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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1997-05-14, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 14,1997 PAGE 5. The Short Nostalgia business, alive and well After a man goes back and visits his boyhood town he discovers it wasn’t the old home that he wanted. It was his boyhood. Anon You don't have to be Lawrence Welk or Pat Boone to know that the nostalgia business is alive and well, here at the butt­ end of the 20th century. Just take a long look around. Down the street from where I work there's a cafe-cum-nightclub that could have come right out of a Nick and Nora Charles mystery movie. The sound system features music from the 30s and 40s. Smoky old saxophone serenades ... vocals by legends like Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Lena Home and Frank Sinatra before he got his Senior Citizen's card. It's Lounge Music. And it's back in a big way. The same joint features old-fashioned drinks too. Such as ... well, old-fashioned Not to mention Manhattans, margueritas and that quintessential lounge libation - the martini. I've never been able to figure out the appeal of the martini. Gin and vermouth are International Scene Wet wings... I am always surprised at the numbers of ways in which people's fear of flying manifests itself. I know that there are those who are just downright terrified of flying while there are considerably more who fly but don't like it. My wife is one of them and she steadfastly refused to go up with me; I used to get criticized for even taking our boys up for a flight. Nothing ever happened but she said that it could, despite my argument that we were far more likely to get into an accident on the way to or from the airport. An so it went. I recently had one of my readers confess to me that he really hated it when the plane came in over the water to land. The water came closer and closer and, just when it seemed that the plane was going to land right in the water, a runway appeared and the aircraft settled on it instead. He had, he said, a few moments of panic just before the runway appeared. I asked him where this had happened and was not surprised when he told me it was Hong Kong. For those of you who have never been there, the airport is located on the waterfront not far from the centre of the city. Space is at a premium and there simply was not enough of that precious commodity when it was necessary to lengthen the existing runway to accommodate the large jets. They did the only thing they could; they built the runway out into the harbour and so you come right over the water on your approach. two of the more taste-bud shattering forms that alcohol can take. Put them together and you've got a drink that ought to be banned under the Geneva Convention. But no, martinis are back. And they're hot. So hot that the internet is awash with websites featuring thousands of wild and woolly cocktail recipes. Beats me. Maybe it's the olive. After all, the logo for the rock group U-2's world tour is a giant olive on top of a toothpick. Retro-fashion is big again too. I keep running into guys wearing suits with lapels that bat colonies could next under. The same guys (I think they're trying to come across as Rudolph Valentino incarnate) favour those skinny ties that went out about 1957. The ladies that hang off their arm are swathed in boas and frilly little frocks that I haven't seen since / Love Lucy went off the air. Long-playing records are back as well. Yuppies seem to have discovered that after spending umpteen thousand dollars on their state-of-the-art laser disc, digital extravaganzotic stereo system, what they really prefer to hear is the scratchy, intimate music they get from good old-fashioned vinyl. Incontrovertible proof that we have completely lost it culturally? I offer Exhibit A: the resurgence of the cigar. Suddenly, all the Beautiful People are appearing in By Raymond Canon You can also come in the other way if the wind is in the right direction. However, it is just about as scary; you get close enough to the buildings to see what they are eating for supper. Fortunately they are building a brand new airport away from the city so that will be avoided in the future. But guess what! Both approaches will now be right over the water. The same thing is going to happen if you want to go to the Riviera in France. The airport at Nice is right on the edge of the Mediterranean and you get pretty close to its waters regardless of which end of the runway you land on. Maybe my friend will prefer to land in Paris and take the train. I told my friend to keep away from Berra in the Scottish highlands. This isolated island is of such a nature that they have not even been able to build a runway on it. Would you believe that they use the beach! I am not kidding! They wait until the tide is out and then the scheduled flight from Glasgow lands on a flat stretch of beach. There is only enough room at low tide for the plane and hence the necessity of having to arrange the schedule to fit the tide. It was found that the only plane suitable was a DeHavillard Twin Otter built in Toronto. However, the traffic got so heavy that they had to put in a larger, British-built aircraft. After a few months it was evident the new plane was just not up to it and back came to the Twin Otter. Canadian planes are unique, it seems, when it comes to landing in strange public, with giant, slinky stogies stuck in their pusses. My corner newsstand is abloom with magazines like Cigar Aficionado and For Cigar Lovers Only