Opinions,thoughts and ideas(some nuts)

Mood: tired
Listening to: radio

                                          Back to my life

When I was 16 I went down to the University Ave. Armories with my brother in-law who belonged to the 48^th Highlanders.He was a medic.They said I could join the regiment if I had parental consent,so I went home and got it.I loved the regiment.The band was awesome.The weapons training was the best.When I was in I cadets I got to be a pretty good shot but it was mostly .22 cal.and occasionally we got to go to the Longbranch Rifle Range and fire .303s.In cadets I had my crossed rifles so it didn’t take long to prove myself.The one weapon I liked was the brengun.That is a automatic and semi-automatic gun that fired .303 ammo.When you fired off 4or 5 clips with tracer ammo it was great.I was on the gun demonstration team.I’ll tell you we could strip down and reassemble that gun in near record time.After about a year I got bored with that and transferred to   the medics but I didn’t like it so I tried my hand at Radio& telephone operator in HeadQuarter Support Co. This I liked and so I got my first trade,trades pay and all.We did a lot of training with the regular forces so I got to travel a lot and I loved it.Just before my 20^th birthday I had to leave it all.

  When my dad was laid off from the railroad he decided to sell everything in the city and buy a general store and restaurant up at the cottage. I went with them.It was during this time I got engaged and married to grandma.The deal was I would open the store in the morning and dad would come in later and do the cooking.

Greatgrandpa was a cook in the army during the second world war.He was wounded in Sicily.I remember he used to wake up screaming from his memories.I remember near the end of his life he would get  little lumps on his shoulder.When he scratched it a small piece of shrapnel from the bomb would come out.He was also in England,France and Holland.He is the one who taught  grandma and me how to cook.Unfortunitly he was not a businessman.When friends came to the restaurant dad would cook them a great meal and then tell them it was on the house.When greatgrandma and greatgrandpa needed smokes or groceries they would just take them off the shelves and not pay for them.I told them they could not do that because the inventory would get scewed up and we needed the money to replace the stock.He said he owned it so why should he have to pay for it.He also decided to be a bootlegger.That was a joke.He bought 10 cases of beer and a case of liquor.My parents then proceeded to drink it all or give it away as gifts.It took about a year to lose all his money and the store.

I stayed for about 6 months and then went back to Toronto to work.

 

 

                                       Another joke

·        How to Give a Cat a Pill... and a Dog Too How to give a cat a pill:

·         1) Pick cat up and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if  holding a baby.  Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and  gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As  cat opens mouth, pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.

·        2) Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in  left arm and repeat process.

·         3) Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away.

·         4) Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm, holding rear  paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of  mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.

·         5) Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call  spouse from garden.

·         6) Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and  rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head  firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill  down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously.

·         7) Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap.  Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep  shattered  figurines and vases from hearth and set to one side for gluing later.

·        8) Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with head just  visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force  mouth  open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.

·         9) Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink 1 beer to take taste away. Apply Band-Aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood  from  carpet with cold water and soap.

·        10) Retrieve cat from neighbor's shed. Get another pill.  Open another beer.  Place cat in cupboard, and close door onto neck, to leave head showing.  Force mouth open with desert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.

·         11) Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges.  Drink beer. Fetch bottle of scotch. Pour shot, drink.  Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus  shot. Apply whiskey compress to cheek to disinfect. Toss back another  shot. Throw Tee shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.

·         12) Call fire department to retrieve the f------ cat from tree across  the road.  Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid  cat.  Take last pill from foil-wrap.

·         13) Tie the little bastard's front paws to rear paws with garden twine  and bind tightly to leg of dining table, find heavy-duty pruning gloves  from shed.  Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of steak filet.  Be rough about it.  Hold head vertically and pour 2 pints of water down throat to wash pill  down.

·        14) Consume remainder of Scotch. Get spouse to drive you to the  emergency room, sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm  and  remove pill remnants from right eye. Call furniture shop on way home to  order new table.

·         15) Arrange for SPCA to collect mutant cat from hell and call local pet  shop to see if they have any hamsters.   -----------------------

·         How to Give A Dog A Pill...  

·        1) Wrap it in bacon. 

 

Mood: pretty not bad
Listening to: radio

 

Taking a break from my HoHum life.I feel the need for a joke or two.

 

A mother and her young inquisitive son were flying Southwest Airlines from Kansas City to Chicago. The son (who had been looking out the window) turned to his mother and asked, "If dogs have baby dogs, and cats have baby cats, why don't planes have baby planes?"

 

The mother (who couldn't think of an answer) told her son to ask the flight attendant.

 

So the boy dutifully asked the flight attendant, "If dogs have baby dogs, and cats have baby cats, why don't planes have baby planes?" The flight attendant responded, "Did your mother tell you to ask me that?" The little boy admitted that she did. "Well then, tell your mother that there are no baby planes because Southwest always pulls out on time. Now, let your mother explain that to you."

