The weather for the first week was incredible - beautiful! I got my 5th COVID shot, Barb her 4th and she got a flu shot and no issues from being out of province. More stuff moves out the door using FB Marketplace. This can be a frustrating exercise. A single item can generate some 25 or so responses - always first “Is it still available?” Then a request for more information and then the haggling regarding the price begins. You can have 3 to 5 (or more) back and forths with an individual. Some say they want it, so you tell others it’s sold, but the buyer doesn’t show up. Then you start the cycle again. Experience says price an item 20% above what you really want. Add “for pickup only” and if someone wants it, ask for an e-transfer immediately. If they decline to send an e-transfer, let them know it will remain for sale on a first come basis. Having never done retail this gave me a sense of the speed of commerce. When most people move, they have a place to haul everything to. Getting rid of all possessions is different - everything must go and every time you turn around, there is more stuff! ![]() Below is a copy of an exercise I did probably 40 years ago - Assignment 4: “The Interview” for Magazine Research and Related Editorial Functions, Instructor Arlene Arnason. Mrs. Arnason was the head fact-checker for MacLean's magazine in the ’80s and taught this course as part of the Ryerson Continuing Education program. Harry Eaton Harry was born in Fairbanks, Alaska sometime in the late 1920s (he could not remember the exact date). At three years of age, he moved with his family to Los Angeles. After two years they left for Rochester, New York. His father, Charles Edward died in 1938. The remaining family consisted of Howard, seven years older, Larry three years older, and two older sisters, Dorothy and Signa. His mother Alice then took the family to Toronto. Arriving in Toronto Harry was of public school age and began attending classes at the Shirley Street Public School. He then attended Harbord Collegiate, making money in his spare time working after school at the Chandler Electric Company assembling heating elements for toasters and space heaters. He also had a paper route delivering the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail. The call for recruits went out while Harry was in grade 12, so he signed up. At first, he was housed at the Horse Palace at the Exhibition which had been renamed the Manning Depot. He stayed there for 3 weeks with thousands of other young men, while deciding which branch of the service to enter. Breakfast across the street at the Stanley Barracks came early at 5:30 with a bugle wake-up call. ![]() Joining the Royal Canadian Air Force, he began basic training at Camp Shilo in Winnipeg, learning to parachute from towers and later planes. He was moved to Bagotville in Quebec where he learned to fly. Harry was listed as active which meant he was headed overseas. His first mission was to fly a Mosquito (with a copilot) across the Atlantic with a convoy of 12 planes landing at Biggin Hill, England, where he would stay for the next to years inspecting planes arriving from Canada. He was then posted to Algiers and later back to England. With his first tour complete he returned to Canada. Three months later he found himself on the Queen Mary with 5,000 other troops heading back to war. It was a cold five-day trip in November with 50-foot waves. Many remarked it was the roughest passage of the conflict. Landing in Southhampton he took a train north to York, where again he was inspecting aircraft. Under heavy German bombardment, Harry said he developed “a great respect for the women Auxiliary Territorial Service who manned the ack-ack and Beaufort anti-aircraft guns”. ![]() He stayed in York for a year returning to Canada on the Aquitania. While home he toured the munitions and supply factories as a veteran and PR man. Once again he was back to England sailing on the Isle de France and landing at Grennoch, Scotland. The ship was too big to enter the harbor so troops were taken off 50 at a time by an armada of tug boats. He returned to Biggin Hill for six months and stayed in England until 1946. Harry flew 23 missions in a Spitfire, as a reconnaissance and escort pilot. He claims 6 unconfirmed kills. His squadron was the 400th with an eagle as its insignia. Both his brothers were killed in the war. Howard was with the Scottish Rifles and Larry was in the navy, His final return from the war brought the train to a halt at the Exhibition, his original point of departure. A few days later he remembers going to Rochester to celebrate the 4th of July. In 1952 he visited Los Angeles where he met his wife-to-be, Laura. They were married that year and returned to Toronto. Laure had two brothers and two sisters, whom Harry lost touch with. His only child Francis was born on December 12, 1953. She married and lives with her husband in New Brunswick. Laura died in 1974. For almost 20 years Harry worked as a consulting engineer and test pilot for McDonnell Douglas in Toronto. In 1969 his mother became ill and he took a leave of absence to care for her. She died in 1971. ![]() Harry was a good friend and worked for Conn Smythe, owner of the Maple Leafs. Smythe retained him to clip everything from the newspapers that were being written about him (Smythe) and keep him informed as to who these reporters were so that they could receive special attention. Because of these services, Harry saw all the Leaf games and got to know the players the coaching staff, and later Harold Ballad. Note: Harry lived across the street from me on Broadview Ave in Toronto while attending Ryerson in the mid-1980s. I lived in that house for two years at which time Harry was a regular dinner guest at our (there were always several renters) table. I got an A on the paper. Nov 12th - probably my last load-in of a stage play for the foreseeable future - if ever. Another job is contacting services - Engridge, Edwin, Bell, insurance, municipal taxes, etc. to have them stopped. This is complicated as for most (not Bell or Edwin) I need to send both death certificates, the first and last pages of the will, proof of executorship, and in some cases signatures from all three executors. ![]() Nov 18th - attended WLMT’s production of “A Christmas Carol”. It was bittersweet - sitting in the audience, something I rarely do (usually backstage) enjoying the show knowing an end was coming to this chapter. Working in theatre has been a wonderful experience, and who knows, maybe someday I will be back near the footlights. Nov 20th - We attended the world premier (second performance) of “The Legend of Bijan and Manijeh”, composed by Farhad Poupel in 2020 for piano, choir, and orchestra, commissioned by the Windsor Symphony, Key Chorale, and Carol McGuire Johnson, and dedicated to Jeffrey Biegel. It was performed by Windsor Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (90 voices), conducted by Robert Franz with Jeffrey Biegel (world-famous pianist) as soloist on the symphony’s $250,000 Steinway. It was amazing - we were both moved to tears at several intervals. This piece will probably find its way into a big-budget movie. Nov 25th (Friday) - Holly and Kim arrive and the three executors head over to an RBC (bank) branch to clear up a loose end. Very frustrating as all the work done in two prior meetings was lost - we had to do it again. Something that should have taken 10 minutes took two hours. The next day was a final cleanup and Sunday we loaded a small UHaul. Kim drove the remaining furniture (mostly mattresses destined for the cottage) to Markham. Not an easy task as he’d picked up a bug from dinner the night before (at Sandy’s). Barbara and I left for son John’s in St Catharines. We would stay a few days and get ready for our December 1st flight. ![]() Read Timeless Mexico Hudson Strode 1944 FTW "Although Timeless Mexico isn't quite timeless itself, being dated by a good seventy years at this point, its political coverage is extensive, includes societal change as a matter of course, and is written with devotion to the people. I'll be following this with more up to date books, but found Strode's narrative an affectionate and detailed introduction."
0 Comments
|
AuthorI believe we are what we think. What we think depends on what we feed our brains. This is a partial record of what my brain has been eating. Archives
February 2023
Categories
|