Sunday, January 15, 2012

Who Stole The Rhubarb?

Hey guys! Today I write to you with a challenge. How powerful is social networking and the Internet? Can we really be connected to everyone in the world via 6 degrees of separation? I would like to try a little social experiment and test this theory, but I need your help in the biggest way. First read this:

Nanny and Grampy on their wedding day.
So this past weekend I was at home visiting with my parents. For those who know me, know that it is very common for me to go home to my parents for a weekend every so often. I come from a close family and I enjoy their company, and hey, I need some place to do my laundry ;). So while at home this weekend my Mom and I got reminiscing about my late grandmother Greta. I was very very close to my Nanny, and my back tattoo is in memory of her. She was such a wonderful person with a spunky great, personality. We sat for quite a while talking about different memories from when I was a child, and the things I remember most about her. I remember pretending to figure skate on her kitchen floor and every time my sister and I fell on our ass we called that one a "flip or triple sow cow". Nanny loved watching figure skating on TV, and it started to rub off. I remember watching curling and wrestling with her, and boy you did not want to be sitting next to her during a heated wrestling match! I remember her knitting me countless pairs of mittens of all shades of the rainbow, and sitting in the living room while she combed my hair. I spent every summer I can remember as a child out at the lake at her cottage, my mother would come visit us because we refused to come home. My grandmother was all anyone could ask for as a Nanny, and I miss her all the time. I am so fortunate to have such wonderful memories that I can sit around and reminisce about it. There was also one other thing about my Nan that I have inherited to a certain degree, and that was her need to be in the know. My Nanny was pretty darn nosy! Haha. One time there was a note on the neighbors door and my Mom walked in on her in the pantry with binoculars reading the note through the window facing their house. Turns out the guy next door had a dentist appointment and wanted to communicate this to an expected visitor, Hahaha! Nan always had the inside track on everything but there is one thing, and as far as I know, only one thing she died never knowing.

My Nanny and Grampy lived in Wolfville on Highland Ave, for most of my childhood. They built that house and my mother and her siblings grew up in it. After they sold it when I was a teenager they turned the house into student housing for Acadia University. Well all the time they lived in that house they had a rhubarb patch in the backyard. It was a pretty big patch with lots of wonderful rhubarb that Nan used for pies, jams etc. Well every year, without fail, someone would come in the night once the rhubarb was ripe and rifle through the patch and take all they could carry. They never took it all, and always left some for Nanny and Grampy, but this happened year after year after year without fail. So much so that Nan had figured out when exactly they rhubarb thief would strike and set up a sting operation in the living room. The bay window faced the patch, so she figured she would stay up all night and watch the patch and finally be able to catch the rhubarb thief. So she lay in wait in the dark. Well she fell asleep and when she awoke in the morning, the rhubarb was gone! The thief had come and gone while she slept! She tried to stay up and catch them several years, but could never stay up long enough to catch them. The missing rhubarb continued until the year they sold the house and moved to Port Williams, and remained a mystery.

Shortly after moving into the new house my grandmother development dementia and went downhill at a fairly fast rate. She died six years ago never knowing who took the Rhubarb. So after laughing about this story with my mother on the weekend I said, "You know, now with the Internet and social networking, I wonder if we would ever be able to find out who that was." So here is my challenge to you: help me find who took the rhubarb. Obviously none of my family was ever upset over this, even my grandmother thought is was more funny then anything, and I remember laughing about it  when it was happening. I would love love love to find out who was doing it, and kept my Nan on her toes all those years. So in order to do this I need you to tell your friends, post it online spread the word and lets see if this experiment works. I am doing this more to see the power of the Internet, and to satisfy our own curiosity so lets hope it works. I have heard of crazier things before! Here is the information you need to know;

  • Nanny lived at 108 Highland Ave. in Wolfville, Nova Scotia
  • Directly behind her house was the Basinview Apartment buildings.
  • The house was White siding with a Burgundy trim.
  • The rhubarb went missing between the mid 80's until the year 2000.
  • The rhubarb ALWAYS went missing by the cover of darkness, probably in the wee hours of the morning.
  • For many years there would have been a big yellow Irving oil truck parked in the driveway.
  • The patch was in the backyard between two houses.
  • There were 4 pine trees separating the yard from the apartment building parking lot, and there would have been a fireplace and a dog house in the backyard for many years.
Wouldn't it be cool if this worked!? Lets see how powerful this is, my grampy would be shocked and amazed! Thanks so much for your help, post and share guys...post and share!

7 comments:

  1. I just tweeted this out to my followers on Twitter. Hope you find your answers! http://twitter.com/#!/Jen_Banks/statuses/158726132689149952

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  2. Thanks so much Jen! It would be amazing if this mystery was solved thanks to social media!

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  3. Read this and realized you're writing about my friend's grandmother - your cousin. Is a great story and I've posted it to my business' website: Family Lines, in Calgary:
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Family-Lines/322914747737054

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  4. That is so interesting, who is your friend? Any idea who stole the Rhubarb?

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  5. Nevermind, got it :) James or Katherine is the friend. I checked out your site, thanks so much for posting it on your site and helping to maybe solve this old family mystery!

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  6. The thief was the neighbour across the road. In the pantry with a knife.Or was it with a gun in the livingroom.....hmmmm

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  7. Ha! Actually it was in the backyard with garbage bags Haha True story! If only it were as easy as Clue. She did have a neighbour across the road tho......

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