Allan Scahill's County Mayo, Lancashire and Cheshire Roots
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2007 Christmas Newsletter
Date: December, 2007
A very merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all family and friends.
New years day was spent quietly at home. Although we had had a great time the night before, we were home long before the stroke of midnight. We had planned on having friends over for a New Years Day meal, but they wanted to stay at home and relax. That was fine, by us.
On January 4th, two old friends of ours, George and Gail Lamb, arrived in town. They were back in Canada, vacationing here from Trinidad where George works. While they were here, Gloria and myself booked flights for February 27th, to spend 10 days with them in Trinidad.
January 6th, four of got together to play for the Bragging Rights trophy. This tournament was held a local pool hall.
January 8th I received two emails. I was informed that Derek Robinson, the husband of my late sister Audrey, was in ill health in Australia.
On January 16 a close cousin to Gloria, Rosemarie Goehring, died. Rose was 66 years of age and had fought a hard battle with cancer. The following are some comments from Gloria and myself.
I have many fond memories of Rosemarie and will always remember her kindly. Some of my best memories were when I worked for Rose and her husband, Ron, at the Shell Restaurant and Service Station in Redcliff. Rose always wanted me to work the night shift. I would get the bar crowd to deal with. On other nights I dealt with the professional wrestlers that would stop at the Shell after performing in Medicine Hat, that made my day, as I had a lot of fun with the job. It was a real pleasure knowing her and she was a real mentor to me when I was a young lady. Gloria Scahill.
I first met Rose in 1973. Myself and a few of my Suffield buddies would stop at the Shell restaurant for the great chili and toast. Rose made the chili during the day and Gloria would serve it at night. It was the best I ever tasted. It was because of the Shell that I met Gloria. One night we stopped for our usual late night meal. After we had eaten, we needed to put enough gas in the car to get us back to Suffield, and none of us had enough cash. I borrowed the $2.00 we needed from Gloria and promised I would pay her back the next day. Well one thing led to another and we finished up dating. Our family joke is that I have been paying back that $2.00 ever since... :-) Rose was a gem, she will be missed. Allan Scahill.
Back in the year 1998, there was an article in a science magazine about getting your family name on a trip to the stars. I sent several of my family names in, and had forgotten all about it until I came across the Stardust website. Excerpt below:
"As a public outreach effort, over 1 million names were collected and placed on the STARDUST spacecraft,which will visit Comet Wild 2 in 2004. See here for more details"
We, I managed to get some family names on a trip around the universe. Check out the link above. Names are alphabetical.
From February 27th to March 10th we had a vacation to Trinidad and Tobago.
Gloria and myself visited a couple of friends of ours in Trinidad, George and Gail Lamb. George is project manager for Methanex on a construction job at the plant.
Had a fantastic time, made even better as I spent my birthday down there. This is a link to our vacation photographs on the Bubbleshare website.
The evening of March 3rd, which is my birthday, was spent at the home of the Canadian High Commissioner. George and Gail had been invited and they managed to include both Gloria and myself. The party was being held for the Canadian Cricket Team, who were down there playing in the World Series of Cricket. Everyone had to wear black and red, the Canadian team colors.
Also on the same evening was a total eclipse of the moon. I could not have dreamed or planned a better evening. I complimented George on arranging the total eclipse for me... Thank you George and Gail from being such gracious hosts.
Well. It has been 13 years since our last new vehicle. On the 23 March, we purchased a new car. A 2007 Honda Accord SE, with a sunroof and power everything... I'm afraid this means good-bye to my trusty 1991 Ford Explorer, but those are the breaks. This is our 4th Honda, and we have always been satisfied with Honda quality. Our first Honda was a 1978 Civic CVCC. Then it was a Honda Civic Wagon and the last new vehicle we purchased was a 1994 Honda Civic. A plain old automatic with power steering and nothing else. I guess because I'm always taking our dog for a walk down by the river, I'm going to be "upgrading" to the 1994 Honda, and Gloria will be driving the new one.
Our first golf game this year was on the 31st March. Although the sun was out at times, it was cold and the shorts I had worn did not help raise the temperature. The attached link to Cottonwood Coulee golf course, shows the hole that I've aced twice. On this round I put my ball in the water...
Friday April 13th. Gloria's nephew, Jeffrey Jacober, purchased my 1991 Ford Explorer. Back in 1991, it was the first Explorer in Medicine Hat. We hope Jeffrey has as much fun driving it as we did. This photograph was taken when we still owned Deli Heights.
On April 19th, I had a genealogy question answered on G4techTV. The show is called The Lab with Leo Laporte. I was able to ask my question live, using my webcam. The question was about a corrupt Word document I have. The genealogy document was created several years ago using Windows 98 and Word version 97. I was unable to open it using XP and Leo gave me some tips on solving my problem. The show aired on Canadian TV May 28th. I took a video of the show while it was playing, but the file size is so large, I'm not sure what website I can put it on.
I joined the Senior Men's Golf League at Cottonwood at the end of April. We get to golf all nearby courses for free. The farthest we go is about an hour out of Medicine Hat to both Brooks and Bow Island golf courses.
Gloria and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary on 18 May 2007. We celebrated by dining at a restaurant where we had our wedding dance. Then is was called the All Seasons. Now it's called Tumbleweeds.
In May I began learning the Linux operating system. I have a 10 year old Toshiba Tecra 8000 laptop. It has a 20GB hard drive and 256MB of memory. I'm interested in seeing what I and this old laptop can do?
