When I wrote my book “Travels with Taffy and other Tales” and the Chapter called “Amy’s First Christmas Recital” I had forgotten that “the woman” in the tale had also given a small copy of the book “Chicken Soup With Rice” by Maurice Sendak to our daughter Jody.

The passing of Maurice Sendak this week has brought back a flood of memories about our lives over thirty years ago when our kids were very small!

The original chapter in my book and its more than touching epilogue follow:

Amy’s First Christmas Recital

There was a wonderful country inn style restaurant named “The Butcher Block” in the middle of the village of Hockley, Ontario, Canada. The year was 1978, Amy was three and Jody still going everywhere in her car seat. The restaurant was owned by Hugh and Sonja Close. We knew them quite well, after this event we knew them a little better.

It was near Christmas and Cheryl’s Mum and Dad, my in-laws were visiting. One evening, it might have been Christmas Eve, off we went to The Butcher Block for dinner. Gerry, that’s Amy’s Grandpa, filled Amy’s glass with a little wine and as the time passed, unbeknownst to us he refilled it a time or two. Amy by now was a little less shy than normal, and she began singing Christmas Carols at the table. It was not a large restaurant. Everyone was listening. Hugh Close, the proprietor asked if he could borrow Amy for a few minutes. Off they went hand in hand through a door at the side of the restaurant which led to Hugh’s home which was attached to the restaurant.

Several minutes rolled by and we wondered if they were lost. The door finally opened, and Amy and Hugh came through it with big smiles on their faces. Amy headed back to our table and Hugh headed for the restaurant’s sound system which was playing Christmas Carols. He took a cassette from his pocket and inserted it in the tape deck. In a few moments, Amy’s little voice was filling the room with Christmas Carols and songs. People began to sing along.

A woman at a table a few feet away beckoned Amy to her table. From her purse, she extracted an Eeyore stuffed animal which she gave to Amy. I think Amy still has Eeyore. I do wish I could remember the woman’s name. I do know that she had just opened a small craft store down the road at Violet Hill on Highway 89 named “Granny Taught Us How”.

The snow was falling, Amy was singing, and we had a great meal.

Who could ask for more?

Well I did get more, I added an epilogue to this story and it goes like this:

Epilogue for this tale

After writing the above story, I searched the internet to find www.mrsmitchells.com. Mrs. Mitchell’s is the website for both Granny Taught Us How and Mrs. Mitchell’s restaurant. Just before Christmas 2002 as I started writing these tales, I sent an email to try and learn the name of the “woman” who gave Eeyore to Amy in the story above.

I received the following reply:

Mr. Cane,

My name is Heidi and I am the daughter of that “woman” in the restaurant.

My mother’s name is Maureen Baufeldt.

I just received your story and I phoned my mother right away to read it to her. She recalls that night and we certainly remember the Eeyore because she used to make them. It is so nice to hear that she touched your life in a small way back then but I am writing to tell you how much you have just touched hers. My mother has just completed an enormous amount of treatment for breast cancer. She is the toughest lady I have ever known and she has just heard word that she has beaten the cancer.

Although she is very happy to know she is well, the cancer has affected her in ways I cannot explain. She is forever fearful that it is still lingering inside her and is therefore often sad.

The fact that so many years later you have attempted to find her to tell her your story has lifted her spirits like you cannot imagine. I am a true believer that all things happen for a reason and although you may not have intended to, you have just made her Christmas such a special one.

Thank you,

Heidi

So here I am on May 9th 2012 with a tear in my eye remembering this wonderful night in 1978 and the epilogue above from 2002 and of course Maurice Sendak who touched our family through the years as we would recite,

Chicken Soup with Rice.

January
In January it’s so nice
While slipping on the sliding ice
To sip hot chicken soup with rice
Sipping once, sipping twice
Sipping chicken soup with rice

February
In February it will be
My snowman’s anniversary
With cake for him and soup for me!
Happy once, happy twice
Happy chicken soup with rice

March
In March the wind blows down the door
And spills my soup upon the floor
It laps it up and roars for more
Blowing once, blowing twice
Blowing chicken soup with rice

April
In April I will go away
To far off Spain or old Bombay
And dream about hot soup all day
Oh, my, oh, once, oh, my, oh, twice
Oh, my, oh, chicken soup with rice

May
In May I truly think it best
To be a robin lightly dressed
Concocting soup inside my nest
Mix it once, mix it twice
Mix that chicken soup with rice

June
In June I saw a charming group
Of roses all begin to droop
I pepped them up with chicken soup!
Sprinkle once, sprinkle twice
Sprinkle chicken soup with rice

