New heights

Pilots with the flight performing group Tora, Tora, Tora are shown flying in formation during a media flight over the Lethbridge area. The group is the headline performance July 24 and 25 at the Alberta International AirShow in Lethbridge.

Scott Schmidt
For the Sun Times
When the 19th annual Alberta International AirShow takes flight on the July 24 weekend in Lethbridge, one pilot will be bringing a whole new meaning to the term “experienced.”
Bud Granley, formerly of Edmonton and now of Bellevue, Wash., first got his pilot’s licence when he was 18 after gaining an interest while a member of his local air cadets club. That would all sound absolutely fine and normal if the year he got it wasn’t 1955 and he wasn’t now a 73-year-old acrobatic pilot entering his 50th year of performing at air shows.

Dance festival returns

Scott Schmidt
For the Sun Times
For the seventh-straight year, Galt Gardens will play host to an elegant display of Japanese culture, as the Buddhist Temple of Southern Alberta celebrates Bon Odori once again.
This year’s dance festival takes place July 17 at 6:30 p.m. and will include performances from several local artists.
The exact meaning of Bon Odori has some dispute.
While Westernized culture has dubbed the ancient Japanese custom as the “Good Dance,” the actual term ‘Bon’ comes from the word ‘Obon,’ which is a three-day festival during the heat of the summer.
Odori does mean dance but the direct translation is simply Bon Dance, as ‘Bon’ has no actual meaning.
“This is a time to honour, respect and remember those who have gone before us,” says Rev. Yasuo Izumi, minister at the Lethbridge temple. “Secondly, this is a time of reflection; to reflect on ourselves.”
The self-reflection, Izumi says, is a way to evaluate one’s selfishness and to look at how well we share our abundances with others around us.

At first it was really just boredom.
After several years of entrepreneurship, Barb Whitelaw had started a family and after three children decided to become a stay-at-home mom. But after her youngest had gone off to school, a serious case of thumb twiddling led her to the kitchen.
Canning various foods had been a practice used in her family for a few generations and so Whitelaw began following suit.
And let’s just say she must have initially been pretty bored because she canned goods that started finding their way into the hands of friends and family, who immediately started egging her to go public.
“I was just doing asparagus, beets, carrots and salsa,” says Whitelaw. “And I started going to farmers’ markets all over. I was doing it out of the house but pretty much just giving it away. “The family all said (my food) was too good for that and said I should start a business. So that’s what I did.”

Just as the glorious feeling of summer freedom reaches its peak among high school and post-secondary students, the toppling reality of a temporary full-time job soon follows close behind.
But while snagging something for a few months used to be a simple pick of your pleasure, changing economies have brought tighter budgets and a fair bit less to choose from. The good news, even for those who haven’t thought about work until now, is there are plenty of sources available to assist in the search.