Let the Band play on.

A friend of mine died suddenly the other day with his family while on holiday in Texas. Bob and I first worked together back in the 70’s when he started teaching Band and Choir at the Inner City school that we both worked at when he started teaching. 

 Bob and I had gone to high school together, (he was three years behind me, but I knew him through my brothers). Bob was full of life and love for music; it was in his soul. Bob build up the band program at the school, working long hours, taking kids on band trips that became legendary (if not among the students, among the people who travelled with him). 

Bob left that school a few years after I did leaving behind a legacy that lives on today for his students as evidenced by these facebook comment from some of his students from his time with me at Whalley:

RIP Mr. Bob LaBonte, you will be missed! I remember the late 70's and the  rough kids we were in Whalley, and how much even then we respected and  loved you. You were a special kind of teacher and person!

So sad to hear...he was my favourite teacher is all of West Whalley. He alway seemed to respect and understand us. I will always remember our band trips. RIP Mr. LaBonte.

Bob moved on to other schools, built wonderful band, and choir programs, and he was always looking for a challenge. When he retired a couple of years ago,  like me he became bored wit retirement and was quickly re-hired by the district and ended up teaching on a temporary contract at Frank Hurt (an Inner city school in Central Surrey). During his first year at Frank Hurt,(two years ago),  he started to build the Band program back up, by his second year it was in full swing, and Bob was hired on a continuing contract to continue his work at the school

His second year was this last school year and I was lucky enough to work with him again. Bob rarely took lunch as he would rather take the time to work with students who wanted extra practice time. When he did take lunch, he and I would talk about the Band program, old times, old friends, his family and how he was looking forward to next year. 

He was very excited that he had expanded the program and he had a lot of grade 8’s coming into the program. We talked about his upcoming trip where he was going to go to Texas, then New Orleans and other areas where he could relax and enjoy the music. We heard today that he had died in Texas, in his sleep. 

His death is such a loss to his family, his friends and to all of the people that he touched. Music was in his soul and my sympathy goes to his wife and children. Bob LaBonte, rest in peace, you will be missed!

A Canadians view of Australians

This post is about what is like to be an Australian from a proud Canadian grandfather of a beautiful Australian grandson, I hope when he is older he gets a kick out of it.

 You know you're Australian if....

• You know the meaning of 'girt'
• You believe that stubbies can either be worn or drunk
• You think it is normal to have a Prime Minister called Kevin
• You waddle when you walk due to the 53 expired petrol discount  vouchers stuffed in your wallet or purse
• You've made a bong out of your garden hose rather than use it for something illegal such as watering the garden
• When you hear that an American 'roots for his team' you wonder how often and with whom
• You understand that the phrase 'a group of women wearing black thongs' refers to footwear and may be less alluring than it sounds
• You pronounce Melbourne as 'Mel-bin'
• You pronounce Penrith as 'Pen-riff'
• You believe the 'L' in the word ' Australia ' is optional
• You can translate: 'Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas'
• You believe it makes perfect sense for a nation to decorate its highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep
• You call your best friend 'a total bastard' but someone you really, truly despise is just 'a bit of a bastard'
• You think 'Woolloomooloo' is a perfectly reasonable name for a place
• You believe is makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin
• You understand that 'Wagga Wagga' can be abbreviated to 'Wagga' but 'Woy Woy' can't be called 'Woy'
• You believe that cooked-down axlegrease makes a good breakfast spread
• You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they stuff up, at which point they again become Kiwis
• You know, whatever the tourist books say, that no one says 'cobber'
• You know that certain words must, by law, be shouted out during any rendition of the Angels' song 'Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again'
• You believe, as an article of faith, that the confectionary known as the Wagon Wheel has become smaller with every passing year
• You still don't get why the 'Labor' in 'Australian Labor Party' is not spelt with a 'u'
• You wear ugh boots outside the house
• You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you like them
• Whatever your linguistic skills, you find yourself able to order takeaway fluently in every Asian language
• You understand that 'excuse me' can sound rude, while 'scuse me' is alway polite
• You know what it's like to swallow a fly, on occasions via your nose
• You understand that 'you' has a plural and that it's 'youse'
• You know it's not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle
• You biggest family argument over the summer concerned the rules of beach cricket
• You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what they call 'Anzac cookies'
• You still think of Kylie as 'that girl off Neighbours'
• When returning home from overseas, you expect to be brutally strip-searched by Customs - just in case you're trying to sneak in fruit
• You believe the phrase 'smart casual' refers to a pair of black tracky-daks, suitably laundered
• You understand that all train timetables are works of fiction
• When working at a bar, you understand male customers will feel the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer
• You get choked up with emotion by the first verse of the national anthem and then have trouble remembering the second
• You find yourself ignorant of nearly all the facts deemed essential in the government's new test for migrants.
• You will immediately forward this list to other Australians, here and  overseas, realising that only they will understand!!

