Alan Skeoch

Author: terraviva

  • EPISODE 187 1962 YUKON TERRITORY”” SHARING SUMPTUOUS DINNER WITH BILL DUNN



    Begin forwarded message:


    From: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
    Subject: Dinners 1) Mississauga 2) Yukon NOT QUITE THE SAME BUT BOTH DELIGHTFUL
    Date: March 7, 2018 at 10:33:11 PM EST
    To: Marjorie Skeoch <marjorieskeoch@gmail.com>, julie Skeoch <julieskeoch@yahoo.ca>


    EPISODE 187    1962 YUKON TERRITORY    “SHARING A SUMPTUOUS SUPPER WITH BILL DUNN”

    alan skeoch


    Dec. 2020    YukonTerritory in summer 1962

     I  was combing through my mining days pictures, now converted to digital.  And  what to my wondering eyes
    did appear but a supper in the bush.  Candlelight, dinner in a  washbasin (double duty), a bed made of balsam poles  and
    a bit of luxury with a real mattress.  This was the only job where a  real mattress was provided.  Never had  one that summer so
    do not know how this fellow, Bill Dunn, got this one.  Stole it probably, he was good  tat that kind of ting.  And he is
    all dressed for a fancy meal in long Johns.  Supper in  a basin…shared.   Easy to make  You want the recipe?

    Supper  Recipe, Dublin Gulch

    -Can of ‘Bird’s Custard’  (two cans if you wish)
    -Powdered Milk and water (keep it thick)
    -something else…looks like hash 
    -Pour into wash basin … after washing hands in basin
    -Mix well
    -Get two  spoons
    -Candles for romance
    -We used the other pan to get gold dust in the evenings in Dublin Gulch

    Note:  Bill Dunn’s feet are as white as ivory.   Why?  Because  he  had
    holes in his gum rubbers as I did.  Water  seeped in and kept feet 
    nice and white.  Unfortunately the feet got boiled from body heat
    and skin peeled.  Not pleasant.

    .

    I am amazed at the number of people who wish  they had the adventures that came with mining exploration.  Maybe this 
    picture will change minds.

    This is Bill Dunn, one of our Yukon Crew.  Became a good friend for that short Yukon summer.  How did he get there?
    He was engaged to be married to a girl in Peterborough or Lindsay.  The night before the wedding his friends put him
    on a plane to Whitehorse as an ‘end of wedding’ gift. We hired him.   Dirty trick, right? Not so sure Bill was the marrying kind really. 
    He left her standing at the altar but I don’t think he would have been the best kind of husband.  I could  say more but won’t unless pressed by
    a  reader.  he found another girl in Mayo Landing…another disaster.  In a drunken rage she tried to knife him but failed.  Much more
    to that story that is  also better not told.  Bill was   quite happy eating out of this wash basin.  Then again it may not be Bill…all I
    have is a corner of his nose, his hairy lower legs and his supper.   How come he has new boots?  That is a real mystery.  Most or our boots were gum rubbers ruined by the low growing brush daily so that were full of holes  for water to rush in and  rush out.  That is why his feet are so clean.  Maybe he  stole those  boots from
    someone….maybe a new guy on the crew that did not stay long…a lot of guys drifted  in  and out of our  bush  camp.   Why?  Well it certainly was not the food.  Fine five star dining every night providing you had  a wash basin.

    alan skeoch
    Dec. 2020


  • EPISODE 187 … All worldly possessions YUKON JOB 1962


    EPISODE 187    ALL MY WORLDLY POSSESSIONS…YUKON JOB 1962

    NOTE:  THIS SHORT STORY WAS WRITTEN MARCH 10, 2018 DESCRIBING LIFE
    PROSECTING IN YUKON TERRITORY IN THE SUMMER OF 1962.   SOME READERS
    MAY HAVE SEEN IT BUT I WANT IT INCLUDED IN THE EPISODES .. EPISODE 187.
    YOU MIGHT MAKE OBSERVATIONS.  I KNOW THE PICTURE IS TOTALLY SELF 
    CENTRED…NARCISSISM.  PLEASE FORGIVE.

    SEE IF YOU CAN FIND THE BIG BOX OF HOME MADE COOKIES MARJORIE SENT
    BY MAIL.

    I MAY TRY TO RETRIEVE ALL THE YUKON STORIES.  THE JOB WAS QUITE AN ADVENTURE.
    IF YOU HAVE ALREADY READ THE STORIES…READ THEM AGAIN…YOU HAVE NOTHING
    BETTER TO DO.  

