EPISODE 402 MAKE ROOM FOR HEROES: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN RICKER (EDUCATOR)

Note..this episode is far too long …SOME DID NOT GET FULL ARTICLE SO I CUT

MANY ILLUSTRATIONS…HOPE IT WORKS NOW

EPISODE 402 MAKE ROOM FOR HEROES: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN RICKER

alan skeoch

august 2021

JOHN RICKER…EDUCATOR…A MAN WITH HEROES IN HIS LIFE

AT THE END OF THIS EPISODE TRY AND RECORD THE HEROES IN YOUR LIFE

In 1986 I wrote a very juvenile article about John Ricker; Uncovered by pure chance today, August

5, 2021…35 years later. Who is John Ricker? In a word I would say he is an educator. Much more than

that of course…husband, professor, philosopher, administrator, veteran, father, grandfather, author, Order of Canada, friend. But he remains

to me a teacher…my teacher. Years ago the CBC wanted to interview me on the place of history in

the Ontario curriculum (or some such thing like that). A reporter came to Parkdale Collegiate and was

questioned by our vice principal. “Why would you want to see him, he is only a teacher?” True. I was

and always have been ‘only a teacher’. Rather proud of the fact. Early in my career I may have had

ambitions for higher positions in the educational pyramid. Maybe later…maybe if I get bored teaching.

That never happened. I never wanted to be anything but a teacher. I owe that to John Ricker.

He made all of us feel teaching was the noblest of professions when he taught teachers at the

faculty of eduction way back in 1963. Made us proud and nervous. Would we measure up?

Believe it or not, we still meet monthly at John’s house with a group of friends. I am 82. John is 95.

Very senior ciitizens who gather at our Castlefield Insttute to consider world events and laugh a lot.

Teachers all …even if one is a judge and another a surgeon.

There was no reason for me to find this interview among the dusty files in our cellar. Pure chance.

Rather wonderful though. Not because of what I wrote. Not my words. It is the pencilled comments

that John Ricker scribbled all over the manuscript and then went on and on shedding light on the

need for all of us to have heroes we admire.

“What do think of teachers, John?” What a hopelessly dull question. I wish I had not asked. But

John began to scribble furiously. The scribbles deciphered.

“Most teachers are bright…even though some are terribly dull and stupid.” Classic Rickerism.

Seems like a contradiction. But it is John Ricker taking himself seriously but not that seriously.

There is room for argument. “Teachers are bright enough if they are in an atmosphere that

applies the right kid of pressure and tension on them.” Internal pressure it seems for the next

comment was a bit surprising. “The problem is that teachers don’t recognize their own heroes.

For some reason many teachers are afraid to say they have heroes.”

“We fail to ferret out the time-servers and frauds. But even worse, we don’t make a fuss of

our heroes. No room for heroes it seems . But the heroes are there…masters of their craft

who continue to grow and change, When talking about teachers many agree that teachers

are terrible…except for ‘so and so’ God, my whole life was changed by old Mr. X. “

JAMIE HEMSTEAD JUST LOVeD OUR SCHOOL…JUST LOVED IT…YOU CAN SEE IT IN HIS FACE.

“Why is it that we don’t have monuments to these heroes? You rob a bank and you get a column

in the newspaper, perhaps even your picture. But the teacher who changes the way an

individual functions for the rest of his or her life earns no more than an aside in what tends

to be a blanket denunciation of teaching and teachers.”

“There are teachers who are incompetent. But I don’t think they are a problem because there

are ways to get them out of schools even though they aren’t used often. Many think they should be.

A more serious problem is what to do about the much larger number of marginally competent

teachers who just go through the motions and have a negative impact on students.”

JOHN RICKER’S HEROES

“I had two outstanding teachers in elementary school….Miss Warrander and Mr. Henry.

Two in secondary school….Miss McDermid and Mr. Nation

Three in university…Frank Underhill, Donald McDougal and Earl Birney.”

“By far, the most outstanding was Miss McDermid at Parkdale Collegiate. What made her

outstanding was that she was unquestionably a scholar. There was no possibility that what

she taught one year would be the same the next year. She took delight in her subject and

was determined that we students would share it . Tough material did not deter her for a moment.

She knew what she wanted to achieve and pursued her goal —and us — relentlessly. We

struggled and grumbled but loved her classes. I think we recognized that this quietly forceful

woman was a vitally exciting person and her dedication to learning had made her this way.

Every lesson revealed her fascination with the creative aspects of life. Though a Scot, I doubt very

much that she knew for sure what her salary was. I think she was probably surprised that

people paid her to spend her life doing what she loved. It’s when reflecting on the Miss

McDermids who have enabled the profession that I resent most of the teacher charlatans

who would really rather be doing something else.”

John, could you describe this teacher hero in general terms?

“Sure,the first obligation of a teacher is to convince his or her students

that the creative aspects of human experience are exciting.”

NOTE: Respect is basic. John Ricker did not say this explicitly but the word hero assumes respect .If there is no respect, mutual respect, i.e. student respect for a teacher and the reverse teacher respect

for his or her students then education does not occur.

“To be so excited by the curriculum that the teacher becomes an exciting person in the school

whether teaching the chemistry of the DNA molecule or (Voltaire’s Candide). Money is

not that important. Good teachers often do not know what they earn. They are astounded

that anyone would pay them to teach.”

John maintains we all have our teacher heroes but for some reason keep them hidden.

Let’s get them out in the open.

JOHN RICKER’S HEROES: BIRNEY, UNDERHILL AND MACDOUGAL

WHO IS EARL BIRNEY?

