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EPISODE 352 THE CLIFFS OF MOHER, SOUTHERN IRELAND

EPISODE 352   THE CLIFFS OF MOHER, SOUTHERN IRELAND


alan skeoch
june 2021



One of our most delightful trips when our boys were old enough was a unscheduled
trip to Southern Ireland where I once worked (as you may know).  Today I would
like to give a sample of that trip…

The dominant feature were the Cliffs Moher and secondly Quealy”s Pub

If you have time and can find Irish musicians playing the Cliffs of Moher you will be transported
to that place in your mind. Wonderful spot.  Dangerous too.

More to come but very busy today.

alan

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EPISODE 351 “ALAN, I THINK WE HAVE A PROWLER”

EPISODE 351    OUR WILDERNESS IN PORT CREDIT — CAN BE INTIMIDATING

EPISODE 351     “ALAN, I THINK WE HAVE A  PROWLER” 

alan skeoch
June 10, 2021

“Alan, somebody moved the old dump rake .”


A MATTER OF CONCERN

We are cocooned in a wilderness in Port Credit.  I know that is hard to believe with so many
condominiums under construction.  But take a look at these pictures taken when Marjorie noticed
our ancient dump rake had been moved.   If you want to scare yourself then imagine someone
is hiding in the June undergrowth.

“Alan, some teen agers moved the old dump rake one day last week….ad last
night  I think we had a prowler.”

Last night Marjorie found our back gate forced…enough room for someone to slip through
and the sideboard gate was open allowing Woody to get out and find some garbage.

Here are some pictures of the back of our lot at Mary Fix Creek.    Lots of cover for
B and E people.

A MATTER OF PRIDE


I think we own one of the largest…if not the largest…trees in Mississauga.
Silver Maple that is nearly 9 feet wide at the base.


SEARCHING FOR A PROWLER

The closest I got to the prowler was the secret places where our coyotes live and maybe raise a family.  But there are also
trails where humans walk.   As well they should for this bit of forest is a treasure.  Prowler?   Impossible to find. Long gone.
A person of the dark night.   Or maybe just a nature lover lost in our sudden wilderness.  a person who wanted to reach
the pavement on the other side of our house.





Marjorie pulling wild garlic which she believes
it taking over our back lot.  She could make an Hawaiian Skirt out of the stuff.


alan skeoch
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EPISODE 360 ERNIE SUTCLIFFE AND THE FIREMAN’S LIFT AND OTHER 38TH ROVER CREW STORIES

EPISODE 360    ERNIE SUTCLIFFE AND THE FIREMAN’S LIFT AND OTHER 38TH ROVER CREW STORIES


alan skeoch
une 9, 2021


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I am not sure I should tell this story.  Some readers will not see the humour
and might be offended at the crude incident.   I know when it happened I did not know what was the
appropriate reaction.  Laughter? Disturbed facial expression?  Pretend it never happened and get
on with the show.?

THE SETTING:  Parent’s night for the 38th Boy Scout Troop.  Entertainment by the 38th Rover Crew

Runnymede Presbyterian Church trusted us.  We had a young congregation with dozens of young people
who actually came to church.  Once or twice a year Reverend Currie even asked a young person to
deliver the sermon.  Imagine that.  We tried not to disappoint.

On this particular evening I had the job of being MC.  Let me put this event in dialogue form.

“Good evening parents of the 38th,…”
(the lights in he hall dimmed.  Dinner plates had been collected)
“Tonight we have a special guest.   Ernie Sutcliffe is a member
of the Toronto Police Force and a friend of our Rover Crew.”
(Ernie steps from behind the curtain…polite applause)
Ernie has agreed to show us how to do the Fireman’s Lift.  In tough situations like
a burning house fire it is necessary for an officer to act fast to say
lives.  He will demonstrate how to get a person lying prone on the
ground up onto his shoulders fast and efficiently.”

