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Today marks the 72nd anniversary of the publication of a classic. It was on this day, June 30th, that Gone With The Wind was first published. It’s interesting to note that it is one of the most-read stories of all time. These statistics might be somewhat dated, but they give you an idea of how popular the book is. There are well over 28 million copies of the book in print in at least 27 languages and in 37 countries. Margaret Mitchell wrote the story and it reads almost like poetry. I give a few examples in tonight’s radio program. It is one of my favorite novels. If you have only ever seen the film, then you owe it to yourself to find a copy of the original novel and spend a few hours on a warm summer afternoon getting immersed in one of the great romantic stories of all time.

I ran across some interesting trivia concerning the story. For example, did you know that the original title for the book was the title of tonight’s blog, “Tomorrow Is Another Day?” I’m glad the author decided on Gone With The Wind.” And Scarlett was not Mitchell’s original choice for the name of her heroine. She liked the name “Pansy O’Hara.” I’m really glad she also had second thoughts about the name of the plantation. We know it as “Tara,” but the author was toying with the idea of naming it “Fontenoy Hall.” I would imagine that if she had stayed with her original name for the magnificent plantation, a lot of women would not now be named “Tara.”

This information is from the book, Hollywood Trivia by David P. Strauss and Fred L. Worth and published in 1981 by Warner Books. Here are a few more interesting items of trivia from the book…

“The burning of Atlanta, Georgia, the first scene filmed in Gone With The Wind, employed the old RKO King Kong set for the impressive sequence.

“Elizabeth Taylor might have played the child, Bonnie Blue, in Gone With The Wind at age seven,  but her father said she was too young to appear in films. The part went to Cammie King.

“The trees shown in front of the plantation Tara … were made of plaster. Real leaves had to be attached to the phony trees. There were 1,250,000 props used in the movie.

“The horse that Gerald O’Hara (Thomas Mitchell) rode in Gone With The Wind was the Silver of Lone Ranger serial fame.

“Rhett Butler’s famous closing line was actually filmed two ways. ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t care’ was not used.

“On the day that Gone With The Wind premiered in Atlanta, Georgia (December 15, 1939) the state’s governor declared the day an official state holiday.”

Some interesting trivia concerning an American classic. We pay tribute to “Gone With The Wind” in our second hour tonight. I hope it will bring back many fond, romantic memories of the first time you saw the film.

Tomorrow is Canada Day. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy Canada Day! I hope you will be careful with any fireworks you plan to set off tomorrow. We don’t need to recreate the burning of Atlanta here in Canada.  

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Don Jackson

“Time present and tme past / Are both perhaps present in time future, / And time future contained in time past.”–T. S. Eliot from Four Quartets. Burnt Norton, published in 1935.

There used to be a sci-fi series on TV called Time Tunnel. Every week we got a chance to travel back in time for one reason or another. The science may have been suspect, but I enjoyed where their travels took me. The Twilight Zone also dealt with the subject in a few classic episodes.

H. G. Wells wrote a classic story called The Time Machine. This is a review from Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature. “The novel is considered one of the earliest works of science fiction and the progenitor of the ‘time travel’ subgenre.”

“Wells advanced his social and political ideas in this narrative of a nameless Time Traveller who is hurled into the year 802,701 by his elaborate ivory, crystal, and brass contraption.” It was a marvelous machine, even though we never truly understood its clockwork mechanism.

The idea of ‘time-shift” in literature is a narrative method that shifts the storyline back and forth from the past to the present. It’s one of the easiest ways for us to travel back in time.

Time travel has always been a popular theme in science fiction and the movies: Back To The Future, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Dr. Who, Highlander 2: The Quickening, Peggy Sue Got Married, The Terminator, and so many others.

Time travel has always been a popular theme, and some of the science is actually being considered and talked about openly by physicists who once might have been afraid of ridicule to even broach the subject.

An experiment supposedly took place on this date in 1912. It had to do with time travel. It also had to do with love. My radio show tonight is devoted to one of the most popular romantic movies of all “time.” I hope you will join me as we journey back to a “grand” old hotel, and get lost in the romance of the moment.

