Pottery Profiling -Linda Slavin

Many years ago, I took a pottery class at Fleming College. It was exciting for me, a chance to leave my normal house-duties as a mother of two very small children and explore the life within clay. Because of that experience, I ended up working part-time for Bob Kavanagh, an exceptional philosopher-cum-potter living on the outskirts of Lakefield. His studio, with three assistants working various times in the week, was in his basement while his oven was in his backyard. Bob used to have big "sales" events in different places – The Inn on the Park in Toronto, for one. The preparation for these sales was enormous, with lots of baking in the back yard.

I learned to “throw” clay there, but I was not great at it. “Throwing” refers to the way you literally throw the clay onto the wheel before you coax the clay up into a shape. I think Bob believed in the Japanese methodology that you had to throw thousands of pots before you even approached perfection. I mostly made slab ware – nothing too big or exotic. It involved using a roller to make the slabs and then forming them into fairly flat dishes. And I loved the talking and sharing pot-making with Bob. I also had to get used to his love for country music. ”Linda, it is so raw. Everything is there that you find in real life. You have to like it. “

One day I made my lamp. It was really two pieces of clay, each made as a thrown vase with a hand-built added part in the middle to make it taller. I was pleased. As I have given pottery away over the years, I have kept this piece, so it is one of the few that I actually threw, then designed and finished. We have used it ever since as a lamp in our living room.

Bob used to say if you could lift it, you could throw it (referring to a clay mound). One day a wonderful bowl was created that survived the oven and was going to be taken to an upcoming sale. I must have said something to Alan about how wonderful this bowl was and how I could use it for making bread. Surprise of all surprises, it turned up under my Christmas tree with my name on it from my dear Alan. He has enjoyed the bread that I made every week for years and the Christmas Cake I still make in it every November. It is one of the best bowls Bob ever made – evenly thrown and beautifully balanced. Who knows, but it may make it eventually to the community kitchen in KCC.

The Story of My Adventurous and Sophisticated Life Up to Now

-Buddy the cat (owner of Pati Beaudoin)

My first adventure was in the wilds of Georgia. Just a few weeks after the earth greeted us, our mum was gone! Baby and I were alone with nothing to eat. It was a scary time, but I took care of my little sister. We stayed together, and Sharron, a flightless biped, came along. She smiled and petted us and we felt safe. Actually, I felt safe and I told Baby to stop shaking. Baby was an anxious little cat. Sharron brought us to a big building and gave us food.

We stayed with Sharron and Yank at their office for a few days. Then Sharron brought Pati to see us. Pati is another flightless biped. She liked us so much she took us to live with her in a nice house with stairs and lots of food. We stayed there and met lots of flightless bipeds. Some visited from the Canadalands. (I borrow that term from Pluto the One-Eyed Dog, who is pretty smart for a dog.) There were three windows on the deck-side of the house, so if a squirrel ran across the deck, we could follow it by running from window-to-window-to-window. We loved doing that. That was an adventure every time, because the printer was in-between and we never knew when it would start birthing something. Pati sent report cards to Sharron and Yank with grades for running and jumping and purring. We got As in everything.

Then one day Pati started putting things in boxes. Pots and forks and jeans and shorts and books and books and books. And then Baby and I went to stay with Mike and Claudia, who had a fantastic house with lots of stairs and windows with lots of squirrels. We were there so Pati could sell the house, but I think people would have liked the house better with us in it.

Then Peter, one of Pati’s litter-mates, came from the Canadalands and we drove away with all the boxes in a big truck, and with Baby and me in a little truck. We drove and drove for days and days. At dark Pati and Peter brought us into strange rooms that became unstrange because they were pretty much the same.

Then we stopped driving and waited and waited in the little truck. Then Pati talked to a very nice lady for a few minutes and then --amazing! -- we were in the Canadalands! Pati and Peter got out and jumped up and down. Baby and I transformed from Americats to Canadicats and suddenly we were more polite.

