WHY STORIES WILL TAKE LONGER TO WRITE
The surgery on knee did not go well, so there are many exercises that take time . Frustrating. I have a backlog of stories. Sorry.
My left leg will not straighten properly…needs a lot of work … must push a walker.
alan
EPISODE 1,011: HOW I LOST MY MARBLES… AND WAS RESCUED IN 1948 AT KENT PUBLIC SCHOOL
NOTE: QUITE BY CHANCE i came across — “1945 to 1955 was the great decade of
marble playing”, I remembered that well, In truth , however, marble games date back
deep in human history to Rome and Egypt and even the stone age perhaps. My
time was 1947 to 1949. I learned an important lesson. Find it,
EPISODE 1,011: HOW I LOST MY MARBLES… AND WAS RESCUED IN 1948 AT KENT PUBLIC SCHOOL
alanskeoch
feb. 5, 2024
Alan and Eric Skeoch…marble playing ages
Enter: Karl Stahlberg
“ Alan, we could win a lot of marbles with this cigar box.”
:How?”
“Just cut three little holes with a coping saw”
“same as the big kids have done?”
“different size holes…big, medium, and small”
“Then we will be in the Marble business….gambling”
Hope and pray none of our customers get a marble in
the smell hole…Pay out 10 if they do i”
“Risky”
Imagine the cigar box with three holes cut in the side….holes that will fit a marble with ease and with difficulty
I was ten years old in 1948 and my best friend was Karl Stahlberg.
He was toughrer then man me …known to the police, as some said.
How can a 10 year old be known to the police? Nice guy to me. I had a couple
of lunches with Karl and his mom, No father around. Tiny two rooms.]
In 1948 I was only vaguely aware of World War II. It never occurred to
me that Karl’s surname might be German which could explain Karl’s troubles.
Hard to say,
Karl had big plans for both of us.
“We can cash in on the marble craze. Using this cigar box and a few marbles.
why should all the big guys make all the profits?”
At recess and lunch time the big guys set up shop on the sunny south side
of Kent Ublic School in West Toronto. Cigar boxes mostly…with holes
marked by numbers 1, 3 and 10.
HOW THE GREAT PLAN WENT SOUTH
“ALAN, set the cigar box here…beside the others…while I go and
see if I can get some marbles as back up.”
“You mean we have none?”
“Don’t worry…nobody will get a marble through the 10 slot.”
And Karl was gone, Worse! A hot shooter put a marble through the 10 slot
first roll.. And he wanted to be paid his 10 marble winnings right away…called me a
welcher (if he knew that word) A small crowd gathered some of whom were very hostile.
“I’ll pay when Karl gets here.”
“”Who is Karl?”
Here are some Australian marble players. Nine year olds plaYING ‘closest to the wall ] but there is no wall.
Here are some British boys playing the “knock it out of the circle”
using marble boulder.
assortment of marbles with a big boulder
|
|
‘Games like this were played by us all, remember?
Lesson ….avoid debt
alan
P.S. My brother Eric remembers Karl’s comment
“Stop for a second. I need to light a cigarette.” TEN year old
when did you start smoking? When did you stop?