I’d like to conclude this blog with a question for you to consider. Given the chance to go back in time, where would you go, and what would you do? Would it be to right a wrong, or would it be for a second chance at something, like love? To say the words that waited too long for another time that never materialized? So, given the chance to occupy a seat aboard a time machine and the controls at your fingertips, what would you set the the dial for? Would you like to stay where you’re headed, or would it be a brief visit? A lot of things to consider before you move the lever to set the machine in motion. Careful now…

There isn’t a soul among us who wouldn’t line up for a ride back into the past, or for a chance to see what the future holds in store… Maybe a quick peek at tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers?

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Don Jackson

“Inspiration is a fragile thing… just a breeze, touching the green foliage of a city park, just a whisper from the soul of a friend. Just a line of verse clipped from some forgotten magazine…or a paragraph standing out from the chapters of a book.

“Inspiration…who can say where it is born, and why it leaves us? Who can tell the reasons for its being or not being? Only this…I think inspiration comes from the heart of heaven to give the lift of wings, and the breath of diving music to those of us who are earthbound.” Margaret Sangster from Fields of Gold, published by C.R. Gibson Company.

I promise to keep this blog almost to a whisper tonight.

In the TV series, Lost, there is a point when the survivors of the plane-crash hear whispering voices all around them in the jungle. On a supposedly deserted island, the survivors ran into a group called “The Others,” and then saw ghosts from their past. The whispering voices in the jungle brush added a certain sense of dread to an already desperate situation. If my memory serves me correctly, we have yet to learn where the voices are coming from. There are so many loose ends that the producers and writers will have to clear up before the series ends.

Another popular TV series is The Ghost Whisperer, based on true events. That’s what it must be like for the character in real life to hear ethereal, otherworldly voices must be like listening to a whisper.

But I do believe there is something in nature that we hear on occasion. When I shovel snow, I cna’t help but hear this voice whispered in the wind.. when I rake leaves in Autumn, I often hear it.. In Summer, when I’m near my pond and listen to the wings of a dragonfly or hummingbird nearby, I again hear something that gives me pause to believe there is a voice around us all the time…

Longfellow heard something, too, when he wrote, “A voice out of the silence of the deep,/ A sound mysteriously multiplied/ As of a cataract from the mountain’s side./ Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.”

“The trees along this city street/ Save for traffic and the trains,/ Would make a sound as thin and sweet/ As trees in country lanes.

“And people standing in their shade/ Out of a shower, undoubtedly/ Would hear such music as is made/ Upon a country tree.

“Oh, little leaves that are so dumb/ Against the shrieking city air,/ I watch you when the wind has come,-/ I know what sound is there.” City Trees by Edna St. Vincent Millay, published in Collected Lyrics by Harper.

Sitting out in a chair on our front walk tonight, I was surprised to find a little toad sitting on a decorative stone beside our gardens no more than a metre away. He’s been around our house for awhile now. We see him on the path at the side of our house. I’ve also seen him resting on a lily-pad in the pond. Our dog, Brownie, has even discovered him. It’s been fun to watch her stalking the little toad who is as bold as bold can be. I can only imagine what it must think of this monster-our dog- quietly creeping right up to the little creature. And yet it doesn’t make a sound. I know it spends its nights either by the pond or in our front gardens, and yet I’ve never heard it make a sound, which is unusual for toads. Usually they’re vocal late at night. Maybe this one likes to whisper. We’ve taken a photo of this little toad that I’ll post sometime in the near future.

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.” -George Washington Carver, quoted, an excerpt from The Treasure Chest, edited by Charles L. Wallis, and published in 1965 by Harper and Row, publishers. That’s a pretty good description of it. It’s like trying to tune in a distant radio station at night. The sound comes in clear for awhile and eventually fades out again.

There is something about a whisper that commands your attention, rivets you one spot. Maybe it’s the feeling that someone is about to share a delicious secret, or reveal something that is for your ears only…

Wait till you hear the very last story in tonight’s program, whispered to someone a very long time ago. It had the power to change a life forever…

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Don Jackson

When I first moved to Montreal as a young adult, I had little or no knowledge how to wash and iron clothes. My mother was old-fashioned in the sense that she did all of this work around the house. She was a stay-at-home mother all her married life. That said, I should have have taken the initiative to get her to teach me the right amount of detergent to use, how not to mix colors with whites–especially ones that could run– when to use bleach and how to iron clothes. My first experience with ironing clothes was a nightmare. The iron was too hot and I scorched an expensive dress shirt. We have to learn by experience. My wife and I have spent time teaching our children how to wash and dry their own laundry. They will never know the difficulties I faced when they finally move out on their own. We hope that when they finally go to university, they won’t return home on holidays with bags of laundry…

I wished I had also taken the initiative to ask my mother why perfectly good pairs of socks disappear sometime between putting them into the wash and taking them out of the dryer. It’s one mystery I deal with in tonight’s radio program. Unfortunately, I have no answers to pass along as to where they go. Sometimes you’ll find them tucked into a shirt sleeve, or inside a pair of jeans. Other times they simply vanish. Eventually they turn up, but where they go in the meantime is anybody’s guess. I sometimes find them in other loads of laundry that I’m removing from the dryer, when I’m folding clothes or when I’m putting fresh sheets on the beds.

