The Soccer Pitch

Tonight we returned to an old haunt, the soccer field.  It was nice to be back at D'Aubigny Field on the banks of the Grand River.  It was nice to view the mature poplar and oak trees that surround the field.  It was nice to hear the sounds of the soccer game:  the kicking of the ball, the blowing of the whistle, the cheering of the crowd, the prodding from the coaches, the applause of the spectators.  It was nice to see the high fives from the coaches, the smiles on the faces of the girls when they make a good play, and the looks of appreciation on the faces of the parents. 

I remember when Jacqueline first started playing and her little legs could barely run the length of the field.  Now, her long legs carry her down the field much faster.  I remember when I was happy that she just wanted to play while other children cried, refusing to step on the field.  Now everyone plays and they only cry if they get hurt.  I remember when some players just showed up to get the snack at halftime.  Now the highlight is the game, not the snack.  I remember when the girls couldn't remember which direction to kick the ball.  Now, some of them even pass the ball. 

Tonight, Jacqueline seemed to come alive.  She was brimming with confidence.  She worked hard and she did not hold back.  No more dainty kicking for her; she gave the ball powerful kicks.  And she even had a bit of a breakaway.  She really enjoyed herself out on the soccer pitch.  And her team won!

As the sun sunk behind the poplar trees at D'Aubigny Field, the girls lined up to shake hands and we folded up our lawn chairs.  It was a great start to the season.  It's good to be back! 

Photo courtesy http://image1.masterfile.com.

What They Were Doing at 30

1.  Sylvester Stallone was a deli counter attendant.  However, in between serving customers, he wrote the screenplay to a movie about an underdog boxer from Philadelphia (it took him only three days).  Within a short time, he had signed a movie contract for "Rocky".

Photo courtesy www.moviespad.com.

2.  Andrea Bocelli was a lawyer who moonlighted at a piano bar.  He did not become a singer until 1992.

An early photo of Andrea Bocelli.

3.  Martha Stewart's first career was in modelling.  Then she became a stockbroker.  Within a couple of years, she bought a rundown farmhouse and supervised its restoration.  Now she has a multi-million dollar empire.

Photo of a young Martha Stewart looking like Grace Kelly courtesy www.images.forbes.com.

4.  Mao Tse-Tsung was an elementary school principal.  Four years later, he joined the Chinese Communist Party, becoming its leader in 1935 and the leader of the nation from 1949 to 1959.

Photo of Mao Tse Tsung courtesy www.marxists.org.

5.  Julia child was a government spy, collecting secret documents in China and Ceylon.  Six years later she entered cooking school.  Twelve years after graduating, her famous cookbook was published.

PHoto of Julia Child at Cordon Bleu in France courtesy http://2.bp.blogspot.com.

6.  James Joyce had a beautiful tenor voice which he translated into a singing career.  Two years later he published "The Dubliners", a book of short stories.

Photo courtesy http://upload.wikimedia.org.

7.  Colonel Harland Sanders was, among other things, a steamboat pilot, an insurance salesman, a farmer and a railroad fireman.  He did not start frying chicken until he was 40.  He did not sell franchises to Kentucky Fried Chicken until he was 65.

Photo of young Harland Sanders courtesy http://upload.wikimedia.org.

8.  Rodney Dangerfield was an aluminum siding salesman.  He had been a stand up comic at 19, but gave it up for a more stable career.  However, he returned to comedy at the age of 40.






9.  Harrison Ford was a carpenter.  In 1972 he had appeared in the movie "American Graffiti", but was paid very little.  Therefore, he made carpentry his fulltime job.  But four years later, George Lucas offered him the role of Han Solo in "Star Wars" and the rest is history.

Photo courtesy http://4.bp.blogspot.com.

10.  Jesus Christ was a carpenter at the age of 30.  However, he gave up woodworking to preach the Gospel.  Three years later, he died on the cross and became our Saviour.

Photo of "Jesus" from "Passion of the Christ" courtesy http://i.ytimg.com.

The Brown Bomber

During Joe Louis’ years in the ring there were only two professional sports that consumed the interests of Americans: baseball and boxing. Winning a World Series ring was the pinnacle of team competition. Winning a heavyweight championship belt was the greatest individual honor.*

Joe Louis, nicknamed the "Brown Bomber", fought 72 fights in his 12-year professional career:  he had 69 wins (of which 57 were knockouts) and only 3 losses.  He was declared number 1 in The Ring's 100 Greatest Punchers of All Time.  He won a total of almost 5 million in prize money and yet he died penniless; in fact, one of his archrivals paid for his funeral.

