City Notebook: Old ideas are new again

By COLLIN GALLANT on December 18, 2021.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

It’s the nostalgia season, again, and perhaps more than welcome in a world that’s so off kilter – again.

It’s hard not to dwell on rising anxiety and frustration over new variants of the coronavirus.

It’s also hard for a variety of other reasons, but we do it annually, and hopefully find some solace in homespun fun, the idea of simpler times and a hope for the future.

Proof arrives this week about the power of good ideas that may go out of fashion for a while, but seem refreshed and new and able to add some brightness during dark December days.

This week featured a re-run of the Santa Claus parade through communities in the Medicine Hat region, supported by the jolly old elf, a host of local entities and organized by the Medicine Hat News Santa Claus Fund.

And how about that Santa Claus Fund auction total this year? $75,000!

And what about the United Way’s toy drive, a host of other yuletide efforts or even a local Poppy Fund that continues to defy records.

On Monday, a local Rotary club plans to reignite the Holiday convoy to various seniors homes like it did in 2020. Last year everything from high school graduations to Christmas was accomplished, by necessity, in drive-by fashion.

Ted Flemmer called your author up this week to reminisce about Christmas Car Calvacades he organized for 26 years after two guys named Pete Mossey and Jack Stephanson thought up the idea of touring shut-ins about town to look at Christmas lights.

From that, the annual event grew from about 30 people taking part to almost 900. An after-event with food and entertainment at a hall in Riverside grew to 10 city buses pulling inside the Cypress Centre.

The event on Monday works in a sort of reverse fashion, wherein the Rotarians and other volunteers bring the lights to a number of seniors homes via a convoy of decorated cars and flashing lights.

But it’s a good idea regardless; perhaps the best we can muster right now.

But be warned, like a lot of other good ideas Hatters need to support it, get involved, lend a hand, or it’ll be gone.

Sheep

This column made a crack a while back about the outlook for sheep grazing in the region considering that the animals are employed as chief vegetation control officers on a huge range of solar power facilities.

This makes good sense – only an idiot would put a cow or goat in a field with a million-bucks worth of wiring.

“Solar fleece?” we mused.

But recent reports show lamb prices are rising, according to a late November report in the Western Producer. It quotes Fox Valley’s Royce Loeden, who runs sheep as well as cattle, and cites wool lambs going between $2.30 to $3.10 per pound at auction.

There’s fewer pounds, of course, but likely much less hassle than cattle that sell for about $150 per hundredweight, never mind the hassle of wrangling a turkey for Christmas dinner or a second mortgage to buy prime rib.

Is it a new sector, ready for development?

People forget Harry Veiner was at one point one of the largest sheep ranchers in the country.

Wait until the mint market catches up.

A look ahead

City council sits Monday for the last time in 2021 and will again consider proposed amendments to the 2022 budget.

Tired of dreary dark days? Never fear, the days start getting longer on Wednesday.

100 years ago

The Medicine Hat hockey season would begin on Boxing Day with a match between the Merchants and “The Cream of the West,” the News reported 100 years ago this week. Arrangements had been made to improve the lighting at the rink, which could now sit 200 comfortably.

The Medicine Hat Philharmonic Society presented Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” as a Christmas concert at Fifth Avenue Methodist Church.

The 1921 World Series would be the last to consist of nine games, National League owners announced after winter meetings where they voted in favour of a seven-game proposal.

Train robber Roy Gardner – the “Most Wanted man of 1921” – was sentenced to 25 years in Leavenworth after a string of holdups in the Pacific northwest.

The estate of Sir Sam Hughes was worth $800,000 and comprised almost entirely of Victory bonds. The former supreme commander of Canada’s military in Europe during the Great War had liquidated his holdings during the conflict and directed proceeds to the bond effort.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com