Then we were at The Hovel. It was small and dark and Pati didn’t like it. But Baby and I were happy. We had lots of food and petting. No staircase, though, and no deck with squirrels. A baby biped came to see us and I was so careful and gentle with her. She didn’t know how to pet me so the big biped who carried her around showed her. Lots of bipeds visited there. Even though Pati didn’t like The Hovel she still had lots of visitors. Baby peed on the guest bed.

Now we’re in a house that Pati likes. It has TWO staircases and a deck with squirrels. At first lots of bipeds came. They came in ones and twos for overnight, and they came in groups and had meetings and meetings and meetings. Baby hid, but I saw lots of hands made for petting and went and met everybody. I spent a whole meeting on the big couch under Kris’s hand and Andrea took a picture and I spent much of another meeting under Sheila’s hand. I love meetings. I am a Meeting Animal.

Then a very sad thing happened. Baby is gone now. Pati’s eyes leaked for two days. I had not seen Pati’s eyes leak before. I didn’t know eyes could leak. Becky and Mathew came to help Pati feel better.

A few days after Baby was gone Pati stopped going to the office and became a stay-at-home mum for me and the bipeds started acting strangely. No more visits, no more overnights, no more meetings. I miss meetings! Now when Peter the litter-mate sits at the table they have a bunch of candles in the middle but no cake. When a biped visits, they wear a mask. I remember masks from Hallowe’en with all the little bipeds with their faces covered, but those masks were for fun. I don’t think these are for fun.

Now Pati talks to the computer. She talked to it so much that one day it started talking back! I curl up beside it and sometimes I stand in front of the screen to let her know it’s cuddle time.

It’s nice to have a stay-at-home mum. I keep telling Pati we need to have more meetings, but I don’t think she understands yet. I’ll keep working on it.

A Parable -Arthur Herold

There was once a rabbi named Zusya,
and as he was dying his followers gathered around him, and one asked, “Rabbi Zusya, give us a wise word before you die.”
And this is what Zusya said:
“When I stand before God on Judgment Day, God will not ask me,
‘Zusya, why weren’t you more like Abraham or Moses?’
God will ask instead,
‘Zusya, why weren’t you more like Zusya?’”

from Tales of the Hasidim by Martin Buber

In Memoriam

It is with great sorrow that the newsletter must report Primo’s passing from “some kind of intestinal issue” this month. Mathew writes, “It is sad, but he had a good year or so and he was well loved. It's not easy being a sheep, but he did his best!”

RIP Primo

Equity Member Interview -- meet Lyn Kitchen

This article was written and provided by Lyn Kitchen

I expect I was a challenge for my parents. As their first born, I arrived early weighing in at 2 lbs 10 oz, because my twin brother had died in utero. This caused my mother to go into labour early. My mother’s sister, Aunt Verna, was an OB nurse at the hospital when I was born in Midland. I know I had special care and my parents were allowed to take me home two months later at 5 lbs. My dad apparently was so cautious that he would only carry me around on a pillow for the first while. I got named Verna Lyn after my very caring aunt. This was 1948.

My two brothers and two sisters arrived over the next 11 years. We all grew up on the family farm that my dad’s parents had purchased around 1914, near Elmvale On. We all helped our parents with mixed farming including milking cows, selling cream, raising calves, pigs and chickens. There was planting and growing of wheat, oats, barley and hay, mostly to feed the animals.

Life was simple but productive. There was the house work and farm work, which we all had to share in. In the hot June sun of early summer, I can remember being required to hoe the strawberries with Grandpa (then in his 80’s). We also had to transplant the new strawberry runners for next season. At the time, I thought it was a big field, of about 2 acres, for just strawberries.

We did live in a community. There was the spring annual Maple Syrup Festival and the Fall Fair, which were big deals. We attended the Presbyterian Church. I played piano for Sunday school, and later sang in the choir. My siblings and I were members of clubs such as 4H, CGIT, and Church Young Peoples. Summer camps provided new and varied social adventures.

