Ohhh! my goodness
Judy Amsbury: In 1988, I left the corporate world in Toronto after 30 years to move to Peterborough. I wanted to be closer to family and to open a specialty food shop that sold gourmet packaged goods and takeout prepared meals. I had no restaurant, food service background or formal chef training. However, I had already owned another business, I love to cook, and had all the bases covered in general business management experience. The local branch of CIBC provided the financing, backed up by a market research report I had commissioned from some Trent U. Business students. That was a first for the bank’s business advisor!
I opened Ohhh! My Goodness in June,1989. It was in downtown Peterborough, in the Charlotte Mews on Simcoe St., in a 750 square foot main floor of a Victorian house. The day before opening, my new salad bar malfunctioned. I left a message for the local refrigeration repair company. After 3 hours of no response, I called Ken, owner of the Main Ingredient (the best independent bulk food store in town) who had given me good advice on local food suppliers. He said, “Don’t expect fast service from that guy; he services all the supermarkets and hotels in the area, and you’re small potatoes. Call Mikes’ Refrigeration.” Mike showed up one hour later & fixed the problem. When I moved around the corner, 3 years later, to expand to a 50-seat restaurant on George St, I had him build me an 8 x 8 ft walk in cooler. He’s still the best in the business.
Our advertising slogan was “Fresh, natural, homemade, fast!” Everything was made from scratch, guaranteed no MSG and no deep-fried foods. We had family-recipe comfort foods like tourtière, tuna noodle casserole and chicken pot pie. One day I heard one of my staff promote the pie as “our signature dish”. I laughed out loud, and said, “Wow, I guess I better raise the price” (at that time only $3.95 for a generous serving!). I still have former customers tell me they miss it the most. And the Mayor often came in with his own bowl to be filled with our Pasta Primavera salad, also a best seller.
We also packaged, labelled and sold individual frozen dinners, pasta sauce, and salad dressings, plus Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream, and Miss Vicki’s Potato Chips, both exclusive to OMG at the time.
Off-premise catering became 40% of my volume. As I had many years of direct sales experience, I had made in-person calls, (another first in Peterborough, it appeared), and the rest came through referrals.
Styrofoam was not included in the blue box recycling program. Because takeout was a major part of my business, and Styrofoam containers were the only option at the time, this was a big concern. I collected many of my customers' used containers and took them to be recycled in Campbellford. My partner Lyn, a teacher and avid recycler, had her class of Special Ed kids come downtown to collect many bags around the Charlotte Mews for a spring clean-up sponsored by the City. I also took a large pail of compost home every day where we had three bins going; my flower and veg gardens loved it.
I had the best staff in the world, a pool of 4, at first, then 10 when we expanded, with almost no turnover. I deliberately started with older women, with some food service experience, for reliability and work ethic. I augmented with Trent students for weekend and closing/cleanup. I couldn’t pay them much over minimum wage at the time, and tips were meagre as it was a buffet style service, but I personally worked their shifts to accommodate time-off, holidays etc. and treated them with affection and respect.
We are still good friends with Marie Cullen, now 94, who was my very first hire. She retired at 65 from Eatons, and the next day came to work for me. I met her through the local Sweet Adelines chorus, where we both sang barbershop. She never missed a day of work, regardless of what might befall her. She lived in the country near Cavan, had a very long steep driveway, drove a big old Cadillac and could hardly see over the wheel. I got a call at 6:30 am one snowy day that she had slid into the ditch and was waiting for her farmer neighbour to pull her out. She arrived only a half hour late apologizing profusely. We should all have that work ethic! I called her my salad bar queen, because she could make everything look so enticing. (She later became a most valued caregiver/companion for Lyn’s Mom, who lived with us and later went to long term care suffering from Alzheimer’s. We are now Marie’s part-time care givers, so “what goes around, comes around”…)
In 1995, after 6 years and a recession, I knew Ohhh! My Goodness was unlikely to secure my retirement, so I sadly closed it up. It was a labour of love, 84 hours a week, plus the hours of planning and bookkeeping at home. It got me integrated into the Peterborough community with a broad base of suppliers and customers, many of whom became friends that I still connect with around town. I will never duplicate the satisfaction of seeing their obvious enjoyment and hearing “thank you” as we lived up to our reputation as the best family restaurant on George St.
I still love to cook and look forward to community meals with all you KCC folk.
In-Person!! by Patrice Bourque
On Saturday, March 19th, the Social Circle and Al and Linda Slavin held an in-person gathering at the Slavin's farm. Being with each other in person and not on Zoom is something that we've all been craving over the past 2 years. There were 16 of us who attended. We sat together in Al and Linda Slavin's living room taking turns telling stories about what has been happening in our lives. There was more than enough food, which included pancakes with butter and warm syrup, cooked on the griddles that Lyn brought, two luscious soups, a lentil salad, a chickpea salad, fruit and fruit coulis with perfectly whipped cream, roasted potatoes, breakfast sausages, and spiced apple cider or coffee to wash it all down with. No one left with an empty stomach.
Unfortunately (or not, because of the rain) both daytime and overnight temperatures were above freezing, preventing the maple sap from running so we didn't end up seeing a sugaring down demonstration. I don't think anyone was too disappointed. We did hear plenty of birdsong though.
