Couple aims for zero garbage

Sarah McGaughey in her home. Town Crier file photo.

By Kris Scheuer
(Originally published Mar/8/07 for Town Crier.)
Sarah McGaughey and Kyle Glover made a pledge when they returned from a teaching stint in Korea in 2004 to try and go a full month without producing any waste.
One month has turned into two years of diligent effort for the Ossington and St. Clair couple. McGaughey updates their progress on her blog.
Rather than throw out items such as a TTC Metropass, markers, light bulbs and beer caps, they made art collages and cards for their friends out of them. And in the two years they threw out just two garbage bags of trash.
Nonetheless, “I felt we had failed,” said McGaughey in a Feb. 1 interview beside her kitchen table.

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80-year-old ‘Fry Lady’ retires

Catherine Wilson fries up one more basket
of potatoes. Photo by Kris Scheuer/Town Crier.

By Kris Scheuer
(Originally published March 8/05 for Town Crier.)
Say goodbye to the Fry Lady — the 79-year-old woman is retiring after 25 years of serving up fries to hungry customers at a local McDonald’s.
Catherine Wilson, known affectionately as the Fry Lady and Granny by customers and colleagues alike, started her first shift at the McDonald’s at Bayview and Eglinton Aves. in January of 1979 at $3 an hour. Now she is packing it in.
Over the years, she has cooked and packaged too many French fries to count, but here’s a rough estimate. She served up at least 1,709,400 packages of fries in 25 years — and that’s just during lunch hour.
Ironically, Wilson doesn’t even like fries. This is not a slight against McDonald’s fries, mind you. “I have never eaten the French fries,” she said. “I was just never into French fries my whole life.”