I have been over the years a news hound. I seem to be able to sniff out trends and dig up references. Maybe that’s my early training. Here are two examples.
When I was in grade eight, I went with the family to the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. This was the agricultural exhibit for Ontario. There were horses and other live animals. AND there were manufacturer exhibits!
How I enjoyed collecting all the brochures. I even went home and categorized them. Then I sent out the pre-stamped information cards to the various equipment companies. I was learning so much, both about silage and sewage.
Then a representative of one of the companies phoned our home, asking for me. Well, I wasn’t going to buy any of their equipment, nor were my parents (we lived in the middle of Toronto at the time).
That shut down my information gathering project. But the desire was not extinguished.
Jump to grade ten. We are now in a smaller town just outside Toronto. A current affairs project is due in my history class. We are to check out present political happenings in newspapers that are accessible to us (which I took as being newspapers delivered to our home). Thus, with no accessible newspapers (we didn’t get newspapers at the time), and no content for the paper, my grade was a dismal failure.
I did not like failure. I decided to find everything I could about assignments that were given to me. That spark of research has not been extinguished in my life.
Thus, the news hound!