July 7, 2003
It’s summer and Torray Green will now be in Jamaica with his mom, visiting relatives until Labour Day. Cindy Moustakis is wistfully staring out the window, dreaming of July 20, when her classes in Math will end to make it real summer for her. Torray and Cindy are the latest co-op students at Candafreepress.com. Torray, who liked it here so much that he chose to spend his second co-op stint in our office, graduated this year from East York Collegiate Institute and will be applying to Centennial College. Cindy, in Grade 11, has one more year at East York.
Both youngsters, in separate ways, made our Elm Street offices a better place to be.
Before Torray’s placement, his teacher warned us that he was a quiet sort of fellow. As things turned out, everybody at the office had called him "Tory" rather than giving his name the correct pronunciation of "Tor-ray" before he one day corrected us--a year and a half later.
"Torray," as office manager Brian Thompson often pointed out, is so "laid-back."
Cindy, on the otherhand, is as refreshing and energetic as a bubbling fountain. Tiny in stature, Cindy is a tiger in her approach to journalism, and will no doubt one day make an excellent investigative reporter.
Our laid-back co-op student longs to be an electronic sports reporter, and his highlight during his time with us, was a one-on-one interview with Canadian boxing champ George Chuvalo. The champ, who once filed columns for this newspaper, has a special affinity with young people, and went out of his way to accommodate Torray.
Cindy, who relegates sports with having to give up summer days for Math, showed a talent for detail and research. One of the stories she turned in for her co-op portfolio was based on an interview she conducted by tracking down and quizzing a resident of Australia.
It was hard for me to believe that their co-op programs had ended so suddenly, particularly when Torray had been participating in the program for two years running.
We took the teens to the Red Lobster in the Atrium on Bay on a recent Friday farewell luncheon.
To our delight, they studied the menu as if it were one of Cindy’s Math tests.
The usually cautious Torray, who comes from a single mother home, was for the first time since we’d known him, downright loquacious.
Wise beyond her years, Cindy could have held the interests of a group of 35-year-olds.
Having both settled on the rock lobster tails as entrees, and having made it clear they were up for desert, they spoke of plans for the future.
The conversation somehow drifted round to there being a connection between mothers and good journalism, or as they put it "Moms make excellent snoops".
Torray’s mom should be proud of the job she has done in raising her son. Even though the 18-year-old would rather be other places on a Sunday, he dutifully attends church with his mother. Friends cajoled him last Thanksgiving to meet them for a party, but Torray stayed home to join his mother for turkey dinner.
Cindy sometimes travels to Greece with both parents. A nurse who must go to work, SARS scare or not, Cindy’s mom worries about her daughter being exposed to the virus. These days, Cindy is taken up by her new auntie status. Her brother and sister-in-law are new parents, and no auntie could be more passionate than 17-year-old Cindy.
As for the theory of moms making the most excellent of snoops, both youngsters have their own version.
Recently, Torray suffered a bad thumb injury requiring a trip to the hospital for stitches. Knowing that his mother was squeamish, and worried about the somewhat intimidating practice of gauze masks for hospital visitors, Torray discouraged his mom from showing up at emergency.
"I was real nervous about those stitches, but they had just finished stitching me up when I spotted my Mom through a window. Don’t know how I recognized her. She was not only wearing a mask but was decked out in the whole protective uniform," he recalled. "I told her later there was no reason why she had to put herself through that, but my Mom would insist on being there until she had convinced herself I would be alright."
Cindy’s Adventures with Mom were a little different. Full of school’s-almost-out mischief, it didn’t take too much coaxing when the teen agreed to meet several girlfriends on the Danforth, by slipping out of the house. Cindy and company were ensconced adult like on the patio of a local bar, when she said to a girlfriend, "That looks something like my Dad’s car that just pulled up to the curb", followed within seconds by "That is my Dad’s car."
First out of the car on the way to her daughter’s table was her mother. "She had talked my Dad into coming out to find me, but I don’t know how she ever knew where I’ d be,"Cindy lamented.
And that’s why moms, both students concluded, make better snoops than investigative journalists.
I had gone to the Friday lunch out of courtesy. Neither Torray nor Cindy could possibly have known what was going on in my life at the time of their farewell luncheon, complete with doggie bag desert. Suffice it to say that some people who had been harassing me had caused me a lot of grief because of what I do for a living. They had leveled the word "snoop" at me in the most insulting of fashions.
Arriving stressed and a bit down, I came away from the lunch laughing,
If the mothers of these youngsters are in the category of snoop, then I’m not in bad company.
Meanwhile, there will be no missing Torray and Cindy at the office, because we know they’ll stay in touch.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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