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Recent Outings:Stage West Dinner Theatre: May 10, 2006. Cabaret [See page 4]Annual Meeting: June 6, 2006. Mohawk College North Cafeteria, [See page 4]Drayton Festival Theatre: June 23, 2006. Not Now, Darling [See page 5]
Future Outings:Lighthouse Theatre, Port Dover: August 17, 2006. Jasper Station [Sold Out]Shaw Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake: September 29, 2006: Arms and the ManMuskoka Fall Colour Cruise and Luncheon: Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Proposed Activities:Carmen’s Dinner Theatre: December 6: Nasty HabitsChinese New Year’s Dinner: Le Chinois(?) Late January or early February 2007Ottawa Trip: Tulip Time and tours May 15 - 17, 2007Stage West Dinner Theatre: Mid-May 2007: The Full Monty
There are still tickets available for Arms and the Man. See Ann Dunn. There may be aticket or two left for the Muskoka Cruise. See Brad Berry.
Proposed activities are tentative, but mark them on your calendar so you won’t forget.Other proposed activities for 2007 include theatre trips to St. Jacobs and/or Drayton
and/or Pennetanguishene; and Hamilton Harbour Dinner Cruise.
July, 2006R
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Pineapple DelightIngredients24 Graham crackers, crushed (Rolled)1/4 cup (62.5 mL) butter, melted1 1/2 cups (375 mL) icing sugar1/2 cup (62.5 mL) butter2 eggs1/2 pint (10 oz) (300 mL) whipping cream,whipped1 can (19 oz) crushed pineapple (welldrained)
Directions1. Combine crushed crackers and meltedbutter2. Reserve about 1/4 cup; spread rest inbottom of dish (9" x 12")3. Beat together icing sugar and butteruntil creamy.4. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well5. Spread this mixture over graham crack-ers6. Spread whipped cream next7. Spread pineapple8. Top with remainder of graham crackermixture9. Chill in refrigerator overnight
It’s Time to Renew Your Membership!Your $25.00 membership fee includes the following benefits:
Membership in OCRA (Ontario College Retirees’ Association) your provincial voice(value $10.00)
Four issues of this newsletter (September, January, April and July) Advanced notice of our groups’ activities Reduced rates for all group activities Partially subsidized annual dinner and meeting A warm, fuzzy feeling! Renew today! (See enclosed letter.)
Page 2
July, 2006 Retirees Association of Mohawk College Newsletter
By Brian Welsh
Apple Annie’s Kitchen is located at 645Plains Road E, Burlington. It is a ratherlarge family restaurant such as one might
find in the US – Perkins comes to mind – but asnear as I can determine from a search of theinternet it is not a franchise. When Mary and Ivisited the service was prompt and friendly; wewere asked if we preferred a booth or a table –we chose a booth. Mary ordered a half pint ofRickard’s Red and I a full pint. We both enjoyeda bowl of chicken with rice soup. Mary orderedthe Souvlaki on pita – chicken topped with on-ions, tomatoes and tzatziki sauce. I chose aPhilly Steak sandwich – thinly sliced beef toppedwith sautéed onions green peppers and Swisscheese. Every thing was first rate. I would haverecommended it as a great place to take thegrand-kids if Mary had not gone back on twoseparate occasions. On the first the service wasslow and inattentive and on the second it wasabsolutely rude and egregious even though thefood was excellent. Lunch with beer tax and tipwas $35. We both enjoy Indian cuisine and there-fore it was only natural that we would head out tothe Modern India Buffet, 157 Main St East atWalnut St. It is spacious and nicely appointedwith friendly servers. The buffet offered a largenumber of hot dishes, salads and condiments.There were several chicken dishes, both beefand goat curries and of course many vegetarianofferings ranging from very spicy to mild. Afterordering Kingfisher beers we visited the buffet. Isampled virtually all and Mary most of the foodsoffered on the hot buffet and some of the condi-ments. All were of excellent quality. This is with-out a doubt one of the best Indian buffets in thisarea as well as being excellent value. Lunch withbeer, tax and tip was $33. One day in late April we had a one o’clockappointment in Kitchener and since we werefaced with an hour’s drive we decided to lunchthere rather than eating before we left home. Notbeing overly familiar with Kitchener we decided to
park in the downtown area near the corner ofKing and Queen Streets. As luck would have itthe Walper Hotel is at that corner and uponinquiring, we found we could lunch either in theirmain dining room or in their pub, “The RumRunner” .We chose the latter. Mary ordered ahalf and I ordered a full pint of Guinness whichMary followed with soup and a club sandwichand I one of my pub favourites, roast beef on akaiser with French fries. Both the soup and thesandwiches were excellent. Lunch with beer, taxand tip was $32. The Zum Linzer Specializes in Austrianand German cuisine and is located at 537 MainSt East – just east of Wentworth St. Mary and Iarrived there shortly after noon and were told thatsince we didn’t have a reservation we could notbe seated for at least half an hour. We had somechores to attend to on Barton St so we decidedto come back rather than going elsewhere. Wewere very glad we did. A few minutes after oursecond coming we were seated. The restaurantis small, intimate and tastefully decorated. Maryordered a medium and I a large pilsner. We bothordered the special – soup and a hunter schnitzelwith spaetzle. The soup, beef barley, was goodbut the schnitzel was fantastic. The sauce wastomato with peppers and was nicely spiced. Theservice was prompt and friendly. The next timewe lunch at Zum Linzer, and we will be backwithout a doubt, we will make a reservation (905-528-0023). Lunch with beer, tax and tip was $33.
