A Lot Of Questions For The Asking

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By Wayne Redshaw

  The first major of the year — the Masters — started today at Augusta National and there’s a lot of question marks as the elite field teed it up.

   The biggest of all is how will the LIV players, 18 in all, not only do but will the rift between the Saudi-backed Tour players and the PGA Tour members be put aside for the tourney? Hopefully, nothing will come of it over the next four days and they just play and stick to golf.

  And can a LIV member walk away with the coveted green jacket come Sunday evening? I’d say it’s possible as there are some past Masters Champions in the field along with former PGA Tour winners. 

   Also, it will be interesting to see how  the fans react to the LIV players who qualified and received the invite to play from the Masters Committee. I don’t think that will be any kind of a problem or issue. And if anything erupts the security at the Masters will quell it fast. After all, this is the Masters, not the Waste Management tournament where they throw beer after both good and bad shots on a certain par 3. No one steps out of line at Augusta or out they go. It’s no nonsense, period.

Then there’s more questions. Can Scottie Scheffler, currently ranked No. 1 in the World, make it back-to-back conquests at the Masters? I think he can, especially the way he has played the past two months. Of course, it won’t be any cake-walk. There are some others who should make it interesting including John Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jordan Speith and Patrick Cantlay. And you can’t forget about some of the LIV members such as 2020 Masters champion Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann. It’s wide open to put it bluntly.

   There is also the question how will the Canadians in the field do? It’s been 20 years since a Canadian has put on the famous Green Jacket. That’s when  Mike Weir put on the coveted jacket after finishing seven under.

  Weir is one of four Canadians in this year’s field but I have to rank him as an also-ran. In other words, I’m saying he won’t make it past the first two days. This year is Weir’s 24th Masters. Other than his victory in 2003 his best finish was a tie for fifth-place in 2005. The following year he tied for 11th.

   From 2000 to 2010, he only played 36 holes once, then packed up his gear. But from 2011 to 2022, 10 times he left for home early. So it doesn’t look promising this week. Remember, Weir was much younger when he won in 2003. Now, he’s in his early-50s.

  As for the other three Canadians, 29-year-old Adam Svensson is making his inaugural start at Augusta after punching his ticket by winning the RSM Classic last November for his first ever PGA Tour victory. He has played steady and could make it through to Sunday’s final round. However, early  jitters could be a problem.

  Likewise, McKenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ontario hopefully will be around for the final round. This is his fourth Masters. He bowed out early in his debut 2017 but tied for 40th in 2021 and last year tied for 50th spot.

   The one Canadian I think who should make a good showing again is Corey Connors of Listowel. He’s coming off fresh from winning the Valero Texas Open last weekend. It was his second PGA Tour career victory.

    What I like about Connors is he has played well at Augusta the past three years. In 2020, Connors tied for 10th at nine-under, the following year he tied for eighth at four-under and last year Connors tied for sixth at three-under. His game is A-1 right now and he could make some noise. He’s certainly capable of it.

(Wayne Redshaw has covered both amateur and professional sports for over 60 years. In 2018, he was inducted into the media section of the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame.)

Emergency Shelter Pilot Program Comes To A Close

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WELLAND – The seasonal emergency shelter pilot program has concluded.

The shelter (in the Welland Tennis Club building on Hooker Street) opened on February 2 and was operational on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. Overall, the shelter welcomed 22 individuals for 89 stays, averaging three per night. There were five beds available. The shelter’s pilot program concluded on March 26.

“We knew the need for this shelter existed, and to have 89 stays over the pilot project period confirmed that,” said Ward 6 Coun. Bonnie Fokkens, who, along with Ward 3 Coun. John Chiocchio, brought forward a notice of motion to implement the shelter. “This project wasn’t perfect, there were things we could anticipate and those we couldn’t, but our partner response was always exceptional. We must now take what the data shows us and continue the discussions and work with other levels of government to help those in our community who need it most.”

As part of the project, shelter staff screened and engaged visitors, assisting in appropriate diversion practices for those in need. Ward 3 Coun. Sharmila Setaram assisted the project through regular public engagement with local residents.

In addition to partnering with the Hope Centre, the City also worked alongside Beyond the Streets Welland, Holy Trinity Church, and the Niagara Regional Police. 

A report will come to Council in the coming weeks with more detailed data and a complete project review. The City contributed $9,000 for this initiative through the Corporate Continency Fund, amended on January 17, 2023, and, as part of the aforementioned report, will receive an update on any additional costs incurred. 

Learn more about the Hope Centre at: https://thehopecentre.net/ 

Learn more about Beyond the Streets Welland at: https://www.beyondthestreetswelland.com/. 

Learn more about Holy Trinity Church at: http://www.holytrinitywelland.ca/.

(Attribution: City of Welland media release)

Heritage Lives: Remembering Home Remedies

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By Terry Hughes, Columnist

Winter often is the time when we encounter illnesses that require some form of medication. A trip to the drug store allows one to encounter a wide variety of cures that often are highlighted on television on a daily basis. The druggist is only too happy to assist in selecting the appropriate medication for our symptoms resulting in a short term period of rest and improvement in our daily health.

Many medicines that assist us today were not available until the early part of the twentieth century. A visit to the cemetery, or reading books such as Lucy Maude Monygomery’s Anne of Green Gables, shows how death was common to children who had not reached their eighth birthday or adults who had reached the age of sixty-five. The understanding of bacteria and development of antibiotics came together in the 1930’s. Many of us who were born in the Depression or during World War Two will recall being subjected to shots administered before and/or at school by health authorities. Radical decreases in childhood diseases saw the wisdom in such immunization programs 

Our picture gives us a sampling of what medicines that were used in days gone by. Do you remember some of these medications in the family medicine cabinet? It may have included Vicks Vapo Rub for chest colds, Iodine or Mercurochrome for cuts and scrapes, camphorated oil, aspirin, epsom salts and castor oil to be taken daily that was supposed to be good for you! Iodine was red and stung when applied to a wound while Mercurochrome fizzled but was less painful. It also had an unusual coloration going from metallic green to a fluorescent pink.

