Emeraude meets Buzzy & Manitouwadge Spirit…
I’m pondering one of those which came first situations… You know – the chicken or the egg? Well, more specifically in this case the spirit or the community. What? don’t know where I’m going with this one? well, here’s the thing, we all love to hear people go on about what a special town Manitouwadge is. I think most of us [residents of] try to uphold that ideal as well by welcoming those who visit our community, accepting and including those who move here and just being generally thoughtful people when given the opportunity. and besides, good intentions are rather contageous so when you walk in to Franks and are greated as if they are sincerely glad to see you, well when you walk down the ilse and see someone else you’ll probably do the same to them, feeling happy to have someone to spread it on to right? Then you’re on your way to the post office but whoa, you forgot one of your bags behind… you know this because you’re being chased down the sidewalk by someone you hardly know and they have that bag you forgot, oh, manitouwadge moment, we aren’t ever actually in that much of a rush but human nature dictates that we must hurry anyways and so in the hurry of things you left it behind, well, thanks to the person who hands you the bag and you walk on…
wait, what’s that on the sidewalk? is that someone’s car keys? oh-oh… better pick them up right, the post office ladies will know who they belong to and if they don’t, they’ll work hard at getting them back to whoever owns them, so now you’re smiling again and that stranger walking towards you thought it was for them so they smile back happy that they’ve moved to this small town and when they go into the next store now they are smiling at strangers as well….
anyways, all that rambling to say it can’t really be helped, our town just has a sort of contageous happiness about it, especially when downtown is busy and you are having a crazy day, or maybe it’s just that I appreciate it that much more on those sorts of days… But now today I had an experience that made me think about all that. I used to think that our little snow-globe (it really is what Manitouwadge looks like in the winter, for those of you not lucky enough to have lived or visited here, our community is in a valley, we have little mountains, just big enough to make it feel cozy that shelter our little town with it’s pretty lake in the centre and churches all in a bunch not far from that so when a pretty clean fluffy snow fall happens you could almost picture it on a shelf in an old store lol (our town that is, cause it’s in a snowglobe – come on, follow me now LOL)… ANYWAYS, I often thought that people became nicer after time here. Those of us born here were bred to be curteous and polite and that people who move here just end up nicer over the years because of the clean living, slow pace and generally enjoyable atmosphere but today I realized maybe nice people are just drawn here. We don’t help them become nice, they already are when they come and they(the newbies) make us nicer with there apreciation of what is here and the way people reach out to become involved… What do you think? the chicken or the egg, the niceness or the town? lol
So, here is what happened that got me pondering… please bear with me, I’m dealing with some ridiculously intense bone pain tonight (stress about the weekend perhaps contributing) and so it may take a while before the whole story is posted, keep hitting refresh lol.
this weekend there was a parade 
and of course, Buzzy the Blackfly & Marvin Mosquito (I was him once as a teen lol) were there…They were great, super animated (it’s all about what’s on the inside! lol) and fun and very interactive. Well, Emeraude got such a kick out of Buzzy that inspite of being quite wet (the parade was about an hour and it was drizzling the whole time – Mommy did not grab Emeraude’s umbrella as we jumped out of the van and hit the ground running at the traffic circle to get ‘that shot’) Emeraude tried chasing Buzzy on his 2nd drive by, but to no avail… She suggested that if we followed the parade back to the old High School, maybe we’d find Buzzy there. Well, we did – follow it, and we did – find Buzzy, thankfully she did not have a good view from her seat in the back of the van because Buzzy was getting in to a vehicle and the excitement of the parade had him loosing his head (litterally lol) as he got in. ANYWAYS, we spoke with a close personal friend of Buzzy’s the next day I think it was, Dave Raymond, Manitouwadge’s Economic Development Officer and he told us that Buzzy sometimes had meetings at the township. Maybe he could call us when he saw him we suggested and he agreed.
Well, this morning, I was speaking to Dave on the phone and he mentioned that Buzzy happened to have a meeting there later in the a.m. but it might be his last in a while (everyone knows blackflies start to dissapear by August). So, after Emeraude’s swimming lessons we were going to go by.
Now the township office closes for lunch at noon and her lessons end at 11:50 so, there wasn’t much of a window. We decided that just for today she would jump out of the pool and straight back into her clothes without even bothering to take off her swimsuit & dry off in the hopes that we would catch Buzzy. She pondered aloud about whether Buzzy was a costumed ‘human’ or an actual blackfly and all kinds of variables that could have him existing as something in between the two lol.
