Alan Pickersgill: A Page From My Life
I belong to Local 1524 of The Canadian Auto Workers in Kitchener, where I was plant chairperson of the MTD unit for 12 years. I also served as recording secretary, and then president, of the Waterloo Regional Labour Council for most of those years. Until the end of 2001, I was employed at the Workers Health and Safety Centre in Toronto as Director of Training Services for their Central Ontario Region. Before that, I was a Communications Officer, responsible for writing magazine and newsletter articles, annual reports and the like. On January 01 2002 I started a new life of self-employment. I now operate Webspert & Writer Communications. I do some web design work, some Macromedia Flash things, copy editing and writing, consulting and just about anything else except window washing and shovelling driveways.
On Monday evenings, I play darts in a local pub league called, rather ambitiously, Guelph's Best Darts. It's a fun league, where most people don't take themselves too seriously. They do play to win, though, as they should. To keep track of how the league is doing, go to Pat Martin's web site. Pat keeps all the league facts and figures, and has a ton of arcane dart information and many good darts links. To get the latest news about our team, take a look at the Shakespeare Arms 1 team page. Just for the record, our final numbers from 2000-2001 are still here, and also for 2001-2002, our most successful season yet.. On October 18, 1999, I threw my first 180 in competition.
I play a lot of Scrabble. My cyber-Scrabble experiences began on Hillside BBS, operated in Guelph by Dave Pletsch. Sadly, Hillside fell victim to the internet juggernaut. Like many community electronic bulletin board services, Hillside's membership tumbled when full-service internet providers began opening shop all over the landscape. Dave pulled the plug on August 31, 1996, after 12 years of operation. It was a great little board while it lasted. Most of my Scrabble these days is on e-mail. The best place to play e-mail Scrabble these days is at the Pixiepit site hosted in the UK. There are always lots of games on the go, and you can always find a willing opponent if you don't already have on in mind. The host of this site, a chap named Michael, is surprisingly easy to get hold of, considering the volume of traffic flowing through his site. I also play live games with the "Hillside Scrabble Society," and went to the Scrabble With the Stars fundraising tournament in Toronto when it was an annual event. I used to go to meetings of the Toronto Scrabble Club with Andy Schoenhofer. Great lists of words, including the new ones added to the third edition of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary can be found at the San José Scrabble Club #21.
If you like the blues, as I do, you should look in on The Saturday Night Blues home page. It tells all you want to know about this great CBC radio program, and has all the Blues links you need. Getting lost in here for a while will give you the best education on this subject you'll find anywhere. Or at least, the best education you can get without having to put some effort into it. This will link you to Downchild Blues Band, probably the best to come out of Canada. Our family went to Tennessee in the summer of 1997, and got as far as Memphis. The following summer, we stopped there again on the way home from New Orleans. Graceland is a tad on the gaudy side. I suppose everyone should go there once, but no one with any pride would do it twice. The National Civil Rights Museum is a better place to spend your time and tourist dollars. It is in the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. Beale St. is a real treat, with blues bars standing almost shoulder to shoulder up and down both sides of the street. There are great bands everywhere. To get a flavour of the place, check out who's playing in Memphis now. In April, some friends and I head down to Charleston SC for a week of golfing. Lots of people go to Myrtle Beach. They can have it. Charleston is a much better city to wander around in. After all, counting beer time, you're only at the golf course for about six hours a day. A trip to Charleston isn't complete without spending some quality time at Momma's Blues Palace on John St. You'll find good music and good people.
From time to time, I get out for a game of golf and usually get far more strokes for my money than does the average golfer. On August 14, 1998, I shot a hole in one on the 11th hole at Rockway Golf Club in Kitchener. A nine iron, straight at the pin 115 yards away. A bounce, a bit of a roll, and into the cup. There were even reliable witnesses who saw it happen. I never hit that ball again. Every year, four of us go down to South Carolina to play golf, booking our courses and everything through Charleston Golf Vacations. Jack Clifford does a good job of making the arrangements. Golf Digest magazine is available on-line, with loads of golf links. Speaking of golf, you should read Golf in the Kingdom, a classic golf novel by Michael Murphy. The Esalen Foundation in California, founded by Murphy, set up the Shivas Irons Society in honour of the extraordinary Scottish mystic pro at the Burningbush Golf Course. Then Murphy wrote The Kingdom of Shivas Irons. It's not nearly as good as the first, but isn't that usually the way with sequels?
I have found that if I spend a few hours sitting on my back deck, people think I'm lazy. If I spend a few hours sitting on a lake, people think I'm fishing. So I try to spend one week every summer, and Thanksgiving weekend, in a small boat with a rod in my hand and a worm in the water. There is something magic about being out on a lake early in the morning. A light mist covers the surface until the sun rises enough to burn it off. The only sound is of fish jumping, always far enough from the boat to escape my lures. Often, you can watch a blue heron patiently standing for hours on shore, not moving. Then it majestically flies, swoops, and carries away a fish that I can only dream of catching. But I do catch some. Mostly pickerel, perch, bass and small sunfish. I have seen people take good sized muskies from the water, to be measured, photographed, and then set free again. I still have this to look forward to. One day, some day.
In May of 1999, I joined the ranks of the world's mortgage holders. We finally bought our own home after living in Windfield housing co-operative for 14 years It was a good place to live, but the family needed more space for ourselves. Windfield was rated as one of the top five housing co-ops in Canada at the 1996 Co-operative Housing Federation (CHF) Annual General Meeting in Calgary. Two years later, at the London AGM, Windfield made it to the top of the heap. We were given the award for being the best run housing co-op in the country. As part of the co-operative movement, Windfield belongs to the International Co-operative Alliance, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and supports the seven co-operative principles. A housing co-op, often referred to as an "intentional community" is a wonderful opportunity for families to live and work together without the burden of either a private mortgage or an absentee landlord. It is a mixed income community where people interact as equals regardless of the state of their bank accounts. Some are provided a housing charge subsidy while others pay the full amount each month. It is a rewarding living arrangement from many perspectives. Find out more about Windfield Co-operative Homes.
Several hallmarks of this great country are under threat as the federal Liberal government cuts funding to public institutions. By the time they get rid of the deficit - as if that is really what they're after - they will also have gotten rid of the things that make us Canadian. One of these institutions, the CBC, will be almost unrecognizable by the time the slashing is over. They maintain an excellent web site, with live Real Audio broadcasting of their programs. Check it out while it's still there. And while you are at it, take a look at the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. You'll find some very useful commentary on the wide range of issues affecting radio and television in Canada. Everything from the specialty cable television channels to the appointment of Isabel Bassett as Chair of TVOntario, When she was Minister of Culture, she wanted to privatize TVO. Keep your eyes on this one.
You should check out Web Networks. It offers "a unique collection of electronic resources to help you make a difference. As an Internet-based service, Web Networks offers high quality information, user-friendly tools and personal support to help you build strong communication links within communities across Canada." Here, you can find links to many labour, women's, environmental and pacifist organizations.
Some other handy links are:
And you can impress the bejeebers out of friends and teachers by always finding an appropriate quote from: |