“first thing we need Alan, is a volunteer”
“Boy Scout Bob Denny has agreed.
“OK, Bob, just lie down on the stage on your back.”
“Like this?”
“Correct…you can even close you eyes.”

“Now watch closely everyone…The Fireman’s Lift…works every time.”

“Show us, Ernie.”

“I just reach down and grab him by the crotch like this….”

In lightning speed Bob Denny flew into the air…using his own muscles…
and Erne caught him , flipped Denny onto his shoulder and strode off
the stage.   It happened faster than I could blink.  Ernie grabbed poor
Bob Denny by the balls and Denny jumped as high as Ernie’s shoulder.

I was flabbergasted.  How would all those parents react.

No worry there.  They were hooting and laughing …

Someday I will get the nerve to ask a cop…a Metro member of
Toronto’s finest…whether that is really the way they do the Fireman’s
Lift.   At the time I could not ask Ernie who left he church chuckling.

I am not sure how Bob Denny felt about the show.  Ernie was never
a member of our crew.  He showed up now and then.  

alan skeoch
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EPISODE 349 SHORT PANTS TO KILST….38T ROVER CREW CIRCA 1956

Note…some readers will identify with this story…having done similar things.
Others will be sorry they were born too late for that carefree life.



EPISODE 359     SHORT PANTS TO KILTS….38T ROVER CREW CIRCA 1956

                    (IN MEMORIAM TO BIG RED STEVENSON WHO WAS ALWAYS WITH US)

alan skeoch
june 2021

Oh, how I wish Big Red Stevenson was alive today.  He passed on before I could
assemble all these pictures of our 38th Boy Scout Rover Crew when we wore
our short pants, neck scarves and Mountie Hats.  Knee socks with tasselled garters. We were all such good friends
yet did not show it.  Our friendship was a reflex….present in our lives as much as a knee joint
or a lower jaw.  Principled, focussed and proud.  Short pants!  


Big Red Stevenson must have taken this picture.  Jim Garde Jr., Alan Skeoch, Don Strathdee
and Doug Mason…all stroliing down a gravel road of semi-abandoned farms near Van Dorf….just
a short distance north of Toronto.  Gone now…was about to become a subdivision in 1956.

Those were the days…indeed, those were the years…when we were teen agers
and proudly Boy Scouts then Rover Scouts.   The years when friendships were formed
on camping trips organized on whim.  

 “Let’s go camping this week end”
“Rover uniforms or civillian clothes?”
“Etobicoke or Lake Simcoe”
“Driven or should we thumb our way?”
“Easier to thumb it.”


USING THUMB TO HITCH RIDES ANYWHERE…EASY TO DO IN 1950’S

Easy to get rides using the thumb if there were only 2 or 3 of us.
When the whole Crew went together we needed big time planning.

That’s Big Red Stevenosn on my right.  We were heading for Lake 
Simcoe…straight north on Highway 401 …travelling light…no tent,
no pots, no pans…our plan was to sleep on picnic tables I think…turned out
not to be a good idea…did that only this one time, never forgot.


Those were the 1950’s when we were young.   Most of my close friends were
members of the 38th Boy Scout Troop and Rover Crew.  We were a little different
than other Scout Troops in that we were not really badge collectors.  We were not
into the one upmanship race to see how many little round patches could be sewn
on our shirts.  Most of the evening Scout and Rover meetings were spent playing
dodge ball and  hoping not to be hit by Harvey Scott who could really wing the ball.

 We lived to go camping.  Any season…even the depths of winter on
snowshoes we flip-flopped  plodded our way into Nine Mile Lake north of Perry Sound.



WE CONVERTED OUR SHORT PANTS FOR KILTS…CAMPBELL OF ARGYLE PATTERN

Our leader, Ed Hisson, suggested we become a kilted crew and so
we managed to do so.  Expensive but worth it.   Picture left to right..
Ed Hisson,  Jim Garde Jr., Gord Clarke, Ted Christianson, Ross Stevenson,
Doug Mason.