June 7 saw the passing of my cousin, Ged Smith. Ged was married to Mavis Smith nee Cassin, my mother's niece. Ged celebrated his 80th birthday on 1 October 2003. Although we have not seen much of each other over the years, Mavis, Ged and I have always kept in touch via letters, cards and Email. My mother thought the world of Ged and always looked forward to his and Mavis's visits. For several years my mother even lived just across the road from them in Crescent Drive, Little Hulton. Mum would always tell me how good and kind Ged was for taking her shopping in his car, or to get her pension cheque. Ged was a good and kind person and will be sadly missed by everyone who know him. Our thoughts are with Mavis and her family.
Gloria was contacted by a new restaurant in town called Twist. They wanted to know if Gloria was interested in working for them, and after some negotiations, Gloria agreed to assist them in the kitchen and began working full time for them on June 12th. Twist is a Tapas Bistro, and is situated on 3rd Street, Medicine Hat.
We purchased a new set of golf clubs for Gloria in June. They are Callaway graphite shaft clubs, with the Big Bertha 460 driver and 3 and 5 woods. The set also comes with X-20 irons and a two ball putter. She is very pleased with these clubs.
One of our old Deli customers, Prairie Farmers Regional Authority (PFRA), asked us if we would cater to their Women's Retreat held on 4th and 5th of July? We said yes. The retreat was held at Elkwater in the Cypress Hills Provincial Park, so we took our inflatable air mattress to sleep on and provided breakfast, lunch and dinner for 56 Alberta and Saskatchewan farm ladies.
I have been putting up a lot family photographs on a photo site called Bubbleshare. This link is to the Mortgage Burning Party we held in July 1993.
On Monday July 23 I shot my lowest round of golf at Cottonwood Coulee Golf Course. I golfed with Gloria and two friends, Bill and David Osadchy. Bill could only manage 9 holes as he had to go back to work. David and his wife Nichole were married on the previous Saturday. I shot a 76 with three bad holes, so it could have been better. But that's what keep you going back...
Thursday 13th September. The golf season is almost over, so Gloria and myself applied for jobs today at the new Costco that is being built here. While we were in line a news reporter from CHAT TV came over to speak with us, after a while the reporter came back with his camera person and asked Gloria she would like to be interviewed for a segment on the day's evening news? He asked how long we had been in line, two hours by the time we has our initial interview with a Costco rep. He also asked Gloria why she liked Costco, she told him that when we owned the Deli, we would travel the 100 plus miles to Lethbridge to purchase items for the Deli and then travel the same 100 miles back home. Gloria is looking for a position in one of their food service areas. I'm just looking for a part time position in any department.
September 15th was our Men's League Golf Windup. The team I was on, finished at minus 3, but did not win this year. We had fun anyway. My team mates were: Brian Kohlman, Ron Weiss and Ken Moen, who started the round by giving each of us a very nice travel mug that had a good amount of Bailey's in it. My name was drawn for a portable Skil Saw.
On Tuesday October 2nd, I went for my second interview for a part time position with Costco. I was interviewed by two managers and given one math and two logic tests. I must have passed because on Thursday October 4th, Costco phoned me to offer me a position with the company.
I sent away for a free DNA testing kit on October 22. This is from the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City. They provide the kit and I supply the sample and a three generation genealogy chart. I should get my results back in 6 months via their website.
November 1 was my first day with Costco. They have a new store here in Medicine Hat and I'll be working there part-time. The store opened on 30 November. This low resolution image was made with my Palm Zire 71. The store had 167 Wii Sports for sale, they all went in 9 minutes. I managed to get one.
Gloria is also be working at Costco, but for a company called PWD. Gloria will be a food and beverage demonstrator at the store and her first day of orientation was on 27 November.
In December of last year, my wife Gloria had three holiday recipes published in the 2006 Holiday Recipe Book which was released by the Medicine Hat News. This year she had six recipes published in the 2007 Holiday Recipe Collection. We hope you like them.
On December 5, the DNA testing kit arrived from the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation. The kit consists of instructions for getting a DNA sample, a consent form to participate in the study, a box to return the DNA sample in and a container of mouthwash that you use to obtain the sample. The mouthwash has to be swished around the mouth for 45 seconds and then spit back into the container. I also have to supply a family genealogy pedigree chart for four generations. i.e. me the donor, my parents, grandparents and great grandparents. Results will be available on the Sorenson website in a few months.
Christmas Eve was spent at Gloria's nephew and niece's place, Kenny and Stephanie Jacober. Gloria had a surprise as her sister, Cora, and niece Jolene, were there from Calgary along with their husbands, Dan and Gerhardt. Steph is a great cook and is to be complimented on a wonderful meal. Allen and Marlene gave Gloria and myself a Scrabble dictionary for Christmas. Now I can no longer try to play words that sound authentic...
Christmas Day was spent with Deb and Bill and his family. In this photograph are friends Brenda and Ken, Bill's mother and his brother and Bill, Deb and Gloria. The meal and company were fantastic, but I could not have a drink as I was working the next day :-(
December 29 we had supper with Deb and Bill at there place, from there we went to a house party at Jim and Judy Hewitts's. This is another photograph of Bill and Deb at the house party.
December 30 went to a house party hosted by our friends Vivian and Harry. This is another photograph taken with Viv and Harry.
December 30 was also the date that Gloria's uncle, Albert Roth, died. Albert was the step-brother to Gloria's mum, Elsie Jacober nee Rinke. Albert's funeral will be held on January 3, 2008.
New Years Eve was a planned quiet evening. Started by going out for chinese food, then a drink at a local pub, watched the movie Zodiac at home and then played on the Wii.
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
Love and best wishes from Allan and Gloria.
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