EPISODE 1,010 ; “IT IS EASY TO FALL, REALLY EASY — HERE IS HOW TO FALL”
Begin forwarded message:
From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>Subject: EPISODE 1,010 ; “IT IS EASY TO FALL, REALLY EASY — HERE IS HOW TO FALL”Date: February 1, 2024 at 10:18:50 PM ESTTo: John Wardle <jwardle@rogers.com>, Marjorie Skeoch <marjorieskeoch@gmail.com>
Note: This is corrected story..sent rough note earlier..sorry
EPISODE 1,010 ; “IT IS EASY TO FALL, REALLY EASY — HERE IS HOW TO FALL”alan skeochFEb. 1,2024So you want to know how to fall, Well here is an easy way to do itAny nincompoop can learn to fall, Here is how I did it,1) Complain “Cannot sleep, I’m going downstairs to watch TV”2) Best if there is no response. Your partner is asleep
3) Slip put of bed and carefully descend 14 stairs to the main floorwhere you have a walker waiting4) wobble with the walker to the refrigerator and eat a tub of yogurt or makea salami Sandwich5) Decide to go back to bed6) Do the wobble walk back to hte walker9{ Park the wobble walker at right angle to the stairs100 Release the walker.. both hands11) Feel the rush of freedom,,,Enjoy it for a second or two12) Twist away from the walker. Savour the adrenaline rush for a millisecond more13) Ask yourself “Am I airborne?14) ask yourself “Am I in full flight? You will be,15) Feel your surgery leg collapse,,,shatter or wobble16) The rest is automatic,,,you may pivot or you may plunge17) I pivotted briefly then crashed into the fireplace where anassortment of devils awaited,18) A large tinware fox managed to slice both hands…hungry fox19) My head hit a stoneware duck which we thought was ornamental…sliceda lock of hair with scalp along for the ride20) Still swivelling I conked myself on the bottom stair21)So terribly weak22) raising to my only good knee was a challenge23) blood24) “Marjorie, I am hurt down here…..help!25) Crawling up 14 stairs to awaken Marjor she took over …..mopping up the blood…bandagingNOTE: AT what number did this cease to be a joke?It was no joke…easy to fall,,,dreadfull
Marjorie recorded it best below
Al’s knee is hard to bend Fell in floor at 3am cut his head and hand on fireplace area just away from railing . Bled more than usual as he has been on blood thinners . Relaxed finally after cleaning up and finding larger bandaids . Back at physio again and only one more time . Need to have a physio for house 🏡. Looking into it . Got to flatten that knee ..Alan fell last night at 3am. After bandaging and cleaning up his head wound and hands and fingers and surrounding blood 🩸 all through stairs and floor , I finally got him back to sleep at 5 am till 8 am and then off to Physio at 9:30 . Anxiety is a dreadful nighttime issue . I had to reassure him that the wounds and bruises would heal and the blood was from all the blood thinnng pills before surgery . He bled again at physio on chair and floor but got through his exercises better even though it hurt . Reward was after in the lobby for all to enjoy . A coffee and muffin and a piano and bass violin . He is back home at 1 pm.
EPISODE 1009 MEMORY IS AMAZING – SCARFOOT INCIDENT 1944
EPISODE 1009 MEMORY IS AMAZING – SCARFOOT INCIDENT, 1944
alan skeoch
January 28. 2024
Alan and Eric Skeoch, circa 1945
NOTE: How can our tiny skulls retain so much memory? Even an event
as tiny as a shard of broken glass slicing my foot has been retained .
the SCARFOOT incident.
THE scar is 80 years old, Mom, Eric and I were playing Blind Man’s Bluff
in Dufferin Park, My eyes were covered . I did Not see the jagged broken beer bottle…Shards waiting for my misstep.
It was November 1945 or 1946; we rented a flat at 18 Sylvan Avenue, a huge Victorian house that is now part
of Dufferin Park in West Toronto. The war had ended or was about to end. Gangs of fatherless
teen agers rule the park. Our house was an out post which Eric and I found fascinating for
there were always all treasures like this broken bottle gathered up by Mr Haywood, the park maitenance officer. A nice man who we adored and who kept Eric
and me from harm. Except that November afternoon.
I tripped on a tree root. Blind folded Fell hard and almost clear but the beer bottle caught the bottom of my leg. Sheared a slab. Normally, I would have seen it. Weapons made by smashing a long necked beer bottle on a cement posted park bench was part of the ‘romance’ of Dufferin Park in those post World War II days. as were lead pipes, knives and safes.
The safes, mom told us not to touch for some uexplained reason. They could make great balloons we thought but we obeyed mom’s command.
NOTE:
Easy to make a beer bottle weapon. Inoffensive appearing… being empted but
with the flick of the wrist it became a meat grinder . Anyone could make one.
How did I know this bottle was a weapon? I did not know. Maybe the bottle had
simply been smashed against a park bench., Yes, it could have been imagination, It happened 80
years ago and memory does play tricks.