We’ve dealt with chaos over a few programs to begin the week. Tonight, entropy, as explained by a very wise author. I hope you will tune in, because he claims entropy has a lot to do with missing socks.

…And don’t get me started on my lack of knowledge about darning socks. Whether a single sock shows up on its own, or I get holes in my socks, I still revert to my bachelor days, and just go out and buy a new pair.

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Don Jackson

“Ever wonder about the abbreviation ASAP? Generally we think of it in terms of even more hurry and stress in our lives. Maybe if we think of this abbreviation in a different manner, we will begin to find a new way to deal with those rough days along the way.

“‘There’s work to do, deadlines to meet; / You’ve got no time to spare, / But as you hurry and scurry– / ASAP-Always Say A Prayer.

“‘In the midst of family chaos, / Quality time is rare, / Do your best, let God do the rest– / ASAP-Always Say A Prayer.

“‘It may seem like your worries / Are more than you can bear. / Slow down and take a breather– / ASAP-Always Say A Prayer.

“‘God knows how stressful life is; / He wants to ease your cares, / And He’ll respond to all your needs / ASAP-Always Say A Prayer.’”–Author Unknown

In my program last night I did not have the time to include this wonderful little poem. I thought it important enough to share with you tonight, since we’re featuring another take on the subject of chaos in the first hour of the radio program.

“American life is completely dislocated  by storms and snow and hurricanes. When American automobiles can’t move, life comes to a halt, and when their famous schedules can’t be met, they panic and go into a kind of paroxysm of frustration, besieging railway stations, jamming long-distance wires, keeping their radios permanently switched on for any crumb of comfort. I could imagine the chaos on the roads and in the cities, and i hugged my cosy solitude to me.” An excerpt from Part One, Chapter 5, of The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming, published in 1962 by Jonathan Cape Ltd., the pan books edition published in 1967.

“The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.” Dutch painter William de Kooning (1904-97), and featured in the Monday, June 16th, 2008 issue of The Globe and Mail’s Social Studies column. 

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Don Jackson

Tonight’s blog is somewhat different in the fact that I will be turning it over to my daughter, Christina. She had an amazing experience that she would like to tell you about in her own words. It is a review of a concert…

“My name is Christina and I am completing Grade 9 this year. For my oral French exam this past month, we were required to choose a musical act to speak about. I chose RyanDan, whose songs “The Face” and “Like The Sun” are played on CHFI. RyanDan is one of my favorite musical groups.

“Last Friday, I was fortunate enough to be able to go to the Music Hall on Danforth to see them perform live. This was their first concert in their hometown of Toronto.

“When Ryan and Dan came out and performed their first song, “High,” I knew the night was going to be great. They liked to talk about the next song they would perform, which was really cool. Between their songs, Ryan and Dan would get the audience involved in the songs. We had to help with the music for “Stand By Me.” So while we hummed and established the beat, they sang along, to demonstrate how they practiced harmonization.

“The brothers are really funny! They would make jokes and poke fun at each other and get the crowd laughing. They performed with their orchestra, piano and backup singers. They had 6 violinists, 2 cellists, a pianist and 4 backup singers.

“Their songs have always been interesting and amazing to me, but hearing them onstage, and live, has been a great experience.

“After the show, Ryan and Dan were nice enough to sign every cd people brought in with them or bought at the show. They stood behind that table for so long making sure everyone got an autograph. They let people take pictures with them, too! This band is by far the nicest one I’ve ever known, and I hope to see them again. Thanks to Livenation.com for the tickets, and CHFI for making this all possible!”

This was my daughter’s very first concert and my wife, who has seen many concerts, had a wonderful evening, too. My personal thanks to everyone for helping to make a dream come true!

