November 15, 2009:
Another sunny day, cool during the night but warming
up to above zero in the daytime. The forecast calls for more sunny, warm
weather. I hear of more farmers finally getting their crops off; though
the grains are pretty wet, at least they're off the fields.
We were at Market Mall on Remembrance Day; I had
coffee at Mulberry's and Doreen and Lucille went shopping at Safeway. It
was about the only store open, besides the food court. After coffee, I
walked towards Safeway to meet the girls. When I was about a hundred yards
away from Safeway, I thought I could hear a trumpet playing; as I got
closer, I realized it was playing the Last Post. I froze, and several
other people came along and froze as soon as they realized what was
happening. We stood there with our heads down for Last Post, two minutes
of silence, then a few bars of Amazing Grace. For some reason, I found it
an incredibly moving moment.
I carried on to Safeway and found that was where the
music came from - the son of the meat manager has been doing this for
several years. He is a music student. At eleven AM, the store manager went
on the Public Address and announced that Last Post would be played. Doreen
and Lucille said that as soon as it started, everyone in the store stopped
whatever they were doing and stood with their heads bowed until it was
finished. They found it very moving, too. I found the store manager and
told him how impressed I was with the initiative; I also asked the meat
manager to pass along my respects to his son. Later that day was our
second experience with Persephone Theater. Rita, our taxi driver, picked
us up right at five thirty; we picked up two more
ladies, then went to Parktown Hotel for dinner. After an excellent dinner,
we were taxied to Persephone Theater.
The play was "Thunderstick", much
publicized and starring Lorne Cardinal and Craig Lauzon. They were the
only actors, and they also did their own scene changes, dancing around
moving backdrops with the lights dimmed. Almost as much fun to watch as
the play. There was a language warning, and there really was some
rough language, but the play was so funny, and the acting so superb, that
we overlooked the cussing. It seemed to fit, too. What a wonderful
evening! Lorne and Craig apparently swap roles some evenings; I would love
to see it again with the roles reversed. They are two fantastic actors.
On Friday evening, we and seven of our friends from
Sunseekers went to Langham for their annual Dinner Theater. Hella
McDonald, from Archerwill, and her five daughters were catering, as usual,
and as usual, the meal was fantastic. Hella's twin sister, Sela Balzer,
pretty much runs the Dinner Theater. We had a chance to visit briefly with
both of them. Hella is interested in birds, and is appalled that we
rarely see any. I was able to tell her about a red-breasted nuthatch that
has been hanging around our trees.
The stage production, Ethan Claymore, kept us in
stitches. It was about a widower, an egg farmer, who had been mourning the
loss of his wife for five years. His neighbor, a rotund lady with a
penchant for rum and meddling, insists it's time he came out of his shell
and started living again, so she sets him up with a new school teacher.
Ethan's brother's ghost comes along and stirs up the pot; they hadn't
spoken for fifteen years or more, so Ethan wasn't overly perturbed when he
got word of his brother's death. A hoot from start to finish.