I SCREAMED WHEN I SAW THE BLOOD,
“Hold still, Alan.”
“Deep cut!”
“We will have to get you to Western Hospital right away.”
“Hospital? No, mom, hospitals are where people go to die!”
“Nonsense …stop twisting…wrap the wound”
“No hospital,” (and I twisted free.)
“Alan!”
Then I began to run, Heading to our flat at 18 Sylvan
avenue,..up the steps, through the door, passing Mrs Southwick, our
landlady who was startled. The house was ancient with lots of
Victorian decorations that loomed out in the varnished darkness of the stairs,
which gave me nightmares normally but not tonight. I fled into
the bed room and dove beneath its iron frame…turned over and
grabbed the iron frame. No one could get me. Mom tried.
Then dad arrived. He was working the day shift so got home early.
“What the hell is going on here, Elsie?”
“Alan cut himself in the park…bleeding, He’s scared’”
“We’ll see about that,” And dad turned the whole bed over,
plucked me from the iron frame like a ripe grape,,,I remember nothing else.
Obviously I was not killed in the Western Hospital.
Mom was the care giverion our family most of the time but dad
was useful in crises. Like a bodyguard who was always lurking in
the shadows.
HOW MUCH OIF THIS IS TRUE?
Memory is not always reliable. So I phoned Eric and said
‘Remember Wen sliced my leg?”
“Yes..on a beer bottle”
“The scar is still there on my instep as a reminder of the past.”
He remembered immediately as the internet does.
alan
Task: Try to remember some incident in your life when you
were seven or eight years old.
Strange. I remember the slash…the beer bottle… but hardly
anything about world WarII.
Do not make beer bottle weapons.
EPISODE 1008: CONVALESCING — DOING HARD TIME BUT COULD be FAR WoRSE
NOte: Some readers may miss my daily story. Some may think I am unwelll.True. had knee surgery De. 12. Surgery went well. Recovery has not been
all sweetness and light. No time to write. I spend my time doing physical exercises to reduce pain and hasten recovery. Bumpy road with little sleep. Hate the pain.
alan
So here I am one month after knee surgery with one of the
Queensway hospital physio persons. Her name is Eva and her body must be made off
rubber . My body is not made of rubber. It is made of old bone broken nerve connections. When I was young a Junkman cruised our streets yelling “Rags, bones and bottles”…if he was around here today Marjorie might boost me on with alll the other junk.
I could not resist. Why would she do that? Her work load is enormous. She does everything including my socks, shoes and more delicate things. All because of those
two little words…”I do.”
“ If you do the exercises three times a day you will walk again”, Alan .” says Eva.
(note the word “if”)
In other words I am responsible for my own recovery. Not so sure I’m up to the task.
Since entering the hospital on December 12, 2023 my muscles have weakened.Seem to have gone looking
for a better body. That says a lot for loyalty. Muscles like good bodies Not my body
They are only around for the good times
Today, January 20, 20 4, I need a walker to move from room to room.
Today it took me 24 minutes to put on my underwearl and
pants with Marjorie’s help loosening sock tops from baby toes.
Today my life is circumscribed by a 15 x15 foot room. No grand vistas of the
Fifth line of Erim tpwmship. Like our cat, Chelsea Bun, I perch beside the windows
and watch the sqirrels revel in their freedom.
Today,,,”CUT THE SELF-PITY, ALAN!”, my mind screams.
‘YOU LIVE WELL
ONLY PROBLEM YOU FACE IS A LOST KNEECAP”
Today there are people sleeping in door ways…over heat vents wrapped in
vermen laden sleeping bags. No care givers. No income. No rainbow at the end
of the road. Only escape for some is an overdose on opioids.
HOW MY TIME IS SPENT
So I spend a lot of time counting lame Canadians. people like me or far
worse than me.There are lots of them pushing their walkers in roof clad malls
as we will do wen the pain eases.
