Surprise

I went to the local motor vehicle registry to drop off an application for my nephew and discovered an empty parking-lot and locked doors. The darkened doors were almost resplendent with bright signs indicating why -- it is Orangemen's Day. That's a day celebrated hardly anywhere other than here. It is a day that -- even a half-century ago when I started working -- was being officially called in collective agreements some rather less divisive name (it was "Mid-July Holiday" in my first union contract).

Thirty years ago I tried to get a public wave of support to have it transmogrified into an inclusive day for all people of this province, but my idea fell flat. Everyone still calls it Orangemen's Day (or Orangeman's Day as it is here on these signs). I was surprised anyway.

There was a mail slot and my nephew's application is inside it now.