Do you think you will change after this Corona thing has been defeated?

[redneck joe]

well, 9th grade was first year for algebra and due to very strict class size guidelines in the wonderful state of GA, there were two too many kids for the class. So they put a small table in a janitors closet and assigned a college age teachers assistant to teach us. He did what colleg

 

[JimS123]

Your scool had algerbra? Fancee shmancee. I failed arithmitic an spellin. I was the only kid that had his own parkin' spot in grade 8.

That sounds funny, but its not far from the truth.

In 8th grade catlick school we had a kid that we knew was older than us. He just started that year and his father was the janitor at the hospital a block away. He lived in the hospital basement.

On the day of the school picnic at the Crystal Beach Amusement Park, we were all standing in the parking lot waiting for the school bus when the kid drove up in his 1953 Chevy. He invited some of us to come with him but Mother Mary Superior wouldn't allow it.

I heard later that he dropped out of high school and joined the army.

 

[harringtondav]

Food supply is becoming a major issue.

It is. Iowa's bread and butter is hog and chicken processing. Several large hog processors have shut down due to rampant COVID spread. "Diverse workforce" our county health briefing said. Mostly Hispanics, several families under one roof.

My BIL is a contract hog finisher. He doesn't own the pigs, he gets paid to bring them up to market weight. He said he's shipping off his current market ready bunch, and cleaning up for the next batch of weaned pigs this week.

Our family won't run out of pork in the near future. BIL said he'd (and probably Smithfield) would be glad to sell a spare hog. Any town in IA >2000 population has a private meat locker. I'll take a full loin, ribs included and shoulder. Plenty of family to divvy up the rest.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

That sounds funny, but its not far from the truth.

In 8th grade catlick school we had a kid that we knew was older than us. He just started that year and his father was the janitor at the hospital a block away. He lived in the hospital basement.

On the day of the school picnic at the Crystal Beach Amusement Park, we were all standing in the parking lot waiting for the school bus when the kid drove up in his 1953 Chevy. He invited some of us to come with him but Mother Mary Superior wouldn't allow it.

I heard later that he dropped out of high school and joined the army.

Yes Jim, the kid that drove to grade 8 is actually a pal neighbour of mine now. It wasn't me I took artistic license. Come to find out he wasn't much older than us he just would take his fathers car at age 13 when Dad was sleeping off of night shifts.

As you probably know the amusement park at Crystal Beach is long gone. Mom said they used to take a ferry from Buffalo to the beach after the war. What was the park is a now huge gated beach condominium complex. I would say 70% of the cars there have NY plates. I think they go for something like 800K CDN. Many of the north shore of Erie properties closer to Buffalo are still owned by US citizens. Like a buddy I have from Akron NY that inherited the family beach house at Crystal Beach when he went to sell he was shocked to learn our Gov. takes something like 30% of the gross sale price as a nice tax bill for foreign owners. It came into law when multi millionaires from Asia, mostly Hong Kong, started to buy up every available property in Vancouver and Toronto driving prices sky high. If you own a downtown Vancouver condo you are a millionaire on paper. My cousin teaches at The University of B.C. and has a minuscule 500 sqft bachelors apt that has a value of 1.1 million CDN. He comes home here to southern Ontario every summer and rents it out as an Air B&B for ridiculous prices.

 

[dwco5051]

I can remember riding the roller coaster at Chrystal Beach around 65 years ago. I was told you could see the lights of Buffalo from the top but I rode it in the daytime and never saw them. When measured from lake level to the top I was also told it was the world's highest at that time.

 

[JimS123]

Yes Jim, the kid that drove to grade 8 is actually a pal neighbour of mine now. It wasn't me I took artistic license. Come to find out he wasn't much older than us he just would take his fathers car at age 13 when Dad was sleeping off of night shifts.

