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From attack, only 13 days ago, and chaos to solemn majesty – in a fortified city, Washington DC – the swearing in of Joe Biden, the 46th President of the USA!
Yesterday, I watched as Biden stood on the steps of the US Capital building and pledged to end this ‘uncivil war’ and to unify America – a deeply divided and deeply troubled land. In his first address to the American public, he said many things, including that he would put his ‘soul’ into unifying the country. He mentioned President Lincoln, who was criticized at the time, for frivolous spending on the Capital Building, whose dome was only partially built at the time when Lincoln freed the slaves. Biden began the real work of his Presidency by undoing 15 of the policies created by former President Trump. He is busy signing executive orders, including revoking the permit for the Keystone Pipeline. As a Canadian, that one hurt. But, do you want to know something? – I think that he’s right! To do so, is a step in the right direction for climate control. I, for one, am wishing President Biden good luck. Thanks to the Pandemic, the many lies told by former President Trump, and doubtless many other things, he begins his Presidency with a deeply divided country – the USA. Meanwhile, Washington was guarded by soldiers, (The National Guard was mobilized to protect the city against an attack, that, thankfully, never came.) Along with regular police, they stood almost shoulder to shoulder, lining the main streets of the city. And the ceremonies were all different – spaced out due to Covid-19. Well, as usual – Time will tell . . . Please be careful . . . Stay safe, stay well, remember your mask, stay physically distanced, wash your hands frequently, get some fresh air if you can, and keep smiling . . . You know, the same old stuff . . . Hang in there – the Pandemic won’t last forever . . . ‘til we meet again . . .
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As a child, I learned the nursery rhyme - Chicken Little – you know, ‘the sky is falling’. Well, yesterday it seemed to be coming true. The Capital building in Washington, in the United States of America, the country right next to Canada, the most powerful country in the world, was under attack by an angry mob of Americans, in a case of ‘armed insurrection’. An angry mob, led by a defiant US President, Donald Trump, over his and their belief that he won the US Election, won fairly and unequivocally by Joe Biden. Wow! In 2020, unheard of! But, then again, so was Covid-19!
There are cries – Invoke the 25th Amendment (the amendment to the US Constitution that calls for the immediate removal from office for an unfit President). President Trump, and his angry mob, have just thirteen more days, in which to try to take any action they see fit. A lot can happen in thirteen days, and, don’t forget that he has vowed to Never Concede! President Elect, Biden, was on TV this afternoon, and after decrying yesterday’s attack, he made it very clear, while nominating the new leaders of the US Justice Department, that they were not ‘his’ members (in contrast to Trump). He was obviously trying to unify the US – a heady task. Well, as usual – Time will tell . One thing's for sure, the current President will go down in history! Please be careful . . . Stay safe, stay well, remember your mask, stay physically distanced, wash your hands frequently, get some fresh air if you can, and keep smiling . . . Hang in there – the Pandemic won’t last forever . . . ‘til we meet again . . . Merry Christmas – 2020!
What a difference! It seems so long since I posted something to my blog – October 31 – before the second wave and so many other things. Where to begin? I guess I should begin by saying that, once again, I tested gravity (I fell). Only this time I really did a number on my knee, and progress has been very slow! I even ended up in hospital for a few days. It’s hard to believe, but that was all before the second wave! Since then, Windsor Essex, once one of the safest places to live in 2020, has gone into extended Lockdown, and has become the hardest hit area by Covid-19, in all of Canada! I had started to write about my life as a member of the RCAF in Station Foymount, but how could I ignore life in the Second Wave? Well, back to Christmas. Inge and I are spending Christmas alone, safe in our house. Our ‘Eastern Son’, Steve and his girlfriend Andreya had planned to visit us over Christmas, but as things got worse and worse, they had to cancel. Oh well, all we can do for now, is to grin and bear it – someday we will be back to normal . . . Please be careful . . . Stay safe, stay well, remember your mask, stay physically distanced, wash your hands frequently, don;t touch your face, get some fresh air if you can, and keep smiling . . . Hang in there – the Pandemic won’t last forever . . . ‘til we meet again . . . I made a mistake on the way to RCAF Station Sioux Lookout. The train I was on stopped for half an hour, for a break, at a little northern Ontario town called Swastica. I walked out onto the train depot platform, and took a deep breath. It was instantly as if a thousand knives hit my throat! I learned right then how to breathe in the northern winter, and quickly got back on the train. That was my introduction to winter in northern Ontario.