(Ed Hisson as in ‘listen, listen, Hisson’s pissing’…Ed was a selfless kind
of man…seemed as young as we were although married with kids of his own.)

FIND BIG RED STEVENSON….SEE HOW MANY TIMES HE APPEARS.

I WILL really miss Ross Stevenson. He was such a loyal friend for most of my life.
It is hard to believe he is gone

alan

  






WE sang a lot.   yes, we did.  “We were rough and ready guys
                                                 But, oh, how we could harmonize 
                                                 Heart of my heart, I love that melody….”
Big Red and many of us joined the Runnymede Presbyterian church choir
when we were young.   I was booted out by pretending to sing bass and
telling Mr. Shanahan “my voice had changed”.  Big Red sang in choirs
all his life.   He never made a big deal out of it…just joyful expressions.
HE was still singing when he died.  I remember one song we loved to sing
on camping trips, a Mills Brothers song.  “Up a Lazy river in the noon day sun
                                                                  A lazy, lazy river when the work is done”
(Maybe not the exact words…we changed words sometimes.)    Today I find
it hard to believe that we sang so much.   



Doug Mason was always ready for a challenge.  In this case swimming in a cold river
around Easter time.  Doug and the rest of us attended the World Scout Jamboree
in Niagara on The Lake.   Doug outdid himself.  He came home in his pyjama after
trading all his uniform to American Scouts who admired our RCMP look.


Last night I was thinking about the shows we put on to entertain parents of the Scouts and Cubs.  One show
got out of hand when Ernie Sutcliffe volunteered to demonstrate the Fireman’s Lift which he had just learned
as a new member of the Metro Police force.  I will hold that story back.   I need to work up my nerve to tell the story.
Bob Denny (boy in sweater) volunteered to be the patient.  He wished he had not done so.  Story coming tomorrow.





We were not aways the wisest of rover crews in Toronto as noted above
where we took a job to remove a tree.  Incompetent.   yes, for sure.  And
when a block of wood from the tree broke one of the owners concrete slabs
he refused to pay us.



In this picture we have rushed from the cabin to wash up before breakfast I think.
Or maybe we wanted drinking water right from the source.





Ross Stevenson never missed a camping trip.  In this case it was so cold that
we were reticent to take off our coats in the cabin.   No, I must be wrong for  we
are still wearing our snowshoes.   I bought a bottle of Catawba wine for a dollar.
That was stupid. Disorienting.  I could not tell up from down and went head first into
snowdrifts only to be hauled out by Big Red.  By this time we were 18 years old and
really stupid at times.  




Marg phoned to let me know that Big Red had died in his sleep.  “Just slipped away.”  Then she turned up with a large bird house Red had
been building for me.  The wood work was perfect.  A work of art.  No bird will ever sleep in it.  I had no idea Red was
creating something for me.   He was that kind of person.   Selfless…enjoyed the company of others…giving.  God,
I miss him.

POST SCRIPT

MARjorie joined the Rover Crew




Amazing how Marjorie fitted in so perfectly.  She liked my friends from the get go.  And they liked her.  


When Marjorie became a big part of my life she joined our Rover Crew and all the
people that were associated with the crew.  Marjorie is 4th from the left in a black dress.
Red Stevenson back row.  His mom, Mrs. Stevenson second row first person from right.
She loved to laugh. In my mind I still hear her.  None of us had much money but
never noticed.  Salt of the earth as the Bible says.  I can say that having never read
the Bible.


ALAN SKEOCH


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EPISODE 358 WHAT DO SEE HERE? AN IMAGINATION EXERCISE

EPISODE 358     WHAT DO SEE HERE?  AN IMAGINATION EXERCISE


alan skeoch
June 2021

EPISODE 358     WHAT DO SEE HERE?  AN IMAGINATION EXERCISE


FOUR POINTS OF VIEW

“WHAT do you see here?”
(All four of us are looking at a big piece of driftwood)

THE SEAL: “I see a nice sun deck where I can stretch out.”
ANDREW   “I see a great fish zooming through the surf..”
KEVIN  “I see a rocket being wheeled to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.”

