"The most significant threat to our national security is our debt," Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, August 27, 2010


Sunday, June 28, 2020

Tea Garden Restaurant, Amherstburg, Ontario

THE TEA GARDEN RESTAUARANT (1946-1969)

The Tea Garden Restaurant was one of the most popular gathering places in Amherstburg. Established in 1946 in a historic nineteenth century residence, it was close to the busy intersection of Sandwich and Richmond Streets. Its size, location and excellent food, affordable on even the most modest budget, all contributed to its success. Nicholas (Nick) and Olga Semeniuk opened the Tea Garden as a family business on June 6, 1946, amid lingering wartime restrictions and shortages. "Meatless Tuesdays" were a part of the menu in the early months and essential food items such as sugar, butter, cooking oil, coffee and tea were in scarce supply. But good cooking and a distinctive personality shaped by the participation of all of the family members allowed the restaurant to grow and thrive.

The Tea Garden was known for its friendly, lively atmosphere. Its diverse clientele kept the conversation stimulating. Typically, milkmen, employees of Mara's Bread, local farmers and factory workers were the early morning customers. By mid-morning, coffee-breakers form neighbouring businesses and offices, the town-hall and the local paper would gather to debate current affairs.
The noon hour saw return visits by many, along with students and teachers on their lunch breaks, salesmen in town for the day and oil-flecked mechanics from the surrounding Shell, Esso, and Texaco stations. The evenings and weekends were family-oriented, with some customers returning for their third Tea Garden meal of the day. Fridays were fast-paced; hundreds of take-out orders of fish and chips were routinely prepared between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., alongside a steady-stream of in-house meals. Business boomed in summer months when the cottagers and tourists vied with the regulars for tables or stools at the counter.

As the town developed and major construction projects were undertaken, the Tea Garden responded and sustained the hearty appetites of various work crews stationed in Amherstburg. In the mid-1950s during the conversion to dial telephones, the Bell telephone "boys" were regular customers, along with Ontario Hydro linemen who were working to accommodate the towns growing power needs. Members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were well-known to the Tea Garden during the dredging of the Detroit River for the St. Lawrence Seaway from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. The restaurant's own work crews were sizeable with up to fourteen staff working peak periods such as Mother's Day. Many young people held their first job at the Tea Garden which provided a steady source of employment and customer service training. With the addition of a banquet room, the Tea Garden became a favourite location for family reunions, wedding receptions and regular meetings of the Amherstburg Rotary Club and other community groups. Other renovations led to the removal of the stucco from the building's exterior in 1961, revealing its original historic stone work. So interesting was the discovery that for many months passers-by stopped to admire and even touch the Tea Garden's limestone walls.

In an era before malls and community centres existed in Amherstburg, the Tea Garden provided a safe and pleasant environment for social interaction. Because of its proximity to the town's commercial centre and major institutions and because of the number and variety of people who visited the restaurant each day, it formed part of Amherstburg's community information network.

Nick Semeniuk passed away in 1964 and five years later Olga sold the business. The building was razed in 1988. While no visible signs of the Tea Garden now remain on Richmond Street, there are many vivid memories and anecdotes about the good food, good times and distinctive personalities from all walks of life who were patrons and employees. This unique family enterprise in many ways symbolized the character of post-war Amherstburg and earned its place in the town's social and economic history.

Make your own face covering...it's that easy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPx1yqvJgf4

...and, a bit more:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYEk4b6uKcM


Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Folks – difficult to read – JUST DO IT…


…particularly if you vote for democrats in our large cities (or anywhere):


And if you can’t access it online or at your shut down library you are still funding – well go here:  


“…DEEPLY DISTURBING”…who or what on earth (besides a dopey politician) would offer anything short of a tall lamp post and a very short piece of rope to deal with those who apparently offer/watch/oversee the death of people they are paid to help live?

We call our self…thefundamentals…and we focus on DEBT but we too are making a huge mistake when it comes to governments stealing money (they call it taxation) and using some of their theft to fund paychecks to nincomPOOPs that show up and watch people die!

FOLKS PLEASE READ THE ABOVE – BEFORE YOU VOTE – PLEASE

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Some Oxymorons!

Let’s see if I got this right... 

 If a dude pretends to be a woman, you are required to pretend with him.
 
 Somehow it’s Un-American for the census to count how many Americans are in America .
 
 Russians influencing our elections are bad, but illegal Mexicans voting in our elections are good.
 
 Twenty is too young to drink a beer, but eighteen is old enough to vote.
 
 People who have never owned slaves should pay slavery reparations to people who have never been slaves.   This after 250,000 white union soldiers died to free the slaves and the subsequent freed slaves had already been given 40 acres and a mule to stimulate their life of freedom.
 
 Inflammatory rhetoric is outrageous, but harassing conservative people in restaurants is virtuous.
 
 People who have never been to college should pay the debts of college students who took out huge loans for useless degrees.
 
