For those who thought that I had run out of peeves back in 1999, think again. There are plenty to go around, and I am quite willing to share a few. Back in 1999, many of us were dreaming of a peaceful, problem-free millennium. Dream on! Some rotten apple always finds a way to upset the applecart.

I had abandoned my curmudgeonly diatribe about our recent Toronto winter (neither fair nor foul), and remarked that it was about time for resuming some exercise in the form of a walk along a path which extends through a green section of our neighbourhood. My wife was quick to point out that the path was not as pristine as I may have remembered it last year. In fact, she thought that it was disgusting - - - littered with garbage, plagued with grafitti marking the territory of a local gang of hoodlums, few park benches without signs of regular beer parties, and undrained water for breeding mosquitoes.

Here's a modified sattelite photo as an easy reference for the photo locations which follow.

Let's begin our wee walk at the southern corner of the Kingslake Park soccer field, where I have labelled The Brandy Bench (A) with the bottle of Napolean Brandy near a shady flower bed and a Vandalized Fence (B) used as a convenient short-cut for the lazy.

A new recycling bin has been placed beside the wire trash container near the picnic tables and Children Playground Benches (C), but that metal projection on the picnic table and the broken glass around the bin might injure a youngster some day.

It appears that there is plenty of adult supervision at the Park Bench Hangout (E) as well - - - hopefully when the children are not there. There were a sufficient number of beer caps to cover the full length of the bench. This area not only had the greatest variety of beer caps, but it also had the greatest number of imported brands.

I might add that a large quantity of the paper refuse had blown up against the fences (e.g. D) across from the playground and northwest of the Hangout (E).

It was impossible to sit on the park bench beside the Undrained Water (F) because the pool left the ground too soggy on all sides. One might notice that the number of beer bottle caps was decreasing the further north one walked along the path but the visual senses are jarred again and again by the gang graffiti on the Utilities Box (G) and the Hobart Park sign (H) on either side of Van Horne Avenue. In view of the recent crimes involving gang feuds around the city, anyone using the walkway has every reason to be nervous. We need to take back this area, and the first step is to erase the graffiti.

Passing point (I), the bench with used condoms, I step to the left as a little girl on her bicycle makes a turn on the sidewalk to follow her mother pushing a stroller along a different path. The wee girl is fortunate that she did not fall off her bike a short distance back where a shattered Labatt's Ice beer bottle (J) lay on the sidewalk..

Alas, there were no wire trash containers or recycling bins at either of the Bleachers (K) at the baseball diamond. In fact, the wind had blown most of the paper over to the Seneca Hill schoolyard and the properties to the east..

Aside from the large Löwenbräu lager beer (exclusively imported from Munich, Germany) in the previous photo, a 50 ml bottle of Smirnoff premium triple distilled vodka from the same bleachers, and the Napolean Brandy in the first photo, - - - I had concentrated upon beer bottle caps - - - until a total of 50 caps was reached. The larger bottles had larger caps, and I recorded these with an "lg" beside the number. Thus, Labatt's Brewery led the rest with Maximum Ice (9 lg), Ice Beer (3), Maximum Ice (2), Pilsener (1), and Anheuser Bush (1 lg). The next most popular was Corona Extra from Mexico (9). Molson's Brewery followed with its Canadian Maple Leaf (5), Carling lager (2) and Black Ice (1). Laker from the High Falls Brewing Company tallied (4), as did Heineken from the Netherlands (4). Circle V from Indianapolis Indiana (2), Olde English "800" at 8% alcohol (2 lg) and Staropramen from the Czech Republic (2) tied in numbers if not in quantity and % alcohol. The final group included Lakeport honey lager (1), Colt 45 from Stroh's US Brewery (1 lg) and 86 Bavaria beer at 8.6% alcohol from Bavaria (1).

All collected caps have been recycled. May all, who litter the once enjoyable walkway, depart - - - the sooner, the better!

April 13, 2006.

WOW!!!!! What a change!!! There's a new sign for Hobart Park. New trash containers have been placed at the baseball diamond and at a few other places along the paths. The entire area has never looked better. Thank you, Councillor Shelley Carroll. You certainly get things done.

The only eyesore is the graffiti on the Utilities Box in the park at Van Horne Avenue which still declares the area to be the property of a neighbourhood gang. My guess is that it won't take long for a rival gang to declare its territorial rights to the other side of the street by defacing the new Hobart Park sign directly across on the other side of the street.

Jennifer Daws, the Constituency Assistant to Councillor Shelley Carroll continued to work on the problem throughout June of 2006, and on June 28, she reported:
I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Hydro went to look at the graffiti covered box today and to remove the graffiti. The bad news is that when Hydro got there to remove it, they found it to be a Rogers Cable box...
And so my quest continues to have this graffiti removed! I spent over an hour on the phone this afternoon with Rogers putting in a formal request for graffiti removal. I was not given a confirmation number or service request number which would enable our office to follow-up with Rogers (they were unable to provide any way of following up).

I have been given no indication of who will be calling me from Rogers (the Customer Service Agent didn't know and could not find out), when it will be looked after, and quite frankly I don't have a lot of faith in this graffiti removal request process. As such, I will be requesting Municipal Licensing and Standards issue a notice to Rogers to remove the graffiti.

