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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…
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The Wonder of Little Boys
The Grandfatherhood I am finally a Grandfather. Put me in coach – I have been training for this all my life. We were blessed with our first grandchild this week, thanks to my amazing daughter Lauren and equally amazing son-in-law Mark. It goes without saying that little Benjamin is the most handsome, amazing, athletic, intelligent,…
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Becoming Doc
The Storyteller Rick Seys and I have been best friends since 1981. We met on the steps of the Bell Canada switching hub on Clarence St in London Ontario. It is a 4 story gray stone slab building, double wide brass frame and glass doors and landscaping that looked like it came right out of…
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Ukraine – Feelings of Inadequacy
How to Even Comprehend I vowed this blog would not be a forum for political discourse. But I need to rant. I have lived a charmed life, all things considered. I have never lived in a war zone. I have never gone hungry. I have always had a place to sleep and feel safe. I…