Joseph Louis Barrow was the grandchild of former slaves.  He was the seventh child of a cotton picker father named Munro Barrow and a housewife mother named Lilly.  The Barrow family lived in a ramshackle cabin off of Route 50 north of Lafayette, Alabama, struggling to make ends meet.  When Joe was only 4 years old, his father suffered a nervous breakdown and entered a mental institution.  Later, his mother was told that his father passed away and she remarried.  In 1924, the family suffered persecution at the hands of the KKK and migrated north to Detroit.

In the city's "Black Bottom" neighbourhood, named for the rich soil from the basin of the River Savoyard, Joe sold newspapers, shined shoes and worked as an assistant on an ice wagon to help make ends meet.  Later he would say that it was carrying those heavy blocks of ice that helped him develop his muscles for boxing.  His mother, fearing that he might get in trouble on the streets, paid for him to have daily violin lessons.  However, as Joe walked down Brewster Street every day, he noitced a youth recreation centre and eventually went inside.  He started training regularly, putting his boxing gloves in his violin case so his mom wouldn't suspect anything. 

Legend has it that when he signed up for his first fight, he was barely literate and wrote his name in such big letters that he ran out of room for Barrow and that's how he became Joe Louis.  Another theory says that his manager thought his full name was too long and shortened it.  Finally, some suggest that he didn't want his mom to know he was boxing and so he altered his name.  Whatever the case, Joe Louis clinched numerous amateur victories, winning The Golden Gloves in 1933.

He quickly developped an honest reputation, heeding the advice of his coach to never gloat, never engage in a fixed fight and live and fight clean.  As a pro in 1935, Louis fought Primo Carnera at Yankee Stadium in front of 62,000 spectators, winning the match.  The boxer continued to clinch victory after victory until he met up with the German fighter Max Schmeling.  Their June 1936 gruelling bout ended in a 12th round knockout by the German.  They had a rematch in June of 1938, listened to by 1,000,000 fans on the radio.  This time the American knocked out the German in the first two minutes of the match.  The two went on to become lifelong friends.

Joe Louis held the title of Heavyweight World Champion from 1937 until 1949 with only a four year hiatus where he joined the military during World War II.  Finally, he retired and became a celebrity greeter at Caesar's Palace.  After paying his trainers and managers and the IRS, he ended up penniless.  He passed away in 1981, his funeral costs covered by his former rival Max Schmeling. 

*Excerpt from Joe Louis:  Hard Times Man (Randy Roberts). 

Pomp & Circumstance

The six-year-old boy held his father's hand as they walked down their Toronto street to the Danforth on the sunny May day.  The little boy watched his father open up a wooden step ladder and he climbed up the steps to to see above the crowd that had formed.  He observed the crowd:  everyone was dressed in their finest clothes, the women wearing dresses and gloves, the men in suits and fedoras.  Some held pairs of binoculars while many waved Union Jacks.  Some held brownie box cameras while a few held big fancy cameras and notepads.  The boy asked his dad why they had fancy cameras and he said that they were reporters for the Toronto Star.  The boy watched the policemen walk up and down the Danforth, a two lane street which would normally have lots of traffic but was empty today. 

The boy's father, a high school math teacher who also loved history, explained to him that the car they were waiting for would carry the King and the Queen of England.  King George VI had just been crowned two years before.  He was married to Queen Elizabeth.  They had two little girls, the princesses, who had stayed in England.  Although it was peacetime, England and Germany were not getting along and just in case they started a war, the King wanted to make sure he had Canada's help.  That's why he was making this trip.

The boy asked how the King and Queen had gotten to Canada and his father explained that they had sailed on a big ship called the Empress of Australia which had taken them across the Atlantic Ocean and down the St. Lawrence.  They had landed at Quebec City and then taken the royal train, complete with the royal insignia on its engine, through Quebec and into Ontario.  They had stopped in Ottawa at the Parliament Buildings for a visit.  At the east end of Toronto, they had disembarked from the train where a royal car was waiting to transport them through the streets of the city. 

The boy thought that it was taking a long time for the parade to start.  When would the King and Queen reach his street?  Finally, he heard the drone of engines.  A large 1939 Buick appeared with several policemen on motorcycles as escorts.  The boy climbed higher on the step ladder to get a better view, squinting in the sunlight.  It was a black convertible with white-wall tires and running boards along the side travelling at between 5 and 10 kilometres an hour.  What a beauty! thought the young lad, a car buff like his grandfather.  With its roof down, the boy could see the car's occupants perfectly.  A chauffeur drove the royal couple with a man in a tophat in the passenger seat (maybe that's the Prime Minister, thought the boy).  In the back sat the King and Queen, the former dressed in a black suit and the latter in a white dress, giving her signature wave. 

Once the royal car passed by, the crowd started to disperse.  The boy's dad folded up the step ladder and they started to head back down Wolverleigh Boulevard.  The boy asked where the King and Queen were going next and his dad said that they would stay overnight at the Royal York Hotel and then get back on the royal train to head across the Prairies on a whistlestop tour.  Later the boy's grandfather, who had been watching the parade from Pape Avenue, showed him a photograph that he had snapped of the royal car.  The boy would never forget the Royal Visit of 1939.  What a parade!