 

 

An elderly couple was in bed one night and the woman woke up from a bad dream. She was scared and panicking. Her husband awoke and turned the light on to calm her. He asked what was wrong. She said "I had a dream that I died and you got remarried." she asked him "if I died tomorrow would you get remarried?" he said "sure, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life lonely." then she asked "well would you two live in this house?" he replied "sure, we just got finished paying off our mortgage." she asked again, angry now "well would she sleep in this bed?" he snickered and said "yes, of course, this bed is brand new and expensive, there's no reason to rid of it." she asked irately, "well would she use my golf clubs?" he replied with a straight, serious face "no. She's left handed

 

Mood: so-so
Listening to: my heartbeat

 

                                        

 

Sometimes we would go over to Weston Bread around the time they were putting the fresh bread racks out to cool.We would crawl under the trailers until we got close enough to grab a couple of loaves and then we would take off.You never tasted anything to compare to the taste when you ripped off the end and ate the still warm bread inside that loaf.Other times we would sneak inside the yard where the wagons where parked and we would scrounge around checking to see if anything had been left in the wagons.Some of the stuff we found was pretty gross.

 It’s much later, got held up with a massive heart attack. Attack happened on Aug.27 or 28^th 2005. I guess I better spend more time on this or grandkids may never hear what I’ve got to say.

When I was playing baseball I was also on the track team.and I was good.(the great ME)

I won crests for almost everything.I ran relays as the anchor,hurdles,100 yard dash,broad jump,what was call hop skip and jump and I was outstanding in high jump.The only thing I could not master was the pole vault.I just could not bring myself to believe that pole the wouldn’t snap just as I got to the highest point.

 When I was in grade 7&8 at Essex Senior public school I did track and field and was good,but I also went in for volleyball.I wasn’t the best but I was pretty close to it.We won the city championship for grade 7&8.When the gym teacher(Mr.Rose) ask if me and Uncle Marty if we  would teach the girls team volleyball we said sure.They  won the the city championships as well.Essex senior public school dominated in sports for the two years that I attended.

I must say, I had quite a stack of crests.

 Then I went to Central Tech.There was a new course at Central Tech for Engineering but there was only a limited number of seats so you had to take a test to get in. I took the test and made it.I was supprised.When I started the course The school wanted to know what type of engineering we wanted to take. I had know idea.When I went to the guidance councillor for help all I was told was read the literature on the walls,I didn’t get any help.When I tried to talk to my dad I was told to forget college or university because he couldn’t afford it and he got along just fine with just grade 3.We had nothing.I wont tell you how bad it was growing up with no money and little food because my parents liked to drink a fair amount at home and in the hotel.

 When Uncle Marty came to my home room at school and said lets quit and join the army I figured why not?We had been in army cadets for a couple of years and liked it.When we went down to sign up it was for soldier apprentice.They told Uncle Marty he could join but I would be to old because I would be 17 in Jan.He is one year and a day younger than me.He wouldn’t sign up because I couldn’t and he was to young for regular forces so I wouldn’t sign up.So we bummed around for a while because we couldn’t find a job.Finally his mother got someone she knew to give us a job at the Toronto Star as hoppers on the back of the trucks delivering the papers to the stores.If we went in on Monday mornings to deliver the Star Weekly I made more per week than my dad,who worked as a machinist helper at the C.N.R.It pissed him off no end.He had worked there since the second world war and he didn’t think it was right that I made more money than he did.

The star was a great place to work.They looked after the employees better than any company that I ever worked at.It was fairly dangerous jumping on and off of a moving truck.I see now that the trucks come to a complete stop before the hopper gets on and off the trucks now.We used to have contests to see who could get on and off the fastest speed.There was a bar on both sides of the truck to grab as the truck drove by and a step that went across the bottom to stand on.The idea was to jump off the truck before it stopped and run into the store with the papers,I’ll tell you ,you got some speed up and you had to be careful you didn’t hit the door to hard.I got my fingers cut a few times getting them caught in door handles.Then you ran out and grabbed the handle on the back of the truck and swung onto the truck as it never stopped just slowed down.If you were not careful and didn’t flex your arms when you were swinging on at speed you would swing around to hard and hit the back of the truck pretty hard.I remember one winter we were on Duffern St. and I hit a patch of ice when I stepped off the truck.I fell to my hands and knees over the papers that I had dropped.There I was sliding down the street on my hands and knees behind the truck,I was lucky I didn’t get run over.It was on this job that I had my first bout of pneumonia caused by running and working up a sweat then into a air-conditioned drugstore and getting a chill then back out into the heat and then into another air-conditioned store. Sometimes when we came to an underpass and there was someone walking there the driver would speed up and then shut off the engine and coast under the bridge,then turn it on when we were passing the poor person walking.The backfire was deafining,and quite often blew the muffler off.I’m surprised that someone didn’t have a heart attack.Sometimes the company would put governor on the engine to slow us down so we wouldn’t get speeding tickets. The drivers would go as fast as the truck could go and then put it in second gear. Quite often it would blow off the govinor.The mechanics hated that.