~~~
MOHAWK COLLEGEGARAGE SALE
Mohawk will be hosting their 25th AnnualGarage Sale in support of the UnitedWay, so make sure you're in atten-
dance! The sale takes place on Saturday, Sep-tember 9th from 9:00 am - 2:00 pm in theFennell Campus Parking Lot. The rain date isSunday, September 10th, 2006. Great bargainsare to be had for only a $2.00 admission. Withover 200 vendors and 5000 shoppers, this isone of the largest garage sales in Southern On-tario.
Page 3
July, 2006Retirees Association of Mohawk College Newsletter
By Fred Oldfield
We live out in the “boonies”. Although ourproperty is adjacent to the “Greater”city of Hamilton and we are within the
town of Grimsby, we lack water, sewers, gas,cable TV and, worst of all, high speed Internetaccess. That is until quite recently. Within the last half year I have heard of 3or four companies that are offering wirelesshigh-speed Internet access. There appear to betwo variations in the pricing: Pay about $1,000up front and then about $50/month or pay noth-ing up front and then pay about $70 monthly.Both are expensive, but not out-of-line with theprices of cable or telephone high speed - if theywere available - not bundled with other servic-es. The first company whose flier I receivedwas www.speedway.ca. My wife and I brieflydiscussed the idea. Obviously, we were nothappy with the up-front fees, but the monthlyrate was roughly equal to what we were cur-rently paying for a dedicated phone line and di-al-up service. We signed up. I’d love to tell you that it’s been smoothsailing, but it hasn’t. The couple of months or so
were pretty good. There would be theodd loss of service, but it would bequickly restored. However, May andJune have been terrible. The servicewas down more than it was up. Firstthey had lightning fry some of theirequipment, then the owners of thetower decided to add another fifty feetto it. But these were not the onlycauses of my troubles. Last week, afterI again informed them of the loss ofservice, they came and took out theoriginal equipment and replaced it withwhat closely resembles a satellite dishexcept that it appears to be aimed atsome point on the ground south-east ofus. (Logically, I would have thought itwould be aimed south-west, west ornorth-west, but it’s not. Will this mark the end of my trou-
bles? We’ll just have to wait and see. If you arein the market for high speed wireless, don’tcount Speedway out yet just because I’ve hadtroubles (they’re not perfect but they are rea-sonably responsive and always polite.), but dolook into the alternatives. Meanwhile, I’ll keepyou informed about my experiences.
~~~ My eldest son got married on July 1 -which is also the 87th birthday of my mother.We’ve been busy improving the house (weadded a sun-roof to our deck and are repaintingthe house (it’s amazing how 35 year old whitesiding suddenly turns middle gray next to freshpaint), as well as preparing for the wedding it-self. For these reasons, I haven’t had much timeto ‘surf the net’. Perhaps for the next issue.
~~~ Last issue I talked about getting a cam-corder. I finally did, just in time for the wedding.I didn’t go with any of the models my web re-search indicated were “best buys”, partially be-cause I couldn’t find any locally, but mostlybecause the more I researched, the more Iwanted the expensive models I couldn’t afford. Instead, I went with a refurbished HitachiDVD model (it records on mini DVD’s) that Ibought at FactoryDirect (www.factorydirect.ca)on James Street.
Retirees Association of Mohawk College NewsletterWebsite: www.mcretirees.comPublished four times a year.
Board Members:Chair: Brad Berry 905 679-6598 [email protected]: Hans Bastel 905 679-8173 [email protected]: Ann Dunn 905-383-9772Treasurer: Joanne Wolfarth 905 388-9965 [email protected]: Santosh Dalal 905 679-3561Member: Steve Dunn 905 648-4701 [email protected]/newsletter: Fred Oldfield 905 643-3442 [email protected]
Ex-officio MembersGeoff Brooker 905-772-5160 [email protected] Yakimoff 905-522-7370
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July, 2006 Retirees Association of Mohawk College Newsletter
AND in closing, another happy thought,there is much more fun to come this summer.