As you probably know the amusement park at Crystal Beach is long gone. Mom said they used to take a ferry from Buffalo to the beach after the war. What was the park is a now huge gated beach condominium complex. I would say 70% of the cars there have NY plates. I think they go for something like 800K CDN. Many of the north shore of Erie properties closer to Buffalo are still owned by US citizens. Like a buddy I have from Akron NY that inherited the family beach house at Crystal Beach when he went to sell he was shocked to learn our Gov. takes something like 30% of the gross sale price as a nice tax bill for foreign owners. It came into law when multi millionaires from Asia, mostly Hong Kong, started to buy up every available property in Vancouver and Toronto driving prices sky high. If you own a downtown Vancouver condo you are a millionaire on paper. My cousin teaches at The University of B.C. and has a minuscule 500 sqft bachelors apt that has a value of 1.1 million CDN. He comes home here to southern Ontario every summer and rents it out as an Air B&B for ridiculous prices.

I understood the artistic licence, but my story was true. Your tale just jogged my memory.

I also know all about "The Beach". I have friends over there and possibly those are the plates you see. I had a ride on the "ferry" just before it was taken out of service.

The Canadiana (the CB Boat) was intended to be restored but they ran out of money. It had been stored in Ohio I believe, until it was far gone and then towed to Welland or Thorold (I forget) and was then found too bad to restore and the hull was eventually cut up and scrapped. The wheelhouse and 1 lifeboat is now stored in Buffalo.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

"I

understood the artistic licence, but my story was true." So was mine just not me. ​

 

[Old Ironmaker]

I can remember riding the roller coaster at Chrystal Beach around 65 years ago. I was told you could see the lights of Buffalo from the top but I rode it in the daytime and never saw them. When measured from lake level to the top I was also told it was the world's highest at that time.

When the Moon is right we can actually see the lights in Buffalo from our place on the Ontario side of Erie. Now the skyline is all blinking red from the lights on the Wind Turbines in NY. And I tossed more than a few cookies from that wooden roller coaster. I think I remember reading someone down in the US bought it to reassemble it.

 

[JimS123]

The "Giant" Roller Coaster was wooden and located in the center of the park. The "Comet" was a steel coaster and it was located right on the shore, with sights of Buffalo.

The Comet was dismantled for reassembly and was sent to Fantasy Island for storage. It was thought that they were going to use it, but it eventually was sold and transported elsewhere. Fantasy Island built their own "Comet", but it was not in the same league.

Had my first date with a gurl at the Beach, so the nostalgia is beyond words.

"Crystal Beach Park", by William E. Kae (Cylcone Books Publisher) chronicles the whole 100 years of the venue.

 

[82rude]

Old Ironmaker heres a little place litteraly right on the water in downtown Victoria for around 200,000 in 2012.Well I cant resize the damn picture but it was a nice house around 900 sq foot.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Old Ironmaker heres a little place litteraly right on the water in downtown Victoria for around 200,000 in 2012.Well I cant resize the damn picture but it was a nice house around 900 sq foot.

Funny that just yesterday I was talking to an old friend I played ball with and he has been in Victoria since 1980 and I haven't seen him since I visited there in 90'. Victoria isn't downtown Vancouver. It isn't cheap but nowhere as expensive as Vancouver. It's much more beautiful too. What I remember most about Victoria was walking back to my hotel late one night and the cherry blossoms were 2" thick on the sidewalks in April. Waking in the morning and sitting on the patio having breakfast and seeing the snow capped Rockies was very cool for a city boy from Hamilton Ontario. We have the Niagara Escarpment in Hamilton that isn't 600' feet high and we have the nerve to call it a mountain. Yea right. It never rained once in the week I visited.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Finally! :facepalm:


For those who don't get it...

√-1 2[SUP]3[/SUP] ∑ π

Square root of minus 1 is an imaginary number, the symbol is ' I '.
2 raised to the power 3 is 8. (2 x 2 x 2)
∑ is the math symbol for summation, 'sum' for short.
π is the Greek letter pi. Which is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. (roughly 3.14159)

Chris........

For those that don't get it you say. OK I don't get it and don't care to get it. pi R sq, is as far as I got and that only took me 7 years of high school to get it. Back then we had grade 13 in Ontario. In University I majored in special teams.

We went to Fantasy Island a few times. It was the poor mans Canadian National Exhibition, The CNE in Toronto.

