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IN THIS ISSUE

• Arthur Pays continues his story about war-time London
• Anne Rahamout, Dilys Buchan, and Jean Sterling write about composting
• Subscribers reply to my question about online connections
• Betty Fehlhaber comments on problems with learning French
• Anita Henderson sends a quote about perspective
• Catherine Green forwards examples of ambiguous website names
• Barbara Wear is suffering from an all-too-common condition
• Miriam Ockenden sends some hospital bloopers

Arthur Pay finds another job in London:

"WHAT DID YOU DO DURING THE WAR, DADDY?"

My next job, again with H. V. Smith and Co., was tanking Anderson shelters to make them waterproof. One of the problems with the Anderson personal air raid shelters which most people had in their back gardens was that they tended to fill up with water, particularly in Leyton, which was very low-lying.

The shelters consisted of a hole in the ground into which a rounded corrugated iron hut was inserted; the whole thing was then bolted together with Tee irons and covered with the excavated soil. They were remarkably effective even against near misses, and were situated away from the debris of collapsing buildings.

We heard of survivors being brought out from shelters that had been within a few feet of a bomb explosion. But when they were flooded with surface water or rain, they became unusable, at any rate as somewhere to spend the night. In town a lot of people spent their nights in the Underground tunnels, while in the suburbs, many went into Epping Forest to sleep away from buildings.

The job of tanking the shelters consisted of lining the lower part of the shelter with five or six inches of waterproof concrete, poured into the gap between the corrugated sides and removable wooden shuttering made up from material obtained from demolition sites and inserted in the shelter.

This was not a cost-plus operation and H. V. Smith were paid a fixed price, presumably based on an estimate for each shelter tanked.

I remember starting with a gang in Capworth Street, canvassing each house to enquire whether the occupants wanted the work done.

The concrete mixer and shingle were established at a central point in the roadway, together with an elephant hut for storing cement and waterproofing liquid. After the concrete was mixed, it was barrowed to the houses where the work was to be done, transferred to buckets, and carried through the terraced houses to the back yard, where it was poured into the already shuttered shelter and left overnight. Hopefully, there was no air raid, and the next day the shuttering was removed, leaving a damp but not wet shelter available for the following night.

Some people made themselves quite comfortable, as the Council also provided bunk beds, again made from re-used house timbers. Because of the inducement of a fixed price, it quickly became obvious that the job of tanking the shelters needed to be done as efficiently as possible. Soap was used to lubricate the shuttering so that it could be effectively used more than once or twice, and the carrying of concrete in buckets and barrows was minimized.

On one occasion, a new delivery of cement and shingle was to be made, and I was aware that the gang had practically completed the shelters in the vicinity. Without consulting anyone, I instructed delivery to be made some distance away down Capworth Street, at what I judged to be an appropriate centre point for the next batch of shelters. We also manhandled the elephant hut and concrete mixer to the new site to be ready for the delivery. I then told Frank Coxhead, who was the visiting manager, what I had done. He was most impressed with my initiative and within a few days I was in charge of the operation. This association with Frank Coxhead had important effects on my life subsequently and also after the end of the war.

Once again I was being troubled by the fact that life was becoming too easy for me while others of my age were having a rough time. I heard from someone that Islington Council did employ Conscientious Objectors in their Civil Defence organization and wrote applying for work in their ARP. I went to see a Mr. Alexander in Islington Town Hall and obtained a job as a stretcher bearer at China Inland Mission Headquarters at Newington Green.

If I was looking for a sudden reduction in my standard of living, I certainly got it, as the basic wage for the ARP was £3-18-0d, whereas the last paypacket I got from H. V. Smith was some £19-0-0d odd. When I left H. V. Smith´s, Frank Coxhead told me that if I ever wanted a job in the future I should come and see him.

By the time I became established at China Inland Mission, the air raids on London had completely tailed off, and the depot at Newington Green was said to be manned by conchies, aliens, and Jews.

