A4

By Jon Tait

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Speak Up

Before I get to the meat of my column, I want to report on last week's column.

On one of my daily walks down and up the long Main Street hill, I noticed one of the merchants on the hill has already adopted a tree in front of their place of business.

Miss Fancy Pants has planted flowers at the base of her tree and they look lovely. On another note, this hill seems to getting longer and longer with each day.

Okay – the wedding! It was wonderful from start to finish. As was stated, this was just not a one-day affair. There were planned events for all to do throughout the week! Guests arrived over a week ago from Boise and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; and from Oklahoma City. The family "welcome wagon" greeted them and whisked them off to the fair for an evening of thrill rides and fireworks! The younger females of the wedding party treated the bride-to-be to a night on the town in our port city of Saint John. I don't think that we heard all that went on. I heard over and over again: "What we did in Saint John stays in Saint John!"

I guess the highlight of the week, besides the wedding itself, was the digital scavenger hunt. This was orchestrated by two sisters who do not even live in Woodstock! They visit the area often as their parents live in the area! One sister lives in Saint John, while the other resides in Sweden. Thanks to the convenience of the World Wide Web and e-mail, the two young women made up a list of random items that had to be digitally captured. When the teams brought their finds back to base, they could be downloaded onto the home computer and compared against the master list for correct and incorrect hits! The teams were arranged by random draw by choosing names out of a bag. I thought my team had a pretty fair chance even though my younger sister, Janice, was on it. We got our list, I was chosen to drive, somebody else was chosen to read and someone else to navigate and so on! In the end, we did not win! We completed our tasks the fastest and we arrived at home base first. But we missed one bonus component and it cost us the race!

The team that everybody else pegged as coming in last fooled all (even themselves) and won the competition! And I promised them that I would mention their names in the column! So hats off to the Man-o-pause team made up of Cathy; Harold; Meg; Susan of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; and Mary of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Every team had members from away. One team had four of its five members from international and national ports of call! Home places of team members included St. Jean de Richelieu, Quebec; Petawawa, Ontario; Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Boise, Idaho; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Saint John; Maple dale; and Woodstock! Mary from Oklahoma was going to frame her first-place certificate and everybody in her home state was going to hear about her big win over and over again!

All in all, everyone had a great time, and we would all do it again. I am sure that I am going to hear about this improbable win over and over again until the next great event!

Before the wedding took place there was the decorating of the hall; decorating of the Old County Court House; the construction of the tent; the rehearsal; the rehearsal dinner; and the wedding day brunches! Everything went wonderful.

On Friday night, just at the beginning of the rehearsal dinner, it started to rain. First a slow mist and then a downpour and then it leveled off to a mastication throughout the evening! An even better turnout was here as the Ontario branch of the families drove in the previous day!

On Saturday, the rain held off until after the reception. Everything went great. The Old County Courthouse held up to the strain of holding of yet another family wedding. Just by happenstance, the family has had the same minister officiate at the last three family weddings. This added to the event's tradition! The bride was radiant and beautiful and she maintained her composure long throughout the day and evening. The groom looked great in his uniform. The minister was also dressed in his military uniform. All went well.

The social page is not a column that I feel comfortable with so I will leave further details to the official reporter of the day. The bride and groom were honeymooning in Niagara Falls!

On Sunday, guests started their long trips home. Today, I take the final two away guests to the airport in Manchester, New Hampshire, to catch the great silver bird to Spokane, Washington!

It was a lovely week – full of good times, good family and friends and good food! We will all have great memories that will last a lifetime or until the next great race!

Again, I have overstayed my welcome so stay positive – the sun has to come out longer than two days at a time sometime this summer. Catch you on the upside.