Below is a video from Clark County, Illinois. Our videographer not only captured the current situation facing these communities, but also the spirit of a resilient people!

When disaster strikes, the American Red Cross is there, working with people during their darkest hour, providing hope and help to communities during and after disaster.

Karen Young and her family have lived along the Wabash River in West Union, Illinois for more than 30 years. When a Red Cross Disaster Assessment Team met with Karen at her home on Mechanic Street in West Union (also called Old York) she explained that they have suffered through 4 or 5 floods, but this was by far the worst. Their primary home sustained 10 feet of water in the basement and came within an inch of flooding their living area.

In preparation for the flooding, Karen had been moving a lot of her personal treasures, including family keepsakes and hundreds of photos into the guest cottage, because it is on higher ground. The family thought it would be safer there, though she now knows that was wishful thinking. The cottage was swamped with three feet of water during the flood and she lost almost everything. Karen and her daughter spent the better part of a day separating pictures she recovered from the cottage in order to keep them from sticking together and being lost forever.

A friend brought a large truck and parked it in front of the cottage. The family had to wait for the floodwaters to recede before they could attempt to save items from the cottage. Once the waters retreated to the banks of the Wabash, they loaded many items in the truck. Unfortunately, after assessing the cottage, the Youngs realized many cherished belongs could not be salvaged, so they had an end-loader brought in and parked in front of the front door.

“We just kept hauling things out of the cottage and throwing them in the end loader bucket, and then we dropped it as garbage in the dumpster, it really hurt,” recalled Karen.

The Red Cross is providing clean up kits for the Young’s and others who are now working to salvage what they can and move towards recovery after these devastating floodwaters. If you are beginning the clean up in your home, be sure that you wear protective clothing, including rubber gloves and rubber boots. Make sure your food and water are safe.  Discard items that have come into contact with flood water, including canned goods, water bottles, and plastic utensils. When in doubt, throw it out!

For more information and details on where to get the Red Cross clean up kits call 1-800-REDCROSS or visit us online at www.redcross.org.

Karen shows a Red Cross volunteers her family photos she is trying to save.

When I profiled Talamore Country Club last week, I mentioned the Talamore Family of Clubs was wrapping up a couple months of preview days, when you could sample the clubs for a day.

This morning, I noticed that one member of that “family” — Old York CC in Chesterfield, NJ — is having three more preview days and is promoting them via the GolfNow.com Deal Caddy, giving you a chance to play that private Gary Player design.

It’ll run you $75 for golf, cart and range balls, and you can find out all the details by clicking here.

And you can find out more about Old York, including a video tour, here at TeeItUpPhilly.com.

Nice Price:

Here’s another deal from Amazon Local:    eight rounds of golf at Linfield National Golf Club and 10 one-hour small group lessons for just $189.   That’s a lot of golf and instruction for that price.

Nice Prize:

Glen Mills Golf Club holds an annual raffle to benefit the Glen Mills Student Scholarship Fund, and it is into the home stretch.  They’re giving away two unlimited golf memberships this year.  For one, the tickets are $50 each and limited to 100 tickets sold.  The other has a smaller pricetag — $20 per ticket — but they’re selling 300 of those.  You can purchase the raffle tickets online here.   The drawing will be held Monday, June 4th. 

Nice Idea:

After Zach Johnson turned a 3-shot triumph into a near disaster when he moved his mark and forgot to replace it before putting out on Sunday… the best thing I read was this:  whenever you move your marker out of another player’s line, turn it over.   That’s a great way to remind yourself to move the marker back to its original position before you put your ball back down.  Never had thought of that, but a great idea.

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Click here for more golf blog posts.

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Ed Abrams anchors mornings on KYW Newsradio, and you can hear his Golf Reports there on Fridays and Saturdays. He has also created a pair of websites:  www.DealTrackerGolf.com, featuring leads on the best golf equipment deals… and www.TeeItUpPhilly.com, with video course tours, audio swing tips and local golf deals

Way down south in New Orleans, we spend a whole lotta time in bars. We eat and drink there, meet friends there, watch TV there, scrap, discuss, even have business meetings there. There’s a saloon on every corner in the Big Easy and most New Orleanians treat them like their living rooms. It’s not at all unusual to see folks wander in in slippers and pj’s at 7 am for a little coffee or hair of the dog. 

I used to knit at Buffa’s Bar & Grill in New Orleans. I worked there for a time, so I’ve in fact knitted on both sides of that bar. My boss hated it, though, and began referring to me as ‘Madame Defarge‘.

I’m beginning to realize that we treat bars a little differently here in Canada. I wandered across the street to The Old York in my jammies one time. Instead of a boisterous crowd of still-drunks from the night before, I encountered a locked door and a lot of incredulous stares from my neighbours. So sad.

So, in aid of making Toronto bars more living-room-y and in an attempt to socialize an otherwise solitary pursuit, I decided to knit. In bars. I’ve never seen it done. Never once have I walked into a bar and found a single solitary knitter.

Step one was finding an appropriate fellow knitter. I immediately thought of Tracey, who is willing to do almost anything that involves wine, and we commenced. Since we both occupy digs in the King West/Liberty Village area, we began at the Bank Note one September afternoon. It went rather well, all things considered. I dropped every single stitch and Tracey knit the heel of a sock that she has not picked up since but it was a resounding success wine-wise!

So successful in fact that we decided to do it again, this time choosing The Old York Tavern, a cozy, divey little place with nice, open-minded bartenders. We sipped away at a very tasty Chenin Blanc and nobody seemed to notice that we were fiddling with sticks and string.

Whilst Tracey plucked away at one of her famous chunky cowls in what I’m assured is a very pleasant shade of gray, I tackled something new I’ve been working on. My goal is to come up with some patterns specifically designed for knitting in public and this is the first one.