Opening Weekend, Washrooms Included

• This is a big weekend in Ontario and for us in particular.
• It's the May 24th weekend or May 2-4 as the younger generation likes to call it because this is when they party outdoors and open their cases of 24 beer.
• May 24this a Civic holiday in this province, in memory of Queen Victoria's birthday on May 24 1819, bless her heart.
• The actual holiday seldom really occurs on the 24th but the Monday closest to May 24 (before, not after). The last time we actually celebrated her birthday (not that we really celebrate her highness exactly) was in 2021. Before that it was in 2010.
• This year we will have tomorrow, Monday the 18th, off.
• Aside from the actual holiday, the weekend is viewed by many as the time to open things such as cottages and campgrounds.
• Of great significance is the opening of public washrooms whether in a community like ours or along rest stops on rural highways. Of course, they are always open in the various eateries along major highways. It's quite a relief to be able to use washrooms once again; it's a long time to hold from the middle of October. Phew!
• Another opening: on Friday we saw that the town docks were open for the first time when we stopped to enjoy our coffee and takeout breakfast sandwiches.
  
  
  
  
  
• We also tend to view it as gardening weekend. Nurseries advise us not to plant before this weekend. Some people do, but if their plants get hit by frost, nurseries will not reimburse them.
• This year, my mother's birthday fell on the Saturday of this holiday weekend. She was born on May 16 1915.
• It is also the weekend of our wedding anniversary. We were married 57 years ago on May 17 1969, which fell on a Saturday then, but today, Sunday, is our anniversary day this year.
• Traditionally, we enjoy fudge on our anniversary after having purchased some on the way to our honeymoon motel in Stratford, Ontario all those years ago. 
• We honeymooned (for one night) in Stratford because I had proposed in the Shakespeare Country Garden in Stratford after a performance of A Midsummer Nights Dream in 1968. It was also within a half hour drive or so of our basement apartment in Guelph where I was still a university student.
• Back to the present: our local purveyor of fudge has shut its doors, so we drove the half hour to Balderson in the country where we, unfortunately, discovered that they also no longer serve fudge.
• However, it was a pleasant rural drive, and they do still serve ice cream, so we had a cone as did these gentlemen at an outside table on a pretty nice day.
  
  
  
  
  
• The little store is the only shop that remains in the tiny hamlet of Balderson as the rural exodus continues.
• We're getting a bit out of sequence, but I had proposed in the Shakespeare Country Garden in Stratford after a performance of A Midsummer Nights Dream in 1968.
• We ordered a pizza on our wedding night at the motel. Doesn't everybody? We have carried on the tradition on our anniversary ever since then. So that will be supper tonight.
• It is rather nice out this morning. Alexa says the temperature will go up to a 21C/70F, which is pretty terrific. Perhaps, we shall look for fudge in another direction. Pakenham lies about a half hour north and claims to have the longest continually operating general store in the province. It has been quite a few years since we poked our noses in there, but I wonder if they might have fudge. If not, the drive should be pleasant enough.