The chap in charge at the depot was John Riddlesdale, who was a young and enthusiastic warrior with some chest complaint that rendered him unfit for military service.

The duties were 24 hours on and 24 hours off, and many of the men had another job during the 24 hours off.

There were seven or eight conchies out of 35 or so men on our shift, which was divided into seven squads or parties, each with a motor car with stretchers on top and blankets and first aid equipment on board.

To be continued.

Anne Rahamut joins the discussion of

COMPOSTING KITCHEN WASTE

Here in Toronto, we are asked to collect our kitchen waste in a small plastic tub inside, and then on garbage day to deposit the waste into small green rolling carts at curbside. It is messy at both ends of the process because the plastic tub needs a weekly scrub and so does the green cart.

Some people line the tub with shopping bags, which they then tie and drop, legally one per cart, into the green cart. They are a bit leaky. The city´s instructions on such liners also includes a suggestion to use a biodegradable tub liner. The bags are called Bio- Solo, "fully biodegradable mini kitchen bags."

They are just the right size, leak-proof, and their info panel reads, "Congratulations: You have just purchased the Bio-Solo biodegradable bags, which means that you are participating in one of the most advanced recycling programs in North America. The material you put in these bags will be made into Class A compost."

They are not expensive. We buy ours at Home Hardware. For online info see http://www.biosolo.com

Dilys Buchan writes from Prince Edward Island:

I haven´t been following the garbage discussions too closely - summer´s a busy, and short, time here on the island; but I am starting to believe my own government. That´s a frightening thought!

For several years the PEI government has claimed that we are well ahead of the rest of Canada in our recycling program a claim, let me say, that was hotly disputed by my daughter who lives in Waterloo. Now I think it may well be so. I have been using biodegradable plastic bags for several years. They are readily available at my supermarket, Canadian Tire, and probably many more stores.

Into these bags we put everything edible, or even non-edible stuff like shell fish shells, non-recyclable paper, boxboard, pet feces and litter, and even human hair. This all goes into our large green carts, along with soiled newspaper and all our garden waste. They get pretty full in summer, so we can also buy large brown paper bags to store extra garden waste. All of this goes to the composting site just outside of Charlottetown.

Into our blue bags we put all our recyclables: paper, plastics up to number 5 so far, cardboard, metal and glass. Newspapers go into a separate blue bag. If there´s anything left, it goes into our black carts for waste.

The large green and black carts are on wheels, and are provided to each house. The bags, including blue bags, we have to buy for ourselves. If we don´t want to buy compostable bags, then we simply wrap wet stuff in soiled newspaper, and seal the package with masking tape.

By the way, we can later buy compost from our own composting site. Does that sound pretty good?

ED. NOTE: It sounds as if PEI has good reasons for its claim to be the best in Canada!

Jean Sterling writes: We have a compost pile in the far corner of our back yard. I remember when we were getting it started that my husband got some worms from a neighbour down the street. It´s pretty amazing - most things quickly disappear and turn into dirt. We don´t put corn cobs into it, and if I recall correctly, grapefruit and watermelon rinds don´t do well either. Our middle son is an environmental engineer, so we have to do things like this.

Thirteen subscribers answered my question about their

INTERNET CONNECTIONS

Of those 13, three had dial-up phone connections, three had cable light, and seven had high speed. Assuming that these are representative of the complete mailing list, I would guess that about a quarter of subscribers use dial-up, another quarter have cable light, and a half of the list have high-speed connections.

This indicates that at least for now, nearly half of the subscribers do not have high-speed, which means that it takes a long time for them to download large files. So for the present, The Tale Spinner will continue to direct you to interesting websites and to pictures that may be included in the two websites that publish the newsletter. As you all know by now, those websites are at http://members.shaw.ca/vjsansum/ and http://www.nw-seniorsonline.org/stories.html

For this week, Burke Dykes´ site in Seattle will have the only online edition of the Spinner. Jay has moved from his home in Mission and his cable will not be connected until September 10th, so this week´s edition will be late.

