The stars beckon.
Someday we will loose the shoes we use
To walk upon this warm soil.
But while we wait
You must choose not to bruise or abuse
This tender Earth of Life.
In those moments
In which we strive to dare to share and care
We are illuminated hearts.
On sunlit waves
The Bright Ring of Water washes out and about
To spread our newfound seeds.
Some shall sink
Lost in the haze and craze of this maze
That we never made.
Some shall float
Content to lift and drift in time and tide.
Some shall return
With furled sail and tale to regale
Of the Bright Ring of Water
No matter.
Not the seeds or deeds or fame achieved
We loved you all.
All are remembered.
Otterkins 07 MR 02
Waggle Springs is a series of underground springs that feed the Assinaboine River five miles south-west of Shilo, Manitoba.
I wrote this on Monday, August 5, 2002; the same weekend as a high school reunion.
Waggle Springs
(And She Laughs)
From the belly of the earth
She breaks forth with torrents of laughter
Gleefully dancing and shining in the sunlight
Every bend, stone and cliff a new chortle
Giggling all the way to the mighty current
Seemingly without beginning and no end in sight
And she laughs
When bicycles brought her guests for that day
When pirates roamed her mighty sea
And battles were waged with the nature-shaped stick
Shouts of "Pluka-Pluka-Pow" ricocheted off her surface
Till victory and peace finally came
When Boy Scouts set up camp and learned her ways, those of the wilderness
When Huck-Finnish rafts were floated
And long walks back because of the one way direction of her destiny
When being a kid was the agenda for that day
And memories placed in her treasure chest
And she laughs
When cars brought her guests for that day
When she'd bring coldness that would take your breath way to those who dared to plunge
When the banks were crossed by mighty conquerors
When Catfish were caught with those ugly feared whiskers
That legend told of a terrible doom lay ahead for those who were struck by them
(Whether fact or fiction, I still don't know)
When poison oak was the pathway to the ale, which she kept cold
And the fire was high as the stories were told and the party laughs loud
When lovers met in backseats and blankets
When coming of age was the agenda for that day
And memories were placed in her treasure chest
And she laughs
When solitary footsteps bring the guest for this day
There is now a shack where battles were fought, pirates laired and party fires burned
Like brown shoes underneath an elegant black tuxedo
Like litter on sacred ground
I am annoyed
But she laughs
When chosen isolation replaces the partying population
When a log on her steep beach replaces the raft in her prairie rapids
When a store-bought pipe replaces the nature-shaped stick-gun
When a desire to write replaces the need to talk
When subtlety replaces the obvious
When contemplation replaces confusion
She laughs even louder now than ever before
Her voice has not changed though
Now like the rocks that form her path, the rough edges are a little smoother
Because what I thought I knew is now replaced with glorious mystery
The tyranny of the urgent has been replaced with the tranquility of enjoyment
Life with forgotten beginning and no end insight is truly beginning to be lived
And treasured memories are found and gazed upon in all their splendor
When remembering is the agenda for this day
And memories are placed in her treasure chest
And she laughs
- by Don Boddy (PEHS 1984)
Sometimes Shilo is like a dream - complete with little vignettes that have no beginning and then fade away. Here are ten of them:
1. The jump tower. I remember Army Day. They would take you up in the jump tower in a seat and let you free fall for a few meters before the brakes on the seat took hold. I was too much of a wuss to go up and I regret it now. I remember watching everyone do it but I couldn't bring myself to join in. To this day, I remain afraid of heights. I remember they tied an one pound iron weight to a parachute about the size of a handkerchief and dropped it from the top of the tower. The weight was about the size of your forearm and it buried itself in the sand when it hit. That didn't make me feel any easier about going up in that chair.
2. Greg Leskiw. It is funny about how things come around and go around. If you have not heard of Greg Leskiw, he was Shilo's famous son. He actually played with The Guess Who in the early 70's. My oldest boy is Greg's biggest fan and the two of them talk regularly. In fact, Greg's band, Swingsoniq, played at my son's wedding. Before the wedding, I hadn't seen Greg for some time - long before he became famous but I do remember him trying to put the moves on Julie when she and I were counting shooting stars behind my house. I related the incident to Greg recently. Of course, he denied it but we had a good laugh when I described the event. I remember Greg went to the big city (Winnipeg) to seek his fame and fortune. He returned a couple of times to play in a band at the YPA. I remember someone saying he played guitar like a cowboy. Of course that was before he became a prominent member of the Guess Who and played for the president at the White House. Greg continues to play with his band, Swingsoniq, and has a CD (and another in the works) which is an amazing CD. My wife says it is her favorite music. You can view pictures of Greg and The Guess Who at the White House at www.swingsoniq.com.
