• PSYCHIC PHENOMENA

    Sept 8, 1977 Sense & Nonsense This afternoon when my daughter phoned, I exulted at the sound of her voice. “Aha! You did catch my E.S.P. message this morning! Why didn’t you phone earlier?” “Mother, are you feeling alright? Why was I supposed to phone earlier?” asked my obviously un-tuned in offspring. ” “I was…

  • CONE-PICKING FOR THE FORESTRY

    Sept 28, 1978 Sense and Nonsense “Why don’t we pick cones for the Forestry?” I suggested to a friend. “We could earn money in the great outdoors and have fun doing it!” The summer had been a cold wet one, and the day we went cone-picking was typical. In the wee hours of a gray…

  • THE BEARS AND ME

    July 14, 1977  Sense and Nonsense As much as I hate to admit it I am guilty of discrimination against a minority group. I have always prided myself on being a fair and tolerant person. However lately I have found myself uttering such disgusting phrases as “Black is ugly!” and “Why don’t they do away…

  • SMALL CHILDREN & ANIMALS

    Sense and Nonsense 1976 Small children and animals are often smarter than we adult human beings realize. They sometimes have a surprisingly good sense of humour as well. The other day our not- quite-3-year-old insisted that she should visit the doctor. Her last visit to him had involved an inspection of the spots she had…

  • His, Hers – plus a small Ours

    January 1977 Sense and Nonsense Over the Christmas holidays we managed to visit with almost all of our offspring. We have one of those space-age families consisting of “his”, “hers ” and a very small “ours” which makes for more than the average number of offspring. Quite a few of these are married and rapidly…

  • WORLD’S LONGEST TONGUE-TWISTER

    SEPTEMBER I, 1977 Sense and Nonsense Afternoon television interview shows seem to be hard up for things to talk about and people to talk to lately. The other day I half-listened to one show concerning tongue-twisters. The audience was participating (hilariously) in an exercise in speech agility. “Peter Piper picked a Peck” and “She sells…

  • TRAINS

    November 17, 1977 Sense and Nonsense Trains are a romantic link with our past. Many songs have been sung and stories told of various incidents in railroad history. School-children have learned, and recently Pierre Berton fans have learned of how closely the “National Dream” was linked to Confederation. I have managed, somehow, to ignore trains…

  • IF IT MOVES FEED IT –  IF IT DOESN’T DUST IT

    Sept 15 1977 Sense and Nonsense I am finally completing my spring cleaning. I scrubbed half the walls in our living room last May. The clean part looked so good I decided to leave the rest dirty for a few hours, just to feast my eyes on the obvious results of my efforts. That was…

  • I’M GLAD I’M NOT SPORTS’ NUT

    Oct 27, 1977  Sense and Nonsense  [Nechako Chronicle] This time of year I am glad I am not a sports’ nut. How does one follow the baseball finals, the football finals, as well as the first few games of the hockey season? The other day baseball was on one television channel and hockey was on…

  • WAY UP NORTH – 1977

    June 30 1977.  Sense and Nonsense A few weeks ago we went on a camping trip up the Alaska Highway and into the Yukon Territories. On returning home we took the Stewart – Cassiar route to Hazelton, B.C. First of all I must insist that we had a good lime despite the weather. The reason…