Betty Fehlhaber comments on the remark by Richard Ross that the French tend to answer in English when they realize a speaker is not French:

FRENCH VS ENGLISH

Growing up in the English school system in Montreal in the 30s, 40s and early 50s, we had to study French from grade one and had to pass the final exams in high school in order to graduate. As our family lived in a predominantly English-speaking district (Notre Dame de Grace), we didn´t have much opportunity to speak French. When I got to dating age, one of my boyfriends was French, and when I was with that group I thought it would give me the chance to practice their language. However, the general consensus was that everyone had to speak English so they would be sufficiently proficient in that language in order to get a decent job.

Then along came Rene Levesque. Enough said!

ED. NOTE: On the other hand, when we lived in Shawinigan Falls for three years in the late 40s, many Quebecois would not answer in English, even if they understood the language. This was before the edict that made bilingualism a condition of employment in government jobs; now the Quebecois are the most bilingual people in Canada.

Anita Henderson sends this quote by Tom Knight:

IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU SIT

Isn´t it funny, when the other fellow takes a long time to do something, he´s slow; when I take a long time to do something, I´m thorough. When the other fellow doesn´t do it, he´s lazy; when I don´t do it, I´m busy. When the other fellow does it without being told, he´s overstepping his bounds; when I go ahead and do it without being told, that´s initiative. When the other fellow states his opinion strongly, he´s bullheaded; when I state my opinion strongly, I´m firm.

Catherine Green forwards some examples of

AMBIGUOUS WEBSITE NAMES

Apparently some companies don´t spend much time considering how their online names might appear ... and be misread. These are not made up. Check them out yourself.

1. "Who Represents" is where you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their Web site is http://www.whorepresents.com/

2 . Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at http://www.expertsexchange.com/

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at http://www.penisland.net/

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at http://www.therapistfinder.com/

5. There´s the Italian Power Generator company, http://www.powergenitalia.com/

6. And don´t forget the Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales, http://www.molestationnursery.com/

7. If you´re looking for IP computer software, there´s always http://www.ipanywhere.com/

8. The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is http://www.cummingfirst.com/

9. And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site, http://www.speedofart.com/

Barbara Wear reminds us of this familiar failing:

AAADD

Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden.

As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full. So I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first. But then I think, since I´m going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my cheque book off the table, and see that there is only one cheque left.

My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Coke I´d been drinking. I´m going to look for my cheques, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don´t accidentally knock it over. The Coke is getting warm, and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye - they need water.

I put the Coke on the counter and discover my reading glasses that I´ve been searching for all morning. I decide I´d better put them back on my desk, but first I´m going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water, and suddenly spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I´ll be looking for the remote, but I won´t remember that it´s on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I´ll water the flowers. I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then I head down the hall, trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the car isn´t washed, the bills aren´t paid, there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter, the flowers don´t have enough water, there is still only one cheque in my cheque book, I can´t find the remote, I can´t find my glasses, and I don´t remember what I did with the car keys. Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I´m really baffled because I know I was busy all day, and I´m really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I´ll try to get some help for it, but first I´ll check my e-mail....

Don´t laugh - if this isn´t you yet, your day is coming!

Miriam Ockenden forwards these supposedly actual remarks from hospital charts:

HOSPITAL CHART BLOOPERS

1. The patient refused autopsy.

2. The patient has no previous history of suicides.

3. Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.

4. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night.

5. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.

6. On the second day the knee was better, and on the third day it disappeared.

7. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.

8. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.

9. Discharge status: Alive but without permission.

10. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert but forgetful.

11. Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.

12. She is numb from her toes down.

13. While in ER, she was examined, x-rated and sent home.

14. The skin was moist and dry.

15. Occasional, constant infrequent headaches.

16. Patient was alert and unresponsive.

17. Rectal examination revealed a normal size thyroid.

18. She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life, until she got a divorce.

19. I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical therapy.

20. Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation.

21. Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.

22. The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.

23. Skin: somewhat pale but present.

24. The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor.

25. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.

"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them." - Denis Waitley