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.
Why don't you come down and sit in them?
Recipe for a fun night in Uxbridge: Have historian Allan McGillivray research the official opening of the Music Hall back on December 19, 1901. Dress Conrad Boyce up as then Mayor Kelly. Have members of the present council and our current M.P.P. play the role of those who sat on council during that year. Lasso Roger Varley to do a great job of playing the unpopular Member of Parliament, Isaac Gould. Then bring on the young and talented Duncan McDougall to play school principal Park and bring the house down with two excellent violin solos and you’re well on the way to success.
But that's not all. Have the members of the excellent Musical Society Orchestra sitting on old wooden kitchen chairs (no metal folding chairs in those days) offer musical numbers and backing up the large Uxbridge Choir and add Rita Jackson, in period costume, warbling as only the late Minnie Gould could do.
Take all of these ingredients, put them in a huge container such as the Music Hall, add a large number of Uxbridge theatre goers and stir well. It only took a few minutes for those attending to realize they were in for a delicious evening. And judging by the applause and the demand for encores this recipe would certainly win the Better Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
But it just wasn't the talent that made this evening special, it was the little things that made it so enjoyable. For instance, it took eight years of wrangling and infighting by members of council before the site was approved, and the beautiful Uxbridge Music Hall opened to the public. This did not go unnoticed by the producers. Several members of the audience were handed sarcastic and mean remarks to holler out during the politicians’ speeches. For example when T. C. Nicholls (Jack Ballinger) was praising the hall and the comfortable chairs, “Yeh, if you think they are so comfortable why don't you come down and sit in them for a while?” came from a booming voice at the back of the hall. That, and other remarks yelled out brought loud laughter and added to the fun of the evening.
It was an evening not to be missed, and to all those who performed or worked on the production in any way take a big bow. When you hear people say, “Uxbridge is loaded with an abundance of wonderful talent,” they are talking about you. ------------------------------
And speaking of talent it was a fun time in the Legion club-rooms the other afternoon as popular NHL star Bobby Hull dropped in for a couple of hours.
Bobby was visiting his sister and brother-in-law Judy and Hans Fraeke in Uxbridge and Legion members were pleasantly surprised and pleased when he took the time to drop in for a visit. For a couple of hours everyone enjoyed wonderful hockey stories and relived fond memories of watching the Golden Jet in full flight terrorizing opposition netminders.
It didn't take long for news of Bobby's visit to spread and Legion members who are loyal to the Chicago Black Hawks arrived wearing Black Hawk sweaters and carrying Bobby Hull books to be autographed by this hockey legend.
Thanks for the visit, Bobby. Come back anytime.
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Battle Of The Blades, the popular CBC TV show, will be even more popular with the residents of Uxbridge and Stouffville this season. One of the contestants on the show will be local boy Brad May who had a long, and successful, career in the NHL. And you can even find his name on the Stanley Cup. The new season of Battle Of The Blades aired this week and can be seen Monday nights at 8 p.m.
Will be interesting to see if Brad can transform his excellent hockey skating skills over to the precision and finesse required to be a successful figure skater.
Go for it, Brad. We will all be cheering for you.
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There was a major outcry when Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak announced that, if elected Premier, he would force known sex offenders to wear a monitoring bracelet at all times.
These people who seem to oppose everything that is suggested by those who do not share their beliefs proclaimed that this would be the end of freedom for Canadians - even though Hudak was not talking about law-abiding citizens.
Fast forward to the days when the family of missing three-year-old Kienan Hebert begged the man suspected of kidnapping him to return the boy safe and sound.
I don't know about you, but when I read that the person suspected had a record as long as your arm involving kidnapping and sexual offenses, I felt that we would read the boy's body, battered and abused, had been found.
What a relief to learn that the boy was returned unharmed and the suspect was arrested a few days later and will face charges in this case.
Having said that, imagine the difference if Hudak's idea was in place. Within minutes police would know exactly where the suspect and the child were and could follow them via a computer and, in all likelihood, Kienan would have been returned to his family within hours rather than days, and would have saved hours and hours of never knowing what was happening to their little boy.
We seem to talk a lot about rights the last few years. It comes out with ease, but I notice there is a second word missing and that is 'responsibility'. Not using both words in the same sentence doesn't make sense to me and that is probably because I, like my siblings and friends, were raised that way. You earned your rights by taking your responsibilities seriously.
Most people these days want every right that is available. But they sure don't want to have anything to do with responsibility. Would sure be a better world if that attitude were to change.