    ALAN


    From: “alan.skeoch@rogers.com” <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
    Date: Saturday, March 10, 2018 at 12:05 AM
    To: Marjorie Skeoch <marjorieskeoch@gmail.com>
    Subject: Alan Skeoch … All worldly possessions YUKON JOB 1962

    DUBLIN GULCH CAMP, YUKON TERRITORY, 1962

    NOW THIS IS REALLY SILLY…(found in old 35 mm slide)

    alan  skeoch
    March 2018

    Readers  come in all sorts … interested and bored,  large and small, old and  young, critical and open-minded, full of evil thoughts and just plain joyful.  Which are you?


    Some readers  might be interested  in this small corner of the universe  in the summer of 1962.   
     It’s a game….see what you can find.


    SEE IF YOU CAN  FIND THESE ITEMS BELOW IN THE PICTURE ABOVE

    1) Pants…note knee patches  made of medical first aid  tape…only had 1 pair of pants, no time to wash them.
    2) Bed…made of light canvas and  metal rods…never lasted long…flat to floor eventually
    3) Baby Rabbit…given to me by Moses Lord, First Nations  member of our crew, caught it by  hand, eventually freed the little fellow but meanwhile he
    lived in my gum rubber boot in the evenings leaving a few soft marbles each morning.
    4) Escapade magazine…must be good article in there on geophysics, else why would I keep it?
    5) assorted  soda cans and bottle of  stuffed  olives
    6) 2 pairs  of socks drying on my clothesline beside bed…socks were so important…dominated all.
    7) 1 bottle of antiseptic…kill microscopic bastards trying to kill me  by slipping in open  wounds chewed  open
    bu larger bastards  (mosquitoes,  black flies, moose flies,  deer flies, grand  wasps)
    8) A small library including Pierre Berton’s Klondike, Michener’s Fires of Spring, Steinbeck’s East of Eden, 
    9) boot insoles drying on top shelf…holes in boots meant water sloshed around most  days, body heat boiled  my  feet, pock marked.
    10) Hair brush that was never  used
    11) Moose lower jaw bone   (mailed back to Toronto with pair of caribou  antlers)
    12) single caribou antler. Moses Lord got me  a  full rack to send home by freight truck.
    13) Scottish tam at top. When I started teaching my principal, Mr Ellis, said to me privately “You will never get ahead
    if you continue to wear that tam.”   Wonder what he would have said if he saw this picture?  Probably say “I knew it!…look at him.”
    14) Alarm clock…rang at 5.45 a.m. Get up, dress, make breakfast, slather bait for bugs, and be on trail by 7.30 or so.
    15) PICTURE OF MARJORIE…WE WERE ENGAGED…SHE GRADUATED U. OF T 1962, I DID SO IN 1961,  POST GRAD YEAR 1962
    16) bottle of Eno’s fruit salts…for upset stomach.  Food we ate made that necessary.
    17) candle in wine bottle…
    18) Huge box of cookies sent as a  Care package from Marjorie who was back in North Bay.  She also sent chocolate cakes.
    19) Mosquito lotion
    20) Camera case and  pile of magazines…maybe scientific journals but more likely the other kind.
    21) Diary on top of stump table
    22) My brief  case in which was wrapped my idea of Yukon gold (see 23)
    23) my Mastodon  Tooth found in a gold  sluice box  in Dublin Gulch.  It was a great teaching item when  presenting the theory
    of Beringia…where Asiatic  people migrated to North America 10,000 to 20,000 years  ago when the Bering Sea was a vast dry plain feeding  Mastodons,
    Mammoths and other giant now extinct creatures.  Must have been  a good lesson for some student stole the tooth the first  year I taught high school.
    24) Alan Skeoch, 23 years old, bearded,  post-adolescent, Rover Scout, potential groom, Geophysical Field  Man. future teacher…immature… reticent to give up
    the life of luxury implied by this photograph .   Marjorie took the view that ‘if you can’t beat them join them’  and  Marjorie Joined our  crews on jobs
    in North Ontario at Paradise Lodge and Wart Lake in 1963 and a short and final job at Merritt, British Columbia.,in 1964 where the local mining executives thought
    she was a hooker. 
    25) Prospectors rock hammer

      26) plank under cot to prevent collapse

    27) gold nuggets … tiny … really just gold dust which I dropped on black electrical tape and  mailed to Marjorie.   Should do a story about

    our discovery of gold.  In 1962 gold sold at $35 an  ounce and was controlled by he Canadian government.  Today it sells at around $2,000 an ounce and the Gold Standard

    has been abandoned.  A friend  in Dublin Gulch had  a slab of  gold as a kind of knuckle duster if he was ever robbed.  His cabin was amazing…Mammoth tusks and bones
    leaning against the walls…and those huge teeth.

