THE RAM'S HEAD REVIEW

REUNION


Thursday’s meeting was a wonderful get-together for four of us. Margaret, Marilyn and Bob joined me after a month’s hiatus due to my Mother’s passing. My sincere thanks to all for your expressions of sympathy during that time.

Marilyn read two of her poems for us. The first one was SKINS, a listing of all the different types of skins found in nature and daily life. The second poem was NORTH WORDS, enumerating words like Inuit and kayak, that are particular to the Canadian north. Interesting concepts in both these poems.

Bob read more about T & W, (Trailing and Waters) who had been his competitor in the manufacture of jewellery. In the 1960s, the making of charms became very popular, and T & W had some unique pieces. Jack Waters, still a heavy drinker, died in November of 1970 at the age of 53. The company seemed to be overstaffed and Bob thought it was because many of their procedures for labeling and packaging were outdated and time consuming. Drinking continued to be heavy at T & W, and some salespeople who called on them preferred to do so in the morning while others who liked to party did so in late afternoon.

Margaret read another story from the Peabody collection, JOEY SEES DR. NOAH. Rev. Peacock takes Joey, the parrot, to see the Doctor because of his penchant for cursing. Peacock had dressed Joey in a dress and bonnet as he thought the Doctor was allergic to feathers. When they arrived, the parrot was given a stool to perch on, but poor Peacock was made to stand. Dr. Noah told Peacock to replace Joey’s vocabulary with words that were more acceptable, but Peacock already read the bible to him every night. The doctor wanted to know why the bird was in a dress, and Peacock said it was to visit him. The doctor then said Peacock needed help more than the bird. Peacock later learned the Doctor was allergic to ferrets, not feathers. But Joey now refrained from cursing any time he was wearing the dress.

I read a short, first person piece called THE PERFECT SIZE. It is a funny account about my acquisition of a used dress form for sewing and Honey’s attempts at making a stand for it. And I know it was funny because everybody listening had to remove their glasses and wipe tears from their eyes at the end. I have since submitted it to THREADS magazine for consideration. Writing something short gave me a nice sense of completion that takes so very long to get when writing a novel.

Marilyn read again, a piece called END OF THE LINE, written by her friend Mike Malone. It is written in two points of view, father and son, and tells of their inner thoughts and feelings when the son admits, at 36, that he is transgendered. The father is a widower who has one daughter living far away, and though he dearly loves his son, he also sees this will be the end of the line for his family. Meanwhile, the son misses his sister’s female companionship and sees his own decision ending a time of pretending to be someone he is not. Pretty deep emotional issues at play for both these individuals and you can’t help but pray they get past the feeling of deep sadness this piece evokes.

Margaret brought me a book called SOURCES. It’s a resource of names and contact info for organizations, companies and agencies. Quoting the book they are “Canada’s finest directory of human contacts. When you need analysis, commentary and information from people in the know, this is the place.” If anybody would like to borrow it, it’s here.

I had a number of books to give away and all but one was fiction. Margaret took most of them for the library in her apartment building.

Ann wrote her piece on floods and mailed it off. Robin was going to attend our meeting but came down with a cold. Last Sunday Bryon and I ran into Nathaniel and Tracy at Princess Auto. (Writers hang out at strange places.) They looked great, and love the sunshine they get living in Victoria’s harbour. Their boat is now moored in front of The Empress Hotel. And Nathaniel says it’s been difficult getting a regular writers’ group over there. People seem to be kind of cliquey. One group was full of drama, and while he was away on a road trip, it just disintegrated. But he’s trying to start another.

Marilyn said she would like to host a meeting sometime, but no definite date has been set for that yet. So unless you hear otherwise, the next meeting will be here at my place on Thursday, April 17th at 7:00 p.m. Love to see you then, with or without your Muse.

Lisa