featuring glossy full­ colour photographs of Hollywood glitteratti like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise — even Wayne and Janet Gretzky puffing away on Havanas the size of French baguettes. I submit that when smoldering cigars become a fashion statement, a culture is in serious free fall. What you're seeing is a society so bankrupt for new ideas that it's snatching up old ones. But that's okay. Plus ca change, as the French say. Reminds me of the story about the college kid who answers a knock on the door. A middle-aged stranger is standing there. "May I come in?" asks the stranger. "This is the room I had when I went to college." The kid lets the man in, and the man tours the room, lost in memories. "Yep" he murmurs, "same old room. Same old furniture. Same old view from the window. Same old closet." And he opens the closet door to find a young woman, in a state of, as the French say, dishabille, cowering in the comer. "Uh, that's my sister" says the college kid. "Yep" says the visitor, "same old story." places. The Twin Otter's big brother, the Dash-7, is also the only one that can be used in many places in Greenland. When it comes to water and flying, I say without any hesitation that the best pilots in the world are those who routinely land on aircraft carriers. Not only is there water all around them but they have to put the aircraft on a deck that is not always stable. Furthermore the landing space is so short that they have to use a tail hook to catch wires stretched across the deck. If they miss the wires, they have to fly around and try again. This means coming in at far more than normal landing speed so that they are going fast enough to take off in case they miss the wire. You can imagine the jolt when the wire catches on. Fortunately such landings are restricted to navy pilots. I don't want to frighten you but every now and again a pilot does land short of the runway and find himself and the plane in the water. A Japanese Airlines pilot did just that coming into Los Angeles. The good news is that he did it so smoothly that all the passengers were saved; the plane was dried out and resumed flying a few months later. Needless to say the pilot was fired! A Final Thought Twixt the optimist and the pessimist The difference is droll; The optimist sees the doughnut But the pessimist sees the hole McLandburgh Wilson of it The business of marriage My hubby and I celebrated an anniversary this past weekend; no biggie other than the fact that this is the 1990s so just getting through another year could be considered a milestone. No question, marriage isn't what it used to be. But what exactly is that? I read an article, recently, I can't recall from where, that stated the reason marriages don't last today is because there is no reason to stay together. Apparently most men and women years ago, wed primarily to form a business partnership. The rationale was that the male toiled to sustain the economic side of the marital arrangement, while the female's role was to make his job easier by serving him, assisting him and of course supplying him with heirs. That today men and women are more or less equal, dividing breadwinning and housework, means when love fades the marriage can end, the article suggested . Now while my practical side can’t argue the possibility of this logic, I am enough of a romantic to be a bit put off. Sleepless in Seattle, which I’ve seen at least a dozen times, still leaves me dewy-eyed, so I can't accept that decades ago, the concept of marriage was not of magic, but of sensibly bringing two business partners together. There is no mention of attraction of the mind or heart, not even a hint of lust. Is this idealist then to accept that two people of the opposite sex gravitated towards each other simply by timing, a common goal and because they didn't hate each other? And that the only reason marriages didn't end so frequently as these days, is because couples couldn't practically end it? Honestly, the answer in many cases is probably yes. But, as a drippy sentimentalist, there is no end to my gratitude for couples like George and Gaynel Couron of Ford Dodge, Iowa. The happy couple recently marked 81 years of business. Reading their story, 1 was enraptured from the start, hearing that George was "smitten" when he first passed her on a sidewalk, then fell in love when they met again at a carnival. The young man and his bride, who married a year later in April, said they dreamed of a long life together. The couple has 14 children, 43 grandchildren and over 100 great and great­ great-grandchildren. At 100 and 97 years of age they are still holding hands and smooching. And not a day goes by that they forget to tell the other, "I love you." Gaynel, who is blind and rarely speaks except to her spouse, declares she got the man she wanted. George is happy too. "I got the woman I wanted. What a beautiful woman this is." Reading their story was seeing the infatuation, dreams, admiration and respect that goes into a strong and healthy marriage. It was indeed a partnership that flourished because of their affection. That the Courons had trying days is undoubtedly a certainty; that their love helped sustain them is also a certainty. Marriage is, was and always will be a partnership, but I hope contrary to that earlier report, it was never just that. I prefer to think love bums first; the problem occurs when the business of life makes it tough to stoke the flame. Thank goodness there are people like the Courons who remind us how it's done — and that it can be done.