Let me tell you about the birds and the bees (photo of my mom circa 1950) I was born in 1952, the year that Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president of the United States. Growing up absurd in a small southern Ontario town in the 1950s and 1960s meant being fed a steady diet of..
Welcome to Hell… September 11, 2001 At 9:30 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the telephone rang in the office that I shared with my friend, the French teacher René Moisan. At the other end of the line was his daughter, Geneviève. “Have you seen the news?” she asked, with a peculiar catch in her..
August 30,2024 Today is our 44th wedding anniversary/ Nous fêtons aujourd’hui notre 44e anniversaire de marriage. Ce qui suit est une histoire vraie. Les noms n’ont pas été changés pour protéger les coupables. What follows is a true story. The names have not been changed to protect the guilty. Scènes de notre marriage / Scenes..
Good Neighbor Sam What was the first film you ever saw in a “movie theatre”? I saw my first such movie in July of 1964 when I was 12 years old. Starring the iconic comedian Jack Lemmon, the film was a piece of fluff called “Good Neighbor Sam”, but for me this foray..
Reaching 100 years old…Still here but yet so far away! My sister and I call her Aunty Bud, for reasons unknown. She “celebrated” her 100th birthday yesterday. My father’s sister, Doris “Bud” Branson, was born on August 11, 1924, at a time when William Lyon Mackenzie King was Prime Minister of Canada, and Babe Ruth..
Strip Mall Medicine in Ottawa, Ontario, Part Two: The Plot Thickens Based on a John Grisham novel of the same name, Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic courtroom drama The Rainmaker recounts the trials and tribulations of fledgling lawyer Rudy Baker, played by Matt Damon, who is forced to take work as an ambulance chaser with..
Spring 1969, London, Ontario. Grade 12, Oakridge High School A friend named Chris Turnbull had somehow inherited a car. Probably his parents handed over this dilapidated vehicle when he turned 18. His decrepit Dodge was something of a jalopy. But it was equipped with an 8-track cartridge player: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-track_cartridge You inserted a clunky music cartridge..
My American Cousins, July 4, 1963, St. Albans Street on the corner of Church Street, Enosburg Falls, Vermont For Tammy MacBryde Farr Folding chairs and outdoor dining tables festooned with colorful paper table cloths were positioned at regular intervals across the vast corner yard of our cousin Robina MacBryde Randall’s Vermont home, like a series..
New Canadian Class 1968 On August 21,1968, my wife Anne’s country was invaded by the Soviet Union. The invasion of Czechoslovakia took place the day before Anne’s 10th birthday. The Soviet Union was intent on putting an end to what is known as the Prague Spring, a period of reform in Czechoslovakia that challenged the..
Deaf as a post For years I have been in denial about my hearing impairment, blaming it on wax build-up and congestion, while secretly recognizing that my experience of a typical soundscape is akin to that of a skin diver trapped in a massive reverberating fishbowl, especially in venues such as bars or restaurants where..