The first day I went into town, a couple of buddies and I were walking on the sidewalk and an Indian woman was walking towards us. She and her children stepped off into the muddy street to let us pass. Something was very wrong about that! There were two restaurants in town. They each had lots of coffee and juke box remotes. With little else to do, we’d spend hours just sitting, drinking coffee, and feeding quarters int the juke box. I would sit in one of them for hours, drinking I don’t know how many cups of coffee – there wasn’t much else to do. In the summer, all three weeks of it, we would go down to the lake, where a single engine Beaver was all loaded and ready to take off. I would watch as they tied her down the pilot would gun the engine. Then the man with an axe would chop the rope and the plane would take off. A motor boat would go back and forth to make waves, and that together with the rather unique rope trick launch, would get the seaplane up off the lake, just. In 1962, that lake in Sioux Lookout, was the busiest airport in the world! That summer, I encountered deer flies, no-seeums, blackflies, etc., with a vengeance! They just wouldn’t leave me alone! However, when the next summer arrived – nothing. It seems I was immune to all manner of insects! I was due in court on a charge for a prank I and a couple of buddies played. We let the air out of all four tires of a Police car. We got to the hall where the district court was sitting in Dryden, for 9:00 AM. We sat through case after case, waiting for ours to come up. We waited until almost three o’clock, and then the Judge threw our case out because no one showed up from the police. Every time an Indian was on trial, the Judge gave that person a jail sentence. Every time a non-Indian was on trial, the Judge either sentenced that person to a fine, or a slap on the wrist! Wow! That really stayed with me! Well, that was what it was like in the RCAF in 1963. Please be careful . . . Stay safe, stay well, remember your mask, stay physically distanced, wash your hands frequently, get some fresh air if you can, and keep smiling . . . Hang in there – the Pandemic won’t last forever . . . ‘til we meet again . . . The 1960’s were truly remarkable to me – they were easily some of the best years, and some of the worst years of my life.
I was down, just about as low as you can go, when I got a job as a labourer in Stokley’s canning factory in Essex, that lasted as long as there were tomatoes to can. I was paid weekly, at 87.5 cents an hour. It was September, 1961, and a month later, I was on a train, bound for Montreal and basic training in the RCAF. My life just got better and better. Most of the guys in my Flight were very young, 17 or 18 years old, and I was 23, with a new nickname – Pops. I was the second oldest guy in the group, at 23! (The oldest guy a year older than me. He had done 5 years in the Navy.) We had a blast! I can remember climbing up a rope and learning how to do it comfortably – with my feet. And, getting a weekend pass – wow, Montreal! I was ‘awarded’ light duties after breaking a big toe (It happened when we all were horsing around and someone slid a ‘skidder’ across the room, and it landed on my foot.) Well, I made it through Basic, and we were on a train, this time to RCAF Clinton, for trades training. There were so many young recruits, that we had to wait several months, on what was called ‘contact training’. Every two weeks, even through basic, two busloads, 120 young men and 120 young women, would get into the RCAF and require training. I was assigned guard duty in the guard house. One of the optional courses I took was a UASF course called ‘Extra-Sensory-Perception’. We were taught self hypnosis so that we could fall asleep anywhere, under any conditions. We had a numbered checker board in the guard house and we would play a game while we were on guard duty. One person would go outside and the rest of us would all concentrate on the same number. That person would come back into the guard house and would try to guess that number. They would get it right almost all the time! When my time was almost up, I got a job as a ‘Radcian’ on the DEW Line, complete with an appointment for training at USAF Streeter, Illinois, and a letter to pay my way out of the RCAF with six months to go. I had a meeting with my RCAF boss, the STelO, who promptly informed me that the RCAF had recently changed its policy on early release, and that I wasn’t going anywhere. I was an LAC, Com Ground in the RCAF. Upon my release, I got a ride with Pete, my friend who was released at the same time as I was, and we got as far as Ottawa, and decided to stay there. (That was after seeing the girls come out of the Metropolitan Life Building at quitting time.) Well, on that note, I’ll say goodbye . . . Please be careful . . . Stay safe, stay well, remember your mask, stay physically distance, wash your hands frequently, get some fresh air if you can, and keep smiling . . . ‘til we meet again . . . Last time I wrote about my life in the 1940’s, so I think I should tell you about me in the 1950’s. In 1950, I was twelve years old, not quite a teenager, but starting to think like one. About then, my mother had a spare room, so she took in a boarder – a single Mom with a daughter. The daughter was also 12 years old. That was among the early times that I ventured into electronics. I rigged a pair of doorbell buzzers and pushbuttons between my room and hers and proceeded to teach her Morse code so we could communicate back and forth.
