reved
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SPRING '09 Issue #16
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Arts, Culture and Life in Revelstoke
reved.net
Artist in Profile...Tom Scott is on page two
editorial
Every time the seasons change, I say it’s my
favourite time of year. I love transitions, I suppose, but the shift from winter to spring is so appealing that it is, therefore, 'my favourite'. Some people don’t like the wet streets, the muddy snow and the end of powder days; I like seeing snow pits with lawn chairs, smelling resurrected barbeque’s and feeling the warmth along the side of a building in direct sunlight. I also like spring cleaning and expect this will be a time I’ll organize something major, for example, my office. Once a place for well thought out chaos, it’s now a place where I open the door, throw something in and then close the door. This is how I clean my house when people come over. Literally, I throw things in there. Sometimes I hear something break, which I haven't discovered to be a problem yet. A lot goes into that room, but not much comes out. It’s very satisfying to have a room like this – everyone should have one. My friend Debbie came over once and asked me if I knew my office had been broken into. I’m also particularly ecstatic about spring this year because for most of the winter, I lay wide-eyed awake at night worrying about another cold spell that would put me again into a most disturbing place in my home: The Crawl Space. This is a place I said I’d never go. A place for which there should be numbers invented like 1-800-RENT-A-MAN. A place in which claustrophobics like me could totally lose it, die, and not be found for several days. I had to go under there after the first cold spell froze my sewage pipes and I had no toilet or shower facilities for over two weeks. The Crawl Space is a two-foot high cavern I became intimate with over many days while attempting to thaw ‘stuff’ out. I had
special clothes for The Crawl Space and would emerge from under my house looking like a miner caught in an explosion. It’s tight under there. I built a tarp-tent to trap in heat that would triumphantly thaw things out enough to flow again. I thought this was ingenious and started saying clever things like, “I don’t need a plumber”, until I needed a plumber and paid him $85 to tell me I had a leaky toilet flapper. Such a simple repair after all my under-dwelling mining irritated me enough to start a blog called How To Be a Man When You’re a Woman (.blogspot.com) where there are tips like how to fix your own damn toilet flapper.
In the last issue, we asked readers to send in
words they wanted to see used in this issue’s front page editorial. I've used six of those words on this page so if you’re feeling sporty, go ahead and guess which ones. Answers are posted at the bottom of the page. This was so much fun, we're doing it again, so send us a word: editor@reved.net. I’ll give you a freebie to start: one of the words sent in was chivalry; a word that sparked assorted conversations ranging from how chivalry is alive and well to how chivalry is lacking in appearances. One friend told me a story about getting her vehicle stuck in the snow in the middle of the road. She was pushing her own car when a guy drove up and over a snowbank to avoid helping her and kept going. A fine example of Lack of Chivalry. Another story started with a woman whose husband immediately jumped in and said, “But we’re scared! With all this woman’s lib stuff, we’re scared to be chivalrous!” A justified statement when there are women out there fixing their own damn toilet flappers. But I have to say, once I started watching people, I saw chivalry happening all over the place.
Of course, I wouldn’t be doing chivalry justice if I didn’t mention my neighbours. I am nestled between four of the most accommodating surrogate grandparents who always, always help me when I’m in distress. Which is often (refer to plumbing story). I hope my neighbours never change. They are old-school Revelstokian's and part of an invaluable synergy to our town. Now there’s a good segue into the next topic: what you hope never changes in Revelstoke. The results of our online Reader’s Questionnaire are below. Heather Lea - Senior editor/publisher Reader's Questionnaire Results: "Things I Hope Never Change in Revelstoke." You said: That there will always be snow on Mount Begbie/that people always remain courteous and nice/the size of the town stays below 10,000 people/that the downtown heritage feeling is never compromised/that we keep our green spaces green and keep Revelstoke walkable and bike friendly/that bank tellers and grocery store clerks always know my name/that we keep the farmer's market and the plans to enlarge Grizzly Plaza/that we always have a snowy winter/that we continue to value our large hardwood trees in the downtown area and that cut trees are replaced/that we are able to easily find places to hike/that we are not overrun by tourists/ that we have no lack of personal, friendly people in businesses and around the town in general/ that our town is not run by a bunch of strangers/ that we keep the small town atmosphere/I always want coffee at the Modern, the Farmer's Market and the Wetlands/Joe's happy smile of greeting at the Video Store/The Nomad's awesome burgers/the ability to feel like a local, even if you have just recently moved here....... Kids said: I always want the roads to be plowed in winter I don't want the Columbia River to ever stop flowing I never want the skateboard park to be removed I never want Holly to move away I don't want to ever move away I don't want the swimming pool to ever change The six words: Chivalry, my friend Debbie, Postmodern, Cinderella, Breastfeeding, Synergy
photo: Heather Lea
On any given day, men of any given age will take their lives into their hands and open a door for a woman. Maybe there should have been a disclaimer in the women’s lib declaration, like: “From this day forth, every woman shall be considered as strong and as smart as every man and shall be able to work while breastfeeding in any and all forms of occupations. Disclaimer: However, if men still want to be chivalrous, we’re cool with that.” Otherwise, what‘s to become of the post-modern Cinderella?