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talktodiana

~ Igniting the power and passion in others…

talktodiana

Tag Archives: Tomkins Park

Car-dancing, puppies and Billy Schmidt

30 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by dianasschwenk in Hump Day Chronicles, Out and About

≈ 43 Comments

Tags

AARCS, Alberta, Billy Schmidt, Calgary, Diana Schwenk, Hump Day Chronicles, laughter, life, living in the moment, Music in the Park, puppies, sun tan, Swing Connection, Tomkins Park, Tourist in my own city

On Saturday I was sitting on my balcony when I heard the sweet sound of jazz fill the air. Yay – music in the park!

I went inside, grabbed my purse and headed one block north to Tomkins Park.

That's Amore - The Swing Connection

That’s Amore – The Swing Connection

Sinatra’s spirit emanated from the singer, whom I guessed to be in his 70’s, as he sang classics like That’s Amore, Fly me to the Moon, Chicago and New York, New York.

I pulled a chair into the sunlight to listen. I closed my eyes and I could swear it was Old Blue Eyes himself up there in the gazebo belting out the tunes.

When the band took a break I moved to a sunny bench and pulled out my notebook to scribble down blog ideas and add items to my to-do list.

Band members were talking to a woman, who was doing embroidery, and her daughter.  Friends of the band, I wondered?

A homeless First Nations man I often see, walked over and compared his arm to my tanned leg saying, “Almost.”

“Yes,” I laughed, “Two more minutes in the sun ought to do it!’

Still laughing as he walked away, I wrote down our conversation in my notebook.

There were so many people in the park with dogs. Normally I’m not a fan of dogs being dragged to the city to suffer the heat of the hot pavement. But on this day I noticed how they seemed to connect people to each other.

A man and woman let their dogs play together. Another man, in spite of his dog’s desire to join the fun,  just dragged his dog by.

A woman with the cutest puppy ever in her arm walked over and the three dog owners were happily chatting.

I guess if dogs can get people talking to each other, I may have to rethink my whole stance on dogs in the city!

Tucking my notebook into my purse, I walked over to talk to the lady with the puppy.

8-week old Skittles smiles for the camera

8-week-old Skittles smiles for the camera

Her name is Arlene and she introduced me to Skittles, her foster pup from the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society.

“You really should go to the website and check it out – they have kittens too,” she says as she hands me a card. “All the puppies have candy names right now.”

“No doubt,” I replied, “cause they’re so sweet!”

I thanked Arlene and said goodbye just as the band started their next set with Chicago.

I walked over to the woman doing embroidery and sitting with her daughter close to the Gazebo.

I explained about being a blogger and that I wanted to write about Music in the Park, an event that is put on every summer by 17 Ave. Retail and Entertainment District.

“Are you friends with the band?”

She says yes and tells me the story of how her husband, who also plays in several bands, introduced her to the music of the singer. She points to the young woman playing saxophone and says, “That’s my oldest daughter.”

Billy Schmidt - How cool is this guy with his hat, big ring and sunglasses?

Billy Schmidt – How cool is this guy with his hat, big ring and sunglasses?

I asked her the name of the singer and band and she told me his name is Billy Schmidt and the band is called Swing Connection. The band has been together for 4-5 years, but Billy has been doing this for a long time.

Her youngest daughter is taking Swing dancing lessons. We talked about how much fun it is to watch and how Swing dancing works for a number of music genres.

“We like to do really weird dance moves,” said the younger daughter about her entire family. She has the most incredible huge smile pasted on her face.

The family also does a lot of what they call car-dancing.

They told me a story about how once the oldest daughter was dancing in the car and her mother turned to look at her. She could see past her daughter into another car of guys who were getting a real kick out of it. When her daughter caught on that she was being watched, she was mortified.

“The guys in the other car mimicked her movements and gave her the thumbs up,” she recounted chuckling.

“Mom,” says the youngest daughter; handing her mom the cell phone.

“Oh, I have to top up the parking meter,” says the mom, excusing herself.

I thank them for their time and we part ways.

