Dear Reader
The summer went too fast, if you ask
me. We had only 2 days at the beach because it was only two
times 30 degrees Celsius or warmer. That is what you need to be
warm on top of a dune. Anything under that makes the wind too
cold. However, there was plenty of diversion in and around town
and we never had a dull moment. The other benefit was the low
hydro bill because the air conditioner could stay off. A fan did
just nicely. Thus we did something without trying to lower the
demand on energy, reducing our bill by over 35% from last year
at the same time!
Watering the garden was not much of a problem either. I cannot
remember one year in the last 40 that the lawns were still green
in August! But all that rain caused excess humidity and some
problems in the basement. We even heard of flooding basements in
downtown Toronto. Living on the first major escarpment saved us
from that fate.
We truly hope that you had a pleasant summer and we are looking
forward to sharing our community news with you.
 In
this issue we can report a change of address to a couple of our
important entities, local picnics, start of a financial series
and the beginning of our immigration stories, which reminds me:
You can still participate in that. It does not have to be a long
story. We are mainly interested in hearing what your first
impressions where when you came to Canada and why and how you
arrived. If you require help in formulating your story, please
feel free to ask us at Echo Germanica. We will arrange for
someone to help you with the concept and the editing and even
with the writing. If you do not want to put your name to it,
that is fine too, as long as we know who you are. We will keep
it confidential.
We also have a good result from our question to you in regards
to our front page. We asked you if you are happy with our image
on the front page or if you rather have news on it. The answers
were overwhelmingly:
"Stay with the beautiful photos, we do not need more bad news,
or any news. There is enough of that out there."
"They (the photos)are refreshing and different. Echo Germanica
is always on top of the pile because of it in our house!"
"Don’t change anything, inside or outside!"
I am happy to hear that we are pleasing our reading public while
we are sticking to our believe that a publication can also be an
alternative to mainstream literature in the way it looks, not
only what the content is.
Every once in a while we get a request to publish searches for a
lost family member. We are considering doing it on the Internet
only, but for that to happen, the text needs to be clearly
written and not require any editing. We simply have not got the
staff to do it for everybody.
If you have other ideas that are a bit different from what other
publications are doing, please feel free to communicate them to
us. We will certainly consider them in an effort to please you
even more.
Since Oktoberfests are on the calendar nearly everywhere in the
next 2 month I am sure we will meet a lot of you around the
community very soon!
Or perhaps we see you on the bus that the Goethe Institute is
filling with people to go to opening night of Emilia Galotti in
Stratford. You really should try to see this fantastic
production from Germany- in German! It runs from November 6-9.
I am sure you know that the Toronto International Film Festival
is in town and over 30 German Films or co-productions are on the
agenda. A concert with well-known German singers is also coming
up next month. Soon there will be also the German Pioneer Day
celebrations. As you can see, the German culture is well
represented all around and you
 are
invited to participate! You can visit the website of the Goethe
Institute or the one of the Consulate General. There is lots of
information as to activities including or pertaining to German
roots. Both also have a newsletter you can subscribe to.
Until then, here, there, and everywhere!
Sybille Forster-Rentmeister
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