A spider’s body
limp and hairy
appeared at the bottom of my coffee
The waiter being Castilian
said passionately nothing
And why indeed should apologies
be made to me
It was I who was looking in
at the spider
It might be years
before I slipped and drowned
in somebody else’s cup

Poet-tree

i fear that i shall never make
a poem slippier than a snake
or oozing with as fine a juice
as runs in girls or even spruce
no i wont make not now nor later
pnomes as luverlee as pertaters
trees is made by fauns or satyrs
but only taters make pertaters
& trees is grown by sun from sod
& so are the sods who need a god
but poettrees lack any clue
they just need me & maybe you

From The Hazel Bough

I met a lady
on a lazy street
hazel eyes
and little plush feet
her legs swam by
like lovely trout
eyes were trees
where boys leant out
hands in the dark and
a river side
round breasts rising
with the finger’s tide
she was plump as a finch
and live as a salmon
gay as silk and
proud as a Brahmin
we winked when we met
and laughed when we parted
never took time
to be brokenhearted
but no man sees
where the trout lie now
or what leans out
from the hazel bough

The Bear On The Delhi Road

Unreal tall as a myth
by the road the Himalayan bear
is beating the brilliant air
with his crooked arms
About him two men bare
spindly as locusts leap
One pulls on a ring
in the great soft nose His mate
flicks flicks with a stick
up at the rolling eyes
They have not led him here
down from the fabulous hills
to this bald alien plain
and the clamorous world to kill
but simply to teach him to dance
They are peaceful both these spare
men of Kashmir and the bear
alive is their living too
If far on the Delhi way
around him galvanic they dance
it is merely to wear wear
from his shaggy body the tranced
wish forever to stay
only an ambling bear
four-footed in berries
It is no more joyous for them
in this hot dust to prance
out of reach of the praying claws
sharpened to paw for ants
in the shadows ofdeodars
It is not easy to free
myth from reality
or rear this fellow up
to lurch lurch with them
in the tranced dancing of men

WHO WAS FRANK UNDERHILL?

A nation is a body of people who have done great things together in the past and hope to do great things together in the future.

Frank Underhill

Frank Underhill (1889-1971) practically invented the role of public intellectual in English Canada through his journalism, essays, teaching, and political activity. He became one of the country’s most controversial figures in the middle of the twentieth century by confronting the central political issues of his time and by actively working to reform the Canadian political landscape. His propagation of socialist ideas during the Great Depression and his criticism of the British Empire and British foreign policy almost cost him his job at the University of Toronto. In Frank Underhill and the Politics of Ideas, Kenneth Dewar demonstrates how Underhill’s thought evolved from his days as a student at Toronto and Oxford, to his drafting of the Regina Manifesto – the founding platform of the leftist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation – to his support of his long-time friend Lester Pearson’s Liberals in the 1960s. Not willing to be bound by partisan loyalties, his later shift toward the political centre dismayed many of his former allies. The various issues Underhill confronted, Dewar argues, were connected by the pioneering role he played as an intellectual and by his social democratic vision of politics. Dewar also reassesses Underhill’s historical work, focusing on how it differed from the new professional history practised by his younger colleagues. Intelligently written and thoroughly researched, Frank Underhill and the Politics of Ideas delivers important insights into twentieth-century political life and innumerable lessons for twenty-first century Canada.

JUST MY THOUGHTS…BASED ON VERY LITTLE RESEARCH

For some Bizarre reason the word ‘socialism’ angers many Americans. Perhaps because they associate socialists too closely with Stalinism

and the excesses of Soviet communism. Half a century ago Isaac Deutscher said that political change can only come from the turbulence of

free thought in the United States. I remember that. Even if it seem unlikely today.

To listen to Trumpists the word socialism is akin to the ideas that are found in the depths of evil. Underfhill was a socialist

who became a Liberal. For that he paid a price. Seems to me that John Ricker took the same

path only did not have to pay the price of alienation. John Ricker gets a thrill out of the freedom

of thought…does so with humour and joy…fears not the turmoil of ideas. Revels in them as Underhilll

must have done.

WHY DO SOME PEOPLE CONSIDER SOCIALISM FRIGHTENING?

Socialists choose cooperation to competition, and favour collectivism over individualism. The defining, value of socialism is equality, socialism sometimes being portrayed as a form of egalitarianism. Socialists consider that a measure of social equality is the essential assurance of social stability and cohesion, and that it supports freedom in the sense that it gratifies material needs and helps for personal development. The socialist movement has conventionally articulated the interests of the industrial working class, seen as systematically troubled or structurally disadvantaged within the capitalist system. The objective of socialism is to lessen or abolish class divisions.

WHO ARE MY HEROES?

“Alan, I thought this Episode was about John Ricker not Alan Skeoch.” :

“Good point Marjorie”

“Then why continue?”

“Because I would just like to give my heroes a good airing.”

“Boring, Alan…drifting into boredom”

“You might be right we seem to be living in an anti-heroic time where humans that were

once leaders have their statues desecrated with paint and their figures decapitated.”

“You know something, Alan, you might have hit on something. We all have heroes

but rarely say so.”

“That is the point John Ricker made.”

“Just who are your heroes?”

(If you do not want to read about my heroes then start listing your own herroes>)

I am such a shallow person …no great depth of political insight like Ricker. A child of the

1950’s. Part of a generation of undeserved wealth earned by the fires of the Great Depression

and the sacrifices of so many lives in a war soon to be a footnote.

I have a lot of heroes.

In elementary school there were two. Miss Sharpely who loved us and Mr. Hambly who

made earth science come alive. He hung a huge wasps nest in his room to which some fired

paper clips from elastic bands. But meant no disrespect.

