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Funny pompous & unfair

Celebrating 80 years: The Edmonton Flying Club — not me

By Muggsy Forbes

In my January column, I recounted a rather bizarre, embarrassing incident at West Edmonton Mall. To review quickly, I was shopping with Dr. Ollie when I spotted a store of interest across the mall from where we were. As I headed toward it, I suddenly found myself having what I described as a “Metamucil moment”—flying through the air into a pond, in my overcoat no less. After reporting it to security, they reviewed their tapes and informed me that I wasn’t paying attention. Of course not! I was looking for a store ...not thinking that the mall is full of water hazards. I’m still upset.

My column generated a number of phone calls and e-mails from folks who had suffered the same fate. One guy fell in at Christmas, dumping an armful of gifts. Is there a class-action lawsuit here for some smart lawyer?  

April was a culinary experience this year as we sampled different traditional meals. First, we celebrated Jewish Passover with Stan and Doris Smorden who served Matzo with lots of fruit and Matzo-Brie which we all enjoyed. Stan had invited our Ricky’s breakfast group Al Bryant, George Reid and, last but not least, Al Butt who finally got a job. He’s project managing a large plant in the Leduc area.

Two days later, I partook in Dr. Ollie’s family Ukrainian breakfast. My mother-in-law Helen Triska—aka Baba—prepared the food, which was blessed by a priest. It was a gathering of the clan: Brother-in-law Wally Triska with son Nickolas made it from Vancouver… and Angelene showed off 10-month old Gideon. It put four generations of Triskas together for the first time.

My family joined us Easter Sunday at our condo—all 15 sat down for one of Dr. Ollie’s fabulous meals. How nice it was to have our very busy families together. I was especially pleased that my son Cam made the trip from Vancouver.

The Edmonton Flying Club is celebrating its 80th Anniversary this year—a long time for any business or organization to be around. The club has trained thousands of pilots over the decades, including through World War II. Many of the pilots who fly you to your vacation destinations probably got their basic and IFR training at the club. There was a time when I would go to the cockpit for a quick visit with a pilot I had met at the club. With the new security rules, that doesn’t happen anymore.

About 400 people belong to the Edmonton Flying Club which is run by a group of 50 sustaining members and an 11-member board of directors—of which I am one. A couple of weeks ago, at the annual general meeting, we had our celebration. The cake was going to be cut with a seven-foot Samurai sword, but it was a bit too long, so we used a shorter one. It was fun. Pilot training is very popular at the present time for a couple of reasons: many of the pilots are facing retirement from major airlines, and the current economic boom means both business and personal aircraft are fashionable.  

John Ough has had his ups and downs. A number of years ago he was involved in a horrendous car accident, not even sure he would walk again. Well he did, and now he gets around with more braces than the Low Level Bridge. He’s also been very involved with Employabilities as its president. The group trains people with disabilities to become employable in the business marketplace. He also runs a little business called First Class Card which gives subscribers a 2 for 1 discount on golf and entertainment, covering most Alberta courses, with some in Saskatchewan and British Columbia tossed in. For more information, call John at (780) 448-9676 or have a look at his web site, www.firstcards.com . If you’re a golfer, you’ll save the cost of the card in no time. 

Someone with the city is working for their money. The Visitors Information Centre on Gateway Boulevard has been chosen as the platinum winner for the 2007 RV West Magazine Reader’s Choice Awards. Readers were asked to e-mail the magazine and tell them who and what they liked best in the North America RVing world. That’s a big world. Over 1,400 nominations were received and the award was based on the top-10 votes overall in 13 categories. Edmonton was chosen the favourite Visitor Information Centre—quite an honour, congrats. The centre has been open 20 years and 1.6 million folks have dropped by. 

My longtime friend George Reid owns Dial Travel at the south end of the High Level Bridge in the Garneau Theater building. The building has been sold by the folks who have owned it since it was built 61 years ago. George figures this could mean a hefty increase in rent which his travel business probably couldn’t afford. George hasn’t had a lease in many years—rent increased by mutual agreement. The good old days, no lawyers.

Anyway, George is moving to a building he owns on Whyte Avenue, upstairs at 10548 - 82 Avenue. The staff his customers have come to trust will be there. I can verify they’re good: we used them to go to Italy and there were no hitches in the arrangements. His business has changed to telephone orders and the Internet so maybe the high profile isn’t needed as much any more. You can book at www.dialvacations.com. Making changes as drastic as this at any age is stressful, but George is handling it very well—he’s 87 years old. He’s much older than I am, just wanted to make that clear.

There’s a very good article by Lawrence Herzog about the Garneau building in his book It’s Our Heritage. It’s an important part of our history. I just hope the new owners don’t screw it up by putting another damn condo on the site. 

Did you see it? Dr. Ollie and I debuted on CityTV a couple of weeks ago. We were the so-called celebrity chefs on the Your City show. It was short but well edited. It was fun to work together in the kitchen—though it looked like Dr. Ollie did most of the cooking and I got to make clever remarks and enjoy the fruit tart she prepared. I found it curious that I looked older than my Edmontonians photo. Thanks to producer Rhonda and camera guy Nate.  

The Glenora Rotary Club had a fund raiser for Edzimkulu, A Society for Children of Aids. The club has taken the responsibility for providing money, medical, dental assistant and help in the person of members spending time working in the small South African village of Ndawana. I wish I had more room to do justice to the marvelous things the Glenora Rotary Club is doing there. Of the money raised, 97 percent goes to the Changing Lives program. Susan Green is chairing this and serves on many other committees, like Northlands to which she was recently appointed.  

Additional reporting by Edmontonians staff. Call Muggsy Forbes at 780.482.4545 or e-mail mforbes@edmontonians.com

Click here to see archive editions of Funny Pompous and Unfair by Muggsy Forbes.