“What do you see dad?”

ALAN: ” I see your mother in a skimpy bathing suit…smiling.”

ALL:  “Get serous, how could you possibly see Mom in a skimpy bathing suit in that piece of driftwood?

ALAN  “I alway see your mom in  a skimpy bathing suit no matter what I look at.”

alan skeoch
June 2021

POST SCRIPT TO READERS:  What do you see there?
Posted on

EPISODE 358 WHAT DO SEE HERE? AN IMAGINATION EXERCISE

EPISODE 358     WHAT DO SEE HERE?  AN IMAGINATION EXERCISE


alan skeoch
June 2021

EPISODE 358     WHAT DO SEE HERE?  AN IMAGINATION EXERCISE


FOUR POINTS OF VIEW

“WHAT do you see here?”
(All four of us are looking at a big piece of driftwood)

THE SEAL: “I see a nice sun deck where I can stretch out.”
ANDREW   “I see a great fish zooming through the surf..”
KEVIN  “I see a rocket being wheeled to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.”

“What do you see dad?”

ALAN: ” I see your mother in a skimpy bathing suit…smiling.”

ALL:  “Get serous, how could you possibly see Mom in a skimpy bathing suit in that piece of driftwood?

ALAN  “I alway see your mom in  a skimpy bathing suit no matter what I look at.”

alan skeoch
June 2021

POST SCRIPT TO READERS:  What do you see there?
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EPISODE 357 HOW DID THESE MARINE FOSSILS GET TO TOP OF ROCKY MOUNTAINS?

EPISODE 357    HOW DID THESE MARINE FOSSILS GET TO TOP OF ROCKY MOUNTAINS?


alan skeoch
June 4, 2021

“OK boys, we have Now driven more than halfway across Canada and it is time
to find out why.”
“Awwww, dad, you sound too much like a school teacher….this is summer holidays.”
“Your are right….I am going to shut up.   Let’s go mountain climbing.”
“Sounds great.”
“How about right here…we will just park the truck and climb to the snow line…way up there.”
“Can you and mom do that…and the dogs.”
“You bet.”


And so we climbed through a Talus slope …broken rock … held in place for now but not forever.  And away above us was the snow line.  Steep enough to lose footing.
No one anywhere around  and far below was the Jasper highway…more and more distant with each footfall.  The boys tumbled in the snow followed 
by Tara, our coonhound, and Maxie .. a stray we rescued as it was about to be shot.  just the right amount of danger.  




The slope of the mountain was about 45 degrees.  It was a wonder that we did not trigger
an avalanche.   

“Dad, looks what we found!”
“What?”
“Piles and piles of fossils….rocks are loaded with them.”
“You must be kidding…”
“Look…look….”


“Well, I’ll be damned.  You are right…fossils….”
“How did they get here, dad?”
“weird…I thought fossils like these were sea  creattures…things that lived at the bottom 
of the sea.”
“How did they get up here, dad…up on the top of the Rocky mountains?”


“I have no idea…maybe some tourists…”
“Don’t be silly, dad…how did these fossils get up here?”
“Must be some explanation.”
“Dad, how did they get there?”

“I thought this was our summer holidays, boys.?  Cut the school teacher stuff…”
“Dad, we are going to find out.”
“When you do, be sure and tell me.”
“I wonder what these fossils looked like when they were alive?”
“Find that out for me too…Meanwhile let’s have some fun.”
“Fun?”
“A snowball fight in the middle of August…”

(And I winged a nice round snowball at the boys.)