In secondary school there were more

Evan Cruickshank

Roberta Charlesworth

Maida Schroeder

Duncan Green

Fred Burford

Wally Little

In the university of Toronto there were heroes of a different sort

Marcus Long , philosopher…

Marjorie Hughes, open arms, open heart…made me a lucky man

Dr. Norman Paterson, geophysicist who made science exciting

Voltaire, Steinbeck, Michener, Kant, Rousseau and a host of others not least of

which was Eric Fromm’s book The Sane Society. Somewhere in the book

Fromm argued that everyone should get the same wage. Then people would

choose careers they love rather than careers that paid the most money. And we

would be a happier people.

When I said that to my friends they thought I was nuts.

and later in post grad

John Ricker

Andrew Lockhart

Desmond Morton

Phyllis Morgon

If I had to choose one high school mega hero, it would be Evan Cruickshank. Although

I never noticed it at the time “Crooky” taught me to think for myself

with three little words “I don’t know,” I was not a person that devoted

myself to homework. Skipped doing it whenever I could which was

often. I meant no disrespect to my teachers. There just was not enough

time to do everything…sports, dancing, dating girls, reading for pleasure, earning

a little money. So I skipped homework and accepted the odd detention

for doing so. One detention was memorable. Roberta Charlesworth

kept me after school to serve a detention in her room. Seemed easier

to serve it in the girls gym where there were females in bloomers to look

at. Roberta Charlesworth was the girls coach. Next day she called me

to the front of the class…I always tried to find a middle seat…why did

she want me? She promptly lifted me off the ground by my ear. “When

you serve a detention with me you do it here in this room not in the girls gym.

I respected her as a teacher….one of my teacher heroes in spite of my

sore ear..

But “Crooky” takes the prize with his simple “I don’t know”

technique. I respected him. Stood in awe of him at times. His explanation

of Marxian socialism stays with me to this day.

One day however I got up my nerve to ask him about some event

in history that intrigued me. Crooky would surely know. Bt he did not.

He even confessed “I don’t know” which sent me scurrying to the library

that evening just to help Crooky out. Not to suck around. I did that

out of respect. Later I discovered that his ‘I don’t know’ may have

been deliberate but I was never sure. “Crooky” asked big time questions.

But he was also humble…open minded.

John Ricker became a hero as well. He conveyed a deep love for

big questions. The kind that start simply but lead to universal truths.

I was very sorry when I heard that John had become Dean of

the Faculty of Educaton. That meant he would no longer be facing

down classes of new teachers. Teaching. I even told him so John could make us think

about history from many angles. Made us realize we were taking on

a sacred trust by shaping young people. He had respect. Without

respect , as I mentioned, no solid teacher-student learning can occur.

One of his methods was similar to Crooky but different also. When a

student asked John a question there was often a pause…a dead silence

in the room while John considered his answer. In 1963 the silence was aided

and abetted by drawing on a cigarette and then reaching for his coffee cup.

Dead and total silence when he did that. W were like the Israelites waiting

for Moses to bring word from on high. And John consumed books like a

bull does ensilage with one different. The ideas in a good book went to

his brain and not his stomach.

Life takes curious twists and turns. Most surprising of these twists and

turns is that both Evan Cruickshank and John Ricker became good

friends. Peers in the pursuit of knowledge. Shapers of the minds

of students. Both of them pushed me towards Parkdale Collegiate.

“If you teach at that school, you will never want to leave, Alan.”

So true.

NOW FOR THE CHALLENGE

Who are your heroes?

REMEMBER THE SODER IN THE COFFEE CUP?

WHO IS EARL BIRNEY?

A spider’s body
limp and hairy
appeared at the bottom of my coffee
The waiter being Castilian
said passionately nothing
And why indeed should apologies
be made to me
It was I who was looking in
at the spider
It might be years
before I slipped and drowned
in somebody else’s cup

WHAT IS THE BEST SCHOOL? EASY TO ANSWER…THE BEST SCHOOL IS THE SCHOOL YOU ARE TEACHING IN TODAY…MAKE

IT THAT WAY. NOT YESTERDAY’S SCHOOL OR TOMORROW’S SCHOOL. THE SCHOOL YOU ARE TEACHING IN TODAY IS

BEST AND YOU HAVE A DUTY TO MAKE IT SO.

A LOT OF MY HEROES AT THE UIVERSITY OFTORONTO WERE ON OUR FOOTBALL TEAM….ABOVE

PRINCIPAL SHIELA HAMBLETON WAS A VERY KIND AND SHARING HERO…LED BY EXAMPLE

HEROES IN MY LIFE CAME IN ALL KINDS OF SHAPES AND FORMS…TEACHERS AND STUDENTS.

August 8, 2021September 9, 2021

EPISODE 404: PAINTED TURTLE: FROM CENTRE OF ROAD TO A NEW SWAMP AUGUST 2021

alan skeoch

august 2021

Every year turtles seem to think the month of August is a good time to squat in the middle of the Fifth Line

and every year we rescue a couple…snappers and painted.

They are survivors with or without our help. Only rarely is one killed which means the drivers on the

Fifth Line are a caring bunch.

Look in her eyes. I assume she is a female looking for a good planet lay her eggs.

August 8, 2021September 9, 2021

EPISODE 403 Farm fields in august 2021

Alan skeoch

august 6, 2021

Well, the big John Deere combine got all the winter wheat yesterday and I missed the action.

Eighty acres…60 in winter whet. So here we are with empty fields again

And a sky full of ships floating by like moths from an old wool coat.

