Treasure or trash? O


ver the past several years, I have had the task of sorting through years of collectibles; old photo-


graphs and memorabilia that have be- longed to the older generations of my family. My other


family


members seem to have no patience to do it and the job has fallen to me. On top of that, I have a sharp memory of people and events from our collective past and am the curator of most of that information. I must decide what is trea- sure and what is trash. When last we dealt with my mother’s two younger sisters, one was in a nurs- ing home already and the other was about to be admitted. This left an amazing array of file boxes which were filled with much family his- tory. At the time, all of our energies were directed to emptying out the house so when we came close to the end there were 16 file boxes to be sorted and decisions to be made.


I sent them to my house to do them


when I was at home and had time. Guess what? That time has come now that we are at home. So where do I begin? I have to decide what is treasure and what is trash.


My first rule of thumb is to preserve anything that I feel


is significant for family history. I begin by sorting things


into family groups and have begun a rudimentary filing system of manila en- velopes with names on the front. I have found my aunt’s elementary school re- cords and the badges she won at various activities. As she had no children, I have packaged some of them for her old high school. Plaques and awards are another issue. What do you do with them? Perhaps, contact the sources and see if they would like them back for their records.


Jim Pappas


Some family members will be receiving very ample packages of photos and other things. I feel they can decide which pile they put them in. I am merely the librarian who


catalogued them for them. My children and my nephews and nieces will have a lot to sort through as the photos of them number in the hundreds. Every moment of their lives is represented in these pho- tos and it will be their job to determine which are the salient ones they wish to keep. I am withholding some of my chil- dren’s photos personally as some of them bring me great joy, as I watch them un- fold into adulthood. Others are rather pedestrian but that will fall to them to decide.


Amongst the treasures


Back to back I


s it just me … … or is it time to get back to nor-


mal, or, the New Normal, as it were, or is? Spring is back. Time to get back to the back yard. Getting everything from the shed and garage back where it really belongs. The only thing you might not be looking forward to is … your back. That is, if you have my back. I


have Degenerative


Disc Disease. It’s a misno- mer. It isn’t a disease at all. It is a condition where the rubbery pads between the vertebrae of your lumbar (lower)


region gradually


wearing out. These discs act as shock absorbers and over time, as we get older, they aren’t as rubbery as they used to be. There is a long list of painful things that can go wrong with a person’s back, espe- cially your spine. Bulging discs, herniated discs and slipped discs are but a few. I can’t say for certain when or where my back problem started but, I think it started in the late 70s when I was at-


Jim Ingebrigtsen Is It Just Me...


that I have


found are photos of my brother Chrys and I when we were both under age five,


Pappas boys under age 5.


sitting on the sofa with our hair perfect- ly parted and combed: two little angels with scuffed boots. We look so innocent. A photo of my mother at age 16 shows what a beauty she was and another of my father in his wrestling trunks is a com- plete hoot. Photos of my aunts’ weddings and seeing how young they all were. Stu- dio portraits of them and photos taken on Portage Avenue when they were down- town walking to lunch or shopping. This was a cultural thing of the 1940s and ear- ly 1950s. The photographers would posi- tion themselves on Portage and take your photo as you walked down the avenue. Among the treasures, however, there is what I call a lot of trash, too. I mean that in the pejorative sense in that there are


photos and letters of people and places that I have no knowledge of. If I cannot identify them, they are added to the trash. Photos of hockey games and flowers and snow do not rate highly as I am sorting. The big issue is how much of this will have resonance for my children. As much as possible I am writing in pencil on the backs of the photos to identify the people and events in them.


That brings me to my own collectibles,


too. How much of my history are they really interested in. Do my report cards from Laura Secord or Kelvin have mean- ing to them? What about grad photos and photos taken at various events in my career at University or in the working world? It is incumbent on me to make decisions about all this for them, to create a personal history of my life both before Barbra and I were married and all through our 47 years together is a daunting job. But I feel that I need to control what is treasure and what is trash. So, I have set myself a goal to sift through my own per- sonal photos and papers as well and not leave it to their discretion but mine. As I am doing this treasure hunting


and sorting, I am travelling a road of happiness and sadness, combined, to see those that I loved who are no longer here and remember them with great fondness. These are however my treasures and my


trash and it is firmly in my hands to make the decisions not to leave it to chance and my children. A Class Act with Jim Pappas is heard on CJNU 93.7 FM every Monday at 1 p.m.


tempting to move a boat on a trailer that was dug into a gravel pad. I was making headway after rocking it back and forth for some time when all it needed was one more good pull. I felt something click but I doubt it was the realiza- tion I should have asked someone to help me pull the boat that wasn’t even mine. I spent three days ly- ing on the floor in the most pain I had experienced in my life to that point. A few words of advice for all ages … don’t rock the boat … by yourself. Once I made it to my


doctor I was prescribed my first NSAID (non-ste- roidal anti-inflammatory drug). It helped. In the past 40 years I have tried most everything available


to ease the pain when it flares up, which is often. Usually after attempting to move, lift or carry something I should have asked for help with. Although the burden with age is increasing, I can still carry the weight of the world on my shoulders but not so much pianos anymore.


At one time, after lifting something I


shouldn’t have, the pain would last a day or two. Now, it can hang on for a week or two depending on the level of stupidity I have exerted. My use of the big name NSAID’s didn’t last long. After reading the long list of risks associated with the continuing use of these drugs, I weighed the benefit of easing my back pain to the possibility of getting hives, skin rash, wheezing, bleed- ing in the stomach or even death. About two out of every 1000 “users” die every year from taking some form of this type of prescription drug. I still take the occasion- al off-the-shelf pain relief capsule prior to when I know I am heading to the back yard to do something stupid once again. I have sought relief in most every area Physiotherapy,


one can. laser therapy,


message therapy, acupuncture, chiroprac- tic and yoga. Some of these might work for you, not for me. I have read two books recommended to me by a friend and former Winnipeg- ger, Sam Broverman. The first book is titled Crooked, “outwitting the back- pain industry and getting on the road to recovery”. Cathryn Jakobson Ramin is an American journalist who suffered


Current Events


Due to the recent pandemic, recent events have been closed, cancelled or rescheduled. Confirm details with event organizers.


Puzzles’ solutions


from back pain and after researching ways to find relief she wrote an in-depth book about the “industry” of back pain and the more than 600 billion dollars a year that is spent in the U.S. on it. At least half the book are her opinions on every area of the “back pain business” and cautions you on everything from medication to surgery. The library has it or you can get it online. If you have back pain – read it. The other book, The Back Mechanic, is written by Dr. Stuart McGill, a professor emeritus at the University of Waterloo. He doesn’t spend as much time on the cons of the back business as much as the pros, as in how to make your back bet- ter. Simple exercises are the key and he il- lustrates them all. Creating a routine and sticking to it is the key. If you have back pain – read it. It’s also available online and the library. It’s okay, it’s not heavy. The only thing missing in both these


helpful books is a section dedicated to stupid guys (mostly) who still don’t ask for help lifting heavy things.


I have to get back to the pharmacy (Li-


quor Mart) to refill my prescription (pain relief) as I have to get back to work in the back yard.


18 whatsupwinnipeg.ca


May 2020


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20