Those of you reading this story must know all  the answers.  Maybe
one or two of you can even identify the fossils.

alan skeoch
Posted on

EPISODE 356 OUR FARM IN 1958 AND WAY BACK IN 1914 WHEN IT WAS REALLY A FARM

NOTE:  I HOPE  THESE PICS MAKE SENSE…GIVE AN IMPRESSION OF THE
IMPORTANCE OF THE FREEMAN FARM AS ALL OF US TOOK OUR HUMAN JOURNEY



EPISODE 356    OUR FARM IN 1958 AND WAY BACK IN 1914 WHEN IT WAS REALLY A FARM


alan skeoch
June 3, 2021


THE TERM HARDSCRABBLE FARM WAS INVENTED TO DESCRIBE OUR FAMILY
FARM IN THE DAYS WHEN MAKING A LIVING FARMING WAS VERY DIFFICULT.
TODAY IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE ON A 25 ACRE FARM LIKE THIS…ALL SWAMPS
AND STONEY FIELDS.   BUT GRANDMA LOUISA FREEMAN AND GRANDPA
EDWARD FREEMAN MANAGED TO MAKE A LIVING AND RAISE TWO CHILDREN.
…AND ENJOY THEIR LIVES.




ALAN SKEOCH                                                             ALAN  SKEOCH AND ARNOLD ‘RED’ SKEOCH
THIS IS ELSIE (FREEMAN) SKEOCH WITH GRANDSON KEVIN.  SHE WAS THE PERSON THAT INHERITED THE FARM  IN 1958 AND MANAGED
TO PAY THE  TAXES AND THE UPKEEP AFTER GRANDMA AND GRANDPA DIED.  HOW SHE DID THAT IS A MYSTERY, FOR EVERY PENNY
SHE EARNED WAS DONE WITH A SEWING MACHINE .. MUCH OF THE TIME IN SWEATSHOPS.   A GREAT WOMAN…OUR MOTHER.
DAD’S MONEY WENT TO FEED HORSES AT RACETRACKS ACROSS ONTARIO AND NEW YORK STATE.  MOM WAS MUCH MORE CAREFUL.
DAD WAS ONE OF THE GREAT CHARACTERS OF THIS WORLD.  LOVABLE BUT IRRESPONSIBLE.   THEIR MARRIAGE WAS A GOOD ONE.

MY BROTHER ERIC AND I WERE CITY BOYS REALLY BUT THE FREEMAN FARM
WAS ALWAYS A PLACE WHERE WE WOULD BE WELCOMED…INDEED , A
PLACE WHERE WE WERE WANTED.   ANYTIME.  A SECOND HOME.



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EPISODE 355 WETLANDS RECOVERED 1958 TO 2021 FREEMAN/SKEOCH FARM ERIN TWP, WELLINGTON COUNTY

EPISODE 355    WETLANDS RECOVERED  1958 TO 2021    FREEMAN/SKEOCH FARM  ERIN TWP, WELLINGTON COUNTY


alan skeoch
may 31. 2021

EDWARD FREEMAN, my grandfather bought this 25 acre farm shortly before World War I started.
He did not have much money having been burned out of his log cabin home near Krugerdorf  in
Northern Ontario.   Not many people would want the farm.  Ages ago an ice sheet covered Ontario.
Beneath the ice was solid rock.  Between the ice and the rock was rubble…millions, billions of stones, all sizes, rounded imperfectly…
great heaps of unsorted rubble was ground then left in heaps as the ice retreated.  Along with the
rubble the glacier hollowed out several places on the farm which became wetlands until the farmers
arrived and attempted to drain the wetlands.   Ed Freeman was successful…partly.  He reduced
the wetlands but at least 6 swamps could not be completely drained.  He piled the rocks in heaps.

Since we took over the farm we have reversed the process and expanded the wetlands so that the farm
today no longer looks like a farm.  It looks much as it must have looked when the ice retreated.


POND #1: ONLY POND LEFT ON FARM IN 1958…AND MUCH SMALLER…ANDREW AND I BUILT A SMALL DAM THAT
RAISED THE WATER LEVEL.  THIS POND IS ABOUT 6  ACRES .