Sent from my iPhone

August 7, 2021September 9, 2021

Fwd: EPISODE 402 MAKE ROOM FOR HEROES: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN RICKER (EDUCATOR)

Note..this episode is far too long but I am tired…r

EPISODE 402 MAKE ROOM FOR HEROES: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN RICKER

alan skeoch

august 2021

JOHN RICKER…EDUCATOR…A MAN WITH HEROES IN HIS LIFE

AT THE END OF THIS EPISODE TRY AND RECORD THE HEROES IN YOUR LIFE

In 1986 I wrote a very juvenile article about John Ricker; Uncovered by pure chance today, August

5, 2021…35 years later. Who is John Ricker? In a word I would say he is an educator. Much more than

that of course…husband, professor, philosopher, administrator, veteran, father, grandfather, author, Order of Canada, friend. But he remains

to me a teacher…my teacher. Years ago the CBC wanted to interview me on the place of history in

the Ontario curriculum (or some such thing like that). A reporter came to Parkdale Collegiate and was

questioned by our vice principal. “Why would you want to see him, he is only a teacher?” True. I was

and always have been ‘only a teacher’. Rather proud of the fact. Early in my career I may have had

ambitions for higher positions in the educational pyramid. Maybe later…maybe if I get bored teaching.

That never happened. I never wanted to be anything but a teacher. I owe that to John Ricker.

He made all of us feel teaching was the noblest of professions when he taught teachers at the

faculty of eduction way back in 1963. Made us proud and nervous. Would we measure up?

Believe it or not, we still meet monthly at John’s house with a group of friends. I am 82. John is 95.

Very senior ciitizens who gather at our Castlefield Insttute to consider world events and laugh a lot.

Teachers all …even if one is a judge and another a surgeon.

There was no reason for me to find this interview among the dusty files in our cellar. Pure chance.

Rather wonderful though. Not because of what I wrote. Not my words. It is the pencilled comments

that John Ricker scribbled all over the manuscript and then went on and on shedding light on the

need for all of us to have heroes we admire.

“What do think of teachers, John?” What a hopelessly dull question. I wish I had not asked. But

John began to scribble furiously. The scribbles deciphered.

“Most teachers are bright…even though some are terribly dull and stupid.” Classic Rickerism.

Seems like a contradiction. But it is John Ricker taking himself seriously but not that seriously.

There is room for argument. “Teachers are bright enough if they are in an atmosphere that

applies the right kid of pressure and tension on them.” Internal pressure it seems for the next

comment was a bit surprising. “The problem is that teachers don’t recognize their own heroes.

For some reason many teachers are afraid to say they have heroes.”

“We fail to ferret out the time-servers and frauds. But even worse, we don’t make a fuss of

our heroes. No room for heroes it seems . But the heroes are there…masters of their craft

who continue to grow and change, When talking about teachers many agree that teachers

are terrible…except for ‘so and so’ God, my whole life was changed by old Mr. X. “

JAMIE JUST LOVeD OUR SCHOOL…JUST LOVED IT…YOU CAN SEE IT IN HIS FACE.

“Why is it that we don’t have monuments to these heroes? You rob a bank and you get a column

in the newspaper, perhaps even your picture. But the teacher who changes the way an

individual functions for the rest of his or her life earns no more than an aside in what tends

to be a blanket denunciation of teaching and teachers.”

“There are teachers who are incompetent. But I don’t think they are a problem because there

are ways to get them out of schools even though they aren’t used often. Many think they should be.

A more serious problem is what to do about the much larger number of marginally competent

teachers who just go through the motions and have a negative impact on students.”

JOHN RICKER’S HEROES

“I had two outstanding teachers in elementary school….Miss Warrander and Mr. Henry.

Two in secondary school….Miss McDermid and Mr. Nation

Three in university…Frank Underhill, Donald McDougal and Earl Birney.”

“By far, the most outstanding was Miss McDermid at Parkdale Collegiate. What made her

outstanding was that she was unquestionably a scholar. There was no possibility that what

she taught one year would be the same the next year. She took delight in her subject and

was determined that we students would share it . Tough material did not deter her for a moment.

She knew what she wanted to achieve and pursued her goal —and us — relentlessly. We

struggled and grumbled but loved her classes. I think we recognized that this quietly forceful

woman was a vitally exciting person and her dedication to learning had made her this way.

Every lesson revealed her fascination with the creative aspects of life. Though a Scot, I doubt very

much that she knew for sure what her salary was. I think she was probably surprised that

people paid her to spend her life doing what she loved. It’s when reflecting on the Miss

McDermids who have enabled the profession that I resent most of the teacher charlatans

who would really rather be doing something else.”

John, could you describe this teacher hero in general terms?

“Sure,the first obligation of a teacher is to convince his or her students

that the creative aspects of human experience are exciting.”

NOTE: Respect is basic. John Ricker did not say this explicitly but the word hero assumes respect .If there is no respect, mutual respect, i.e. student respect for a teacher and the reverse teacher respect

for his or her students then education does not occur.

“To be so excited by the curriculum that the teacher becomes an exciting person in the school

whether teaching the chemistry of the DNA molecule or (Voltaire’s Candide). Money is

not that important. Good teachers often do not know what they earn. They are astounded

that anyone would pay them to teach.”

John maintains we all have our teacher heroes but for some reason keep them hidden.

Let’s get them out in the open.

JOHN RICKER’S HEROES: BIRNEY, UNDERHILL AND MACDOUGAL

WHO IS EARL BIRNEY?