Note:  This post is dedicated to my dad, Norman Ross Tufts, who was the boy watching the parade.


                          


Photo of royal car in parade in front of Toronto Star building on May 22, 1939, courtesy www.media.thestar.topscms.com.
   

A River Runs Through It

Today our family took a walk along the Grand River trail here in Brantford, sheltered from the hot sun by the canopy of trees, feasting our eyes on the purple and yellow wildflowers lining the route, leaving the path periodically to peak at the river.  The Grand River was named by the French who called it "Grande Riviere", although the Native Indians had called it the "Willow River".  As Ontario's largest river, the Grand covers an area of 300 kilometres.  It starts near the small town of Dundalk, then flows through Fergus and Elora where one can see a beautiful gorge.  Then it meanders through St. Jacobs where one can shop at the Farmer's Market and flows through Waterloo and Kitchener where one can see the brilliant colours of fall foliage.  At Elmira, Mennonite country, one can find Ontario's only remaining covered bridge.  In Cambridge, the Grand flows past beautiful stone churches.  Paris is a favourite spot for canoeists and flyfishers.  Brantford is the site of where Native Joseph Brant once paddled down the river.  At Caledonia a beautiful old bridge with several arches spans the Grand; the river is wide enough here that a cruise boat plies its waters, complete with a staff serving a roast beef dinner and fiddlers playing.  At Port Maitland, the Grand empties into Lake Erie. 

Photo courtesy www.stjacobs.com.

Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Titanic

1.  By the Numbers
The $7,500,000 (now $400,000,000) Titanic could hold a maximum of 3,547 people, but had 2,223 aboard when tragedy struck four days into its maiden voyage. There were six warnings of icebergs before the collision and it took 160 minutes for the boat to sink into water that was negative two degrees centigrade. Just 31.6 percent of the passengers and crew survived, however experts say 53.4 percent should have survived given the capacity on the Titanic lifeboats. Just 28 people were on board the first lifeboat, which had a capacity of 65. Today, the ship sits at 12,600 feet below sea level.

2.  Titanic's Near Collision

Long before it struck an iceberg in the Atlantic, the RMS Titanic ran into trouble with another object: the steamer New York. A much smaller ship, the New York was sucked into the Titanic's wake and its mooring snapped, spinning her around stern-first toward Titanic. A nearby tugboat, the Vulcan, came to the rescue by taking the New York under tow. The two ships avoided collision by a matter of about four feet and the incident delayed Titanic's departure for about an hour.

3.  Canceled Lifeboat Drill

A lifeboat drill was planned for the Titanic on April 14, 1912 - the day it struck the iceberg. For reasons that remain murky, Captain Edward John Smith canceled the drill. Some say it was canceled to allow passengers to go to church. Several historians believe that had the drill taken place, many more lives could have been saved. There were not even close to enough lifeboats on board to hold all passengers and crew, but when they were launched, they were not filled to capacity.

4.  Two Bathtubs
Nearly every passenger on the Titanic had to share a bathroom as only the two promenade suites in first class had private facilities. However, the third class passengers had it rough. There were just two bathtubs for the use of more than 700 passengers.

5.  The Atlantic Daily Bulletin
The Titanic was so impressive for its time that it even had its own newspaper on board. The Atlantic Daily Bulletin was printed every day on the Titanic. The newspaper included news, advertisements, stock prices, horse-racing results, the day's menu, and society gossip.

6.  The Richest Man On Board

The wealthiest passenger aboard the Titanic was Lt. Col. John Jacob Astor IV. Astor, whose family made its fortune in opium, fur trade, and real estate, went down with the ship after helping his pregnant wife escape into the last lifeboat. Traveling with the Astors was their valet, maid, nurse, and pet Airedale. The nurse and maid survived with wife Madeleine, the rest perished. The Astors were returning on the Titanic from an extended vacation in Europe and Egypt where they waited for gossip to calm down over their recent marriage. Madeleine was one year younger than Astor's son Vincent from his first marriage.

7.  The Titanic Orchestra
All eight members of the Titanic orchestra perished in the disaster, though just three of the bodies were found. According to those rescued, the all-male group played until the ship went down. It's been suggested that the last tune was the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee." "I shall never forget hearing the strains of that beautiful hymn as I was leaving the sinking ship," an unnamed rescued sailor told the Western Daily Mercury in 1912. "It was always a favorite hymn of mine, but at such a time and under such tragic circumstances it had for me a solemnity too deep for words." On May 9, 1912, a concert was held at the Apollo Club in Brooklyn, N.Y. to aid the families of the musicians who died in the disaster.