This has been a life long job…getting back the wetlands.  A job appreciated by at least one great snapping turtle, a large cluster of painted turtles,
families of Canada Geese, one couple of wood ducks, wild turkeys and deer that we rarely see and coyotes who leave their scat laden with rabbit fur
on the cedar clad forest that surrounds he pond.  The trail gives access to the only field left on the farm.  My flax field.  But this year it will
be mostly sweet clover if all goes well.   Why clover?  Andrew is raising bees.

Hopefully, given time, the frogs, leaches, sticklebacks, snakes …the great pyramid of pond life will be reestablished.  Right now the small
creatures are low in number…but present.

Lots of birds…this year wild canaries seem more than usual.  No bobolinks though.  The ravens and crows are present …deadly to the
young song birds nesting efforts.  And high above hover the turkey vultures searching for dead things.

 POND #2: WAS A HAYFIELD UNTIL WE HIRED RON SAUNDERS TO EXCAVATE…NOW OUR DEEPEST POND

POND #3  WAS A WET PART OF THE BARN YARD UNTIL RON SAUNDERS EXCAVATED.  WHEN EXCAVATED THE POND WAS SOON
FILLED WITH A DOZEN CHILDREN LAUGHING AND DIVING FROM A WOODEN RAFT AND LATER MARJORIE AND VALERIE TOOK
A NUDE SWIM WHILE I WAS WORKING NOT TOO FAR AWAY.  WATER ATTRACTS ALL KINDS OF WILD LIFE.

POND #4 WAS A HIDDEN SHALLOW SWAMP UNTIL JIM SANDERSON BROUGHT HIS BIG EXCAVATOR…AND THE MACHINE SANK
INTO THE QUICKSAND OF AN ANCIENT BEACH…TO GET IT OUT REQUIRED MANY MACHINES AND A RAFT MADE OF BIG TREES…
THE END RESULT WAS A HOME FOR AN AGED BEAVER…POND REMAINED HIDDEN UNTIL THIS YEAR, 2021, WHEN THE BRUSH HAS BEEN
CLEARED.

SO WE HAVE RECREATED A WETLAND.  AMAZING HOW MANY CREATURES THANK US FOR OUR LABOUR.

MAYBE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE WHAT THE FARM LOOKED LIKE WHEN EDWARD AND LOUISA FREEMAN ARRIVED IN 1914.
COMING IN ANOTHER EPISODE

alan skeoch
Posted on

EPISODE 354 ROY MAXWELL SENT ME A NOTE…REMNDER OF THoSE GREAT CBC DAYS ON ‘RADIO NOON’


EPISODE 354     ROY MAXWELL SENT ME AN EMAIL….IMAGINE THAT!
(WE WERE PART OF CBC ‘RADIO NOON’ FOR 
A FEW YEARS LONG AGO)

Alan skeoch
May 29, 2021

Who could resist purchasing a machine like this?  This will make sense as
you read my email letter, Roy.


Well what a great surprise…You Maxwell…the man

who did a farm report imitating Foster Brooks and no doubt
caught hell for doing so. (Foster Brooks was a comedian who imitated a drunk person….slurred his words)


Roy Maxwell did the farm prices and related information for Ontario farmers. What
is wrong with this picture Roy?  You must know.

Great to hear from you Roy.

YES, I am still writing stories

When Covid 19 first hit Toronto I decided to do 14 stories…one a day…until
the crisis was over.  To entertain those in isolation.  We were assured 14 days of isolation would be enough…remember?
Well now I am writing my 354th  story…one a day…except for two sojourns to hospital with
gall stone attack. They gave me morphine Roy.  What an experience.  

 354 stories.  Back when we did Radio Noon… CBC expected 1 story a week which I enjoyed doing in
that magnificent old Parliament Street studio.  The new CBC building was never
as good…as quaint…as real.

Who was it went out in the back alley for a smoke and talked to another smoker who turned out to be a dead guy ?

Drunks drifted into the old movie theatre and offered their words of advice on occasion.  One particular
inebriated person even joined one of our broadcasts…some charity show.  His comment…loud
and clear went over the air waves.  “If it’s free, it’s for me!” He kept hollering that as our den mother
whose name I have forgotten tried to hustle him away from the microphone.  God, those
programs were fun.