A spider’s body
limp and hairy
appeared at the bottom of my coffee
The waiter being Castilian
said passionately nothing
And why indeed should apologies
be made to me
It was I who was looking in
at the spider
It might be years
before I slipped and drowned
in somebody else’s cup

Poet-tree

i fear that i shall never make
a poem slippier than a snake
or oozing with as fine a juice
as runs in girls or even spruce
no i wont make not now nor later
pnomes as luverlee as pertaters
trees is made by fauns or satyrs
but only taters make pertaters
& trees is grown by sun from sod
& so are the sods who need a god
but poettrees lack any clue
they just need me & maybe you

From The Hazel Bough

I met a lady
on a lazy street
hazel eyes
and little plush feet
her legs swam by
like lovely trout
eyes were trees
where boys leant out
hands in the dark and
a river side
round breasts rising
with the finger’s tide
she was plump as a finch
and live as a salmon
gay as silk and
proud as a Brahmin
we winked when we met
and laughed when we parted
never took time
to be brokenhearted
but no man sees
where the trout lie now
or what leans out
from the hazel bough

The Bear On The Delhi Road

Unreal tall as a myth
by the road the Himalayan bear
is beating the brilliant air
with his crooked arms
About him two men bare
spindly as locusts leap
One pulls on a ring
in the great soft nose His mate
flicks flicks with a stick
up at the rolling eyes
They have not led him here
down from the fabulous hills
to this bald alien plain
and the clamorous world to kill
but simply to teach him to dance
They are peaceful both these spare
men of Kashmir and the bear
alive is their living too
If far on the Delhi way
around him galvanic they dance
it is merely to wear wear
from his shaggy body the tranced
wish forever to stay
only an ambling bear
four-footed in berries
It is no more joyous for them
in this hot dust to prance
out of reach of the praying claws
sharpened to paw for ants
in the shadows ofdeodars
It is not easy to free
myth from reality
or rear this fellow up
to lurch lurch with them
in the tranced dancing of men

WHO WAS FRANK UNDERHILL?

A nation is a body of people who have done great things together in the past and hope to do great things together in the future.

Frank Underhill

Frank Underhill (1889-1971) practically invented the role of public intellectual in English Canada through his journalism, essays, teaching, and political activity. He became one of the country’s most controversial figures in the middle of the twentieth century by confronting the central political issues of his time and by actively working to reform the Canadian political landscape. His propagation of socialist ideas during the Great Depression and his criticism of the British Empire and British foreign policy almost cost him his job at the University of Toronto. In Frank Underhill and the Politics of Ideas, Kenneth Dewar demonstrates how Underhill’s thought evolved from his days as a student at Toronto and Oxford, to his drafting of the Regina Manifesto – the founding platform of the leftist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation – to his support of his long-time friend Lester Pearson’s Liberals in the 1960s. Not willing to be bound by partisan loyalties, his later shift toward the political centre dismayed many of his former allies. The various issues Underhill confronted, Dewar argues, were connected by the pioneering role he played as an intellectual and by his social democratic vision of politics. Dewar also reassesses Underhill’s historical work, focusing on how it differed from the new professional history practised by his younger colleagues. Intelligently written and thoroughly researched, Frank Underhill and the Politics of Ideas delivers important insights into twentieth-century political life and innumerable lessons for twenty-first century Canada.

JUST MY THOUGHTS…BASED ON VERY LITTLE RESEARCH

For some Bizarre reason the word ‘socialism’ angers many Americans. Perhaps because they associate socialists too closely with Stalinism

and the excesses of Soviet communism. Half a century ago Isaac Deutscher said that political change can only come from the turbulence of

free thought in the United States. I remember that. Even if it seem unlikely today.

To listen to Trumpists the word socialism is akin to the ideas that are found in the depths of evil. Underfhill was a socialist

who became a Liberal. For that he paid a price. Seems to me that John Ricker took the same

path only did not have to pay the price of alienation. John Ricker gets a thrill out of the freedom

of thought…does so with humour and joy…fears not the turmoil of ideas. Revels in them as Underhilll

must have done.

WHY DO SOME PEOPLE CONSIDER SOCIALISM FRIGHTENING?

Socialists choose cooperation to competition, and favour collectivism over individualism. The defining, value of socialism is equality, socialism sometimes being portrayed as a form of egalitarianism. Socialists consider that a measure of social equality is the essential assurance of social stability and cohesion, and that it supports freedom in the sense that it gratifies material needs and helps for personal development. The socialist movement has conventionally articulated the interests of the industrial working class, seen as systematically troubled or structurally disadvantaged within the capitalist system. The objective of socialism is to lessen or abolish class divisions.

WHO ARE MY HEROES?

“Alan, I thought this Episode was about John Ricker not Alan Skeoch.” :

“Good point Marjorie”

“Then why continue?”

“Because I would just like to give my heroes a good airing.”

“Boring, Alan…drifting into boredom”

“You might be right we seem to be living in an anti-heroic time where humans that were

once leaders have their statues desecrated with paint and their figures decapitated.”

“You know something, Alan, you might have hit on something. We all have heroes

but rarely say so.”

“That is the point John Ricker made.”

“Just who are your heroes?”

(If you do not want to read about my heroes then start listing your own herroes>)

I am such a shallow person …no great depth of political insight like Ricker. A child of the

1950’s. Part of a generation of undeserved wealth earned by the fires of the Great Depression

and the sacrifices of so many lives in a war soon to be a footnote.

I have a lot of heroes.

In elementary school there were two. Miss Sharpely who loved us and Mr. Hambly who

made earth science come alive. He hung a huge wasps nest in his room to which some fired

paper clips from elastic bands. But meant no disrespect.

In secondary school there were more

Evan Cruickshank

Roberta Charlesworth

Maida Schroeder

Duncan Green

Fred Burford

Wally Little

In the university of Toronto there were heroes of a different sort

Marcus Long , philosopher…

Marjorie Hughes, open arms, open heart…made me a lucky man

Dr. Norman Paterson, geophysicist who made science exciting

Voltaire, Steinbeck, Michener, Kant, Rousseau and a host of others not least of

which was Eric Fromm’s book The Sane Society. Somewhere in the book

Fromm argued that everyone should get the same wage. Then people would

choose careers they love rather than careers that paid the most money. And we

would be a happier people.

