The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday September 6, 2003 - 3 Author to spend one month studying Oakville residents, town Mays to consider the best and the worst of suburbia BY CRAIG M acBRIDE OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF M "I'm going to be finding out what Oakville's all about. Oakville has been a topic of real interest to me for a long time. Suburbia's interesting to me, how it came about, the various pros and cons." John Bentley Mays ake sure you mow your lawn this weekend, and don't forget to trim those hedges. While you're at it, wash the car and the dog, and clean the chalk drawings off the sidewalk. We have a visitor coming. This page o f the Oak\'ille Beaver's Weekend Newsmagazine is generally spent profiling a long-time resi dent of Oakville who has achieved something noteworthy. This week is different though! We're profiling a man who has accomplished more than enough to warrant a profile, but one who doesn't live in Oakville. At least, he doesn't live in Oakville -- yet. He, John Bentley Mays, is moving here on Monday, and only for one month. To make matters worse, he's going to be spending his time here studying us, using his time here for a sociological investigation. So, for the good of the town, w e're going to level the play ing surface. This is what you need to know about Mays. He is a best-selling author of non-fiction books, most well known for In the Jaws o f the Black Dogs: a Memoir o f Depression. He is a respected columnist for The Globe and Mail. He lives in a converted tool-and-die factory in Toronto, and he was invited to our town by the Oakville Galleries (OG) to live on the third floor of Gairloch House, above the gallery and the OG offices. He was bom in the American south in 1941, moving to Toronto for a university teaching job in 1969. His native accent still lingers. He is a large, stocky man, like a former boxer. He's bald on top with a horseshoe o f grey stubble circling his head. He looks angry, or like he expects you to anger him and is pre pared for the occasion, except when he smiles, which is not often and which turns him into an entirely different person, a softer person. Regardless of his physical frigidity, there is something about him that arouses a desire in you to tell him everything. He probably knows this too, and that's why, while here, he plans to speak to many of us, figure out why we have decid ed to live in Oakville, and why we stay. "I'm going to be finding out what Oakville's all about," said Mays, sitting in an office he was borrowing for the sum mer on the University of Toronto campus. "Oakville has been a topic of real interest to me for a long time. Suburbia's inter esting to me, how it came about, the various pros and cons." It sounds intimidating, having an outsider come in and tell us about ourselves, but Mays has a novel approach, one that he used while writing a column about Toronto for The Globe and Mail. Essentially, he'll come in here admitting ignorance, not thinking he knows anything about our town or us. What he (See 'Oakville' page 12) PHOTO BY PETER C. McCUSKER Oakville Beaver W e s t N ile v ir u s : F ig h tin g m o s q u ito e s . F ig h t t h e B ite ! Eliminate standing water around your house. Drill holes in bottom of used containers so water can't collect. Change water in bird baths every other day. Turn over compost frequently and clean eavestroughs thoroughly. To learn more, call or visit our Web site. 1-877-234-4343 TTY 1-800-387-5559 w w w .H ealthyO ntario.com I j I | M a k i m j h r n l t h c n r r m t r k f o r `/ tm . O fltd flO