Elgin This Month

Carroll Publishing Inc., the publishers of The St. Thomas/ Elgin Weekly News, is proud to announce its newest venture, Elgin This Month, a monthly magazine incorporating the St. Thomas & District Chamber of Commerce’s Business Beat.

Along with the Business Beat section from the Chamber of Commerce, Elgin This Month will include sections on Healthy Living, Dining & Entertainment and Homestyle.

Elgin This Month will be mailed to ALL businesses in Elgin County as well as selected homes. In addition you will be able to find Elgin This Month at many public distribution outlets throughout Elgin County.

The deadline for display ads in our first issue is early August.

Terry Carroll July 14, 2010
On the Canada Day weekend, my lovely wife Nancy and I decided to leave Elgin County, which is “Progressive By Nature,” and journey all the way to the wilds of Chatham-Kent, which is “celebrating a Diverse Heritage” (among other slogans).
This was a last-minute decision. I checked on-line and telephoned for a hotel in Wallaceburg. Its two major hotels sounded easy to find. If you travel from Chatham on # 40 and turn left at the first stoplight, you’re there.
I knew two or three things about Wallyburg. It’s active during duck hunting season. It’s not that far from Walpole Island. And it’s not that big.
We decided to drive via Highway 2 through Dresden. This meant that we didn’t arrive in Wallyburg via Highway 40. But how hard could it be to find a hotel in a place that’s smaller than St. Thomas? I proceeded to cruise its streets.
The Sydenham River flows through town, and that body of water splits in the middle of the burg. This makes for some irregular street patterns in a town that has boat slips galore.
The hotel had to be on the edge. I knew this from my telephone call. We saw the downtown area three times, the entire industrial park area at least once and some fascinating river scenes. No ducks.
Eventually, we stumbled upon the two hotels. And I accomplished this without asking for directions, not even once.
The next day, we stopped in nearby Mitchell’s Bay. When we saw a public boat launch area with one family swimming, Nancy said there must be another beach. She immediately went to the store and asked. We had our answer right away.
Our approach to these two events was so clichéd, I could barely believe it myself. Guy finds hotels after exploring entire town for 30 minutes without asking directions. Woman has answer to beach question within five minutes, simply by asking.
It made me feel, momentarily, as if on the personal level, our slogan should be “regressive by nature.”