Time passed and before I knew it, I was in High School – still a child but on my way to becoming a man. I still remember Grade Nine and my first dance. Like most boys, at least at that time, I did not know how to dance. Not to worry, I soon learned how. About two weeks before the day of the dance, a group of Senior girls taught us how. I remember how shy I was – I mean, holding a real live girl! I went to Patterson CI. In Grade 10, I volunteered for the local Army Cadet Corps and started as a Private. The summer that I was sixteen years old, I went to camp Iperwash for the princely sum of 100 dollars. The following year, I was a cadet WO2 in the big parade. I was OK in school and up to Grade 12 my marks were great. Then one night I went to a dance, and discovered girls! Next year, my marks plummeted in Grade 13. That was the year I turned seventeen. It was also the year that my Dad died. (That was why, I think, that my marks were just high enough for me to squeak through Grade 13, courtesy my teachers.) I began tuba lessons, and nothing would do but my music teacher, took me out to the St Luke Road Barracks, and talked me into the RCEME Army Reserves. I think that he did all the talking. The immediate benefit was that I took home an Army horn, a superb Boosey and Hawk E-Flat Tuba! I became a decent player and I think that I marched in every marching band in Windsor, playing the Tuba. (I don’t think that I ever played in the Windsor Regiment band.) I went to Teachers College in Toronto, the summer that I graduated from Grade 13. I got a job, teaching at Sandwich East Public School, but got laid off at Christmas, because the Township ran out of money. I still remember my first car – a 1950 boat tail Pontiac, 4 doors. When I was out of work, I took the back seat out to make more room for the baskets. I then sold dried manure for 2 dollars a bushel, to make some money! Needless to say, my girlfriend was not impressed with my new enterprise. That was me in the 1950’s. Please be careful . . . Stay safe, stay well, remember your mask, stay physically distance, wash your hands frequently, get some fresh air if you can, and keep smiling . . . ‘til we meet again . . . Well, if you’ve been reading my blog lately, you know that I’m a proponent of opening up, business, personally, et al, albeit, carefully. I’ve shared my plan with you, and fine tuned it ‘til I’m blue in the face, but now it’s time for something new, time to move on.
I don’t know what to write about, but I do know that I will have to know the details. So, I know what I’ll do. I’ll write about me and my life. In the beginning, I was taught to hate. It was early in the 1940’s, and everyone on our side new what a good German was. My two brothers and two sisters were still at home. My older brother joined the Canadian Army, in 1943, in January, right after his seventieth birthday. And then he was gone – off to war. I remember Mom getting a wire and a wire recorder, and we all sat around and listened to the sound of Ken’s voice – again and again. I can remember sending soldered top Crisco cans, full of fresh eggs, to my aunt in Scotland, during the war. We would save all sorts of fat in the empty Crisco cans and when they were almost full, we would bury fresh eggs into the fat. Then we would give the completed cans to my Father who would then solder on the top. We would then attach an address label and mail the can to Scotland. In her letters, my aunt told us that the eggs arrived safely and were cooked perfectly. My other brother, Jim was still too young for service, and I was just a toddler, so he and I were still in school. There was seven years between my brother; Jim and myself. My younger sister, Bette worked at a drug company, and my older sister, Rosemary, told me that Bette was a part time ambulance driver, too. In 1944, Rosemary, who worked in Ford’s office, married another Ford employee. I must have got a toy drum for my birthday or Christmas, because, when the big day finally arrived, I got all dressed up in a sailor suit and proudly played my drum, on the platform at the old Windsor Train Depot, as Ken stepped down from the train that brought him home – home from the army and the war. I think the year was 1946, and I was 8 years old. Ken got a job with the Bell Telephone Company, and drove home in a dark green Fargo. I remember that truck, because I was convinced that it was meant to go far. Well, that’s about all I can remember about my life in the 1940’s. Please be careful . . . Stay safe, stay well, remember your mask, stay physically distance, wash your hands frequently, get some fresh air if you can, and keep smiling . . . ‘til we meet again . . . Well, here we are, well into the second wave. I was right when I said we have no choice but to open up, but perhaps a bit reckless with some of my choices. With Covid-19 apparently here for the next few months, or maybe even longer, we have to do something – but do something the right way – carefully.
