BACK TO WORK ON ADA FLORENCE KINTON - DEDICATED TO THE GRAVENHURST SALVATION ARMY FOOD BANK FOR 2011

It used to be I would write at least a dozen feature articles each week, during the winter hiatus of The Muskoka Sun. I’d start working on the summer’s editorial copy in early December for Sun Editor Robert Boyer, and finish up by the end of March, at the latest, with all the backbone copy for about 25 or so issues, stretching from early May to the Christmas special edition. I was a Mr. Mom then, and I wrote for quite a number of years with Mr. Dress-up, The Polka Dot Door, Mr. Rogers, Fred Penner, The Elephant Show and sundry other kiddy shows as a background buzz amidst playtime rock ‘n roll. Coming from a crazy newsroom at the old Herald-Gazette, where reporters threw sandwiches, cookies and wadded paper at each other, out of frustration and in between interviews, and when practical jokes and liquid lunches kept us from going bonkers, opting to be a feature editor, working at home, was the largest contrast I could have handled, short of piloting the space shuttle. My boys were wild until the real, “ number one mom” came home, from her teaching job at Bracebridge High School. She’s now at Gravenhurst High School. Bob Boyer got used to peanut butter and jam smudges on the copy, and occasional bite evidence, if Robert happened to get a hold of the file folder off my desk. He seemed to teethe twice as long as Andrew. He liked dictionaries especially. He’s a hell of a good speller today. Keeps me on my toes as ex-officio editor.

Today I’m left to my own devices. I’m haunted here in this hollow old homestead, to write away the day, but strangely, and pathetically I have kids’ programs playing throughout the morning for old time’s sake. I got so used to the din of a newsroom and then kids at play, that when everyone moved on with their own work and lives, well, I fumbled for that comfortable commonplace to give me peace of mind at the keyboard. While it’s been quite a few years since I was working the Mr. Mom shift, here at Birch Hollow, I’m still the at-home gopher, and have happily served as the boy’s roadie for their music business gigs. They’ve somewhat revitalized my position, and frankly it’s neat, getting driving jobs now and again that pull me away from the “huge calm” that is our home.

When I first started working on the biography of Ada Florence Kinton, I was still holding the fort while the boys, then at school, and tending lunch requirements for wee Robert (now about six feet of humanity), who didn’t like the cafeteria protocol, preferring instead dining at home and sometimes enjoying dad’s legendary “egg drop soup.” So the first real foray into this wonderful woman’s (Ada Kinton) life and times, was done while still working as the stay-at-home parent. Since then I’ve had at least three series published on Ada, in a variety of publications including The Muskoka Sun. “Are you doing a series on Ada Kinton again dad,” asked Robert the other day, when he spotted the re-used file folder that had his nibble marks along the edge, from early forays into my office during teething experimentation. Of course, in my intrusive profession, I never worked on a feature series that the content and its frustrations didn’t vent out onto the rest of the Birch Hollow inmates. My family has always been intimate with my work......and I’ve always used them to critique my ideas and finished copy. I’m pretty sure the lads didn’t know what the hell I was reading them, for approval, but they smiled, nodded their heads, then commenced beating each other up over ownership issues for the lego bits and pieces covering God’s half acre.

I’m not a computer person and even when the first MDT terminals arrived at the Herald-Gazette, replacing our trusted old Underwoods, the service technicians simply couldn’t explain to our frazzled publisher, how I was able to disable them by just daily, routine typing. Well, I never told them about the several coffees that got dumped into the keyboard, that I was able to dry-up before the servicing staff was again dispatched to our news headquarters. When I’d lose copy moments before deadline, the only relief from tossing the bastard out the window, was a hiatus at the Bracebridge Albion, where reporters gathered to roast their respective publishers.....and MDT repair staff. So in this new reality, new era of authordom, I just gave up trying to be anything more than a writer with a basic, detachable keyboard, who has the services of a computer technician.....Robert, who will arrive home soon, and help me post this blog online. I suppose it might be said that I’ve remained true to my profession, as I began it back in the late 1970's.......following the lead of local writing legend Paul Rimstead, (hard writing, harder living) tapping musically at a modern day typewriter that coincidentally has a lit television screen instead of a white sheet of paper.....which I adored as writer’s craft! Back in my early reporter days, some wise guy fashioned an old fedora with a white card tucked into the front band that let everyone know I represented the “PRESS.” “Where’s the fire, Scoop,” they’d yell out. Needless to say it was a gag gift and like most of those, it wound up in a drawer until I had to clean it out when I accepted a new posting with the competition. It’s still around here some place. I only wear it when I want attention from my always busy, on the fly, family.

I have slowed down a wee bit in my elder statesman years, and it’s going to take a lot longer than a week to write the eleven feature columns I’m preparing for “Curious: The Tourist Guide,” the nifty little monthly publication I write for these days. I will need to get Robert’s help to get it all edited, filed, re-filed, revised and finally sent off for publication. He’s been my right hand for many years now, and I’ve told him that he will inherit my reporter’s fedora when I’m gone, and of course my Herald-Gazette Rink Rat hockey sweater, the one that Toronto Sun columnist Paul Rimstead wore, and got stuck in, the night our media hockey team played the CKVR No-Stars at the Bracebridge Arena. What a treasure. It took about a half hour to get the sweater off Rimmer, and that called for a beverage. As additional payment for Robert’s computer assistance, I said I’d even throw in my honorary “Flying Father” hockey club membership certificate, I got from Father Les Costello quite a few years back now, during another fundraising game in Bracebridge. I still have the shaft of the stick Doug Orr (Bobby’s dad) broke-off, with a wicked pass, when I played on his line during another charity game up in Parry Sound. Rob’s a sucker for hockey memorabilia. He’s ticked off that I gave an original Detroit Red Wings jersey, from the 1960's, to Andrew.....payment for another favor in benefit of a cash-strapped father with a lot of memorabilia from my media days to trade for favors.

The story of Ada Florence Kinton is one of my favorites, and this time I have prepared the series as well, to be submitted to the archives of the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the National Art Gallery, for future researchers interested in her art and art instruction in Canada, during the late 1800's. Her work with the Salvation Army, and editorial submissions, including drawings to the “War Cry,” are also to be highlighted in this eleven part continuation of parts one and two which began in November and December 2010. They have already been published on this blog-site, as will the coming columns, when completed, which will conclude in December 2011. Of course this all depends on the good humor of my associate, Robert, a good son!

I think Ada would approve very much, of dedicating this series, in support of the Gravenhurst Food Bank, operated so kindly by the Salvation Army. As a worker on the Salvation Army’s behalf, she tended the poor and destitute on the streets of Toronto, and there are many inspiring stories about the lives she helped during her many years of service.......a service which in the end brought about her own sickness and premature death. My wife and I often visit her gravesite in a quiet alcove of a Huntsville cemetery, and thank her for a life well spent. She’s been a part of our family that’s for sure. Hope you will stay tuned for the February column coming soon.

Hope your new year is starting off as well as ours! Cheers.