We all had to walk about 1 1/2 miles to a one room school. This is where I met Bruce in Grade 8. We were later bussed to the same high school. I wrote my nursing exams, (now called Registered Practical Nurse) and started working at Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie in 1968. Bruce was in second year in University Waterloo Co-op Engineering. We got married in 1970, and moved to Guelph. I got a job first at St Joseph's hospital and later Guelph General. These were mostly carefree days, with good work mates, and no kids. I must have earned the title PHT (Putting Hubby Through) school which was the joke of the day. The best investment I ever made!

Bruce graduated in 1972. Our first son was born in 1973. Bruce’s new job brought us to Peterborough in 1974. Our daughter arrived in 1977, and younger son in 1979.

The 1980’s were busy, but I considered myself lucky to be able to be a “stay-at-home Mom”. We decided to home-school using the A- Becka books curriculum for two years. This gave us a whole new venture and community contacts. Travelling was part of our education too. Some of our best camping experiences happened at Bon Echo, where we met other young families. Our kids still have friends from these occasions today.
We progressed to a high top camper van, which seemed luxurious compared to tenting. This enabled us to go on trips across Canada and the US.

It was always expected that our children would further their education. We would help them get started, but they would be responsible for the majority of the tab. Thankfully they were able to get work, and obtain a degree as well.

It was during this time that I worked for Nightingale Nursing doing homecare and some palliative care nursing for a few years. Later I worked with seniors under the Veterans Independence Program, for Veterans Affairs Canada. Their office used to be on King Street in Peterborough.

Bruce and I both retired in 2006, the year our daughter got married. She and her husband were living in Calgary. Our oldest son had married in 1999, he and his wife live in Richmond Hill. Then in 2007, the grandkids started arriving.

We enjoyed many trips back and forth to Calgary. Some side trips too, to the Royal Tyrell Museum at Drumheller, Banff, Jasper, etc. Thankfully, our daughter Brenda, David and two children moved back to Markham in 2012 with employment. Our younger son and wife live in Brantford and are the furthest from Peterborough. Now, however, we can drive to visit each of their families.

We have seven grandchildren, all growing up too fast. Before Covid hit, we had the five oldest grandkids stay with us for a week in the summer without their parents. This was a lot of fun doing all kinds of crafts, baking muffins, lemon pies (a favourite), beginner knitting and making objects in Papa’s wood shop.

A few years before retirement, at a yard sale, we purchased some used bikes, to see if we would like biking. New bike trails were opening up. I enjoyed being out in the fresh air and the exercise. Later we got lighter bikes with suspension, which have served us well. They are now 17 years old. Think it’s time to replace them soon.

After retirement, we did take a bike and barge trip from Amsterdam to Brussels. Great biking with few hills but lots of wind some days. Later we booked a river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest that got turned into a bus trip, because of very highwater levels that stranded all the ships. The cruise company then transported us to stay on their stationary ships. We started spending winters at Fort Myers Beach, Florida about seven years ago, until Covid sent us home early in March 2020.

We learned about KCC, from Suzanne and Rick, among the friends we met in Florida, and have enjoyed bike trips and cottage time together. All my life I have lived in the country, but as we age, it seemed prudent to consider moving into town. After we had learned more about cohousing, we felt KCC would be a good fit.

Introducing… Barry Muskovitch

If life is like a river, Barry’s has meandered quite a bit - from hippie, to carpenter, to professional cook, to the exhibit industry, to the wholesale coffee and bread business, to café owner, and on to RV traveller.

Barry was born in Toronto in 1956. He has two older sisters. They grew up in an eastern European Jewish home, one that was steeped in tradition but not religion. Due to his mother being bipolar and his father being a Holocaust survivor (probably with PTSD), they lived in his maternal grandparents’ home. His bubby played a significant maternal role for Barry.