 

 

Back again and its only 4.08 am eastern time

I used to love playing on the school team.I could play any position but it was pitching I liked most.I guess everyone did because there was more going on.I got pretty good at it but sometimes it could get painful. I just don’t know how many times someone would hit a line drive right at you.Sometimes you would stick your glove out and that ball would hit your hand so hard it would drive your thumb straight back,trust me it hurt a lot,but you kept playing.Other times it would be a lower line drive and it would hit square on the toes and you learned how dance instantly. I guess that is one reason my toes are screwed up.

 After school and during the summer we played out in the street.We played street hockey.If there was no ice we used a tennis ball and as soon as the ice was on the road we would put on the ice-skates and use a puck.Guess what,we had no pads and no adults and there were few injurys.If you got hurt we helped you home and in a couple of days you would be back and trying to play.

 Sometimes we would go to Christie Pits or Vermont Park to skate.At Christie there was boards set up so hockey and pleasure skaters where kept apart.At Vermont Park it was just a large slab of ice.If it snowed, the first ones there would have to clean the ice.Sometimes there was a bunch of us skating in a line pushing shovels and sometimes it was only one or two,but if you wanted to use the ice you helped keep it clean.

Summer time was better I think because I have more memories of things that I had done.

 We had no refrigerators just an ice box to keep things from going bad.There was an Iceman who came around(I have no idea how often)with a horse and wagon full of ice.We used to follow him around because he would use an ice pick to cut the blocks of ice to what ever size you needed or could afford and we got the small chunks of ice to suck on and keep cool.We also had a bread wagon and a milk wagon and an old guy we called the Sheenie.He picked up any of your old junk.We always thought he was just some poor old bum and we would always tease him.Turned out he ran a junkyard and had more money than we could dream of.

 It was interesting to follow these horses and wagons around. The driver didn’t even need to know were to go. All he had to do was know how much to leave at each place.The driver would stop at a house and drop a weight down that was suppose to keep the horse from moving.The driver would then pick up the milk or bread and go to the house.The bread man would have a large basket with bread.cookies, cake and if you wanted something different he went back to the wagon and got it or took your order and you got it the next day.For your milk all you did was leave the number of empty bottles out with the money in one of the bottles or just a note in a bottle with the money telling him what you wanted.

There was a unique timing device on all these wagons.The horse knew exactly how long it would take at any particular house, so if the driver got slowed down or talked to much the horse would just drag the weight and the wagon down the street to the next stop and the driver would have to catch up as best he could.To be continued later

Listening to: my thoughts

Well, it is 1.34am and I can not sleep so I may as well stop stalling on this journal that I have been thinking of doing so my grandkids will know a little bit about me when they get a little older.

 I’ve never done a journal before and I don’t have much education so if I’m doing it wrong,tough.

I was born in the city of Toronto,in the WesternHospital.

The area where I grew up at that time was called midtown.It was on a street off Bathurst St. between Bloor and Dupont St.

I don.t remember a lot about growing up there.I know it was considered a fairly rough  place.

The public school that I attended (when I went) was Palmerston Public.(kindergarten to grade 6)

I did poorly in this school and failed.One reason was my birthday was in January and if your birthday was after September they wouldn’t let you start until you were 6,so you started out a year later than the other kids, therefore ,everyone assumed the reason you were older than the other kids was because you had failed and where stupid.When people think that way it is not hard to live down to their expectations.

I had trouble learning to read because the words just didn’t make any sense, I couldn’t see a connection between the letters that made any sense to me.

I was put with the class that we said was for dummies.The slow learners.I was lucky and got a teacher who cared.Her name was Misses Cook.She worked very hard with me and I will never forget her. As I said,I didn’t attend school on a regular basis.If I didn’t want to go to school that was alright with my mother.If I wanted to stay out late at night that was alright to.So I stayed out late a lot and missed a lot of school.

 As I said,Misses Cook showed me that I could learn and that I was not any stupider than the next kid and if I tried I could probably do it.

 

We used to play what we called American. You drew a square on the side of the school(I think it was on the incinerator),that was the strike zone. You only needed two players if that was all you could get.  One was the batter and the other was the pitcher. The ball was usually a ragged old tennis ball thrown overhand,if the pitcher missed the ball would bounce off the wall and so we didn’t need a catcher.It was always nice to have a third or fouth player because if someone really laced that ball and it went out of the schoolyard and into the back ally you might never  find the ball.

Around grade 4 or 5 I started to play on the school baseball team.

 That will be next