The Oppenheimer Report - 8/6/12

Almost every day for the past week we have been awakened to the sound of an excavator on our property. Four years after the construction of our house, we are finally getting around to cleaning up the grounds and to landscaping. We had boulders lying around the property from the original basement excavation and felled trees stacked along our driveway. Those trees like so much of the other construction debris were never removed from the property. Although everything is parched right now, it is important to consider and provide for proper drainage. Because we are at the bottom of a hill, water diversion is an important issue. When we get heavy rains, we need to ensure that runoff is diverted away from our and our neighbors’ properties. To that end, in our original site plan we included retention ponds and diversionary culverts along our driveway. We even put in a tile bed next to our house to capture runoff from the roof. Because of a particularly difficult next door neighbor, who caused us a great deal of aggravation and who managed to stir up unnecessary controversy among other much less affected neighbors, we ended up substantially overcompensating for potential drainage issues, at great expense to us. That same neighbor had, several years before our build enlisted our support to essentially double the size of improvements to his property, something that in retrospect seems far too generous of us. The good news is that, through the building process, we became better friends with our neighbors on the other side, who have been both understanding and patient with our construction. When all the earth moving is complete, we will finally have a much more presentable property. We have further plans to remediate some of the shortcomings of the original builder, but the big stuff will be soon over. If you are considering the construction of a custom round log home, I can certainly tell you what not to do. We broke ground in the Spring of 2007.

The other day I came across something interesting that I picked up and then forgot about when we were cleaning out Mom and Dad’s house. It was an old guest book and in it were brief testimonials to Harry Lehman, my maternal grandfather, founder and president of The Wildroot Company, Inc.. Wildroot was a Buffalo based manufacturer of hair tonic and other related products, and in its day, it was a big company. The occasion  for the guest book was some kind of national convention in Savannah, Georgia, and all the employees who attended wrote something in that book. I never knew my grandfather - I was perhaps three when he died - but my mom idolized him and filled me with all sorts of stories about what a great man he was. She told me that the door to his office was always open to any Wildroot employee, and that all the people who worked for him loved him and considered him a fair and decent boss. How often do we hear that about the big bosses today? I suppose he wasn't loved by everyone, still it was refreshing to read so many positive comments, some put in the form of creative limericks and poems. Of particular interest to me were some sketches I found in the middle of the book (see above photo). Al Capp, creator of the famous comic strip L’il Abner had been employed by The Wildroot Co. Inc. to illustrate for one of its ad campaigns. I believe the ads involved his character Fearless Fosdick. Capp and my grandfather were friends and for years two framed sketches he’d done for Grampy hung in my childhood home. I still have the sketch of L’il Abner that Capp drew for my deceased sister Joanne, and my sister Jill has a sketch of Mammy Yokum that he drew for her. As I was paging through the guest book, I was surprised to see two sketches in it, one by Stu Hemple, a famous illustrator in his own right, who had worked for Capp, and the other by Al Capp himself. A little Antiques Roadshow moment for all of you. While I doubt these sketches are particularly valuable, they are priceless to me.

With the London Summer Olympics winding down, I have enjoyed watching the competitions. As always, the coverage on Canadian television is far better than that which is available Stateside. Outrageuos judging in the boxing competition! That guy from Azerbaijan should have been a clear loser after six knockdowns by the Japanese guy. Rock star Michael Phelps won twenty-two medals (18 of the gold), far exceeding what he needed to be the most medaled Olympian in history. Jamaica’s Usaine “Lightning” Bolt won gold in the men’s 100 metre dash, and boy was he fast. There was a lot of talk the other day about the disqualification of one of the Canadian horses in an equestrian event due to a controversial injury. At first I made fun of Canada’s first gold medal in these summer games (because after all, I am an ignorant yank), because it was in the trampoline event, but Rosie MacLennan's performance set me straight and made a believer out of me. All in all the Olympics were as entertaining as always, and in many ways a reminder that while governments continue to spin their political webs, their countrymen and women are often reflective of that which is decent and honorable in the human struggle. Nice to see that from time to time.

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED