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The Making of a Hunter
The Mentor The smell. Man I loved that smell. When I was small, my dad left for deer hunting for 2 weeks in November. It was a long trip at the time and 2 weeks made it all worthwhile. When he returned, I remember him coming into my bedroom to tell me he was home.…
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Gun Violence in the USA
Land of the Free and Home of the Brave? That ship has sailed folks. Yesterday there was yet another mass shooting in the United States. This time in an elementary school in Texas. 19 innocent children and 2 adults woke up yesterday morning and went to school, like they have countless other days. Little did…
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A Woman and A Secret
Rebellion There once was a very rebellious 17 year old teenage girl, living on a dairy farm in rural Aylmer Ontario. She was a clever gal, and set to graduate early from high school. About 5’3”, shoulder length brown hair, slim build and sparkling blue eyes, she was a catch. Not unusual for her age,…
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Growing Up in Vienna – Part 3
A Small Town is a Close Town When you live in a place as small as Vienna, you inevitably know most of the people, through school, sports, part time jobs, church or otherwise. This was certainly the case in my life. There are so many people that influenced me in one way or another and…
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Dog Daze
The Big Send Off In late May 1979 I was approaching my wedding day. As was the custom, it was common for a group of close friends and co-workers to host a “stag” for the pending groom. One last fling as it were. My boss Bill Jeneraul and his brother-in-law Bill Edwards (also a co-worker)…
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The Beginning and Very Sudden End of a Career in Comedy
Everybody Loves a Clown, So Why Don’t You? ….With Apologies to Gerry Lewis and the Playboys There was a point in my life that I thought George Carlin was the funniest man alive. He of the “7 things you can’t say on TV” and important to me at the time, an epic explanation on the…
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Growing Up in Vienna – Part 2
School Daze We had 2 elementary schools in Vienna – one Catholic and one Protestant. When my dad was a kid, there was a high school as well, adjacent to the public school. In the early years of public school, we used to do square dancing in the abandoned high school, for phys ed. In…
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Growing up in Vienna – Part 1
Memories from the ‘Burbs Merlyn and Jean Wolfe built a new house and soon had their young family moved in. Life for the young couple soon became intertwined with the community. It was a small village, but relationships with neighbours and friends quickly became inter-dependant. We lived on the corner of a very busy main…
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Rudy
Friendships I have had many friendships in my life. Some over 50 years. In one’s lifetime your circle of friends change. Some as a result of life circumstances, some as a result of shifting world views, some simply as a result of family dynamics. Some friends leave your life and come back later, like nothing…
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The Night The Lights Went Out And A Family Was Changed Forever
The Night the Lights Went Out I can’t pinpoint the specific date, but I was likely about 12 years old. The bus had dropped off high school students in front of Les Brown’s Hardware store. The sky was dark and threatened rain. There was a visitor at our house having a business discussion with my…
