This Time Around It's All About History and Fond Memories

A RE-BOOTED BLOG, BY AN "ANTIQUE-HEAD" DONE WITH POLITICS

A QUIET PLACE IN CYBERSPACE TO PRESENT INTERESTING ANTIQUE AND LOCAL HISTORY FINDS

     A month and a half back, I was exhausted by heat, the demands of business, the rigors of the tourist surge, and writing too darn much, apparently for my own good. I was starting to get visions and epiphanies, time traveling without a machine, finding evasive portals to other dimensions, based, Suzanne tells me, on too much of a good thing; and in the heat of very hot days I was half writing and half slumbering at my post. Which made for interesting reading. Even from childhood, I hated hot and humid days. The problem in a nut-shell, is that I have injured my back and neck over years of slouching at my desk, and wherever else I choose to write, such that it has caused considerable muscle distress. I can't really call it an occupational disability, because it's more of a recreation now, than a paying career, as it once was back in my newspaper days. I love to write, and it has always been enormously therapeutic, except when I get wrankled by local politics. It has been my downfall in many ways, because the madder I get at them, (politicians) the harder I tap at this keyboard, and the more damage I cause my neck and back. I have found that Frank Costanza's "Serenity Now," (from the former Seinfeld show), only offers moderate relief these days, from the jaw clenching disdain I had, when for example, reading the local weekly, and then foaming at the mouth, rabidly angry at their latest action or most in-action.
     In order to get back to enjoying my recreation of writing for the fun-of-it, I decided to go on hiatus for the balance of the summer, and contribute business-related editorial copy to our Currie's Antiques facebook page. This is what brought me back to this blog, for another "go at it," but from a totally non-political perspective. You see, it was, from the beginning, and probably as far as five years back now, that son Robert helped me launch this same blog, writing regularly about the follies of municipal government; and the politicians who compose local councils in this region of Ontario. As a former council reporter for Muskoka Publications, and specifically The Herald-Gazette, a now-retired newspaper in Bracebridge, I knew a lot about how these councillor-types worked and manipulated agenda behind the scenes, and yes, in my heyday, these stories were above-the-fold news makers. I covered the Township of Muskoka Lakes, Bracebridge and the Township of Georgian Bay, from the late 1970's into the first months of 1990. I was so mad about what I experienced in those years, that it carried all the way over into this new century. I always enjoyed the art of political ranting, but the writing part was a little hard on the body. I was acting out my frustrations on the keyboard, with the intensity of a wrecking crew, and it was hurting me more than sensibly critiquing them. I decided to drop politics altogether and concentrate on topics of greater interest and relevance to our business, and local history, which I love to investigate for previously unknown facts and stories.
     While looking over Suzanne's shoulders last night, while she was helping me research the provenance of one of the paintings we had purchased yesterday, from a regional second hand shop, I begged her, and may or may not have bitten her shoulder, to give me one last look at my declining blog numbers, now that it had been dormant for pretty close to six weeks. Even without publishing a blog for all that time, I had still been getting a large number of folks archiving through my past blogs, especially the heritage components. And surprising the heck out of me, was the reality, the accumulated views for (just shy of) four years, was now within a lumberjack's whisker hair, of hitting 300,000, which was my target when I began daily blogging in November 2011. I was still 2,000 shy, but I figure it's highly possible that I can hit my target date, even after six week's vacation, if I resume work on the site with a month and a half to go before my anniversary date. The agreement with Suzanne, who handles all my editing and publishing tasks, is that I stay away from political subjects, no matter what, and as far as current events, if they're not historic in relevance, or about antique finds, they are to be avoided at all cost. I have never been very good at this in the past, and have broken every promise thus far. I'm feeling that this time, having had a nice holiday from worrying about local, provincial or national politics, I can color within the lines at least for the balance of the year. After that, well, I'm crappy at long term planning. If I like how this kind of antique-extension column works, I may stay this way for the long haul; or until I'm vapourized by all the internal fortitude I've been building-up to keep me in this non-political state of mind.
     I really like the idea of having so many of my previous heritage-themed blogs, being archived by interested readers, literally from around the globe, who for some reason, have discovered a name (or circumstance) from the pages of antiquity, that has been tied to local history here in Muskoka, relevant to them; and it has at some time in the past, been included in a subject blog. It's sort of like having a book you've written, a long time back, taken out repeatedly, and regularly, from the local public library in the present tense. It makes you think you've done something right, and provided some information service, that wasn't otherwise addressed, or available for research purposes. Every writer / historian likes to have their relevance proven in some way, and seeing as I don't write books any more (I won't kill a tree to spread my opinions), the cyberspace reference library works perfectly for me, and gets such a wide and diverse audience, that makes a lowly historical-type like me, feel all the hunting and gathering of information has been worth it; or at least that's the potentially deluded version of the situation, yet something, even in all its modesty, which makes me want to sit down and write-away into my own tangible oblivion, of living a writer's most pleasant existence.
     I also like to have an outlet for some of my small town, "growing-up" nostalgia, and I can't visit Bracebridge, even on business now, that I don't drift off into the sudden whirlwind of reminiscence. Seeing as I'm one of very few doing this kind of thing for public consumption, having a distinctly blue collar neighborhood perspective, it's not likely to be sought out as being important by any of my contemporaries. It's not an important history to most writers these days, but I refuse to let this period of time, which I enjoyed so much, be lost because it isn't a recollection of politics, or story about the privileges of the rich and famous, and those citizens who were, let's just say, socially well postioned. I like to consider myself the historian of the poor but significantly storied bastards, but good folks, who would otherwise be lost in the dusk of antiquity, because they weren't of high political and social standing in the community. Enter Mr. Currie. I suppose I do consider this my lot in life, and I'm not complaining about the perspective. Most regional historians didn't sit outside the Albion Hotel in Bracebridge, watching the bouncer throw out troublesome patrons, without first opening the door. Or sitting on a grease-covered chair in the bowels of the former Downtown Garage, watching two fine veteran mechanics work their magic. I saw things from the ground up, and it was pretty revealing about what made my hometown tick. It didn't tick from the top down, I'll tell you that much!
     The blogs to be published in the coming days and weeks, will be about all things historic and nostalgic, but will occasionally, without apology, delve into the circumstances of a particularly neat antique discovery, or revelation from a found book of Muskoka history, such as a journal, that has never been fully revealed to the public. I love being the first local historian to reveal a previously unknown aspect of the region's chronicle, so I'm ever searching for something exciting to share with readers. I've got some neat stuff coming in the near future, and if promise my sources have given, come to fruition, it should be a remarkable autumn season if you enjoy regional heritage, and antiques with embedded local provenance.
     Here I am again, for a fourth come-back as a blogger. The "Rocky Balboa," of blogging. But honestly, folks, it's never been because of the demands of writing, in the sense of having something to do with an abundant supply of inspiration. The body has taken a beating more so, in this regard, but Suzanne is also taking over as my personal trainer, and correcting my bad posture, the amount I am aloud to write at any one sitting, and even what I can write about - absolutely no pornography or politics; she fears, I think, that otherwise my head might explode, and then I wouldn't be able to take out the garbage on Monday mornings.
     See you again tomorrow.