8.  The Mystery Ship
According to newspaper reports from 1912, the SS Californian was just eight to 15 miles away from the Titanic as it sank, but failed to respond to distress calls. Several Titanic buffs believe another ship, the 254-ton Samson, was just five to eight miles away, between the Californian and Titanic. The SS Californian's crew claimed that this mystery ship, which some believe to be the Samson, was steaming away, confusing them into thinking the rocket-flares came from a ship that was, in fact, in fine working order. For its part, the Samson may not have been eager to identify itself because of illegal seal hunting.

9.  Suicides
Ten Titanic survivors would later commit suicide. The first was stewardess Annie Robinson who was sailing across the Atlantic to visit her daughter in Boston two years after the tragedy and jumped overboard. The last was Frederick Fleet, the lookout on the Titanic who first spotted the iceberg. He hung himself from a clothesline in his garden in 1965.

10.  The Lost Titanic Film

One of the roughly 700 survivors of the Titanic voyage was silent screen star Dorothy Gibson. Gibson burst to superstardom in 1911 and her film "The Lucky Hold Up" was released on April 11, 1912 while she was on the Titanic. Surviving the disaster on the first lifeboat launched, Lifeboat No. 7, she convinced her manager to appear in a film based on the sinking. She went on to write the scenario and star in the one-reel drama "Saved from the Titanic" wearing the very clothes she wore on the night of the tragedy. The film was hugely successful on both sides of the Atlantic, but the only known prints were destroyed in a 1914 fire at the Éclair Studios. Many film historians consider this the greatest loss of the silent era. Gibson abruptly ended her film career soon after the film's release. At the time, she was the highest paid movie actress in the world.

Source:  http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/326223/20120410/titanic-facts-history-timeline-survivors.htm

Note:  For further reading, look at the list below.

1.  A Night to Remember (Walter Lord, 1955).
2.  The Discovery of the Titanic (Robert Ballard, 1987).
3.  Titanic:  An Illustrated History (Donald Lynch, 1995).
4.  Titanic: A Survivor's Story (Colonel Archibald Gracie, 1998).
5.  The Titanic for Dummies (Stephen Spignesi, 2012).

Photo of sinking from movie Titanic (1997) courtesy http://static.ddmcdn.com.

Happy Birthday, Daisy!

OUR HOME CHILDREN

Imagine a Child so Small and Wee
Never to Climb on their Mother's knee,
With No One to love them
Or Kiss them Goodnight,
No One to Hug Them
or Scatter their Fright.

Imagine a Ship a Zillion times bigger
Children shipped Steerage Passage litter,
From England, Ireland, and Scotland they came,
Germany, Iceland a Barnardo/Home child, No-Name,
To shores of Canada, US, Australia
And Rhodesia were brought
Emmigrant children - a Little Know Not.

Hidden away from parents and Kin
Cheap Labour for the Farm people Then,
Doctors, Lawyers, and Heads of State
What Pockets were lined at Governments gate,
Yes! We are the Relatives and the Next of Kin
To Forget Who They Were,
Is Canada's Great Sin.
Isabel Hays





It was on this day in 1894 that my great-grandma, Daisy Blay, was born.  She was one of 100,000 home children to immigrate to Canada from England as an indentured servant (see my blog post "British Home Children" dated August 1, 2011).   A third of these children were orphans; however, two-thirds were not orphans, but their surviving parent could no longer afford to raise them. 

Canada opened its doors and offered them a place to live and work, as it was a fast growing nation in need of cheap labour.  Some of the children were fortunate enough to reside with sponsors who treated them as part of their family.  However, others were treated as nothing more than hired help, sleeping in the barn with the animals.  Many of them missed out on the love of their siblings.   Some of them were fed well; however, others were given a minimal amount of food.  Some of them attended school; however, others missed out on an education because farm work took precedence.  All of them missed out on the love of their parents.  All of them missed out on the family traditions that their parents would have passed down to them.  All of them missed out on a normal childhood.

Australia also took in British Home Children.  Recently their government offered an apology to them for the abuse that they endured while working for sponsors there.  The British government also offered an apology for their role in child emigration.  Canada has issued a home child stamp; it has designated a British Home Child Day (September 28).  However, the Canadian government still refuses to issue an apology to the group which helped build this nation.  Not only did the home children contribute to the running of Canadian farms, but they also served in the First World War (11,000).  When Canada industrialized, many of them went to work in our factories. 

While an apology won't undo the harm that has already been done, it would acknowledge that the mistreatment did happen.  I never knew my great-grandma, but by all accounts, she was not a bitter women.  She did not hold it against others that she had a hard life.  She was a kind and loving wife and mother.  And she was indicative of many of the home children.  Happy Birthday, Daisy!

For more information on the British Home Children, visit http://www.bytown.net/homekids.htm