General Meeting - Speaker: Tom Watson

Topic: Life in Our Town

Tom Watson, Story Teller: After growing up on a small farm in southwestern Ontario, Tom went on to live and work in ten different cities or towns, in three of our Canadian provinces, all of which gave him a taste of the rich variety of cultures that make up our country. He considers himself to be a pretty lucky guy, in that he had three careers, the last of which was becoming a United Church minister, and that is what brought him here to Guelph in 1991, when he came here as minister at Trinity United Church. He says that during his lifetime, he has received many gifts.

One has been a love of music. He began playing the drums at the age of 15 when he and his chums decided to form a dance band—and he's still playing a few gigs a year. And for the past 15 years he has been an active member of the Kiwanis Music Festival of Guelph, and acting as emcee for their concerts.

Another has been a love of writing. Especially humourous stories, and scripts for musical comedy productions. Oh yes, and some very humorous sermons. He loves to laugh. Both to laugh himself and to hear other people laugh. Tom figures that a day without music and laughter is not a very good day at all.