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?”

Man and woman surrounded by children all watch six boys play marbles.

Here are some Australian marble players.  Nine year olds plaYING  ‘closest to the wall ] but there is no wall.
Picture
Here are some British boys playing the “knock it out of the circle”
using marble boulder. 

Picture

assortment of marbles with a  big boulder

PicturePicture
‘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 EST
To: 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 skeoch
FEb. 1,2024




So you want to know how to fall,  Well here is an easy way to do it
Any 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 floor
where you have a walker waiting
4) wobble with the walker to the refrigerator and eat a tub of yogurt or make 
a salami Sandwich
5) Decide to go back to bed
6) Do the wobble walk back to hte walker
9{ Park the wobble walker at right angle to the stairs
100 Release the walker.. both hands
11) Feel the rush of freedom,,,Enjoy it for a second or two
12) Twist away from the walker.   Savour the adrenaline rush for a millisecond more
13)  Ask yourself “Am I airborne?
14)  ask yourself  “Am I in full flight?  You will be,
15)  Feel your surgery leg collapse,,,shatter or wobble
16) The rest is automatic,,,you may pivot or you may plunge
17) I pivotted briefly then crashed into the fireplace where an
assortment of  devils awaited,
18) A large tinware fox managed  to slice both hands…hungry fox 
19) My head hit a stoneware duck which we thought was ornamental…sliced
a lock of hair  with scalp along for the ride
20) Still swivelling I conked myself on the bottom stair
21)So terribly weak 
22) raising to my only good knee was a challenge
23) blood 
24) “Marjorie, I am hurt down here…..help!
25)  Crawling up 14 stairs to awaken Marjor she took over …..mopping up the blood…bandaging
 
NOTE:  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

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.

EPISODE 926 SUMMER 1959 PART 5 “VESPER INCANTATO PEREGRINAM VIDES” (SOME ENCHANTED EVENING, YOU WILL MEET A STRANGER)

EPISODE 926    SUMMER OF 1959:   “VESPER INCANTATO PEREGRINAM VIDES” (SOME ENCHANTED EVENING, YOU WILL MEET A STRANGER)


alan skeoch
Dec. 7,2023



Our love affair …on an “enchanted evening” at a dance “across a crowded room”, I met a “stranger” and 
“never let her go”.


Some enchanted evening
You may see a stranger,
you may see a stranger
Across a crowded room
And somehow you know,
You know even then
That somewhere you’ll see her
Again and again.

Some enchanted evening
Someone may be laughin’,
You may hear her laughin’
Across a crowded room
And night after night,
As strange as it seems
The sound of her laughter
Will sing in your dreams.

Who can explain it?
Who can tell you why?
Fools give you reasons,
Wise men never try.

Some enchanted evening
When you find your true love,
When you feel her call you
Across a crowded room,
Then fly to her side,
And make her your own
For all through your life you
May dream all alone.

Once you have found her,
Never let her go.
Once you have found her,
Never let her go! 

Love at first sight sounds a little over dramatic but elements were true in my case.  Russ, Jim and I Were singles at a
Victoria College,  U. of T. dance.
Sophmores…second  year men …inflated egos  perhaps.  I saw her right away.  “across a crowded room”

“Jim. that girl looks nice.”
“Right,” and Jim darted across the dance floor and danced with her then returned
“Jim, you did not give me a chance. I spotted her.”
“She is nice, Alan, really nice.  Your turn is now.”

And we danced.  The evening suddenly become enchanting.  We danced slow to something like “My Prayer”, cheek to cheek”
and frantic to any lyric by Elvis Pressly”.   And the dance ended.  The crowd dispersed.   She headed for her residence and 
we caught the bus to western edge of Toronto.  I did not even catch her name.  

Latin was not my best subject but one fragment got into te the long term storage compartment of my brain. “Vesper Incantato,
peregrines vides,” … “Some Enchjanted evening, you will meet a stranger”…across a crowded room.  The hit song from
Rodgers and Hamerstein’s South Pacific.   Our Latin teacher loved to sing i to us in Latin.

That is how it happened.  But who was she?

Next afternoon at football practice our team was doing excercises running around the trcak a few times.
Lo snd behold, there she was leaning out a window of her residence.  Fourth floor.  I spotted her.

“Hi, up there, what are you doing tonight?”
“Nothing much”
“Meet you at seven at Wymilwood” (coffee shop for Victoria College students)
“OK”

Her name is (was) Marjorie Hughes,  freshwoman from North Bay, … a nice person for sure.  We clicked
She became secretary for her 6T2 student executive.  A lot of people thought she was nice.  One boy
even proposed marriage to her unknown to me.  She chose to take a chance on me.  Big risk. 

We all have priorities in our lives.  My priorities changed in 1959 as a result of a speech given to
Humberside graduate by th Dean of Women from University of Guelph. 

 “What is most important to you as graduates?” She paused.  “I suspect you have high goals….high careers in mind.”
Let me give you a word of advice at this fork in the road of your life journey.”

“The most important goal should be finding a person with whom you wish to spend the rest of your life.”
Pause.  “Career is secondary.  Too few people are aware of this.   Your career might last for 30 or so years.  Your marriage, 
should you be so lucky could last twice as long.   Be vigilant.”

Number of my fellow graduate thought that was dumb speech.  They had clear careers in mind…doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, etc. etc.
Personally I thought she was right.  I was looking for a wife.  University was secondary…no university was third .  Football was second.
   Adventure ss a geophysical explorer was new the top as well.  Until a geologist I worked with died and his body was flow from
the bush in Chibougamau.  Suddenly this goal faded.

 But finding a person with whom
to spend my life was the very top of my list.


We soon got around to holding hands.

Marjorie had come through a tough year in her life in 1955 when both her mom and her dad died.  She was
a Grade 10 student at Lawrence Park Collegiate when all meaning her life had was shattered.
‘I went to school that morning dad died.   I was numb…walked back home. No one seemed to care.”



Her mothers’ sister, Phyllis Morgan was a Latin tescher in faraway Norh Bay.  She became Marjorie’s guardian.
A life changing event..  “All I owned was put in my suitcase when I took the bus to North Bay.  What wonderful
years followed.   Chippewa High School.  Dances, Curling Team, Drama Club (I Was a witch), summer cottages, trips,
friends..
…life changed.

Also a lot of boyfriends many of whom I met.  Nice guys.    
she chose me


My family was huge.  Marjorie became part of it.  Dad was unpredictable so much so that I never brought a girlfriend to 
meet him until Marjorie. He fell in love with her immediately.  She liked horses and Dad had spent a lifetime at
racetracks looking for the golden ring which  he never grasped.   He loved her so much
that Marjorie could not breast feed our boys because Dad appeared at our house every spare moment.



Marjorie became part of our family.  A big part.  She even spent  several summers as part of a  series
of mining wildernes jobs one of which was at Paradise Lodge on the lonely Algomaa Central Railway stop
72 (?) where she brought our cat, Presque Neige, and her electric machine which amused the crew
as we had wolves howling for the cat at night and no electricity for the sewing machine.

we had a very rich life ahead of us.  




Love