Just wanted to bring you up to speed on this issue and to let you know that I am still working on it!

On July 2, my wife reported a miracle! The graffiti on the Rogers Cable box is no longer a blight along the path which crosses Van Horne Avenue. Thank you Jennifer for your persistence. Somehow the message got through. This is much appreciated by many home owners between Finch and Fairview Mall who enjoy the string of parks and play areas. Perhaps the few spoilers can be taught to keep the area cleaned up.

April 23, 2006.

In my retirement, I have identified a worthwhile project . . . an attempt to restore an old mausoleum, the only structure in the Pioneer Section of the Old Union Cemetery in Waterdown, Ontario. It contains descendants from the McGregor branch of the House of Glengyle dating back to Alpin, King of Scots (787 AD). [Ref.: The McGregor Story by Henry Ward, 1971, with additions and corrections by J. Douglas Ross, 2005.]

I've probably uncovered enough peculiarities to cover a whole series of peeves, but I'll concentrate upon a couple of items which, to me, appear to represent injustice (on one hand) and incompetence (on the other).

Prejudice? The Ontario Government (1-800-959-8281) observed that funds were available for historic sites. It was doubtful if a descendant of King Alpin of Scots would qualify. However, the consultant cheerfully suggested there might be a refund of the Provincial Service Tax on any restoration if a religious cemetery (Jewish, Roman Catholic, Moslem, etc) were involved. She doubted that the only structure in a predominantly Scottish-Presbyterian pioneer cemetery would qualify. Why should one cemetery project receive tax exemption and yet another be refused?

Incompetence? I have been astonished by the number of missing records for the McGregor Ross Mausoleum. After the amalgamation of the municipalities of Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough, Glanbrook, Hamilton and Stoney Creek, the Hamilton Cemetery Board inherited the management responsibilities for cemeteries in the six areas. This amalgamation in 2001 only served to aggravate matters insofar as records and upkeep were concerned. The theft of a brass plaque over the door between 1950 and 1963 led to faulty references to the mausoleum and, apparently, the loss of all documentation about the contents which had been the responsibility of the Flamborough Cemetery Board. Permission was not granted for the mausoleum to be used as a vault to store bodies over the winter but, on my visit in mid-May of 2005, there was an unidentified green coffin-sized box supported by iron bars and an additional coffin-sized cemented area, both of which had unknown contents and did not exist in the mausoleum prior to 1988 (at my best estimate). Such conditions are unnacceptable. Do the police have files on missing persons from the area?

Delays? In his communication on May 12, 2006 (with a copy to Tamara Anson Cartwright), Peter Christie stated: I had asked the Cemetery Administration Office to contact you to discuss options available with trust funds etc. for the restoration project on the mausoleum. Obviously no one has contacted you to date. I have requested this again.

With total frustration on my part, I finally mailed letters on June 9 to Mayor Larry Di Ianni of Hamilton, Councillor Margaret McCarthy of Ward 15 (whose constituency office is in Waterdown) and Ted McMeekin MPP for Flamborough (whose office is also in Waterdown). In response to a telephone call from the Mayor's office to provide assistance in setting up a trust fund to restore the only building in the pioneer section of Waterdown's Union Cemetery, Crystabelle Fobler (Administrator of the Cemetery Administration Office) telephoned me at 4:10 PM on June 19 to assure me that action would be taken at the next meeting of the board. I await the results.

As of Canada Day (July 1) absolutely no work has started towards the restoration, and there have been no opportunities to take photographs to record the progress. Now, here we are at mid-month in July awaiting some teeny bit of evidence that a trust fund can be set up with the Hamilton Cemetery Board.

My concerns are balanced by credits to some individuals who continue to give me moral support, and some of these people are recorded at http://www.ross-ter.com/Ross-ter_Reports/Mausoleum/MRM.html. I'd love to be able to leave this peeve behind as soon as possible.

After some telephone calls on August 3, I received some welcome replies. Mind you, although the messages were pleasant and positive, no action towards restoration can be recorded yet . . . with one exception. Michael from Trull Funeral Home on the Danforth confirmed the data about the entombment of my grandparents in Waterdown as I reported in the preceding website in case there was any doubt about the historical facts.

Stan Hutchinson returned my phonecall of August 3 and, although the first shipment of granite from Africa had been broken in transit, the second one arrived safely and I was assured that the plaque (as originally approved from the information received from Peter Christie, Superintendent of Cemeteries, on December 7, 2005) would be completed and installed by August 25 at the latest.

Almost immediately afterwards, a return phonecall was received from Chrystabelle Fobler, and I was greatly reassured about the possibility of some progress. The cemetery board has generously offered to proceed with the approved restoration. Since there appears to be some difficulty with establishing a trust fund (similar to those in other municipalilties for special purposes), this offer must be declined. I cannot approve any restoration which is not covered by funds established for the McGregor Ross mausoleum. Donations matching the board's expenses will not stand the test. My conscience must serve on behalf of the sole surviving family descended from those legitimately entombed in the McGregor Ross mausoleum in the Pioneer Union Cemetery at Waterdown, Ontario. My obligations and responsibilities as set forth by my father, John Caven Alexander Ross, back in 1951 when I was beginning University studies, must have a priority. Let us hope that there are no further obstacles to cloud the positive aspects of these responses.

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