We lunched at the club today. The Mississippi Golf Club. In the clubhouse on the Mississippi River in the Village of Appleton across from the serene and exclusive Glen Isle. I recall having had years ago from Glen Isle clients who although unconventional were nonetheless kind and generous. They were an elderly couple who, rightly or wrongly I cannot now recollect, took exception to the ambitions of a local property owner and developer. Like most people in remote, rural, idyllic environs – especially riparian – they had their idiosyncrasies and predictable conventions. As well they might! I too feel commited to my Elysian view upriver without the benefit of feudal entitlement.
It was at the outset a boisterous luncheon at the club today. The exuberance was early provoked by the intelligence proffered by our 21-year old server (a summer student) who in a matter of days is off to Mannheim, Germany to play professional hockey for the Mannheim Mad Dogs before returning in a year to continue her post-graduate studies in population medicine (what I understand fundamentally to be an off-shoot of veterinary medicine). The contribution of Canadians and Americans to the German hockey team is about equal; namely, around 4%. Acquainting ourselves with this unanticipated glamour stimulated our already vibrant image of the youth of our area. They all follow upon the heels of other historical successes such as James Naismith (founder of basketball) and R. Tait McKenzie (globally renowned sculptor). Our luncheon companion informed us parenthetically that Bram (the erstwhile child from Coleman’s Island in Almonte) is now the Equipment Manager for the Ottawa Senators hockey team in Ottawa.
Lest the Town of Mississippi Mills be underestimated by unjustifiable measure, I hasten to add to the collection of local talent the late Leonard Lee of Lee Valley Tools and Stephen Brathwaite, Dale Dunning and Sue Adams (artists), among many, many others whom I would willingly proclaim were I not accustomed to being terse.
I have known these modern contributors to our society. Strangely my acquaintance with Leonard Lee goes back another generation because, as Leonard so often liked to quip, my father was his former boss. I unhesitatingly acknowledge that the fortuity served me well! Leonard was always wont to amplify my credentials and creditability by virtue of the chance association.
Amidst the lively conviviality at the club today – and afterwards in Almonte at the Hummingbird Chocolate Factory and Café for espresso and sweets – we reaffirmed our mutual purpose and intent. It is, I wager, no small compliment that two septuagenarians and a sixty-one year old can together contrive such scintillating preoccupation. But that we have done! It has thus far been a venture of mutual employment, each of us having given what utility and discernment we can to the common – and may I add very worthy – target. Hopefully there will be a commensurate reward to excite and ultimately extract from the overall proceedings. I put a mantle of propriety upon our machinations by having suggested at table that our project awakens within me the acme of humanity; namely, to help one another.