- Helen Marshall
~~~
Annual MeetingJune 6, 2006
About 100 members and guests convenedin the North Cafeteria of Fennell Campusfor your Retirees Association annual din-
ner and meeting. Although the location might not havebeen as picturesque as in previous years, mosteveryone agreed that the meal was far superior,although the dessert tray was a little scant. The guest speaker, Eleanor Wood, gavea lively and delightful presentation that was wellreceived. Bob Pando of OCRA (Ontario CollegesRetirees Association) made a brief presentationto bring the membership up to date on the latestwith the Retiree Health Benefits and representa-tion under the Pension Plan Sponsorship TrustAgreement. There is a problem with the repre-sentation on the committee. CAAT seems unwill-ing to acknowledge OCRA as a legitimaterepresentative for retirees. Indeed, it does notseem to want to recognize any retiree represen-tation. This on-going problem is requiring legalassistance and may require court time. OCRAneeds financial support to continue the fight.(For more details, please visit their website:http://www.caatretirees.org.) There were no board vacancies to fill thisyear (although there will be two vacancies nextyear, so line up your nominators). Chair Brad Berry gave his report of theprevious year’s activities. They included: FortErie Race Track (36 attended), Show Boat Festi-val Theatre’s Sherlock’s Last Case (39), Strat-ford Festival Hello, Dolly (32), Trip to QuebecCity (31), Shaw Festival You Never Can Tell(56), Westfield Heritage Village Christmas Din-ner (24), Le Chinois’ Chinese New Year dinner(36), Carmen’s The Rat Pack Tribute (50), StageWest’s Cabaret (42) and the annual dinner (92).
Stage West: Cabaret and the MerryMohawk Retirees
Geoff Brooker, on the eve of his trip over-seas, previewed the Retirees visit to therevival of "Cabaret" by playing the role
of Emcee on the Mississauga bound excursionbus. His folksy jokes were an appropriate fore-runner of things to come as an all-Canadiancast revived the familiar play which won 4 TonyAwards on Broadway in the late 90's. Appropriately the event began with atasty pallet-pleasing buffet with more than anabundance of delicious desserts. Then, as the house lights dimmed wewere transported to the very lively and decadent"Kit Kat Klub" where Stephen Gallager becamethe Emcee, Michelle Doyle portrayed the infa-mous Sally Bowles and Michael Lonendaplayed Clifford Bradshaw, an American writervisiting Berlin in the early 30's just at the timethat the Nazis were starting to flex their mus-cles. The featured roles were augmented by aveteran dramatic cast and an energetic danceand vocal ensemble. The story is of the lives of those whoworked at and frequented the sometimesnaughty and wild "Kit Kat Klub" in Berlin in theearly 30's and still revives memories of a turbu-lent time in Europe and, eventually, the rest ofthe world. Many of the Mohawk Group not only re-membered the Cabaret story but also a Holly-wood version which starred Liza Minnelli,Michael York and Joel Grey. Lunch and the show, coupled with a de-lightful bus adventure, helped the Retirees andfriends spend a very special day together. Special thanks go to Santosh Dalal forarranging this enjoyable trip to Stage West. Asusual, Santosh, you did a superb job. Special thanks also go to our very activeExecutive who work so diligently to more thansatisfy our entertainment tastes.
Read President’sannual report onour web site:mcretirees.com
Page 5
July, 2006Retirees Association of Mohawk College Newsletter
Treasurer Joanne Wolfarth gave her re-port that indicated that the association is holdingits own despite rising costs for producing anddistributing the newsletter and fuel for the bustrips. This year’s paid membership is 271, 5more than last year. There was some discussion concerningthe balance carried in our accounts. It was finallydecided to donate $2,000 to Counselling for Stu-dent Assistance (Food Vouchers) and $1,000 toOCRA for its legal fees. Although these dona-tions will mean that we will carry forward asmaller balance than in recent years, we shouldhave enough of a cushion to absorb any unfore-seen financial problems.
~~~
Submissions
We are always looking for new ideas for outingsand material for this newsletter. We know there are some “sub-groups”among our retirees. For example, former mem-bers of the Academic Upgrading department(which of course has undergone numerousname changes over the years) meet the firstWednesday of each month for breakfast at 9a.m. (or thereabouts) at the Hilltop Restaurant atthe Mountain Mall. Any former faculty, staff oradministrators associated with this departmentare welcome. What is your “sub-group” doing?Why not write it up for the newsletter. Got a favorite recipe to share, joke to tell,charity to promote, etc.? Please e-mail it [email protected]. You will receive anautomated response indicating that we have re-ceived your material.
