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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-06-14, Page 13THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2012. PAGE 13. Duff’s anniversary, motocross, keeps Walton busy The weather has been great this past week and we received the much-needed rain on Saturday. Things are looking much greener now. The rain however did not do much for the motocross races scheduled for Saturday at the Walton Raceway. Unfortunately the races had to be cancelled for the day and they were added to the program for Sunday. It made for a very long race day at the Walton track. Congratulations to John and Mary Baan, who celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary. The family was all on hand for the celebration at Duff’s Church and the party continued at John and Mary’s. The Baans have three children Don, Steve and Heather. John’s brothers Gerald and Doreen and Dave and Dianne also dropped in. Congratulations to the couple. Celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on the weekend were Ron and Dorothy Williamson. They held an open house at their home on Saturday afternoon with a dinner forfamily and friends at the SeaforthAgriplex. A dance followed for all toenjoy. Congratulations to Ron andDorothy! The Walton celebration for Duff’s United Church brought many visitors and guests to Walton. Liz (McGavin) Dinsmore of Toronto spent the weekend with Neil and Marie. Dr. Eric and Sherry Delay and Dawson the dog, of Morristown, Tennessee, spent four days with Barry and Karen Hoegy. Neil McDonald, of Vancouver, is spending a week in the Bayfield/Walton area. Bill and Donna Hamilton of Ottawa are spending time in the Westfield area. It is nice to see people coming home for a visit. Carman, Mary and Christopher Bernard have returned from a trip to Grand Forks, North Dakota. They were attending seminars and training techs for Central Boiler outdoor wood stoves. They enjoyed a good trip. Congratulations are sent to the Ringgenberg family on the marriage of Nadine Ringgenberg to Alex Guimond of Rimouski, Quebec. The couple wed in Switzerland in May. Albrecht and Annalies attended the ceremony. The young couple is living in Switzerland while Nadine completes her PHD. She has finished the first year and has another two years until graduation. Congrats to Nadine and Alex. The community will celebrate the occasion when thecouple is home in the fall.Mark the date on your calendar asanother young lady from Walton willbe married this year. Krista Shortreed will be married in August and so continues the shower season. Krista’s shower will be held on Friday evening at Duff’s United Church on June 22. Welcome back to Henk Ten Pas and Patricia McKay. They have returned from a trip to Holland. They flew from Toronto to Amsterdam and waited six hours for daughter Linda, who flew from Vancouver to join them for the trip. They stayed with friends at the town of Winterswijk, Henk’s birthplace. Henk left Holland when he was 15, but has kept in touch with folks there. The friends visited Canada and have stayed with Henk and Agnes in Brussels a few years ago. Henk reports that because of growing up during the war, travelling around the area was not done, so he and the girls explored the area with great interest. The town is in the east part of Holland and is very close to the border of Germany. It is now historically preserved land, bought by the government, like our national parks. Bike riding is very popular and there are bike paths everywhere. There are also many horses and the first cut of hay is already finished. They are all wrapped bales. They went into Germany for a day and went to Dusseldorf, a heavily bombed city during the war, and now a very important industrial city. Their friend drove them there via the Autobahn – the counterpart of our 401. The difference is that there is no speed limit and many drive upwards of 200 km/hr. Their driver was going 160 and Henk reports they were a little scared. Henk says that other highways/roads are posted speeds and if caught going even a few kilometres over the speed limit, the fines are very high. Speed is for the Autobahn. They went to “Koningstraat” street or “king” street where they have the most expensive shops and admired the merchandise. Most of the people speak at least three languages. They went to the west part of Holland to visit with some of the Van Veen relatives and went to the North Sea. A bit of interest is that Holland is smaller than Lake Huron. They had visits with many cousins who drove them all around. They took a trip on the canals in the glass bottom boats. They toured Amsterdam and the girls looked at the very expensive shopping area and the other interesting and unique sites of Amsterdam. There are cafés on every corner to stop and rest and have a bite. Whenever Henk would meet someone, he would say “greetings from Canada”. One young lady, a 20-year-old waitress, he said this to, replied that she had relatives in Canada. She asked if Henk had heard of Blyth. Of course, it’s a small world, and Henk learned that she is a great- granddaughter of John Wesselink in Blyth. Henk reports that they had good weather – 26-30°C everyday which is normal for the time of year. Henk had never been to Holland in the late spring. It is still very neat and tidy throughout the country, and land is very expensive. Where there used to be 3,000 small farms there are now 300 big farms. Modern technology with only injected manure practices are being used. There are very few wind turbines in Holland because of an abundance of fossil fuels, but Germany has many wind turbines. The trio spent time enjoying barbecues and birthday parties and lots of visiting. Henk went to church with his uncle – the same church he was baptized in and grew up in before leaving Holland. It is a beautiful building built in the late 1400s and on that particular Sunday, a brass band was playing. Henk reports a wonderful trip with his two girls. Jean Bridge underwent surgery last week in London and we hope she is coming along well. Jean Bewley has her two girls home for a visit. Mary of Bolton and Brenda of Airdrie, Alberta are here. It shouldn’t be hard to catch up with them, as Brenda is sporting a cast on her foot and is using crutches or a wheelchair. Happy birthday to Jim Brown. Jim was semi surprised by a surprise birthday party planned by partner Sandra Josling. There were near 40 family and friends arrive for an afternoon and evening of food and music. Providing musical entertainment were Steve Marks and Lisa Glanville and they did a great job. Happy birthday to Jim. Celebrating birthdays this past week include Bonnie Glanville, Chris Humphries, Rob McClure, Trisha McClure, Anita Storey, Roger Humphries, Shawna O’Neill, Sandra Lewington, Laura Bowers, Joan McNaughton, Matthew McKee, Meghan Burke, Emily Wilts, Kaden Huether, Christopher Burke and Kolton O’Neill. By Jo-Ann McDonald Call 887-6570 PEOPLE AROUNDWALTON Dancing the night away Phyllis Mitchell danced with Fred Douglas of Milton on Saturday as Duff’s United Church celebrated its 100th anniversary. The dance was held at the Walton Hall with the band Country Traditions performing. (Jim Brown photo) A big weekend Rev. Dr. Peter Kugba-Nyande was at the helm on Sunday for the 100th anniversary service of Duff’s United Church in Walton. In addition to Kugba-Nyande, Neil McDonald gave a brief history of the church and Bob Heywood also spoke, bringing the message “Serving the God Who is Able”. (Jim Brown photo) Rocking the house The band Country Traditions was the main attraction at Saturday’s dance at the Walton Hall as part of the 100th anniversary of Duff’s United Church. (Jim Brown photo) Continued from page 12 Marie McGavin, Greame Craig and guests Rev. Docken and Doris McKinley. A final thank you and farewell was said to all who attended to make this weekend such a great success. A weekend of events takes many hands and all the volunteers did a fantastic job. The organizing committee did a great job covering all the bases and the weekend went great. The congregation of Duff’s United can always be counted on to pull together and get a job done. You can check out many of the activities and maybe see some familiar faces by checking out www.facebook.com/duffsunited church Organizers say thanks