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Don and Christina Jackson

“The trees that have it in / Their pent-up buds / To darken nature and be / Summer woods”–Robert Frost

It’s officially summer as of 8 p.m. (EDT)–and not a moment too soon. We had a winter that more than made up for a lack of snow in recent years. I’m still sore from all the shoveling! Our snowfall this past winter reminds me of a saying from The Old Farmer’s Almanac, that reads: “When February give much snow, / A fine summer dost foreshow…” Let’s hope that it will be a fine summer this year. It will if the air is fragrant with summer’s beautiful flowers…

My daughter is finishing up exams in high school and my son’s school year will be over in a week. I know they’re both looking forward to a summer of ease and excitement. I’m anticipating the heady scents of flowers in bloom…

In the March 1990 issue of Victoria magazine, in an article about heart-notes or perfumes, a writer said: “To discover whether night blooming jasmine, or any kind of fragrance, is right for you, it is best to wear it for a few hours in the early afternoon, when your sense of smell is sharper.”

I had something else planned for tonight till a summer breeze brought me another faint scent of jasmine this afternoon. My wife and I were out by the pond recently when she turned to me and said, “Do you smell the jasmine?” The air is so perfumed now with the heady fragrance of so many blooms that I almost missed it. I walked over to our mock-orange plant and deeply inhaled its intoxicating scent. My neighbor’s beautiful climbing roses are also scenting the air, vying for my attention.

This is what the writer in that issue of Victoria magazine had to say about this exotic scent. “Bespeaking elegance, grace, and sensuality in the Victorian language of flowers, sweet jasmine says, ‘I am too happy,’ as may the woman who wears a fragrance with this heart note. Often called the most exquisite floral essence, jasmine blooms at night and perfumers hand-pick the delicate blossoms before sunrise–hence its centuries-old name, ‘Moonlight of The Grove.’”

Joris Karl Huysmans in Against The Grain, wrote: “Perfumes, in fact, rarely come from the flowers whose names they bear … with the exception of the inimitable jasmine, which is impossible to counterfeit.” I’m pleased to discover that there is at least one fragrance associated with the season that is difficult to reproduce.

To conclude my short blog tonight, one of my favorite  writings that describes a summer frame of mind. Katherine Mansfield wrote, “The mind I love must have wild places–a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two, a pool that nobody’s fathomed the depth of, and paths threaded with flowers planted by the mind.”

I hope you will get a chance to travel some of those paths this summer. I also hope a summer breeze will entice you with a scent of jasmine or even a single rose.

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Don Jackson

” To go fishing is the chance to wash one’s soul with pure air, with the rush of the brook, or with the shimmer of the sun on blue water. It brings meekness and inspiration from the decency of nature, charity toward tackle-makers, patience toward fish, a mockery of profits and egos, a quieting of hate, a rejoicing that you do not have to decide a darned thing until next week, and it is discipline in the equality of men - for all men are equal before fish…”  Fishing by Herbert Hoover, an excerpt from The Treasure Chest, edited by Charles L. Wallis, and published in 1965 by Harper and Row, publishers

I featured that quote to begin my blog because I feature quite a few writings on fishing in tonight’s radio program between 9 and 11 pm. I know a neighbor who is quite an accomplished fisherman. He enjoys getting up early in the morning and setting out for his favorite streams. My wife has a trophy in her parents’ home in Montreal. It’s a huge sailfish that she caught while on vacation in Acapulco, It weighed 110 pounds and put up quite a fight. She was only 16 years of age at the time. She told me the story of how this beast was reeled in and what it took to ship it back to this country. It’s not an easy thing to accomplish and a costly venture, as well.  For some reason, that fish never made it during our move here in 1990. It still hangs in the family room of her parents’ home, and we see it when we visit. We’ve been tempted to bring it back on a few occasions, but it is still too large to transport in our SUV.

Years ago, I worked at a small radio station just outside of Toronto. The owner of the station hosted a travel show. It was my job to piece together the interviews he recorded on his trips to far away locales and put together an hour-long show. He went on safari in Africa, as well as many other far-flung journeys. I would research the destinations and write a script for the host to record. I even got the chance to be invited to take his place on a trip to San Diego. It was an eclectic bunch of travelers I joined on that trip, most of them travel writers. I returned with lots of taped interviews. I had a few interesting adventures of my own on that trip.