 

[82rude]

2012 was the wettest coldest june in decades .Just my luck!I stayed in Langford for a month and explored that area of the island extensively.One of the most bicycle friendly spots in North America.Everybody I met had a very easy going positive attitude .I took about 500 plus pictures with my Nikon on that trip.Fav places were South Dakota ,Montana,Wyoming,Idaho and of course B.C. I loved Fernie B.C.

 

[bassman284]

For those that don't get it you say. OK I don't get it and don't care to get it. pi R sq, is as far as I got and that only took me 7 years of high school to get it. Back then we had grade 13 in Ontario. In University I majored in special teams.

We went to Fantasy Island a few times. It was the poor mans Canadian National Exhibition, The CNE in Toronto.

My granma used to say, "Pie are not square, pie are round.

 

[JimS123]

My granma used to say, "Pie are not square, pie are round.

Pizza pies are round, but where I come from they are square.

Go figure...

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Pizza pies are round, but where I come from they are square.

Go figure...

Pizza Junction Joe? I hear it closed some years ago due to some stuff that makes front page news. No wonder they closed shop, the pizza's were great and huge, and square, wings were massive and great too. We always brought a big slab with us to Bills games. Having been in the restaurant bizz for years I wondered years ago how they made any money? My Nani that lived on Payne Ave. was a cook in several restaurants in the area including Pete's Market on the boulevard. And often took me to work as soon as I learned how to walk. I was dicing onions for her standing on a stool when I was 4. My cousin was later a chef at Pete's Market on the boulevard years ago too. Is it still open? I'm trying to think of the guys name that is or was from N.T. that opened an Italian restaurant on the boulevard. He played pro football here in Canada. Cassada is the last name if I can remember correctly. Richie Cassada. That's it.

The 1st Pizza I had in Italy was square too, they were mostly all square and the best Pizza I ever ate. They give you a carrier thing full of different flavor infused oils to dribble on them. Like the totes they bring condiments in here in Canada and the USA. Pretty well straight off the plane my cousin took me for Pizza. It was sea food pizza with shrimps the size of a big man's thumb, huge clams, calamari and octopus, certainly not for everyone. It was the best single Pizza I ever had in my life.

2nd day no smoking. I am constantly reaching for a cigarette while sitting here using the lap top. Using the nicotine spray and it seems to be working. My wife is quitting too, she was off yesterday and it got a little antsy in here. We both woke up alive this morning so no murder suicide during the night. Wish us luck, the harder you work the luckier you get.

To get back to the purpose of this thread I don't think many people will be shaking hands in the future as we once did or give the 2 cheek kisses us Italo Canadians give one another. I heard on TV this AM Dr's have been warning us not to shake hands for years as it's the best way to get us all sick. I don't remember hearing that before.

 

[redneck joe]

Good luck on the quitting. I'm almost four years and wife is one year.

 

[BWR1953]

I'll be using the Vulcan Salute instead of handshaking.

 

[achris]

I'll be using the Vulcan Salute instead of handshaking.

I may use Rimmer's salute.

Generally, I think in about a year, this pandemic will be a thing of the past, and being a species with no thought for the future, or the ability to learn from the past, we'll go back to doing exactly what we were doing 6 months ago. Just the nature of the beast... Shame really.

What I would LIKE to see change, it a greater appreciation (and financial reward) for people who are the most important in society, those who keep us alive at our most critical times. Less financial rewards for those who are of little value to society (I'm looking at 'entertainers', sports-people and actors, singers and 'artists' in general). This pandemic has been a great chance to see who's needed, and who isn't!

If I was blindly optomistic, I'd like to see the current economic and financial model disassembled and a more resource based system introduced. An end to the filthy rich (who have more money than they can spend in several lifetimes, but I am not suggesting for a communist system, 70 years in Russia proved that doesn't work).

Chris........

 

[sphelps]

The “ filthy rich “ / capitalism has pulled and kept more people out of poverty then any other system ever tried ..
Yes entertainers and such make far more than they are worth but with that they buy stuff .. Probably fancy things that they don’t really need .. Others sell the stuff that others make that others provide and ship the materials for .. You get the idea ..
If there were no rich people , everyone would be poor ..
Should essential workers make more money ? Absolutely! But on the flip side if they did then the cost of those services would be much higher than they are for average people...