~~~
Trip to Drayton Festival TheatreJune 23, 2006
On a beautiful sunny morning, a group ofabout 50 members made a trip to Dray-ton to see `Not Now, My Darling’
The bus left promptly on time and aftertravelling on Highways 6 and 401 entered Kitch-
ener-Waterloo region. In this area, Mennenitecountry, the trip took us through of green coun-tryside, grazing cows and horses, neat and tidyfarm houses and laundry hanging outside manyhouses. With wild flowers along the highway andblue sky, the bus ride was a joy in itself! And totop it all off, Geoff’s jokes made the mood in thebus full of laughter. Endless chatting amongfriends, catching up on past news, visits plannedor already taken, medical notes compared, costof gas, one could hear all kinds of stories. We reached `The Crossroads’ at about11:30 am, a nice restaurant with a touch of Men-nenite décor, quilts hanging on the rafters and atleast one waiting staff in Mennenite dress. Wewere led to a dining room where a staff memberwelcomed us and directed us to the buffet. Thefood was good, choice of two soups, salad table,meat table, endless desserts with ice cream andcoffee or tea were very much enjoyed. There wasa shopping area also and many members spenta short time there. What is a trip without shop-ping! We arrived at the Theatre in time and asHans had already given us the tickets we imme-diately proceeded to our seats. It is a small towntheatre for about 350 people, a renovated 1902Opera house, `with plush seating, modern eleva-tor, upgraded wash rooms and state-of the-art airconditioning’ as the brochure describes it. The play itself is an outrageous farce byRay Cooney, who also wrote `Run for your Wife’,`Caught in the Net’ and `It Runs in the Family’.The setting is a fur salon in London. Bodley (he’sout), Bodley (She’s walking) and Crouch (it endsin an ouch) is the usual greeting on the phone.The opening scene, and the only one, is a salonwith some furniture, couple of photographs andtwo closets, one containing an inexhaustible sup-ply of Champagne and the other one to hide mis-tresses when the wife drops in unexpectedly.The philandering Mr. Bodley wished to sell thehusband of Janie, his would be mistress, a 5000pound fur coat for 500 pounds and reimburse thebalance of 4500 pounds in cash to Mr. Crouch.Harry, her husband, is too sharp to miss a bar-gain and snaps it as a gift for his secretary, Sue.When this fact dawns on Janie and in order tohave the coat at any price, she tries to blackmail
Page 6
July, 2006 Retirees Association of Mohawk College Newsletter
David (Mohawk ‘graduate’) and Jennifer Oldfield~~~
Middle age ... When a man is at the peak of hisyearning power.
-Wall Stress Journal
In case you’re worried about what’s going to be-come of the younger generation, it’s going togrow up and start worrying about the youngergeneration.
-Roger Allen
There is absolutely nothing to be said in favour ofgrowing old. There ought to be legislation againstit.
-Patrick Moore
Old age - when actions creak louder than words.-Anonymous
The best thing about getting old is that all thosethings you couldn’t have when you were youngyou no longer want
-L. S. McCandless
Mr Bodley by showing herself naked and scream-ing from the balcony, which she, indeed, does. Amidst a lot of scantily dressed womenrunning around and the salon’s secretary bargingin to announce unexpected wives and husbandsand with Mr Crouch, having a roving eye andgroping hands, the audience was held in stitches.Mr Crouch was never at a loss to find excusesand the handily available supply of Champagnesaved many an awkward situation. The play endswith Miss Tisdale, the secretary having to partlydisrobe herself and pass on her clothes to Janieand in a moment of her finding her true love, thereis a squeezing hug-and- kiss goodbye betweenher and Mr. Crouch with Janie in between. It is a play full of laughter, never a dull mo-ment. It is an ideal past-time for a warm summerday. Our return journey, a little quieter than theoutward trip, brought us back to Mohawk Campusby about 6 pm. Our sincere thanks to Brad, Hans andGeoff for organizing a most enjoyable trip.
- Santosh Mathur
~~~The Sandy Dalal Scholarship
Award
In February of this year the American FoundrySociety, Ontario Chapter, honoured SantoshDalal (Board Member, Mohawk Retirees Asso-
ciation) at its annual Scholarship Awards cere-mony for Post Secondary students in Ontario bynaming one award in his name, “Sandy DalalScholarship Award“ worth $ 1,000.00. Every yearAFS, Ontario Chapter, honours some of the out-standing students who have chosen metal castingcourses as their first choice of study. This year’saward went to a student from Mohawk Collegeenrolled in the Metal Casting program. Forty years ago, Santosh’s first boss inCanada (Montreal) felt his first name was a littletoo difficult to pronounce, so in typical NorthAmerican fashion, he baptised him with ‘Sandy’.Since then, he is known by that name in metallur-gical and metal casting industries.
~~~ Deadline for next issue: Oct. 9/06