Much gratitude and appreciation to the 17th Ave Retail and Entertainment District for making summer even more fun in my neighbourhood!

Below, a video of Billy Schmidt I found online. Incidentally, that’s the eldest daughter of the woman I spoke with playing the saxophone. 

Enjoy!

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

Do you have a rescue animal, or would you consider one if you decided to get a pet?

What’s your favourite music genre?

Entertaining Angels

05 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by dianasschwenk in Hump Day Chronicles, In My Opinion, My Stories, Out and About

≈ 33 Comments

Tags

17th Ave SW, blessed, Calgary, Diana Schwenk, friends, grateful, Homelessness, humbled, Hump Day Chronicles, Jesus, John the Baptist, judging, sacred ground, Tomkins Park, Truth

It was the first sunny day after way-too-many  days of rain in a row. I was so excited to get out there and soak in my much-needed hit of vitamin D.

After running a bunch of errands, I met up with my BFF for coffee in the park. This a favourite pastime of ours. We like to make up stories of the people we see and let me tell ya, 17th Ave is the perfect place to observe people!

Our people-watching, coffee-drinking bench - summer 2012

Our people-watching, coffee-drinking bench – summer 2012

So we were sitting there talking about our families and other current goings-on when out of the corner of my eye I noticed a homeless man approach us. I’d spied him with his friends earlier but they were a ways off and now he was approaching us.

I’m going to steer away from this story for a moment to say that I had spent 20 years of my life working for an organization that cares for the homeless and I’d learned a lot from them about what’s really important in this world. I’m not a stranger to the sector. I’m not afraid of people who are experiencing homelessness. And I’m not proud of the rest of this story, in fact, I’m a little ashamed because I know better.

Ok, back to my story… I just really wasn’t wanting an encounter with a homeless person at that moment. I think I mumbled something like, ‘Oh here we go’  under my breath. I was annoyed. Me and my BFF were having a good conversation. We hadn’t seen each other in a few days and I didn’t feel like getting pan-handled!

So, this man approaches us with his hand out (not to receive change, but offered as in a handshake) and I’m thinking to myself, “I am NOT shaking your hand!” He said something that I didn’t quite catch and then followed up with, “Jesus will be coming soon and He loves you and I LOVE YOU TOO!”

Ok, this is me steering away from the story again for a moment. Some of you know that I am a Christian. You may also know that I have been embarrassed about the way Christians are perceived at times so it’s not something I just come out with when I first meet someone. More on that in this post, if you’re interested

His words cut through all the crap I was thinking like a hot knife through butter. I extended my hand to him and told him Jesus and me, we both loved him too. We chatted a bit more and then he was off to the next bench to bring his message of love to someone else.

Now I know that not all my readers are Christians and that’s OK. That’s not what this story is about for me. It’s about judging people by appearance and making up my mind, before he even spoke, about how this encounter would play out.

If you are familiar with the Bible at all, you would have read about John the Baptist. John lived in the wilderness and to the casual observer he would have given the impression that he was a lunatic. In today’s world we may even say he is mentally ill. I mean seriously, he ate locusts, ranted and raved to passers-by about their hypocrisy and I’m guessing he may not have smelled so good. John however, is the man who Christians the world over recognize as the one chosen to prepare the way for Jesus.

Shame on me for judging another human being in the park before he even spoke a word. In my heart I judged him, yet in his heart he wanted only to bless me – and that he did.

Ok back to the story one last time. As he walked away I couldn’t help feeling that I was on sacred ground – that I had been reminded of an important truth. And I was grateful. I turned to look at my BFF – yanno – to share this special moment with her and was surprised to see her laughing!

“What’s so funny??”

“Didn’t you hear he what he said when he first came over?”

“No, I didn’t quite catch it, what did he say?”

“He said,” she managed to spit out in spite of her giggling fit, “He said…as he was reaching his hand out to you…It’s ‘Be Nice to Old People Day’!”

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. ~ Hebrews 13:2

Related articles
  • Not Appropriate: Homeless Jesus (simonebrosig.wordpress.com)

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