Harry Stemp was born in Uxbridge in 1934. He started his career with the Uxbridge Times-Journal as an apprentice typesetter at age 14. He soon began writing sports for the Times-Journal and eventually owned 10 community newspapers in central Ontario including the Times-Journal. He started writing his award-winning Stemp’s Stew in 1965. The column came to an end shortly after he sold his newspaper chain in 1989, but was rejuvenated in 2006 when Harry became a regular contributor to The Cosmos.
Best to do your best
The best thing to happen to Uxbridge! Quite a statement and, knowing Jacob Mantle, I'm sure he is a bit embarrassed being the centre of so much publicity and controversy, even though it was meant to be a positive compliment. And I don't feel that Bev Northeast has to apologize for making the statement. These things happen and are done with the best of intentions.
Is everyone slightly off base in this matter - including fellow columnist Roger Varley? To me it is not important that one is the best thing to ever happen to Uxbridge, but rather that they are doing their best for Uxbridge.
Since the late Dr. Mellow whacked me on the rear end (there have been many whacks since) and elicited my first breath back in 1934, this community has been blessed with countless residents who did their very best to make Uxbridge the wonderful community it is today. They were ordinary people who were not looking for praise but when a job, or a project, had to be done for the good of all, they were first in line to volunteer and worked diligently until the task was completed.
Having the honour of chairing several groups over the years I think of the good friends, all hard workers, who brought us a wonderful 10-year community celebration called Spring Water Days. Weeks and weeks of meetings and work bees, and their reward was seeing the strong community spirit they encouraged - and they had fun doing it.
Then there were hundreds of residents who put in countless hours of labour paying for and installing artificial ice in the old arena on Franklin Street. When that building was condemned as unsafe, more hundreds rallied and the new arena was built on Brock Street.
It wasn't long before a second ice pad was needed, but there was a problem. Council demanded that the much needed addition to the library be completed before any talk of a second ice pad. The campaign for the library had been going nowhere for a couple of years, and again I was honoured to be asked to chair a hard-working committee to complete the library addition - which we did in record time - and then we immediately moved on to add a second ice pad and completed the sports facility we now enjoy today.
These are the larger projects. Space would not permit one to mention every volunteer organization that we have in Uxbridge. Loyal volunteers, who see a need, gather together, work hard and get the job done without thought of any reward other than the satisfaction of a job well done for Uxbridge.
Want to see the names of people who gave their best to make Uxbridge the wonderful community that we enjoy today? Then pay a visit to our two cemeteries and walk among the grave markers. The names read like a who's who of hard-working, dedicated residents who built Uxbridge, and we were sad to see them leave us - some much too young. But they taught us well and Uxbridge is a better place because we picked up the torch and continued the work they started.
Is Jacob Mantle the best thing to ever happen to Uxbridge? With all due respect I don't think so, but I do know that Jacob, along with our other elected representatives, are doing their best for Uxbridge. And that, to me, is most important. There is a wonderful saying that has been my motto for years and I have passed it along to my grandchildren - “You can't always be the best. But, you can always do your best”.
You will notice I have not mentioned any names, or singled out any one person for recognition. This is on purpose because, when it comes to volunteers, from top to bottom there is no distinction in my mind. It is a team effort and every project committee is only as strong as its weakest link.
Fortunately for Uxbridge there have been very few weak links. May it always be so and the future of this great community will always be bright.
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When I think of Uxbridge resident John Worsley the 1978 movie Same Time Next Year comes to mind.
It was early in January last year that I walked into the Super Centre in Holetown, Barbados and was more than surprised to bump into John who was visiting his sister in her Sandy Lane home.
Fast forward to this past Wednesday, January 4 when I dropped into the same store, grabbed a cart, and headed to the produce area. Couldn't believe it when, once again, I bumped into John and I don't think it was more than 10 feet from the spot that we shook hands one year earlier.
ESP or coincidence? Who knows? One thing is for certain. I always enjoy that big smile and happy way of greeting people that is John, and hope meeting like this becomes an annual tradition for years to come.
