Friday, October 31, 2014

Early radio

When I was growing up in Sackville, NB, we only got a few AM radio stations.  There was a station in the nearby town of Amherst and a CBC station in the city of Moncton. (FM radio was something we heard about.) In the morning we'd listen to The World at Eight on the CBC.  In later years I'd listen to The World at Six more.

I recall a phone-in talk show on the Amherst station.  There was a woman who often called in with a rather strident voice, who often said, "That is what I was born and brought up to do!" People made fun of her a lot.  Also, a guy from the local supermarket would call in and say what their current specials were.  Looking back, I wonder if they got into trouble with the CRTC, considering how they were blurring the line between programming and advertising.  You could phone the station to request music for them to play, and when I was sixteen I successfully requested Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good."

My hometown was surrounded by flat marshland, and the Canadian Northern Service had several radio towers transferring shortwave signals long distances.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Fruit trees

Back when I lived in Sackville, N.B., we planted several apple trees in our back yard. (One of them was the Lodi variety, I recall.) One spring, my brother decided to prune these trees, but he did a terrible job, removing all their new growth.  One of the trees never quite recovered, and died a few years later.  One problem with pruning is that when you cut off the wrong thing, you can't go back and uncut it.

Since then I've learned to prune trees pretty well.  You want to remove the branches that are growing inward or downward, and leave alone the ones that are growing upward or outward.  Also, if two trees are close you should trim them so they won't get into each other's space.

We now live in a house on Greensides Avenue near St. Clair West.  It came with a big cherry tree and a big plum tree in the back yard.  There was also a crab apple tree in the front that was about my height when we bought the place, but in the twenty years since then it's grown really big.  Also, the cherry tree produced a couple of offshoots which I replanted in the front and side yards, and have also grown big.  The land had an orchard a century ago, and we're continuing the tradition.

One year--I think it was 2000--the cherry tree in back produced cherries literally by the bucketful.  But now it's getting old.  We recently took off a big dead limb and I don't know how long the rest will survive. (The plum tree is getting old too.) 

One thing I like is blossom season in the spring.  The cherry trees have nice white blossoms, while the crab apple blossoms are purplish.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Candy


When I was little I recall that a box of chocolates would have greater variety than today.  My favourite is nougats, though some people consider them boring.  I've never liked caramels.  I like strawberry creams and coffee creams and such.  I also like Ferrero Rocher bonbons.

I've never understood the appeal of candy corn or kisses, nor of that British delicacy the caramel-coated apple, which has always struck me as gilding the lily.

When I was little, I loved Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  The original movie version with Gene Wilder I liked, though the Oompa-Loompa songs were too preachy. (I've sung "Candy Man" at karaoke.) The recent remake I haven't bothered to see, though Johnny Depp is an actor I often like.

That Forrest Gump line about life being a box of chocolates actually stands the book version on its head!  Winston Groom's novel begins with the sentence, "Bein' an idiot ain't no box of chocolates." If they couldn't be faithful to that line, you'd think they'd have left it out!

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Baking bread

When I was fourteen my sister and I got interested in baking bread. It happened when we bought a copy of Betty Crocker's Cookbook, which had a whole chapter of bread recipes.  We made stuff like pumpernickel rye bread and raisin bread and corn bread.

I got interested in baking again in my mid-30s after we bought a bread machine.  I have a cyclical system to ensure variety, since baking can get boring sooner than you expect.  I try to bake once a week, with a cycle of twelve loaves.  The first, fifth and ninth are whole bread (which has the nicest smell while it's baking); the third, seventh and eleventh are multigrain bread; the second and eighth are raisin bread (my sister's favourite); the sixth and twelfth are rye bread (actually a combination of rye flour with white and whole wheat); the tenth is cheese bread; and the fourth is plain white bread.  I like to use honey and molasses to make whole wheat, multigrain and rye.  It's a challenge balancing the amount of flour with the amount of water so the loaf will be big, but not big enough to crowd the skylight on top of the mini-oven. (More flour makes it smaller, more water makes it bigger.)

Friday, October 17, 2014

Buffet restaurants

I think my favourite part of buffet restaurants is the salad bar. (I remember that back in the 1970s the first restaurant I went to with a salad bar was Ponderosa Steak House.) I always like to get some lettuce with chickpeas, purple cabbage, shredded carrots, corn and a deviled egg if they have them.  And my only dressing is Thousand Islands.

I sometimes go to east Indian buffets, but my main buffet restaurant is Chinese food at the Mandarin.  Of course, it's a challenge not to overeat.  I sometimes ask for chopsticks, which I know how to use. When you're finished there and they're processing your bill, they give you a hot towel and a fortune cookie.  Have you ever noticed that you never get a fortune cookie saying "You have an attitude," or "You will break your ankle"?

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Early TV

When I was little we got just one TV channel. It was a Moncton station whose logo was a lobster. (We'd also spent a year in Britain, and I remember seeing Rolf Harris on TV, along with Tintin and Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men.) 

Then, when I was seven, we got a CBC channel.  Or rather, we got a CBC affiliate from Saint John that didn't always carry the regular network's shows, much to our annoyance. (I think the station, like half of New Brunswick, was owned by the Irvings.) We also got two channels with a poor-quality signal: a Radio-Canada station--the French CBC--in Moncton, and a full-fledged CBC station in P.E.I.

We got a wider range of channels for a year when we lived in Mississauga in the mid-'70s, and got cable TV.  Then we returned to New Brunswick and went back to two full channels and two weak ones for another three years until cable TV came to our town. Even then, it was another five years before we got PBS!

All this we were seeing on a black and white Silvertone TV set.  I remember seeing the butterfly at the start of CBC colour broadcasts, which we couldn't appreciate on our TV.  We only got a colour set in the '80s!  But I'm just as happy with that:  you hear about young people who've seen nothing but color shows all their life, and are uncomfortable watching classic black and white movies as a result.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Fireworks

When I was little and saw firework displays, there was one type I couldn't stand.  It's these missiles that go off with an especially intense explosion, producing a really bright light and a really loud noise.  I didn't mind the light, but couldn't stand the noise!  So I'd take to plugging my ears whenever they set off a new one, just in case it was another one with the intense noise.  My enjoyment was compromised.

Loud noises have always bothered me.  Even today, a loud noise in the street sometimes literally makes me jump.  Balloons make me uncomfortable because I'm afraid they'll burst loudly.  I don't know how people at rock concerts can bear the loud noise. (I read that a Ted Nugent concert in Kansas City prompted noise complaints from farmers twenty miles away!  They say he's deaf in one ear.) I guess young people want to be overwhelmed by something.)