Place Mat Message

Pat and I were married in 1981.  Back then it was popular when travelling to buy a placemat from wherever you were destined.  Our very first placemat was purchased on our honeymoon in Jamaica and is the green one shown below.  As we travelled together, or I travelled for business it became the thing to do to buy a placemat from each location.  I think that practice has fallen out of favour by now.  We are not looking to add to our collection in any event, so am not sure if they are still being sold.

Rather than putting these placemats on a wall or hiding in a drawer we began putting one down at each place setting at the table as our kids were growing up.  So, it became a tradition that we have always carried forward, to put a placemat down for each person for each meal.  Then each person can share a story about ‘where they are’ and something as a remembrance or just general conversation about it.

We still have some placemats for big kids

We have kept all those placemats with us and Pat regularly rotates them.  We have a lot onboard and so have some that come up through the rotation that we have not seen in a while.  The other day, Pat changed out the last two we had been using for a while with two new ones.  One was from Windsor and the other was Sudbury.

When I was working, the airline I worked for had daily flights into Windsor at one point and I bought the placemat on a business trip.  The Sudbury one was purchased just after we were married as I transferred from North Bay to Sudbury to fly a larger aircraft.  A lot of companies doing placemats don’t take advantage of the reverse side, but the one from Sudbury has a small poem that I feel has an appropriate message for some of the things happening these days.  It is written from the perspective of the Sudbury district as being one of the largest and most important nickel producing areas in the world, but I believe the message has a broader significance right now for other reasons as well so I thought I would share.

The Big Nickel

Giving Thanks

We thank thee Lord for all your grace,
Your love and comfort too,
But most of all, we thank thee Lord,
For riches loaned by you.

Not riches as in gold and jewels,
But, this fine land of ours,
A wealth so great our earth so strong,
Where spruce and pine trees tower.

Our province is the richest,

But our district we hold dear,

This Northland is the place we walk,

When e’er we want you near.

We feel your strength from balsam, and

We see your face in flowers,

Your tender arms are warm sweet fields,

The animals, your heart.

We hear your voice, soft through

The trees, and sense your heartbeat here,

We’re calmed by utter trust and love,

To know and feel you’re near.

                                Barb Greer

Thank you for reading.