SWEDEN’S DRIVERS STILL MAKE THE NEWS, AND THERE IS LOTS OF MAIL
In this edition of the Reader, your always alert correspondent notes how the BBC must be reading this newsletter, provides further proof you must not believe everything you read on the Internet, gets excited about his new bookstore, and gets all weepy about his mother.
This week: a 4-minute read
MORE ON LEFT AND RIGHT
Just when you’re beginning to wonder if anyone is paying attention, there is this.
In our inaugural newsletter on Aug. 4, we wrote about the mass confusion endured by motorists in Sweden in 1967 when that Scandinavian nation switched from driving on the left side of the road to the right.
So what shows up online this past week?
A clip from the BBC archives about that week 57 years ago when Sweden made the switch; what the Beeb called, “the greatest social upheaval in Sweden's history.” Well, maybe that’s a little over the top, but it goes to show you … well, I don’t know what exactly, but it goes to show you something.
MUM’S THE WORD
While I was unpacking some boxes the other day, I came across a letter from my mum that was written 22 years ago, just a few weeks before a medical episode cost her the ability to write or speak.
She wrote about our son Jamie, who was a teenager then and had recently come to visit her. “He said he missed you very much and tells all his friends about you,” she wrote. “He was very sweet.” She wrote about my friend Doug, who had taken ill, and about some of her friends. She wrote about how she thought the downtown area was going to seed, and about her new kitten.
This letter warmed me to the core. Suddenly, I wanted so badly to pick up the phone and call her, to chat the way we used to about a gazillion different things ... but, of course, I couldn't. Many of you will know this feeling. Mum died 20 years ago, and there isn't a day that goes by when I don't feel her absence. I am so blessed to have been raised by this strong, accomplished, loving and proud woman.
The last time I saw my mum together with her brother Harry was in a Chatham hospital in 2002 after she suffered that medical episode—and I’m not trying to be dodgy here. We were just never sure what it was, other than it was kind of like a stroke. Regardless, she had great difficulty communicating. Yet despite this, she motioned for her brother to come closer.
As Harry leaned over her hospital bed, what she had to tell him came through crystal clear. Mum looked Harry in the eye and said to him, “Stupid bugger.” God, he laughed. Mum died 18 months later, Harry nine months after.
THIS SAYS A LOT
My Uncle Harry and his twin brother, my Uncle Jimmy, made a pact. “I won’t go to his funeral and he won’t go to mine,” Harry told me. I laughed at the time but when I pondered it later, it all made perfect sense. So, indeed, when Harry died, Jimmy was a no-show. Needless to say, when Jimmy died nine years later, Harry, too, was absent.
BETTER GUITAR RIFFS OF OUR NATURE
Re ‘Don’t believe everything you read on the internet’—Abe Lincoln, Aug. 25. Terry: real news at last. Doug McKinnon, Mississauga, Ontario
Re the video offering, Aug. 25. Hey Terry, I loved that video tribute to your brother Mike. And I laughed out loud at you walking into the tree. I always thought you and Mike, and of course my brother James, were such cool hipsters. Long hair, the latest music, far-out clothes—hmm, maybe not the clothes, just a lot of blue jeans. Diane Prodenchuk, Chatham, Ontario
Terry, I enjoyed my first subscribed newsletter this morning and look forward to them arriving weekly to my email account. Thank you. I enjoyed the video as well. Sue Archibald Smith, Tilbury, Ontario
Thanks Terry for today's well-written newsletter, nicely paced for a Sunday morning coffee and sprinkled with a touch of humour to welcome the day. David Mailloux, Nanaimo, B.C.
I look forward to your newsletter, Terry. Dave Buck, Edmonton, Alberta
If you want to drop me a note (and risk me publishing it here) just reply to this email or if you prefer, send it to mysundayreader@gmail.com.
THIS WEEK’S SHAMELESS PLUG
A few weeks ago, faithful reader Dawn Perry of Edmonton noted she had some difficulty acquiring one of our books on the Internet. Hmm, how to fix that? Well, why not open our own Book Shop? You will find it here.
And next week, we will have a special sale on autographed, limited-run first editions of our book about our favourite Dickens-like character. More about that then.
AND FINALLY …
A reminder if I may that if you enjoy My Sunday Reader, please forward it to a friend or family member. Also, we would like to welcome the Riverdale contingent to our subscription family.
Oh, and by the way, if you want a peek at our past newsletters, just hit the button to subscribe at the top and you will see the tab for the archive on the next page.