And you were wondering: why do we live in Canada???

TOP REASONS TO LIVE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

1. Vancouver : 1.5 million people and two bridges. You do the math.

2. Your $400,000 Vancouver home is just 5 hours from downtown.
3. You can throw a rock and hit three Starbucks locations.
4. There's always some sort of deforestation protest going on.
5. Weed.

TOP REASONS TO LIVE IN ALBERTA

1. Big rock between you and BC.

2. Ottawa who?
3. Tax is 5% instead of the approximately 200% it is for the rest of the country.
4. You can exploit almost any natural resource you can think of.
5. You live in the only province that could actually afford to be its own country.
6. The Americans below you are all in anti-government militia groups.
 
TOP REASONS TO LIVE IN SASKATCHEWAN

1. You never run out of wheat.

2. Your province is really easy to draw.
3. You can watch the dog run away from home for hours.
4. People will assume you live on a farm.

 TOP REASONS TO LIVE IN MANITOBA

1. You wake up one morning to find that you suddenly have a beachfront property.

2. Hundreds of huge, horribly frigid lakes.
3. Nothing compares to a wicked Winnipeg winter.
4. You can be an Easterner or a Westerner depending on your mood.
5. You can pass the time watching trucks and barns float by.

TOP REASONS TO LIVE IN ONTARIO

1. You live in the centre of the universe.
2. Your $400,000 Toronto home is actually a dump.
3. You and you alone decide who will win the federal election.
4. The only province with hard-core American-style crime.
 

TOP REASONS TO LIVE IN QUEBEC

1. Racism is socially acceptable.

2. You can take bets with your friends on which English neighbour will move out next.
3. Other provinces basically bribe you to stay in Canada .
4. You can blame all your problems on the "Anglo".

TOP REASONS TO LIVE IN NEW BRUNSWICK

1. One way or another, the government gets 98% of your income.

2. You're poor, but not as poor as the Newfies.
3. No one ever blames anything on New Brunswick
4. Everybody has a grandfather who runs a lighthouse.

TOP REASONS TO LIVE IN NOVA SCOTIA

1. Everyone can play the fiddle. The ones who can't, think they can.

2. You can pretend to have Scottish heritage as an excuse to get drunk and wear a kilt.
3. You are the only reason Anne Murray makes money.

TOP REASONS TO LIVE IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

1. Even though more people live on Vancouver Island , you still got the big, new bridge.

2. You can walk across the province in half an hour.
3. You can drive across the province in two minutes.
4. Everyone has been an extra on "Road to Avonlea."
5. This is where all those tiny, red potatoes come from.
6. You can confuse ships by turning your porch lights on and off at night. 

TOP REASONS TO LIVE IN NEWFOUNDLAND

1. If Quebec separates, you will float off to sea.

2. If you do something stupid, you have a built-in excuse.
3. The workday is about two hours long.
4. It is socially acceptable to wear your hip waders to your wedding.

Pass this along to foreigners who can learn something about Canada and then enjoy a good chuckle.   Let's face it, we're a rare breed.

An Australian Definition of a Canadian eh

In case anyone asks you who a Canadian is . . .  thanks to my daughter for this reminder of what Steven Harper is trying to destroy, sometimes you have to be on the outside looking in to see what you have and what you could lose.

 An Australian wrote the following editorial to help define what a Canadian is:

 A Canadian can be English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. A Canadian can be Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, Arab, Pakistani or Afghan.

 A Canadian may also be a Cree, Métis, Mohawk, Blackfoot, Sioux, or one of the many other tribes known as native Canadians. A Canadian's religious beliefs range from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu or none. In fact, there are more Muslims in Canada than in Afghanistan. The key difference is that in Canada they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

Whether they have a religion or no religion, each Canadian ultimately answers only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

A Canadian lives in one of the most prosperous lands in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which recognize the right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

A Canadian is generous and Canadians have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return. Canadians welcome the best of everything, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services and the best minds.

But they also welcome the least -the oppressed, the outcast and the rejected.

These are the people who built Canada. You can try to kill a Canadian if you must as other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world have tried but in doing so you could just be killing a relative or a neighbour.

This is because Canadians are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, can be a Canadian.

Please keep this going!  It says it all, for all of us