3. Ivan Traill. Mr. Traill was only one of many great teachers at PEPS (or PEHS) during my time. He and Miss Sheehan had a real influence on me in my choice of careers. It was Ivan who took Errol and turned him into the naturalist he is today. Remember the display Ivan set up at O'Kelly? Errol was his right-hand man. Once Errol and Ivan went to Saskatchewan and Alberta looking for dinosaur bones. They returned with all kinds of stuff, including a quartz crystal called a Herkimer diamond. Errol had me convinced it was a real industrial diamond but he had such a hard time keeping a straight face, I eventually figured it all out. Funny thing though, that practical joke made me go into Geology in university. I was fascinated by crystals and ended up with a minor in Geology, all thanks to Errol and Ivan. Errol probably has forgotten his joke, but I have not - there is still plenty of time to get even.
4. Miss Sheehan. Is there anyone who has influenced as many students as our "Mary T"? I was not very good in math until she (and earlier, Mr. Magee) got hold of me. She made mathematics easy and enjoyable. It is now my hobby. In fact, I spend the first hour of each weekday teaching grade 12 pre-calculus math at a local school. Miss Sheehan never had discipline problems. Step out of line with her and first she clobbered you with her cutting wit followed by a withering glare, sending you in search of a place to hide. I remember Glenn Darling was the object of her "anger" one day. Glenn was going to argue with her but stopped short when she hit him with "Yes, Glenn,.... Darling (emphasis on Darling). ... What would you like to say?" She wore that sly smile of hers. Glenn, who was no slouch in the humour department, replied, "Nothing, sweetheart." They and the class both began laughing and the dispute ended peacefully. Such was the way of Mary T. She was golden.
5. My Renault Dauphine. My first car was a Renault Dauphine with what was called a "Ferlec clutch". I don't remember exactly what that was, but I think it was some kind of electonic clutch so that the car was a half way between a standard and an automatic. There was a switch on the dashboard that allowed you to turn the clutch off (I can't remember why you would want to do that); however, there was no indicator to show when it was "on" or "off". If you went too slow, with the clutch turned off, the car would buck, stall, and stop dead. It was Remembrance Day, at 11:00AM, and there was a service on Royal infront of what was to become the Young People's Association building. I had a bunch of kids in the car with me, headed down Royal toward Sapper. When I saw the service, I slowed down just as I got to the turn by the Catholic church. Unfortunately, I had the clutch in the "off" position. Equally unfortunately, a dog chose that moment to run infront of the car. I slammed on the brakes. The car stalled and stopped - right on the dog's tail. His tail was pinned under the wheel and he was not happy. I was trying to get the car started, the dog was yelping, the kids in the car were laughing and the Remembrance Day service was all but ruined. We schlepped away, me and the kids pushing the car, the dog limping, with a somewhat bent tail between his legs.
6. Mr. Magee. Mr Magee (Harvey, I think) was ahead of his time. His grade 9 class was memorable for science. If you remember that grade 9 science course, it was the most boring curriculum possible. We used to learn the positions of the teeth of a horse and cow. Very useful information!!! To counteract the curriculum, Mr. Magee did demonstrations such as showing us osmosis using a collodian tube. Things that just hinted at the content of the curriculum. He also brought in a speciman of a human embryo preserved in formaldehyde. It was fascinating. Far more interesting than bovine teeth placement. When I mentioned it to him some years later, he told me he had just about lost his job over that. I couldn't believe it! This was one of the most interesting things I saw during my entire school career and the adults felt it necessary to protect the children from their own curiosity. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and Mr. Magee went on to have a distinguished career in Shilo.
7. The Meatheads. We always spoke of them with derision and yet, whenever I got caught doing something (not often, I admit), they were always very kind to me. Stern, but kind. My father tells a story about driving with a high ranking officer (who shall remain nameless) when they were stopped by the meatheads. The young meathead politely said, "Sir, I think you went through that stop sign." The officer replied, "I thought I stopped, didn't you (turning to my father)?" My father replied he wasn't sure, but he thought so. The officer turned to the meathead and said, "Well, we're right. You're wrong" and away they went. My father was quite astounded. He said it was not a very good example, but kind of humorous. Thinking back, I think the meatheads did a pretty good job overall, with the odd exception.
8. Waggle Springs. Was there ever a more pristine place? Waggles was our favourite get-a-way. One time Brian Howie and I were there when Brian decided we should shoot a movie about soldiers running up the hill away from the river. He spent a long time putting small sticks into the ground with the top sticking out at an angle toward the river . He showed me how when you ran up the hill and stepped on the sticks, the end of the stick stuck in the ground would be forced out of the ground so that a small tuft of earth would fly into the air. In this way, he said, it would look like bullets hitting just in front of the soldier's feet and dislodging the earth. It was a great idea. Just another example of his creativity. We never made that movie but the rehearsal sure was fun.