Radio Noon was just great.   My first producer Doug Koupar (sp?) let me
do 3 or 4 broadcasts before calling me into his office.   “Just great, Alan, just great…!!!….What is the next word
when someone says that?   the next word is ‘but’….”But Alan, you must remember the attention span
of the audience is one minute if you are lucky.  Put the big idea out fast, Alan.”

That was great advice.  Cut the crap in other words.  I applied that to teaching as well.
Cut the bull shit…let’s talk about something meaningful.  

So many great memories…I still have the tapes…but never listen to them.

I did the shows on my lunch hour.  Racing from Parkdale Collegiate to Parliament
Street and back was no easy task.  On one of these jaunts a guy jumped on the back
bumper of my  truck.  When I opened my door he wedged himself right on top of me.
“I am going to fucking kill you!” he yelled.  I had to think fast.  I looked at my bare wrist
and told him “No time for that, I am late for class.”   He stepped back and let me go.
I have never had a watch…my wrist was bare.  Those were the days that some very disturbed
people were cut loose from the psychiatric hospital in Mimico.  Sad people.
Why did he want to fucking kill me?  I have no idea.  Maybe he was a CBC listener
and was offended by something I said.  Funny thing, Roy, even now 40 years later
I remember what his running shoes looked like.  He had big feet…shoes were all worn.

The end came suddenly.  “We don’t need you anymore” which I was prepared for by another
CBC journalist who said….”Alan, remember we all have a shelf life.”

So Roy…I am going to send you some stories…just random.   They are found on Alan Skeoch.ca   …something like that.


FOLK ART: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?  I HAVE NO IDEA.

Life leads us in strange direction Roy.  David Shatsky noticed a hug threshing machine being
hauled up Parliament Street to Riverdale Farm.  “Whose machine?”   Marjorie and I had donated
the thresher.  Had it trucked on a flat bed by Gorden Hume to Riverdale Farm in the heart of Toronto.  David then
asked me to describe the machine to the radio audience.  Sounds boring, Roy, but not so. The
machine is the size of an 18 wheeler and covered in professional folk art…done about 1890…
a snake, an alligator, several lions and lots of garish paint swirls.  On my first CBC broadcast 
I asked David why a snake was painted on that threshing machine.  “Why,David?”He turned the question to me.
“You must know, Alan?” “I have no idea…let’s think about it.”  And we used our imaginations.
I think a lot of radio listeners must have done the same.  Let me ask you Roy.  Why would a professional
sign painter put an alligator on a 19th century farm threshing machine.  There is an answer
but I have forgotten it   Use your imagination.  I love open ended questions that are sincere.
There are so many things in this world that need explaining.   Think of the ex-President of the
United States for instance. “How could he happen?”

Note: Roy, you might wonder why I would give such a great machine to Riverdale farm.
there is an easy answer.  I bought  FOUR of the machines at an auction then wondered
what Marjorie would say when I got home.  “For the museums!” was my answer.


Well Roy, I still collect those old machines and now the movie industry is based in Toronto. They
need those machines often.   Old rusting hulks are great props. All those little threads in life lead somewhere, Roy.
 
Remember you doing Foster Brooks…made me laugh….and, Roy, some farmers must have laughed
as well.   

alan skeoch
May  2021

On May 29, 2021, at 5:52 PM, Roy Maxwell <rmaxwell20@cogeco.ca> wrote:


Alan,

I rediscovered you quite by accident (hay tedder story in an Oakville park) and I cannot resist the temptation to say hello.

Radio Noon was a long time ago! I am still in contact with several of the old CBC gang. Sadly, we recently lost my good friend, Glenn Powell (national Agr. News Reporter), but many of the other folks are still here and doing well.

I am so pleased to learn that you have stayed active and been so successful in pursuing your love of history and farming.

Good on you, Alan.

Roy