What to do? I think I need to revisit my plan. You know, my plan to personally reopen. Here goes . . .
Please be careful . . . Stay safe, stay well, get some fresh air if you can, and keep smiling . . . ‘til we meet again . . . I was wrong to personally open up, just yet. The daily new case count in Ontario has gone up, and up, and up. This week we were greeted with over 300 at the beginning of the week and over 400 at the end. It got so bad that Ontario’s Premier, Ford, reset the maximum numbers that people can gather to 10 and 25 from 50 indoors and 100 outside. The hot spots continue to be Peel, Toronto and Ottawa, and the local health authority has recommended that we should avoid social gatherings altogether. When is Covid-19 just going to go away?
Inge and I were planning to drive up to see our (Eastern) Son, Steve and his girlfriend, Andréa, a couple of weeks from now. Now, with the latest news from the health folks, I don’t know if we’ll make it or not. I vote for postponing the visit, but I don’t know if it will work out that way. I do know one thing. Nobody wants to go back to a full lockdown, like we had this spring. Finally, with the daily case count going really high, Inge called Steve and postponed the trip until the spring. Now it looks like the kids are coming to see us. So, it also looks like we are going to get together for Thanksgiving after all! It will be different, but that’s OK! last night, there was a special on TV where all the leaders of the federal political parties spoke. That was different! Oh well, Indian Summer is here, fall is coming and winter is not far behind. The second Wave is here, We’re in it for the long haul . . . Please be careful . . . Stay safe, stay well, get some fresh air if you can, and keep smiling . . . ‘til we meet again . . . Another week has gone by, and I sense a groundswell of activity. I don’t know why, but there must be something happening. Maybe it’s just my own wishful thinking, but it sure seems real!
You don’t need me to tell you that we live literally surrounded by miracles of nature, but at least in Essex County, we have a government agency looking after all things environmental – ERCA. Yet even they can be targets of scammers, and they were. To the tune of over 300k! Wow! Right in the middle of the pandemic, and ERCA was scammed! You know what I always say – Scam, scam, everywhere a scam. Please be careful! Back to school is the watchword of the day, but these are anything but normal times. With the pandemic, at every level, school is not the normal place that you and I got used to. But, whatever it is, it’s the best we have! The experts tell us that two things are likely to happen – we will have a higher case count of Covid-19 cases, either way. We will either have a ‘manageable’ level of more cases, or a flood of them – in other words, the second wave. We will just have to wait – about two weeks, or less. With mixed feelings, some of relief, a lot of happy thoughts, kids are going back to school – a new normal. The Ontario numbers keep going up, with three large cities now declared hot spots, Toronto, Peel and Ottawa. While still deemed ‘manageable’ they surely bear watching. We all were young and single once, but this is not the time to let our guards down! This is just as true for the kids, as it is for us – especially if the kids come into contact with us! Well, that’s all for now . . . Please be careful . . . Stay safe, stay well, get some fresh air if you can, and keep smiling . . . ‘til we meet again . . . |
AuthorLarry Skinner - Webmaster for South Windsor Seniors Archives
January 2021
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