July
In July I’ll take a peep
Into the cool and fishy deep
Where chicken soup is selling cheap
Selling once, selling twice
Selling chicken soup with rice

August
In August it will be so hot
I will become a cooking pot
Cooking soup of course-why not?
Cooking once, cooking twice
Cooking chicken soup with rice

September
In September, for a while
I will ride a crocodile
Down the chicken soup-y Nile
Paddle once, paddle twice
Paddle chicken soup with rice

October
In October I’ll be host
To witches, goblins and a ghost
I’ll serve them chicken soup on toast
Whoopy once, whoopy twice
Whoopy chicken soup with rice

November
In November’s gusty gale
I will flop my flippy tail
And spout hot soup-I’ll be a whale!
Spouting once, spouting twice
Spouting chicken soup with rice

December
In December I will be
A baubled, bangled Christmas tree
With soup bowls draped all over me
Merry once, merry twice
Merry chicken soup with rice

I told you once, I told you twice
All seasons of the year are nice
For eating chicken soup with rice

Written in memory of Maurice Sendak 1928-2012 and Maureen Baufeldt (1942-2011)

It’s just a f**king car club. Sunday April 1st was the day that changed the Queen City Cooper’s Car Club forever. My wife and I helped start the club back in ’03/’04 when it was called Cinci Minis and our website was called www.cinciniminis.com and some time in 2010 the name changed to the Queen City Coopers to accommodate the desires of Cincinnati Mini (Cincinnati’s Mini Dealer). They did not like the confusion in names.

Cheryl and I had been active members for nearly ten years and the club over that period of time changed from a group primarily composed of driving enthusiasts that were genuinely aware of the capabilities of the little four wheeled go-cart  to a mixture of folks, some with families who joined them on rides and club events and some who saw the speed limit on Ohio’s highways as a speed that no one could possibly approach, let alone exceed. Yes, some of driving enthusiasts might break the speed limit periodically but most of us were happy trying to maintain the speed limit on the twisty back roads of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.

Back to Sunday April 1^st 2012 I thought that someone was playing an April Fool’s Joke  when a member of the club that in my opinion was acting like an imaginary person that I  might name ‘Ms. Santorum’ began to introduce a ‘code of ethics’,  it might have been a ‘code of conduct’ to the group at our monthly meeting.

I knew that I was being singled out as earlier last week I had posted  an image of a dash plaque or sticker on the Queen City Coopers Facebook Page regarding the Mini having a Turbocharged Engine and this was removed from the FB page at the request of the woman mentioned above. You judge for yourself, the  sticker is on the right. Is this really unsuitable for a car club Facebook page?

The code of ethics looked to me like something a teenager might find in his package of information as he’s signing up for summer camp, not a document that a group of adults would be expected to sign to be part of a f**king car club. The influences of the religious right who are trying to bring their church into government have succeeded in imposing their morality on a simple car club. I’m guessing that drives in future will start with a prayer and club events will open with an evocation to God.

I failed to keep a copy but I think the document went as far to suggest that a member might be expelled were he to use foul language at a club event. There was no definition of what language was allowed or disallowed, it seemed to be up to the review of a yet to be defined morals committee.

We’ve gone from being among the most active club members to being ousted. The club now, even though we have not officially resigned has removed our names from the membership roster at the club’s website and I have been banished from the club’s FB page. I’m not sure that I give a damn, whoops, perhaps ‘damn’ is one of the banned words. Our new Mini Countryman was adorned with Queen City Cooper decals and magnets and soon it will seem naked as we remove those adornments.

It really is a shame that one or two members, whose moral code is different from that of others in the club can dictate that their conduct and ethics are those to adhered to by all members. The world has changed a lot since George Carlin, back in 1966 coined the phrase about the seven dirty words that you can’t say on television. You can review those words at <Click Here> and a few of them now are a lot more common now than they were then, I’m not saying that that is a good thing but it is a fact of our modern society and there are still a few who have difficulty with change.

I wish the members of the club well and hope they enjoy the club in the way it should be managed. I do hope that the current executive begin to relax now that their major source of aggravation has left the club. I for one will move on and put more effort into other car clubs that we belong to. So far, none of them has indicated to me that my behavior is unacceptable.

As I said, “It’s just a f**king car club!”

An old friend emailed me this list. I was and am unable to find the author’s name. If you know who the writer is then please let me know.

1. The Post Office

Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Check

Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with cheque by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process cheques. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the cheque. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3. The Newspaper Continue reading →