When I said that to my friends they thought I was nuts.

and later in post grad

John Ricker

Andrew Lockhart

Desmond Morton

Phyllis Morgon

If I had to choose one high school mega hero, it would be Evan Cruickshank. Although

I never noticed it at the time “Crooky” taught me to think for myself

with three little words “I don’t know,” I was not a person that devoted

myself to homework. Skipped doing it whenever I could which was

often. I meant no disrespect to my teachers. There just was not enough

time to do everything…sports, dancing, dating girls, reading for pleasure, earning

a little money. So I skipped homework and accepted the odd detention

for doing so. One detention was memorable. Roberta Charlesworth

kept me after school to serve a detention in her room. Seemed easier

to serve it in the girls gym where there were females in bloomers to look

at. Roberta Charlesworth was the girls coach. Next day she called me

to the front of the class…I always tried to find a middle seat…why did

she want me? She promptly lifted me off the ground by my ear. “When

you serve a detention with me you do it here in this room not in the girls gym.

I respected her as a teacher….one of my teacher heroes in spite of my

sore ear..

But “Crooky” takes the prize with his simple “I don’t know”

technique. I respected him. Stood in awe of him at times. His explanation

of Marxian socialism stays with me to this day.

One day however I got up my nerve to ask him about some event

in history that intrigued me. Crooky would surely know. Bt he did not.

He even confessed “I don’t know” which sent me scurrying to the library

that evening just to help Crooky out. Not to suck around. I did that

out of respect. Later I discovered that his ‘I don’t know’ may have

been deliberate but I was never sure. “Crooky” asked big time questions.

But he was also humble…open minded.

John Ricker became a hero as well. He conveyed a deep love for

big questions. The kind that start simply but lead to universal truths.

I was very sorry when I heard that John had become Dean of

the Faculty of Educaton. That meant he would no longer be facing

down classes of new teachers. Teaching. I even told him so John could make us think

about history from many angles. Made us realize we were taking on

a sacred trust by shaping young people. He had respect. Without

respect , as I mentioned, no solid teacher-student learning can occur.

One of his methods was similar to Crooky but different also. When a

student asked John a question there was often a pause…a dead silence

in the room while John considered his answer. In 1963 the silence was aided

and abetted by drawing on a cigarette and then reaching for his coffee cup.

Dead and total silence when he did that. W were like the Israelites waiting

for Moses to bring word from on high. And John consumed books like a

bull does ensilage with one different. The ideas in a good book went to

his brain and not his stomach.

Life takes curious twists and turns. Most surprising of these twists and

turns is that both Evan Cruickshank and John Ricker became good

friends. Peers in the pursuit of knowledge. Shapers of the minds

of students. Both of them pushed me towards Parkdale Collegiate.

“If you teach at that school, you will never want to leave, Alan.”

So true.

NOW FOR THE CHALLENGE

Who are your heroes?

REMEMBER THE SODER IN THE COFFEE CUP?

WHO IS EARL BIRNEY?

WHAT IS THE BEST SCHOOL? EASY TO ANSWER…THE BEST SCHOOL IS THE SCHOOL YOU ARE TEACHING IN TODAY…MAKE

IT THAT WAY. NOT YESTERDAY’S SCHOOL OR TOMORROW’S SCHOOL. THE SCHOOL YOU ARE TEACHING IN TODAY IS

BEST AND YOU HAVE A DUTY TO MAKE IT SO.

A LOT OF MY HEROES AT THE UIVERSITY OFTORONTO WERE ON OUR FOOTBALL TEAM….ABOVE

PIERRE TRUDEAU WAS A HERO

STAN ELLIS, MY FIRST PRINCIPAL WAS A HERO

SHIELA HAMBLETON WAS A VERY KIND AND SHARING HERO…LED BY EXAMPLE

HEROES IN MY LIFE CAME IN ALL KINDS OF SHAPES AND FORMS…TEACHERS AND STUDENTS.

August 7, 2021September 9, 2021

re EPISODE 402 :JOHN RICKER … HEROES IN OUR LIVES EPISODE 402 WLL BE DELAYED

RE EPISODE 402: JOHN RICKER … HEROES IN OUR LIVES EPISODE 402 WLL BE DELAYED

Hi John (Wardle)

Castlefield Institute,

august 2021

RE: HEROES IN OUR LIVES

This story will be slow in coming because when JOHN RICKER edited my speech in 1980’s he revealed

so much about himself…about John Ricker.. that I must follow the evidence to Earl Birney and Frank

Underhill…two heroes of Ricker’s that I have never known. Reveals so much.

The theme is HEROES IN OUR LIVES…think about it. Our heroes reveal so

much about who we are, what we believe, our life journey.

For those of you who do not know John Ricker. Please do not feel this episode is

peripheral to your lives. It is not. Recollections of heroes … personal heroes…says

so much about the essence of each of us.

Origin of the story comes from my discovery among the dust detritus of my files

a speech that I made long ago. John Ricker edited the speech ruthlessly. The

story HEROES IN OUR LIVES is the result of his edit. Who is John Ricker?

He was a little kid in Great Depression…a high school valedictorian in 1942…a

rear gunner in a war where many of his friends died…a teacher of history…a receiver

of the Order of Canada…a friend. A person who triggers thought.

So the episode will take more time. Worth it. And I must make the story readable

by people who have never heard of John Ricker.