Grandma’s medicine cabinet may have contained cures that are questionable by today’s standards. They may have included goose and/or skunk oil, Sloan’s Liniment that was originally used as horse liniment and castor oil. A common cure for a chest cold was the use of a mustard plaster placed on the chest in a poultice enclosed in cotton. The cotton added  to the irritation to the skin and I considered this as a form of torture. Loosening up chest congestion required the victim to place one’s head under a towel and inhale fumes from Friar’s Balsam or Vicks Vapo Rub that had been immersed in a pot of hot water. Today, we use a more humane method called a room humidifier. 

Cures for people were handled differently in rural areas. Country folk tended to hold on to cures that had been tested through generations of friends and relatives. Being isolated from urban centres also tended to guarantee the longevity of these remedies. For example, children’s headaches could be cured by cutting up a potato into slices and placing them around the forehead with a bandana. For worms, eat oatmeal laced with kerosene. It didn’t taste good but supposedly it worked. To make sickly children strong, dice raw liver into tomato juice and drink it daily. Unfortunately, when this mixture hit one’s stomach, it came up faster than it went down. 

For a wart, prick it with a needle until it bleeds. Rub a kernel of corn into the wound and feed the corn to a chicken. For severe cases of poison ivy, eat a piece of buttered bread laced with the stuff. Apparently, the victim never got poisoned again! Earaches can be cured by placing goose droppings into the ear.  Whether it worked or not is not known but upon hearing about this remedy, people never again revealed that they had an earache.      

For people who get frequent boils, here are some solutions. Let your dog lick the boil and it will heal. A second remedy is to boil BBs in milk, strain the BBs out and drink the milk. And after reading this column, it’s enough to make you sick!.

  Next Heritage Lives: Twilight on East Main Street .

(Terry Hughes is a Wellander who is passionate about heritage, history and model railroading. His opinion column, Heritage Lives, appears on the blog once or twice monthly.)

K-D Shortage Anything But A Small Potatoes Issue

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Jon Braithwaite in the Hope Centre food room, standing beside some of the shelves that accommodated Kraft Dinner.”This is not something I expected to hear,” he said. /Joe Barkovich photos

By Joe Barkovich, Scribbler-at-large

WELLAND – Hope Centre’s executive director was “somewhat shocked” when he learned last month the agency’s food bank was out of Kraft Dinner.

Jon Braithwaite, at Hope Centre since 2018, can’t recall this happening previously.

“Not in my time,” he said. 

He broke the news at a social March 9 for Julia’s Hope Cup volunteers when asked by Paul Turner to share a few words about the agency’s work and challenges.

It may seem like small potatoes to some, but not to Braithwaite. 

A steady increase in the number of people visiting Hope Centre is cited as a cause of recent runs on food stocks like K-D.

“Last November was the most we’ve ever seen, but we passed that in February.”

Despite the agency being open only 17 days in February, it recorded 1,213 visits at the food bank.

That was a short month in number of days open because of the Family Day holiday, a weather-related closure, and a flood in the building due to a malfunctioning hot water tank.

Increased demand for food can be attributed to a large jump in the number of first-time, new visitors showing up for assistance and also a spike in the number of children being served, Braithwaite said.

Comparing this March to March of 2022, Braithwaite expected last year’s total to be surpassed by the end of the week. He was interviewed Monday, March 13. 

A consequence of the growing demand for food by clients: food bank staff are having to dip into boxes designated for 2024.

“We’re using more pasta intended for use in 2024, when we should be using it that year or at earliest, later this year.”

The agency’s share of non-perishables collected in last fall’s city-wide food drive has been depleted, said Braithwaite. In past years, that food bonanza would last until sometime in April. But it was gone in early February, said Braithwaite.

The number of boxes marked ‘2023’ on them is becoming fewer, also a cause for concern.

“We have a few on our shelves. This is when you have to pause and say, ‘what do you do when you run out of things you always have on hand?’ That’s a challenge.”

Cost of living increases are blamed for the distress many people in the community are experiencing.

“We hear it from our clients all the time.

“Paying occupancy costs is a big part of your income. And if you get sick and have to miss a shift or two, or if your car breaks down – well, people are living so precariously now.”

Sadly, there is no end in sight to the hard times food banks themselves are going through, he said. Hope Centre’s is not alone.

“Any organization providing food security is seeing huge spikes. That’s our job, to help people through their insecurity. I just hope we can get through the next few months.”

A recent food drive organized by Niagara Regional Police for local food banks helped the cause. Another organized by the local United Way wraps up March 22. And still more help is on the way through a food drive for Hope Centre, Open Arms Mission and Holy Trinity Church coming up in April based at Seaway Mall. You can find full details about the unique endeavour at this link, just look for Upcoming events, Spring It Forward Challenge: https://www.facebook.com/thehopecentrewelland/

Braithwaite is perplexed about what can be done about the reliance on food banks by so many.

“We continue to have conversations like we’re doing now, and also talking to politicians and educating the public. That’s a long-term process. Short term, I don’t know what we’re going to do about it.”

Until something is, more and more people, including children, will find themselves caught up in a revolving door, food bank dependency lifestyle. And shortages of staples like that of Kraft Dinner will continue to be indicators of the growing challenges food banks find themselves contending with.

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