 Immigrants with tuberculosis and polio are welcome, but you'd better be able to prove your dog is vaccinated.
 
 Irish doctors and German engineers who want to immigrate must go through a rigorous vetting process, but any illiterate Central-American gang-banger who jumps the southern fence is welcome.
 
 $5 billion for border security is too expensive, but $1.5 trillion for 'free' health care is not.
 
 If you cheat to get into college you go to prison, but if you cheat to get into the country you go to college for free.
 
 People who say there is no such thing as gender are demanding a female President.
 
 We see other countries going Socialist and collapsing, and it seems like a great plan to us.
 
 Some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, and other people are not held responsible for what they are doing right now.
 
 Criminals are catch-and-released to hurt more people, but stopping them is bad because it's a violation of THEIR rights.
 
 And pointing out all this hypocrisy somehow makes us "racists"?!
 
   Prisoners who have been convicted of a crime serious enough to have been sent to prison should be released into the community to avoid Coronavirus, but citizens who want to go to work or patronize a business in the community should be jailed
Think that about covers it!!!


We close with our "$0.02".   The above is entitled "Some Oxymorons!"   Okay but we prefer our terminology for the above buffoons...smelly in need of flushin'...nincomPOOPs

Saturday, June 6, 2020

Normandy Landings – June 6, 1944


We borrowed the following from… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_landings

“The Allies failed to achieve any of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, a major objective, was not captured until 21 July. Only two of the beaches (Juno and Gold) were linked on the first day, and all five beachheads were not connected until 12 June; however, the operation gained a foothold that the Allies gradually expanded over the coming months. German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were documented for at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead. Museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area now host many visitors each year.”

We offer the above for a very simple reason – our men and our allies men are the reason we today can carry on endlessly about the this and that’s that apparently overwhelm some of us...today.

To those so “overwhelmed” a simple suggestion...visit and spend time at American military cemeteries around the globe filled with very young men who gave all for others.

God bless and care for each and every one of these good young men.

Friday, June 5, 2020

Predictability…our history and future…moving forward


This old guy now in his 4th and final quartile of life started writing postings a while ago and then posted them at www.thefundamentals.us about 10 years ago.  The main reason for doing the above was a simple fundamental:   DEBT…only borrow for good reason – pay DEBT back per the DEBT contract – and cool it.   DEBT borrowings only for needed and valued reasons – not daily this and that’s.

We thank our good Mom and Dad for this upbringing and, yes, it was going on mostly all around us back when even middle class and those working hard to attain middle class could feed/house/assist themselves and each other and very few handout alternatives were readily available.

Times have changed……   

Our title is based on one simple comprehensible reason – good history books about history and people – no, not as often offered on tv and movie theatres and other forms of verbal/visual “fictional” or “personal” offerings – but as documented factually.  I have been reading – The World:  A Brief Introduction, Richard Haass.   Begins 300+ years ago – right up to now – and simply factually presents the repetitiveness of human behavior – over and over and over…

Let’s make it simple…here is our brief history/predictability:

·         The Chinese have survived for a long time – that survival will continue
·         America was founded by fighters/workers, mostly good men and many good women who were also mothers and workers…good Moms and darn hard workers
o   Not all homo sapiens are born/live with the above – hard work, fight, survive…it can/does disappear…
o   …and it’s disappearing in America
·         Religions, governments, etc. are interesting but this old guy knows – we need founders, fighters and workers.   We don’t need…435/100/9+++000,000’s more nincomPOOPs
·         And then we get to our “fundamental” – DEBT.  America has got a lot of rich people.  This gettin’ old guy doesn’t hear or read any of ‘em sayin’ – stop raising DEBT!  We gotta start payin’ DEBT down!   Folks its basic – its fundamental –  but we ain’t doin’ it

We close…read a history book…pay down DEBT…few others basics…before it’s too late…that’s all folks.

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

And now, a tad more about “finger pointing”


Anyone not noticing most all of our – we the people – media and their endless negativity about Mr. Trump perhaps do occasionally wonder – hmmnn, what is going on that almost half of us voted for him if he is such a nincomPOOP – huh?

Are the media dopesaplenty simply now hangin’ around with the other half that has nothing but endless positiveness for all they have done over the past 50 years or claim to have done and negativity for everything that #45 and his gang have done over the last 3 or 4 years?

In other words – is our media lacking something we call – history and fact and experience – or simply the word we use…“fundamentals?”

Folks we know we are in a mess – and we know also that this mess (btw, we just mistyped the word “this” and accidentally came up with a word we don’t print but does come to mind a lot when we offer even a few words about media nincomPOOPs) is something that a few factual history books* have documented over and over again.

We also know one of our founders told us in writing that we the people would have to flush the POOPs from time to time if we wanted a free country....we have offered his words.  We sure hope your read them!

That’s about all this old guy has to say – except for this – da’ donald is a tad dopey – but he sure ain’t the problem – we are.


*  We’re readin’ one (a new one) right now