I send these comments as an explanation of the delay.

alan skeoch

august 2021

August 4, 2021September 9, 2021

EPISODE 400 THE SHORT AND HORRIFIC LIFE OF GEORGE EVERITT GREEN, HOME CHILD , PART FOUR

alan skeoch

August 2021

Each episode will include a picture of George Green

OLD OWEN SOUND COURT HOUSE

IMAGNE sitting in this court room while Dr. Dow described injuries to George Green

DOCTOR DOW DESCRIBES BODY OF GEORGE GREEN

Dr. Dow was asked to state the results of his examination of the body of George Green.

-He was “very much emaciated…extremely so,”

-His skin as a palish while, bloodless, dirty like there had been

a coat of varnish on it.

-“the skin of his nose looked like it had been taken off. “

-The outer edge of his left ear

had a full length scab.

-There was a large scab on the left cheek covered by a scab,

-a large bruise on the

lower surface of the chin,

-an old wound below the right elbow,

-the ends of the fingers were gangrenous

– the bones of some finger were completely bared,

-the left knee had several abrasions,

-there was an ulcer

on the ankle about the size of a palm of a hand,

-one foot was also gangrenous,

-the left leg looked

like it had been scraped with the end of a rough sawed board.

-abscesses on sole of the other foot with ulcer

on front,

-bed sore the size of the Doctor’s and o the right hip,

-spots on body which may have been

flea bites.

This list is hard believe. It would be a good idea to read it twice.

Had it not come from a trained medical doctor I would

have assumed the list was fake. As events turned out the last entry led to

deeper insight into the life of George Green and also his tormentor.

Flea bites! Not so.

It was suggested to the jury by defence witnesses that George Green was the child syphilitic mother…and

that George was syphilitic when h arrived in Canada. His death therefore should

be expected. Negative prejudices of city life by rural people was common. Dr. Dow gave his professional opinion on this matter and went

on to suggest how George died.

QUESTION TO DR. DOW: How did George Green die?

I examined for syphilis and for scrofula (Tuberculosis)…did not find disease.

Did you ever in your life, either as a physician or otherwise. see a bedroom in as filthy stat?

I never did…it was about as fifty as anything I have ever seen.

What was the cause of the wounds, marks and abrasions you saw on the body?

Direct violence

Do you think the wounds could have been accidental?

I don’t se how they could.

What caused the death of George Green?

Causes of death were many – the sleeping apartment, improper food, general way of living,

being abused from day to day and the wounds themselves particularly the condition

of the fingers and toes. (gangrene)

Another doctor was then called to testify. Dr. W.H. Scott was present when Dr. Dow performed

the most mortem on George Green. He was cross-examined by defence lawyer Tucker in an

effort to establish that the boy was syphilitic hence the red spots on his body. And the boy

was clumsy hence the abrasions on his body from frequent falls.

QUESTION: Didn’t it strike you as peculiar that the fleas would take bites in regular place equals

distance from each other?

ANSWER: I didn’t say they were directly regular.

Pretty nearly said the bites were in marching order feasting off the boy as they went along.

Perhaps they were not external bites at all.

Then Mr. Tucker called another doctor , Dr.Lang who testified he bites were not flea bites

because the bites extended deep below the skin to the bone,

WITNESSES WHO TESTIFIED

Here are some of the comments made by neighbours and farm workers

LAURIE FERGUSON to MR. MACKAY

“Where do you live?

North Keppel, about a mile and three quarters from Miss Findlay’s.

Did you know George Teen?

by eye sight

Did you see anything as to how she used him?

Did you hear her say anything as to how she used him?’

Yes, in the harvest time she said she made him sleep wit the pigs because he misbehaved in his bed.

She put him out two nights with the pigs and when he would not promise not to do it anymore she him out two more.

DOCTOR BARNARDO

From England DR Barnardo responded with heated indignation to the suggestions that George Green was both

imbecilic and syphilitic. He cited the results of the British medical examination given before

George boarded the Parisian for Canada. He said the children sent to Canada were

the cream of his rescue mission.

DAVID GUNSON

Where do you live?

Keppel

What is your business?

Blacksmith

What kind of lad was George Green?

He was a quiet boy, rather a mannerly little fellow, as far as talking is concerned.

Were you present at the Findlay farm on the 11h of October”

(Yes) It was a cold day and she said she sent Mary Brown up to make supper and sent the boy

to warm himself and go and get the cows. Mary Brown made a pot of mush (made with bran and flour)

and fried a pan of potatoes and then she went out to he barn to help Miss Findlay clean up the barn floor.

When Miss Findlay came in the she asked , “Who the hell is in here?”

The boy came out and she she got a stick or kicked him and the boy fell over and she jammed the pail together.

Smashed the pail?

Yes

Did she say she kicked him?

Yes and second time kicked at him and he upset the swill pail.

Did she give an reason for doing this?

Yes. she said when she went into the the boy “had eaten all the potatoes and damn near all the mush.

JAMES HUSBAND

Where do you live, Mr. Husband?

Kemble, sir

How far do you from Miss Findlay?

I suppose three miles.

What was George Green doing the last time you saw him on Nov. 8?

Unloading wood out of wagon. I was coming and Saw her beat the boy with a stick the size of a chair leg,

about three feet long.

Hard blows or not?

I should say pretty hard blow.

If that stick turned out to be an axe handle, would that be reasonable chastisement even if he deserved it?

Was there anything the matter with the boy when you saw him?

I saw blood on his nose.

What part of his nose?

Across the bridge.

(Apparently George Green did not throw the firewood far enough from the wagon and Helen

Findlay had to pick them up and throw the wood to the fence.)

NORMAN MCLEOD

Where do you live?

North Keppel – farm

Did you ever see George Green go about his work there?