Barry says he was in a hurry to grow up. He became a hippie. At 15, after grade 9, he took off to Vancouver and spent the summer there. His parents were opposed, but by this time they had already lost control of him. He came back and spent a year at a free school, but it was “just a place to hang out and smoke dope”. At 16 he moved into an apartment with his girlfriend and some other friends, dogs, and cats.

Barry started doing carpentry, learning from a guy who did small home renovations. He heard about a craft fair in the Ottawa valley, stuck his thumb out and went there. They spent months preparing for the fair. He lived in a teepee until building another structure with a guy named Wizard. (Man, that is so 60’s!) He and his friend Tex created a sandwich stand during the fair and left with a “good bit of cash in their pockets”.

Barry and Tex returned to Toronto, moved in together, and started a small company called (wait for this one…), "As You Like It Done Cosmic Construction". They operated out of a yellow van festooned with abundant Krishna bells. Barry laughs about this time in his life because the only thing cosmic about what they were doing was that they were stoned all the time.

Barry joined friends that he’d made at the Ottawa valley fair, at Everdale, the oldest still operating commune near Hillsburgh, Ontario. His time, however, was short-lived, as he didn’t find his place there.

About this time, he was visiting friends near Arthur, Ontario, who lived across the street from a big, loving Dutch family who were dairy farmers. The father was a larger-than-life character who had a mission to bring everybody to Jesus. Barry and his friends became born-again Christians. His parents didn’t like it or understand it, but they didn’t reject him. After seeing that he had more structure in his life, that he cleaned up (“cut my waist length hair and my dope days were over”) and that he was serious about it, they accepted it. He was living in Toronto, but spent a fair bit of time with the family and regularly attended the local fellowship.

He also tried to bring everybody to Jesus (including his parents!). One offshoot of this was that he studied the Bible. Not only the New Testament, but the Old Testament too, which is the Torah. So by converting to Christianity, his knowledge of Judaism increased.

At 18, he went to George Brown College for chef training; he apprenticed for a couple of years but didn’t like the institutional nature of it, so decided to go back to woodworking.

When he was 22, he married his first wife, who was also a born-again Christian. In an attempt to figure out what he was going to do with his life, he went back to school to get his high school equivalency. He was asked to join a company he had been working for – a casual labour employment agency. It was a natural fit for him and he was very good with the clients. He was asked to go into outside sales, where he thrived. He spent a number of years there and then wanted more of a challenge. He got into the exhibit display industry, which was a great blend of all of his previous experience. His marriage ended after 7 years. Both he and his wife had enough of the born-again Christian dogma, so that ended too.

Eventually, he started his own exhibit and display company and was in the industry for 35 years. He did a lot of specialty work in high-end food stores, which led to a transition in 2007 to being a successful wholesale broker for artisan-style bread and coffee.

In 2002, Barry met Tzabia at the Carrot Common. She was working as a nutritional consultant in the supplement department. She had recently moved to Toronto with her 12-year old son. They moved into Barry’s Riverdale home and in 2011 bought a house together in the same neighbourhood.

Over the years, Barry acquired three income properties. With that type of financial comfort, he moved ahead to fulfill a dream of owning a neighbourhood café. The Shmooz was born. It became a beloved neighbourhood gem, known for its great coffee and food that shmecks. In 2019, with the café not being financially viable, and working long hours, he decided to sell it at a loss. As the saying goes, “How do you make a small fortune in the restaurant industry? Start with a large one.”

In that same year, Barry and Tzabia sold their house, having decided to travel extensively throughout North America and escape Ontario winters. They had a vintage 1975 Airstream gutted and customized, hitched it to their Jeep and headed down to California and Arizona. Due to Covid, they returned in April 2020.

Barry has many passions, many of which he shares with Tzabia. Cooking and wine pairing, hiking, swimming and canoeing. He built his own cedar strip, canvas-covered canoe in 1981 and still uses it. He loves to scuba dive, but has not done that in a while. They have been members of the Toronto Scrabble Club. He misses the competition (that Covid has shut down) but still plays regularly with Tzabia who gives him a run for his money. So watch out Scrabble players!