I met Joan Embury, who was a regular featured guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. She was affiliated with the world-renowned San Diego Zoo. Her visits to the top-rated talk-show always included some of the animals from the zoo. I had told her about my fear of snakes and she agreed to help me get over that fear by escorting me through their reptile house. I was hesitant, but she assured me that the creatures were all behind glass and if I was ever to get through this, then this was the way to go. We walked through the huge doors and one of the first snakes I saw was huge anaconda. This creature was immense - and that was enough for me. I thought we might begin by seeing something smaller and not quite so dangerous. That was it for me. I high-tailed it down the long corridor to the nearest exit, leaving my guide behind in my wake. All my fellow travelers had a good laugh at my expense.

One of the writers had been a professional wrestler. He was retired and always wanted to travel, so he became a journalist. During a round of margaritas at a great Mexican restaurant, we asked him about pro-wrestling. You must remember, this was years before the spectacle that wrestling has become today. Some of the people at the table were skeptical about the outcome of some of the matches. I’ll never forget one thing he told me. After a grueling bout, he would be in a lot of pain. He said he looked forward to a hot bath with epsom salts to ease the punishment he put his body through. He convinced us that even though it might be somewhat staged for the audience, the wrestlers were still athletes. I always think about what he told me when I see an event today.

I hope you enjoy our travels around the world tonight with some unique perspectives an being a tourist. And if you really think about our tenure on this planet, in a sense, we’re all tourists in this life…

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Don Jackson

Tatanka Yotanke or Sitting Bull, the famous leader of one of the great First Nations said,”Behold my brothers, the spring has come; the earth has received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of that love! Every seed is awakened and so has all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we, too, have our being, and we, therefore, yield to our neighbors - even our animal neighbors - the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land.”

Author Kathy Lamancusa in her Fireside collection, Flowers Are Forever: A Glorious Garden of More Than 100 Inspirational Stories, a Fireside book, published in 2000 by Simon and Shuster, believes, “The fragrance of flowers seems more romantic and mysterious at night.”

The Hindu poet, Rabindranath Tagore wrote, “Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it…”

“Just as I cannot see the beginning of my life, so the end remains a mystery. I spend my hours on the journey between these two awesome points in time.” an excerpt from the Hazeldon book by Will Limon, Beginning Again:Beyond The End of Love

A Latin proverb states that: “To every man, his own life is a mystery.” Judy Wardell, and American writer, adds to that proverb by saying, “Life was meant to be a mystery. To be lived spontaneously from a present time, unpredictable place.”

These, then, are just some of the great unsolved mysteries in life…They are ours to try to unravel.

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Don Jackson

Rainer Maria Rilke in Les Roses wrote: “One single rose is all roses, and this particular one–unique, perfect, a supple word with which to speak the text of all things.”

I make my living with words. They include the words of others as well as my own. Sometimes the words flow easily. Other times, I sit in front of my word processor looking at a blank screen. I’ve heard authors say that they can spend hours trying to get just one line perfect. My problem is the clock. I don’t have the luxury of time to sit for hours and wait for the muse to inspire.

Words can make you smile. A few well-chosen words can bring you to tears. Words can transport you back to a place in time buried in your memories. They can also be the bridge that spans the distance between those who are estranged. They can unleash a torrent of emotions. Finely crafted words in a book can keep you up late. There have been many books I’ve been unable to put down simply because the author made the prose seem like poetry. Ray Bradbury is one of those authors. Some people have a way with words. They can convince you of just about anything. Some words are important no matter the speaker, while others are frivolous. These are some of the most important ones…

This was sent to me in an e-mail some years back. A short course in Human Relations. “The six most important words: ‘I admit I made a mistake.’ The five most important words: ‘You did a good job.’ The four most important words: ‘What is your opinion?’ The three most important words: ‘If you please.’ The two most important words: ‘Thank you.’ The one most important word: ‘We.’ The least most important word: ‘I’”–Author Unknown

Of course, there are three other important words. Nothing has ever been written to replace them. They are probably the most powerful words ever strung together. They are, “I love you.” Nothing can replace their simplicity.

“My name is Might-Have-Been. / I am also called No-More, Too-Late, Farewell.”–Author Unknown. There are also four words in the English language that can haunt one right up to the grave. They are simply, “If only I had…”

Tonight, I’m thinking of two other words that can inspire daydreaming.

Edith Wharton in Chapter Ten of A Backward Glance written in 1934 quoted Henry James as saying: “Summer afternoon-summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”

…I agree.

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Don Jackson