    WHAT A WONDERFUL LIFE.

    ALAN SKEOCH
    MARCH 2018


  • EPISODE 186 HOW TO LOAD A TRACTOR

    EPISODE  186    HOW TO LOAD  A TRACTOR


    alan skeoch
    Dec. 2020

    You may  wonder how a bull dozer gets  on a trailer.  Then again
    you may not.  No matter here is a step by step visual instruction
    just in case someday you are asked  to load  an IHC W6.

    A few years ago we did it differently.  I remember with a shudder.
    We drove the IHC W6 up a ramp  to the truck bed.  Getting it
    off the truck  was absolutely terrifying.


    This is the sediment bowl through which gasoline flows from the gas tank to the cylinders.  Look at the little bit
    of grunge at the bottom.  My old IHC W6 always had  a bit of grunge.  Now it has a lot of grunge as  it has not been
    going since the day we loaded it here in August 2017.  Needs a new gas tank.  Is it worth the money?  I must ask
    Bill Brooks…he  can fix anything and  has kept the W6 alive long past its normal terminal age.  

    That’s Andrew Skeoch doing all the work.  The movie was “Fanrenheit” something or other. 

    alan  skeoch
    dec.  2020

  • EPISODE 185 HISTORY DEPARTMENT PARKDALE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE CIRCA 1980

    EPISODE 185  HISTORY DEPARTMENT    PARKDALE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE   CIRCA 1980


    alan skeoch
    dec.  2020

    left to right, back row: Gerry Wagner, Frank Bitonti, Susan Gilmour, Sam Markou, Terry Wickstrom
    front row left to right: John Maize, Lynne Roddick, Alan Skeoch, Phil Sharp
    (picture taken at Centre Island fun park for kids)

    When I was hired as a history teacher at Parkdale Collegiate Institute there were two great educators involved…John Ricker and Evan Cruickshank.
    Both of them said the same thing.  “Alan, if you take the job at Parkdale you will never leave.”  It seemed strange since both of these people
    did not know each other well.  …both heads of history departments and both eventually teachers of teachers
    at the Faculty of  Education.  My thought? “These guys must know what they are talking about.”

    So I took the job and  never looked back.   No other job in education appealed to me.  The students at Parkdale were family.
    The kind that punched  you on the shoulder and said “Good  morning, sir”

    I think this photograph says it all.  We loved teaching.  We loved each other.  We loved Parkdale.   And let me add with pride
    …I think we did a good job with our kids.   

    Especially when we came to school dressed  like the picture above. (not true)

    Each face is  a story.  But let me tell one story about a teacher that could  have been ignored.  Gerry Wagner, with the
    Coonskin Cap.  His family once owned  a factory in, I believe, Czechslovakia.  World War II intervened and the factory was
    seized.  Somehow the Wagners escaped.  Gerry ultimately got a job at Parkdale.  A quiet man.  We called him ‘the Wag’.
    He was a great poker player.  Bob  Marshall and  George Stavropoulos (not in picture) tried to bluff Gerry in a game we called
    East York #$%$    Gerry took their money.  The poker game was so silly that it is worth describing.  Each player took a
    card face down and put the card on his forehead.  Then the betting began to force others out of the game.  Bob and  George were
    determined to make Gerry fold (even though Gerry held a king or an ace)…they upped the anti, again and again.  Gerry took
    all them money.  And he grinned…a quiet grin. Any man that had escaped Nazi Germany could not be bluffed.  We played
    that poker game in our old farm house. Some beer may have been involved.  Good times.  Nickel dime poker…no one loses much.

    Sounds silly?  Each of these people could be a story as silly as the story about Gerry.  Let the good times roll, as they say.  Before Gerry died he bought me a
    wooden fish from Mexico.  It sits  above my head right now.

    So I owe much to John Ricker and Evan Cruickshank…and to Parkdale.

    alan skeoch
    Dec.  2020   


  • ALAN

    I JUST MADE A MISTAKE AND SENT MY NEXT STORY AS A POSTSCRIPT OF 184…DAMN DAMN DAMN
    IT TAKES A LOT OF TIME TO WRITE THESE STORIES AT THE SPEED REQUIRED…I.E. ONE STORY PER DAY…SO WHEN MY RESEARCH GETS SENT EARLY THAT MEANS MY STORY IS KILLED AND I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT
    THE PACE IS EXHAUSTING AT TIMES.
    ALAN
    P.S. THANKS DIRK FOR SETTNG UP THAT BLOG