We have four walkers. one for the first floor, one for the second floor and a
hey duty machine for city streets.. and one for spare parts. All bought from our
local Salvation Army Departmntt store. Two of them have fake headlights thanks to
the advice from Caroline Laughton who whispered “You will need portable urinals.”
So Marjorie bought four (two for regular need and two for emergency need).
I remembered my brother’s advice …”Never pass a washroom … do so at your own
peril.”
‘ENOUGH, ALAN…MORE THN ENOUGH
alan skeoch
Jan. 22, 2024
bryce…HOW BAD IS CURRENT COVID? Recovered?
Live From The Field
‘HAVE A GRAT DAY
alan skeoch
January 9, 2024
No! I am not having a grea! day!
prison cell,[ain irregular, cannot read or write, no sleep, no work, dieting, hospital visiting, blood taken often using garden hose and wrench
EPISODE 1003 bkacksmith workbench
EPIEODE 1003 bkacksmith workbench
alan skeoch
January 7, 2024
IT has been 38 days that I have been tiotally housebound due to knee surgery. Today we made a brief escape to photograph a few of our blacksmith items for set dresser, Jacklynn Shoub.
A dark grim day,
EPISODE 1002 SHORT VERSION OF EMERGENCY WARD “DELICATE ADVICE”
EPISODE 1002 SHORT VERSION OF EMERGENCY WARD “DELICATE ADVICE”
alan skeoch
January 4, 2024
“PANIC! MARJORIE WE NEED TO GOT TOTHE HOSPITAL, THE
;KNEE IS SWELLING UP”
1) Arrived at hospital at 4 a.m. Friday
December 29, 2023.
2) Doctor arrived 7.30 a.m. “Infected, must be opened
up and cleansed, New dressing….must act fast.”
3 Sinking feeling…infection My brain reeled, To reopen my knee?New Years weekend.
4) “Not here…go now to hospital that did original surgery “
5) Centre of Toronto. But we did it. Emergency assessment by another
doctor. “We do not think it is infected,” moment of gasping relief did not last long
6) “You have a blood clot, very dangerous’’’
7 what does that mean? “33 To 66 days under hospital care. Very delicate,,danger that clot goes to heart, blocks passage of blood.”
8_) “Ultatsound technicians are shared by 3 hospitals,,,hard to book
Christmas week but we will try? could be 6 to 8 hour wait time.” ultrasound done
as technician happened to be in building,..luck
9) Emergency ward filling beyond capacity, Standing room only. A lot of desperate people included 6 police escorting a tall man who ws cuffed. We waited and waited,
10 Time was a blurr. until Saturday night when a doctor said my name
and led me to a cubicle. Dark, Feeling of impending doom.
THEN
“Mr. Skeoch there’s no sign of infection nor is there
evidence of blood clot. You are free to gol”
11) “Can I shake your hand doctor?”
12) I wonder if any reader of this sequence will ever understand how
it feels to have
the Sword of Damocles hung over our heads for those three days.
13) All in all I remain confident that our Emergency Rooms are amazing…
but we were beat,,,three judgments were made,,,the third was best,
The swelling of the knee joint went down slightly
alan and marjorie skeoch
January 4m 2024
postscript:
afterDec. 12 surgery… For ten days our son Andrew plunged blood thinner into
my stomach with a syringe.
why? To avoid blood clots
special note re episode 999note: It was not the blood thinner that caused the problem.
I hope readers do not conclude the blood thinner was a problem. It was not. I was proud of Andrew for offering to do the injections of the thinner.
alan
EPISODE 999
EPISODE 999: ALAN SKEOCH EXPLAINS HIS ABSENCE
alan skeoch Dec. 25, 2023
Surgery. What went wrong?
KNEE SURGARY Simply put my body did not like one of the drugs and told me so violently. The result set me back for a few weeks while I expected only a few days. The therapy will continue.
I have stories ready when I feel better.
alan skeoch
P.S. “One of you must plunge this blood thinner into Alan’s stomach each day for ten days … that will reduce the chance of blood clots. Here are ten syringes with the syrum. Who will do the job?” “I will,” said son Andrew.