9. DeDelly's Farm House. I always thought that old farm house, deep in the forest reserve, would make a great make-out place. One day I bicycled out to see inside the house. I got in through a broken window. It had to be the spookiest place on earth. It was full of sounds and broken stuff. Ghosts of a past life. Right out of the movies. It might have been a great make-out place, but not for me. I never went back into that house.
10. The "Gunner" (later The "Stag"). My dad decided I should have a job so he got me one delivering the "Gunner". I was paid the whopping sum of 1 cent per paper. Each week I made the amazing sum of 63 cents. It seemed like a fortune at the time, but not enough to displace my work phobia. I quit after about a month - much to my dad's disgust.
Stories as recounted by Doug Jordan
And one from Otterkins.....
Errol Bredin always was pretty convincing in his practical jokes. When Donovan was a big deal and did the song "Mellow Yellow", rumour had it that if you dried out banana peels in the oven and then smoked them you would get high. This was a total crock of course. Someone's way of saying to the establishment "Let's see you make bananas illegal!" But we tried it because we didn't know any better and figured that this was gospel information. After several lung searing joints with nothing to show for our efforts, we gave it up as a lost cause, but Errol still had a LOT of dried banana peels. We were sitting in the PX coffee shop having Cokes and chips (they made the best chips there!) when in walks Andy Turner. He had already joined the army by this time and was doing basic in Shilo. Andy sits down with us and we start to yak. Suddenly Errol looks around cautiously to see if anyone is looking at us, leans over and says quietly to Andy "Wanna see what I picked up in Winnipeg?" Andy is of course curious, so Errol pulls this cigarette tin out of his pants (you could still buy cigarettes in tins then) and opens the lid being careful to keep it hidden underneath the table so no one but Andy can see.
Andy's eyes lit right up. "What is it? he asked. In hushed tones Errol explained that it was premium grade Marakesh hashish. Andy had obviously never seen hash before. "Can I buy some from you?" he says to Errol. Errol says that he is just about out, but as a favour to Andy he will sell him some. The money and the "hash" are exchanged under the table and Andy rushes off. During this process I am killing myself trying to keep a straight face.
We staggered all the way over to the Teen Center we were laughing so hard. About an hour later in walks Andy and plunks himself down at the table. Errol is prepared to fork over the cash from his little joke because he figures Andy is pissed at him. But no....Andy isnt. He leans over and says quietly to Errol "That is great shit man! Can I buy some more? The other guys want some too." Errol obliges him with a stern warning that there is no more except for his own personal stash, and no way was he going to sell that. The deal goes down and Andy is off again in a shot. I don't know if he ever figured it out or not, but we nearly peed ourselves over the whole issue.
and one more....
NORMAN SHALLCROSS
Norm was like nobody I ever knew. He was going to school but had a part time job at the garage near the PX. Typical to mechanics the folds in the skin on his hands and his fingernails were perpetualy stained with grease. But Norm had a rather unusual talent. All of his fingers were double jointed and he could do the most amazing things with them. This was to get him in trouble.
It's a hot day in June and everyone is just sweltering. We endure yet another hated French class and the air is thick and still as we all scribble away in our notebooks. It is so quiet all you can hear is the scratching of pens. I guess it was too much for Norm who was always up for a bit of fun. He sticks his pinky in his ear and pops it out. Because of the double joints it makes a rather loud pop, but no one says anything. Norm tries a few more times and Mr. McKay glances up. Norm tries to appear very studious (quite a task for him) and Mr. McKay goes back to reading at his desk.
It isn't long before Norm is bored and starts up with his finger in his ear again. In a quiet room the pops are very loud indeed. Suddenly Mr.McKay jumps up.
"Alright Norman...that's quite enough! Out in the hall!"
Slowly Norm stands. He's a very tall and lanky boy (about 6'4"). A look of great anguish comes over his face. You had to know Norm. He was full of pranks and this was one of them. His lower lip starts to quiver and in a very emotional and shaky voice he says "Alright Mr.McKay. I didn't do anything. I was just trying to clean my ears a bit." As he slowly plods to the door Mr.McKay says "Norman I just can't have you disrupting the rest of the class with those silly noises."
Norm is playing it to the hilt with sad eyes and quivering lips like he is on the verge of tears. With one last glance he closes the door behind him. The effect is devastating. Mr.McKay begins to tremble and HIS lip starts quivering and his eyes are definitely moist.
"Just a moment class, I need to see the principle. Carry on with your studies." He immidiately rushed from the room and did not return for the remainder of the class. Norm kept on sticking his head in the door every few moments with the silliest grin on his face I have ever seen. No one could study after that.
This website is in no way connected with any official group or organization originating out of CFB Shilo MB and is the personal creation of Otterkins who is solely responsible for all content, appearance and site maintenance.
