THREE DAYS IN JUNE
On June 9, 1947, I was invited by a couple whose children I used to babysit to attend a dance being held in Polwarth, Sask. about 11 miles from my hometown of Debden. I had to ride in the back of an open truck to get there, since the truck's cab was full.
The dance hall had benches all around the sides, and a stove made out of an empty gas barrel at the stage end of the room. I was with a group of girls when, all of a sudden, a young man came up to me for a dance. I could see he had had too much to drink, and he began chasing me around the stove. Lo and behold, I was rescued by Terry Receveur. He led me out onto the dance floor, where we danced with the flow and had a very pleasant evening. As time went on, we attended more dances, and Terry decided he needed a car. He visited his cousin Glen, who dealt with cars in Prince Albert, Sask. Since money was not to be had, the best Terry could do in terms of payment for the 1930 Chev Coupe being offered was to give Glen a cow he had been raising and his bicycle. After the rather unique purchase, that little car showed up in front of my family's home many times. We always enjoyed having my younger brothers, Clem and George, ride in the rumble seat and my sister Annette up front with us.
On June 9, 1948, one year to the day of my "rescue" by Terry, he placed an engagement ring on my finger!
On June 9, 1949, we married! Our honeymoon was a few days spent at Lake Waskesiu, in a shack tent belonging to friends. While there, on a whim, we decided to paint the car. We bought one can of dark blue and another of black and mixed the two colours together. Each armed with our own brush, we proceeded to paint that poor old car. It had been full of scratches and pockmarks but, oh, how we changed its looks - it looked doggone good to me! My first driving lesson went well, but what a time I had with the gears!
After a few years together, we realized our farm needed a truck more than we needed the coupe, and that was the last we saw of our buggy. Now, we wish we had another one. We've been to car shows, but no luck finding a "new" vintage car just yet.
Yvette Receveur, Parksville, B.C.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Three Days In June - by Yvette Recevuer
My mother's sister-in-law, Yvetter Recevuer, wrote the following in the February/March 2013 edition of "Our Canada":
Thursday, February 14, 2013
55 Words Or Less
A short story (to paraphrase Stephen King) is like a kiss in the dark: short, sweet, and if it doesn't work out, you can move on without regret.
"World's Shortest Stories" is like that, Its 55-word short stories lets you try, linger if you enjoy, otherwise move on. In the end, you have a better idea why one story works for you and another doesn't.
Working within a 55-word limit can impose an economy of style that serves the reader well. This applies to blogging as well as to fiction; today's readers have a heck of a lot to read, and wasting their time is bad. In addition, writing can easily fail where the author feels the need to hit a certain minimum before publishing; I know that I don't write as often as I might because I'm too busy twittering, or facebooking, or otherwise putting down short thoughts that don't rise to the imagined minimum required for a blog post.
So the heck with minimum length. If 55 well-chosen words suffice for a short story, why not for a blog post? Let's see if I can write 55 good words a day!
"World's Shortest Stories" is like that, Its 55-word short stories lets you try, linger if you enjoy, otherwise move on. In the end, you have a better idea why one story works for you and another doesn't.
Working within a 55-word limit can impose an economy of style that serves the reader well. This applies to blogging as well as to fiction; today's readers have a heck of a lot to read, and wasting their time is bad. In addition, writing can easily fail where the author feels the need to hit a certain minimum before publishing; I know that I don't write as often as I might because I'm too busy twittering, or facebooking, or otherwise putting down short thoughts that don't rise to the imagined minimum required for a blog post.
So the heck with minimum length. If 55 well-chosen words suffice for a short story, why not for a blog post? Let's see if I can write 55 good words a day!
Monday, February 11, 2013
4freeCLE: The Free CLE Newsletter! February 10, 2013
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Sunday, February 10, 2013
Bus Stop At VA Hospital Has No Shelter
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| Bus Stop At Seattle VA Hospital Lacks Any Rain Shelter |
Who's in charge of bus shelters anyway?
You'll notice that there is a shelter nearby; it's for the valet service, which is an important feature of the place. Disabled veterans who can drive to the place can drop off their cars at the front door and the valet will park for them. This is IMPORTANT because the parking lot is very big and often full; it would be crazy to require veterans with limited mobility to get from the outer edges to the building on their own ... possibly missing ... feet.
If you're going to have a valet service, you need a shelter for the valets. That's just logic; it's rainy here in Seattle, and workers need to be treated well.
But a shelter for veterans waiting for the bus is important too. Who do we see about that?
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