Swimming was awesome, her teacher today was Jordan and she had alot of fun (she’s also had Jose a few times and had a great time with him too, our pool just has the best instructors ever) so for a little while she seemed to forget about her date with Buzzy. Afterwards though she was right back on track, and we raced to the van to get to the township.
Getting out of the van I explained that Mr.Raymond might be busy and I did not have any guarantee that Buzzy was actually around (it was now about 4 minutes to noon) to which Emeraude answered that it was okay, Mrs. Robinson would know where Buzzy was (I hoped she was right lol). Well, we went in, Mrs. Robinson greeted us looking quite mischevious and let us know that Mr. Raymond wouldn’t be long. Then Mr. Raymond came out and told us that Buzzy was occupied but wouldn’t be long and then he went back to his office…
At one point while we were waiting I thought I saw something go by the counter and almost mentioned it to Emeraude but thought better of it and said nothing. She was so excited, I wondered if Buzzy would live up to her very high expectations (when kids are little we worry about these things, you never want your child to be dissapointed when it comes to imaginary fun and always hope that there childhood imaginings will remain intact after such encounters, if only for just a bit longer… it is such a special age when kids want to believe these things). ANyways, I was talking to Emeraude when who came in from outside but BUZZY THE BLACKFLY!
It was awesome! Buzzy is quite the character. As frantic and hyper as you would expect from a flying insect. He seemed to be fluttering and moving constantly and Emeraude was loving every minute of it :). He stole my sun glasses and tried to put them on but kept getting held up on one of his big-old bug-eyes lol (this was one of the parts of our visit that she explained many times after to anyone who would listen), he couldn’t talk of course – flies don’t but he was very animated and just had her smiling ear to ear. She was so happy to meet him and nervous (she explained afterwards that she did not know if he would ‘bite’ us) and curious. I suggested a photo which she almost turned down (Emeraude is always shy in new situations) then surprised when she thought better of it and acquiesced,
Two thumbs up... Buzzy put his thumb up and she was too cute, doing the same without any prompting, it just melted my heart completely! I LOVE YOU EMERAUDE! you make everything cool and fun!
so it wasn’t long before we had to say Goodbye to Buzzy. We had arrived just 4 minutes before it should have closed for lunch (the receptionist had actually locked up while we were still there asking that we ensure the door was well closed behind us) and I didn’t want Karen who I think was still there, or Dave – who had not come out of his office and must have been waiting for buzzy – to miss his lunch after being so thoughtful. I was so impressed, I must be honest, I really did not realize just how well he was suited to such a task. Emeraude was thrilled and didn’t stop talking about it all day, so excited to tell everyone she knew! I was so happy for her that it had turned out even better than she had hoped. Again, I must ad that I did not know Buzzy was so kid-friendly (though he had been an awesome participant at the parade) or enthusiastic or, well, I don’t quite know how to describe it but Buzzy should definetely make more appearances because it was really, really ,really great.
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so that brings us back to my original ponderings… Dave, who set up the Buzzy meeting and was so curteous to stay in his office that we might enjoy Buzzy uninterupted *wink,wink* moved to Manitouwadge just for his job as EDO, he is originally a ‘city boy’ I think, and seems to be really making a point to become involved in the town, he seems to have a lot of friends but in true Manitouwadge style, is open to socializing with anyone. Today he really went way over and above being a great friend to Emeraude which I really really appreciated – it was awesome! And obviously there was absolutely nothing in it for him, except for maybe some good natured ribbing from his colleagues upon returning to work after lunch. So it would seem that my idea that in his case at least, Manitouwadge has not made him warm and friendly but rather he came here already possessing those qualities and is spreading them around with his considerate helpful behaviour.
Do you have a ‘Manitouwadge story’? Someone did something nice/sweet/thoughtful for you lately that you don’t think would happen in another town (when I was pregnant for Emeraude and still had my office space at the zero-100 motel, my neighbour Janet Turner, used to shovel my driveway before 8am almost every time it snowed because according to her when I would thank her “well, you have to get to work in the morning” Where else would that happen? well, post it here, share it with reeaders! I have received many emails from people all over Canada & the US so it isn’t just us Wadgeians here lol, let the world know about our little town and maybe we’ll get some tourism dollars flowing around town!