The Social Circle would like to give a big shout out to the Slavins for warmly welcoming us into their home and for their generosity of spirit. They provided us with all the plates, cutlery, coffee, maple syrup, tables, tablecloths, electricity and their hospitality. Thank you so much Al and Linda.
Equity Member Interview – Len Buchanan
Full disclosure: Len is your editor’s spouse. It isn’t easy being a detached interviewer in this situation, and it is possible that I have failed in this regard from time to time, as you may see below.
Len was born in Toronto in 1959 after putting his mother through 53 hours of labour (which she never let him forget). Well, the doctor did that, until he finally decided she needed a C-section. A bright star appeared over the hospital that day, at least according to his mother. Len was the apple of his mother’s eye.
Len’s father was born a Protestant in mainly Catholic Dublin. He was the first in his family to come to Canada to prepare the way for his parents and 4 siblings. He was 22 at the time. He had a lifelong hatred of religion, having seen what it did in Ireland, though apparently it also had something to do with soccer being outlawed by the church on Sundays, though cricket was OK. He met Len’s mother at a dance at Casa Loma on a blind date. Len’s mother was a very English Londoner, who came to Canada when she was 15 and never lost an ounce of her accent. Yes, it was a mixed marriage. After Len, they had 2 more boys.
Len learned to play the violin (badly he says) from age 8-18. He was in the string and full orchestra in high school and each year they did exchange trips to the U.S. He also played soccer from age 4-19, also with exchange trips to the U.S. and England. They were billeted in each other’s houses for these trips. He went on field trips with a kid’s rock collecting club he joined. He has a distinct memory of his father bringing him to another family so that Len could join them on a field collecting trip. His parents had never met them before; Len’s dad had a cup of tea with them, handed the guy a $20 (for gas, motel, and food) and left Len. How times have changed.
As a child, Len had a very strong science bent and knew he wanted to be a scientist from the time he was 5. He sailed through high school with A’s, never having studied much. He went to the University of Waterloo in Systems Design Engineering, and suddenly, that strategy didn’t work anymore; he actually had to work now. Len specialized in mechatronics – software to control mechanical systems. Systems Design is a co-op program and he worked in some large companies – IBM, NCR and Imperial Oil.
While at Waterloo, he met Pam in Toronto at a party given by his best friend, who had met Pam at the University of Toronto. The first words Len heard from her at the party were, “These are horrible raisins and peanuts!” (Which Len had made. In Pam’s defense they were soggy; they had been soaked in water). Somehow, he was not deterred by this, as he was dazzled by her loveliness and the sparkling conversation that ensued. (Len claims this is pushing it. All he was thinking was, “A girl is talking to me!”) He almost failed this term at university, being, well… distracted.
When Len graduated, the only jobs available were in software. He got a job at Infomart – a company created by a group of newspaper companies to experiment with online publication. This was before the World Wide Web, so it was proprietary software. Len was one of the software engineers. It was a very young company; the oldest manager was under 30. It was a great place to work and Len had a lot of fun there. He was there 5 years.
During his 4th year there, he applied for a leave of absence. He and Pam gave up their apartment, sold or stored their things and travelled for a year of backpacking. They visited B.C., Japan, S. Korea, Hong Kong and Macao, Thailand, India, Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and California. They both turned 30 on this trip, and decided that every decade birthday, they would travel and not be home. At 40, they backpacked for 3 months in Israel, Jordan, Sinai (Egypt), India, Viet Nam, and Japan. At 50, things were more complicated and they visited New York City on Pam’s birthday and Puerto Vallarta on Len’s. They joked that, at 60, as their trips had degraded over time, they would go to Buffalo to the Tim’s there for a Double Double. Turns out they went to Tokyo, Osaka, and Cuba instead. Other places they have travelled are Alberta, Quebec, the Maritimes including Newfoundland, Barbados, Bahamas, most of Europe (not Greece or Scandinavia), Britain and Ireland, and Turkey.
After the 1-year trip, Len returned to Infomart and stayed 6 more months. He decided he wanted to start his own software company. This was 1990. He had a contact from an ex-employee of Infomart who had left earlier, and who would pass software contracts onto Len. Other contracts came from various sources. In 1994, he was approached by Cadillac Fairview in Canada to develop a sales performance measurement system. Len negotiated to own the license. He has worked on various versions and customizations ever since with sales in the USA, UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Hungary and Saudi Arabia.
In 2001, Len and Pam adopted their son, who is now 22. When their son was 4 years old, he started karate lessons. Len had done karate as a teenager for a few years. He decided to join as well, in order to get more exercise. He really liked the discipline of it and the social aspect of the people he practiced with. Their son got his second degree black belt at age 18. It took Len a bit longer, but he got his second degree black belt in 2021. He is currently working on this third degree.
Aside from karate, Len is also an avid amateur mineralogist and collects rocks and minerals. He is a member of the Walker Mineralogical Club. Because he had joined a club as a child, he wanted other children to have that experience, so he and some other club members started the Young Toronto Mineralogist Club for kids age 8-15. They met at the Ontario Science Centre until Covid, and currently meet online. The club has been running for 21 years. It is extremely popular and they always have a waiting list of families wanting to join. Len is leading a group of 100+ kids and parents this summer to the Bancroft area for a few days of digging.
