Bring The SCOOP Home for Christmas
The
SCOOP T Founded in 2005 by Richard Saxe
PUBLISHER & AD SALES Karen Nordrum
stonemills.scoop@gmail.com
CONTRIBUTORS
Katherine Burrows, Eric DePoe, Jeff Dies, Dianne Dowling, Anthony Gifford, Glen R. Goodhand, Alyce Gorter, Lisa Lawlis, Marcella Neely, Mark Oliver, Susan Rehner, Terry
here is probably no other time of the year when the yearning for home is greater than that which is almost upon us: Christmas and the number of other celebrations and festivities that overlap or follow this holiday. Many of the spiritual values that are the essence of the Christian origin of Christmas are synonymous with home: birth, family, giving, simplicity, sharing. These are of course universal values, that all of us share, regardless of faith, origin, creed, or wealth. The quest for the perfect, newest cell phone to offer as a gift is not among those values, but the experience does seem to have become an unfortunate part of the human condition! Thankfully not on the same
level as going home, or hoping to do so, or, in too many cases, just hoping to have a home. It’s probably fitting, at a time when sharing should be the main waypoint of our moral compass, to think about that hope: to have a home. Homelessness seems to be strictly an urban problem, and most of us, readers and contributors to this paper, live at several removes from the city. We don’t walk or drive past beggars or street kids on a regular basis. We rarely meet people who are so far from home, they can only rarely, if ever, go back. Yet many of us are struggling to find or keep a decent home, as one of this issue’s main articles
reminds us. As we get older, and all too often lonelier, sharing the place we call home is often the best solution, as another of our writers points out. And of course, home is often more an experience than a place, shared with the people and animals we love, and with those we’ve loved and lost, as Terry Sprague tells us, in the beautiful, powerful prose we’ve grown accustomed to. As Christmas approaches, we think Edith Sitwell had it right when she asserted that “Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.”
Sprague, Jerry Weller, Tom Wheatley, Denice Wilkins
NEW YEAR’S EVE 2018
All photos contributed, unless
Celebrate the New Year with a scrumptious
Season’s Greetings
otherwise noted.
Wishing all readers a joyous holiday season, a new year of happiness, and hope for a world at peace. The SCOOP
HOW TO CONTACT US 613.379.5369
stonemills.scoop@gmail.com thescoop.ca facebook.com/thescoop.ca Please write to us at: Stone Mills Scoop 482 Adair Road
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The SCOOP is published
11893 Hwy 41 Just south of Northbrook
six times a year. We mail The SCOOP for free to more than 6600 households in Tamworth, Centreville, Enterprise, Erinsville, Camden East, Newburgh, Colebrook, Yarker, Verona, Hartington, Sydenham, Roblin, Selby, Parham, Kaladar, Stella, Godfrey, & Marlbank. We also arrange with local retailers to display 1000 additional issues of The SCOOP in Napanee, Cloyne, Flinton, Kaladar, & many other locations. All rights reserved. No reproduction by any means or any form may be made without prior written consent by the publisher.
THE BOOK SHOP
COVER
The ol’ farm building in the
Bridge St. E. at the foot of Peel
Verona area sports a fresh
TAMWORTH
snow coat. Photo taken this
613-379-2108
November by Bill Kendall. For more of Bill’s local nature
Brian Crough
613.388.2403
photos, visit @lakelifenaturals on Facebook. 2
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
The SCOOP • December 2018 / January 2019
www.tamworthbookshop.com info@tamworthbookshop.com
December hours by chance or appointment Calls are welcome: 613-379-2108 Regular hours resume Easter weekend 2019
