So many books that captured kids’ hearts in the past wouldn’t make it to today’s bookshelves. Take a 1949 Wonder Book called The Surprise Doll. About 20 pages, with full colour pictures, it cost 59 cents when published. Sunday morning our daughter-in-law brought our grand-daughter for a visit, and I got out the book. She…

This past November, at a Cundles Rd plaza, a block from the police station, several dozen teenagers, some with cheering devices, and a camera, watched as a nearby high school student was beaten. They cheered. They threw him back for more. One person shot the whole thing on film. And then put it on You…

Past Saturday night, Stella Gan’s new Liberty North banquet facility was totally aglitter with one of its first major events. Stella was aglitter, too, as she should be. This dynamic business owner continues to provide Barrie with the best. Three hundred and fifty women (and a handful of smart men) were attending the fifth annual…

Jonathan Murray was five years old when he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour. Interwoven into the tissue in his brain’s thalamus, Jonathan’s lifespan was shortened to 18 months. He died at age six and a half in October, 2007 nearly five years ago. For his family, his sister Emily who was just a…

I’m hearing a lot of moaning about the ‘unnecessary GD election’ these days. Only in Canada would you hear complaints about the freedom to choose. Pick up an international newspaper, go online and look at current wars around the world, flip through slides of what’s happened in Japan, in Haiti, in New Zealand. Look at…

It started with a tremor in her right hand, a little tremor. And the loss of interest in books. For Erica, in her 60’s, with a history of physical activity–swimming, skiing, hiking, biking, the tremor was incidental. A nurse in her professional life, she paid attention to it. Finally, at the Toronto Western Hospital at…

Wayne Bjorgan was a kid from Leamington, arriving wet behind the ears, to Barrie’s media in the early 60’s. A single, swinging kind of guy, he was the news ‘anchor’ for CKBB Radio and CKVR Television, housed together up on Little’s Hill. You can imagine, this golden-voiced young guy, zipping around town in his red…

I called my mom this morning. I tried to reach her before her ride picked her up for her Alzheimers Day Program. I wanted her to know how important she is. It’s Tuesday. March 8. That’s when I write this column, as a rule. My mom was a fairly typical 50’s mom… looked to dad…

This city needs a concentrated, coordinated Shop Local campaign. It needs its birth to begin with the City’s Economic Development offices, be embraced by Tourism Barrie and the Downtown Business Improvement Board, the Golden Mile, all the Mall Merchants associations, BIN Management and Aerarium who are landlords to so many, the Chamber of Commerce, the…

Each of us, sitting and thinking about Ken Peck last week, had specific memories. Ken died February 12 after several months of physical struggle. He was 91. Of the several hundred people giving thought to Ken, I suspect we were unified in one thought… here was a man whose twinkle was the sum of his…