Another interest is backwater camping and canoeing, which he did with his son and other families for 10 years. Pam did some while their son was very young (but has pledged to never &#@^*%$ do it again). They camped mostly in Algonquin Park and Killarney. He hopes to do more in future, maybe with KCC members!
Introducing… Jennifer Jeffrey
Jennifer just turned 46 and represents the youth wing of KCC. She says she doesn’t have a problem with this, as most of her friends are older than herself. She is an old soul.
She was an army brat. Jennifer moved around a lot as a kid. She was born in Oromocto, NB, but has lived in Germany, England, Manitoba and Ontario. Her father joined the Canadian Artillery at 17 and ended up Commander of the Army in the last 4 years of his career. He still does consulting and volunteer work. Her mother was in nursing school when she met her father, then she became a homemaker and later worked in physiotherapy offices. Her brother is 3 years older and lives with his wife in England. They are very close “probably because of the fact that they moved around so much”.
Jennifer was in Ottawa for high school and spent the last 2 years of it doing everything she could to ensure she could go to Veterinary Medicine; she worked for all kinds of vets and worked on a farm for a summer. She loves all kinds of animals. She went to the University of Guelph and, after her first General Science year, got accepted to Vet school. She was there about 1 ½ years, was doing well, but decided she hated it and couldn’t envision herself in the life of a vet. (Dear diary, killed 3 cats today!) She thinks that this was the start of her ongoing struggles with depression; a severe dissatisfaction with everything. She has a good handle on it now, though.
She decided she wanted to change the world in a big way. She went to the University of Toronto and took Economics and Political Science. She has lived in Toronto ever since. She took 1 year in her 3rd year and went to university in Lyon, France. All her courses were in French and she did fine, but speaking was a problem for her and she never felt she could express herself the way she wanted to in French. When she graduated, she was focussed on the environment and worked for 6 years as a project manager in an environmental consulting company that specialized in energy efficiency, proper disposal of toxic waste and recycling.
All her jobs would be project management. As long as she is interested in the subject matter, she is very good at planning things out and getting things done – either doing it herself or having a team to coordinate with.
Jennifer needed a change. For 2 years, she did environmental contract work and then found part time work in the mental health sector. She worked for the Canadian Centre for Accreditation that dealt with small organizations in community and child and youth mental health, family counseling and debt/credit counseling; mostly not-for-profits and charities. It looked into the structure of organizations – how the Board operated, how HR was run, how they delivered clinical programs and the standards they had. It was a holistic view of the organization and really paperwork heavy. It was a good way for her to understand the underpinnings of these organizations and helped her sort out the kind of organization she wanted to work with.
She says the charity she now works for (and has for the past 6 years), the Centre for Mindfulness Studies, would struggle to receive that accreditation. Doesn’t that bother her? She says her Centre is exceptional in what they do for their clients but they are still working to improve their documentation and organizational structure. All things considered, she prefers work that is action-oriented and makes a real difference in the world rather than being bogged down with paperwork. (It’s perfect when someone else does that part!)
The Centre trains people in community organizations to do mindfulness programs with their clients – the homeless, disadvantaged, mentally ill. They have excellent faculty and established programs to train new facilitators. She is a project manager and works on the set-up of the programs, agendas, curriculum, follow-up and budgets to make sure the program is delivered in the best way possible. When Jennifer had hit her low in depression, she had taken an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program, and that had helped her more than anything else.
Jennifer is a huge introvert – she’s good socially but needs alone time and a lot of it. Pre-Covid, she worked with 9 other people in an 800 ft. space; they were on top of each other and it was so loud! While she loves the job, she hated the office, and would come home exhausted. Covid taught them all they could work from home and this gave her more energy to pursue her own stuff. This is how she ended up at KCC. She had heard of cohousing and loved the idea off the bat, but hadn’t had the time or energy to pursue it. So thanks Covid!
Animals are still very significant for Jennifer. She has a very active dog and, because she lives in an apartment, is outside at least 2 ½ hours per day walking him. Soccer is also very important to her – she has had season’s tickets to the Toronto FC since Year One. She has a group of 5 soccer friends, plus a larger group that meet in a pub to watch the European games – it’s become a bit of a community.
She likes to hike and get out into rural areas. She joined the Bruce Trail Club and would do the bus hikes because she doesn’t own a car. Most of her vacations have been related to hiking and she is now more and more focussed on Canada. She also likes baking, especially bread, and she was quick to point out that she has done that since before Covid. She loves reading and movies, and she can lose herself for hours doing puzzles.
Jennifer had looked at rural properties for a while, but realized that, being an introvert, she would isolate too much, and had no desire to do the work of a big property. When she found KCC, she was really happy. It has only been 5 months since she joined, but she has jumped in with both feet and is very actively involved in 3 circles. Having an established community, having a common space and a group of people who are committed to the same way of life and being part of a whole; making new friends, this is all really valuable.