Erin Davis

Just a Thought

A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked.  [Author Unknown]

Hey there - just two more days left in November.  Although I was feeling it was a bit early for Christmas shopping, I’m beginning to sense a bit of a deadline breathing down my neck lately.  I did a bit of e-tailing  online Monday, I’ll get my sister who’s wintering in California taken care of this week, and we need to get our BC stuff on a bus.  Otherwise, though, I’ll just stay sane, centred and be grateful that my hours allow me to shop at, say 10 am when the malls open on a Thursday morning, instead of lining up with everybody else on a Saturday afternoon.  Thank goodness.

I had a great opportunity to shop Tuesday while Rob was in North York doing some bookkeeping work for a friend, but my head felt like a lead balloon with this cold, so I just stayed home.  The whole ordeal of moving into the “new” closets is going well, and although Rob’s almost banished from the bedroom closet, he has inherited another three drawers in the bedroom dresser.  So he’s a little giddy about that.  No, really.  (You know you’re showing signs of age when getting in your wife’s drawers means just that - and you’re totally okay with it!)

Last evening I had the honour of emceeing an event at the venerable Albany Club, which was begun by a fellow named (Sir) John A. MacDonald 125 years ago.  The event was the official introduction of CAPE, the Canadian Association of Professional Educators.  From Montessori teachers to hockey coaches, through all points in between, this initiative is one that will spread across Canada and offer interaction, alliance and accreditation to members.  It sounds like an interesting, timely and very useful association, and I wish them every success.

Rob’s hitting the road to visit his mom in London today, but not before stopping off for a funeral - yes, another one - this time in Meaford, near Georgian Bay.  If you ever listened to AM radio in Toronto, you might remember Keith Rich, long time morning host in the 70’s and 80’s at CKEY and later CJCL when it was “Music of Your Life”.  While Keith was at CKEY, Rob was to him what The General and Gord are to Mike and me, his morning show producer for six laugh-filled years.  They shared many hours together on and off the air, and Rob felt a genuine fondness for and closeness to Keith.  My memories of him and his wife Elizabeth were few by comparison, but included a wonderful evening spent laughing and drinking wine at their country home near Orangeville.  We took Lauren to visit them when she was just a baby, and I recall very clearly almost having to hose the baby down in the Riches’ bathtub after a certain corn/diaper incident in the car.  (You should have seen Lauren’s face when I told her that story this week!)

At any rate, this is the second loss Rob’s been faced with in the space of one month - his father on October 20th and Keith Rich on the 19th of November.  It was with joy and laughter, though, that Rob listened to a cassette tape he happened to find in the office on Tuesday.  The only tape in the house (the rest are up north) it was of the final show Keith did at CKEY before moving up the dial to 1430 am.  Parts of the tape will be played at the memorial today, and I’m so glad he found that little cassette.  And Keith’s children will be grateful too, no doubt; up until the moment the tape was located, I don’t think they had any of his air work to share at the celebration of Keith’s life.  He was 80, by the way; his wife and friend Elizabeth Sheldrick died two years ago in her early 50’s.

One of the wonderful stories that Rob tells about Keith was his way of reminding dinner guests that he had an early morning radio show to do - something, of course, that I can totally relate to.  Keith would bring out his old alarm clock and start winding it up, with absolutely no effort to be subtle about it, just to make sure everybody got the message that it was time to go.  Pretty good, huh?

Well, my journal about airplane etiquette sure struck some nerves yesterday!  I’ll share your responses here tomorrow, as we welcome the weekend - and December - together.  Do take care, and thanks for coming by.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.