Meota is busy as usual, the latest action being the fish shacks coming off the lake by Monday. No reports as to how the fishing has been, but we hope they all had fun out there. As cold as the weather has been you surely would be more comfortable in a little shack, even a camper out there, so should have been comfy!
Duplicate bridge winners last Tuesday were Mary Greenwald and Cletus Scherman with second by Glen Moore and Julie Moore.
Linda Ard attended a board meeting of the executive of SSAI in Saskatoon last week getting organized for the convention program this summer. This is being held in the Heritage Hotel June 3, 4 and 5.
The new 85-cent stamps are out and they are permanent (with the "P" in the corner) so will still be usable after the price goes up next time. The new stamps depict five of the World Heritage Sites in Canada. These are Gros Morne National park, in Newfoundland, the largest in Atlantic Canada; then the Joggins Fossil Cliffs in the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia - as tides erode the stone 300 million year old fossils are found; The Canadian Rocky Mountain parks including Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho as well as three provincial parks; In the North West Territories, 500 kilometres west of Yellowknife, is Nahanni Park; the fifth picture is of Parc National de Miguasha in Quebec where 380-year-old fossils of plants and fish are found.
Just when we thought spring had sprung it turned cold again, but we'll get there eventually. There is still plenty of ice around that a couple warm days will take care of, the sooner the better.
At the Do Drop In on March 28 we had two tables of Kaiser in the afternoon with top scores by Bernice Tait, Ken Tucker and Beulah Corbiel. That evening found three tables of canasta players having their usual good time. Top score went to Murray McCrimmon and Robert Iverson, second to Shirley Tebay and Bev McCrimmon and lastly third to Barbara Soloninko and Lorna Pearson. It was a nice social time with tasty goodies and coffee after.
The time cut at the library should have read "cut by one hour per week." Sorry I wasn't clear about that.
I wonder how many of our snowbirds were in the California area when the earthquake and aftershocks occurred. If the locals were terrified, I imagine visitors were just anxious to get moving on.
The next shuffleboard tournament is set for April 26, so mark your calendar now. This event is always a lot of fun, with a potluck luncheon.
Contract bridge winners March 31 were Joyce Antoine and Mary Greenwald.
The community luncheon usually held on Fridays is being held Thursday, April 17, the day before Good Friday. This is sponsored by the hall committee to raise funds to help with the upkeep of the building.
My son Gordon and his wife Shelley are in Vancouver from northern British Columbia for medical reasons. She is in hospital and he's in a hotel. He has seen more than one rat on the streets, and figures there must be lots of them, as well as lots of homeless people. In the four-bed hospital room with Shelley are one homeless man, one junkie who has had surgeries from infection in his legs from using dirty needles (lucky he didn't have to have them amputated) and a girl who was needing a downer. My daughter in Alberta who has spent much time in Calgary hospitals said they're boring compared to Vancouver's.
Two couples, who have been life-long friends, both celebrated their 53rd anniversaries last week with a trip to the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa Resort, in Moose Jaw. Shirley and Lawrie Ward of Meota were joined by Daryl and Gladys Grant from Turtle Lake, and enjoyed a lovely informative holiday there and stayed in the Temple Gardens. They did lots of walking and passed several antique shops, but toured around the city on foot.
The tunnels were the major attraction and the way they have developed them and now show them off to tourists, is amazing. Tour guides, dressed in period costumes, explained the whole tunnel tour. First they went through the one called "The Chicago Connection," which was the area where the famous bootlegger, Al Capone hid out from the law before they caught him because of a tax-evasion charge and he spent eight years in jail.
The second tunnel was called "'The Passage to Fortune" where the Chinese immigrants worked in deplorable conditions, in darkened tunnels under the streets, for 35 cents a day. Half of this amount was taken for their room and board. The beds were narrow little cots and three people slept in one bed. They did the laundry for the hotel working with hot water and lye soap using washboards and irons (with iron handles) heated on wood stoves and ended up with burned hands.
Not two blocks away was the Grant Hall, a beautiful posh hotel with dining room, bar, lounge and grand old antique furnishings complete with gorgeous chandeliers. This big six-storey building was built in 1927, and for 10 years has been undergoing renovations, turning the upper four floors into retirement living quarters for seniors.
They dined in various restaurants including the finest ones. One was the Yvette Moore Gallery, a tea house in an elegant old refurbished building. After using 33 gallons of paint remover on the old painted fixtures and doors and window casings, they found a lot of doors and window trim was done in copper. Even the ceiling was covered in a pretty patterned metal of some kind.