Tuesday, November 8, 2011

A Poppy Is to Remember ~Heather Patterson & Ron Lightburn

North Winds Press, 2004, A Division of Scholastic Canada Ltd.

Monday, November 7, 2011

"War and Remembrance" A Special exhibit commemorating Haldimand's military history from the War of 1812 through WWII.

Join Haldimand County Museum & Archives for a week of talks on Haldimand's military past.

Mon., November 7 ~ War of 1812, 1 pm
Tues., November 8 ~ Fenian Raids, 1 pm
Wed., November 9 ~ 114th Battalion, 7 pm
Thur., November 10 ~ WWII, 1 pm

Haldimand County Museum is located in the park beside the County Court House on Munsee St. (Hwy #54) For more information please contact the museum at 905-772-5880.
"Lest We Forget" ~

Veteran R. Clark MacDonald was born and raised in Cayuga, Ontario. He left his job as butcher at Harold Reece's grocery store to join the Royal Canadian Air Force in April, 1941 as a radar technician. He was shipped to numerous locations by various means of transportation, enduring conditions and risks that many of us would consider extremely uncomfortable. In India he was shocked to witness the poverty; in Ceylon he was isolated from any news from home.
"I was then posted back to Bombay to a place called Juha Beach and assigned to a Combined Operations Unit. This consisted of army, naval and air force personnel. There was intensive training with various small arms including submachine guns, anti tank rifles, mortars and anti tank grenades."

In central India, he removed radar equipment and FFI equipment from Liberator bombers in temperatures reaching 150 degrees Fahrenheit inside the planes ~ 120 Fahrenheit at night.
MacDonald welcomed VE Day*, May 8 1945, while in England on a two week leave. Back in Cayuga in July 1945, after four and a half years in the RCAF, he married Ruby Hedley and traveled Haldimand County lecturing and moderating discussions with the National Film Board and the Federation of Agriculture.
Clark MacDonald's brother-in-law, Lloyd Hedley, a Spitfire pilot, was shot down and killed over Verden, Germany, on an air reconnaissance mission on April 26, 1945. He is buried in Soltau, Germany.
* Victory in Europe Day
~ Soldiers' Stories, 2009 Local Author, Kirk Du Guid

Sunday, November 6, 2011



The Winner of Saturday's Draw is ~ Barbara Nelson. Thank you Barbara and everyone who visited The Neat Little Bookshop booth at the Trade Show. Thank you to the Cayuga and District Chamber of Commerce for organizing another successful event.

A copy of Kirk Du Guid's Soldiers' Stories will be going out to Barbara
Soldiers' Stories ~

For the next few days we will be posting exerpts from Soldiers' Stories* by Kirk Du Guid. Du Guid interviewed over twenty-five veterans in our area. He dedicated his book to "Those Who Served in Times of War and Peace."

A veteran himself, Du Guid states, "There is something I do each Remembrance Week. When I meet veterans, I walk up to them and shake their hand and thank them for their service. The reality is that, just by putting that uniform on, someday during their service they might have been asked to make the ultimate sacrifice. 'Lest we forget, lest we forget!' "
*Soldiers' Stories, 2009. Kirk Du Guid. Printed & Bound by First Choice Books
Available at The Neat Little Bookshop

Veteran Arthur Simmons was born in 1920 in Collingwood, Ontario. It was in June of 1940 that Art began basic infantry training at Camp Borden, Ontario. After completing a sniper's course, he was made range artificer with the Grey & Simcoes. The regiment was selected to parade through communities stimulating recruiting in the regiment.
When the regiment was switched from infantry to armour, it was renamed the 21st Armoured Regiment. Art was in the 4th Division; his brother, Howard, in the 1st. in an infantry regiment ~ the 48th Highlanders from Toronto. Art embarked for Great Britain in June, 1943 after working as Lance Corporal on tanks. For the duration of the war, he served throughout France, Belgium, Holland and Germany working on all kinds of tanks, getting them back into action ~ making the rank of Sergeant. Brother Howard was shot and killed when his platoon was attacking up a hill in Sicily.
After the war, Art returned to his past time of repairing watches and clocks. He now resides in Cayuga, Ontario and often visits The Neat Little Bookshop. We shake your hand, Art, and as Kirk would say, "Thank you for your service."

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Thought for Today ~

"Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds."
~ George Eliot
George Eliot is the pen name for Mary Anne Evans, English author (Silas Marner & The Mill on The Floss)
b. Nov.22, 1819, d. Dec. 22 1880

Note: Mary Anne used a man's pen name to ensure that her work be taken seriously during Victorian times.

Photo: Wikipedia

Friday, November 4, 2011

Random Acts of Kindness ~

Today is Random Act of Kindness Day. It is not an official holiday, simply a holiday evolving out of a modern world that sometimes seems to offer little kindness.

A tiny book by the editors of Conari Press offers some 150 pages of things that we can do for no reason at all, other than an act of kindness.

"Is not one of the great gifts of any act of kindness that it 'brings us back,' that it makes us feel that we have somehow returned to a place, to a feeling, that is somehow permanent, deeply rooted, and unchanging. . . Kindness is at the heart of our belief that people are basically good."

Perhaps today, one small act of kindness can make a difference in someones' day!

~ Random Acts of Kindness, Conari Press, 1999.