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