a lovely April meeting with no showers. In fact, one of our members took advantage of the beautiful evening and walked home barefoot! It was my turn to present a choice of book for the April meeting. I picked “Lost Lake”, by Sarah Addison Allen. “Lost Lake” to me, was a whimsical book on one hand and on the other, it had some deep thoughts and complicated situations. After reading it the second time, I became more aware of the layers of meaning to be discovered in this seemingly simplistic book. W...
What do people from Montana, North Dakota, Canada, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota and Rhode Island have in common???They are all members of Big Sandy’s Book Club! We have a core membership of ladies from Big Sandy but have an amazing diversity in other member’s origins. We are so lucky to have the opportunity of multifaceted discussions and perspectives derived from our many different backgrounds and experiences. We met February 7 in the new library. The new building was inspected and praised by everyone attending. Of special note is the fact we no...
These are all words which describe Big Sandy Book Club’s May third meeting. Two of our members , Megan Gannon and Barb Slonaker, live in Havre and travel to Big Sandy for our monthly meetings. Megan and Barb chose to be hostesses for our May meeting, with Megan our discussion leader. Intriguing is just one descriptive word for the tours Megan gave us on the 3rd. Megan’s family has purchased Havre’s old post office building and also the Masonic Temple building. Our meeting was held in the Masonic building. We were greeted by Megan’s grandso...