I have seen him getting the cows, bring them down from the high rock field and I have seen him milk

five cows and carry the milk up the rock.

Is that an easy task?

It is not. There is just a path blasted out of the rock for the cattle to get up and down and the precipices

are almost perpendicular, it was just blasted so cattle can get up and down and it is very steep and it its

quite a distance to carry milk.

(MR. Tucker cross examined Norman McLeod who said “I don’t think the boy was very sensible or smart

of intellect)

BABARA HORNE

Where do you live, Mrs.Horne?

AT North Keppel, next farm to Miss Findlay

What kind of boy was George Green when you first saw him?

A healthy looking boy. He looked clean and well dressed.

Any sign of disease?

I didn’t notice any.

Did you see him eating there?

I saw him once.

When?

At his breakfast.

About the end of August.

Eating with others or alone.

Alone

What time?

Nine O’clock.

What was he eating?Porridge. It looked to me like bran porridge with just enough flour to hold it together.

Was there anything else to eat?

Just brown bread on the table.

Did you see anything of Miss Findlay’s treatment of the boy?

Did you hear her say anything…with reference to her treatment of him?

Yes, I have often heard her say things. She said if he didn’t work she would stick the pitch fork in him. I heard

her scolding I’m…yelling at him. I heard her halfway across the field.

Did you see the boy much after he went to Miss Findlay’s?

Yes, he came over to our place sometime in October. He just had on an old pair of pants and I think the

jersey that the boys have when the boys come from the Barnardo Home and he was bare-footed and bare-

headed and it was raining….a cold, cold day

Was there any signs of sickness or skin disease then.

None then, no.

I want to know if you can tell me anything Miss Findlay said as to how she used him, or as to what she had done

and what he said when she did then?

she told me about striking him sometimes in one way and he said “Oh, please stop.” and she told that was great fun.

Did you consider the food was fit to at.

I don’t think it was fit for a working boy to eat.

Would you like to eat it?

No.

CROSS EXAMINED BY MR. TUCKER

I suppose you will stick to it that this was bran porridge?

Certainly

You have enlarged on it a this time. At the prior investigation you said it looked like bran porridge and now

today you say it was bran porridge with enough flour to keep it together.

You didn’t give me a chance.

Of course you thought it was a very unChristian thing to treat a boy that way, threatening to stick the pitch fork

in him?

Why, of course I thought that.

And at the same time you were going backwards and forwards in a friendly manner?

Not very often.

And you never thought it proper for some kind of objection to be raised? Y ou never spoke to her about it,

never complained to her?

I told her when she first got him she should send him back, he was not a suitable boy for her.

Why not?

I didn’t think he could do the work, she was always complaining about him every time she spoke to me.

Why could he not do her work?

Well, I thought he could but she said not. I saw him loading hay and saw him hitching the horses to he wagon.

You never said to her about the manner in which she was treating him, that is so is it not?

Well, don’t think Miss Findlay would’ve taken it from me.

The lawyers MacKey and Tucker cross examined witnesses aggressively even using contradictory statements

made by husbands and wives as with the Hornes. At stake was the life of Helen Rose Findlay. Canada, in 1895

still practised capital punishment. If convicted then the hangman could be called. Mr. Tucker tried to convince the

jury that George Green died of natural causes. Mr. Mackay wanted a conviction for murder.

MR. W. H. HORNE (examined by Mr. Mackay)

Where do you live?

Near Big Bay

How far from Miss Findlay?

The next farm.

Across the road or alongside?

Alongside.

How far apart are the houses?

About 3/8 to 1/2 mile

What kind of lad was he?

Fairly healthy, average size for a 15 year old boy. Taller than the general run of Home Boys at that age. Not so

stoutly as Keppel boys.

Did you see him at any kind of work that would test his strength?

Yes, a few days after he arrived Miss Findlay brought over some grain to my fanning mill and he turned the mill

while grain was being cleaned.

What kind of fanning mill is it?

Here are a few pictures of the same kind Chatham fanning mill as described, Kids Molly and Jackson

seem to be enjoying themselves. George Green was not as enthusiastic

A Chapman (Chatham?) with bagger attached.

He appeared from that to have average strength.

I should say average strength.

Did you see him frequently after that during the summer?

Yes.

He was dressed as a rule?

Sometimes not very well dressed but I didn’t think anything of that in the summer when it was warm…Later, when

it was colder I thought the boy hadn’t enough warm clothes on. He looked blue and cold in the fall.

Digging potatoes with single horse and potato plow

Do you remember an occasion on which you were digging potatoes?

Yes, sometime late in October.

Did you see Miss Findlay that day?

I heard the boy cry and thought I heard a blow and I looked to see what was the matter. They were working in

the barley field. Miss Findlay had a fork in her hand and the boy was trying to get away from her and she

was scolding him and following with the fork in her hand.

What were they doing?

Hauling in barley, but their crop was very late.

Was she close enough to strike him?

I think she was about the length of a fork handle away when I saw her. I have heard her scolding him often around

the house and the barn, sometimes in the field.

You were over at the house the day after the boy had died?

The night before, after she came home from town.

What condition was the bed in?

It was dirty. I think some clothes had been used in the stable because there was marks on them and they looked

as if they had been…and I suppose some of the clothes was soiled by the boy himself lying in the bed.

NOTE: Witness after witness testified that Rose Findlay abused George Green. She said she went to town

to get medical help the night he died which may or may not have been true. Miss Findlay was having trouble

managing the farm….late harvest of barley and potatoes, need to sell most of her milk to local cheese factory

raised doubts about care of animals. Lack of food in the house and regular meals of bran mush was another

indication.

MR. HORNE (Cross examined by Mr. Tucker for defence)

You don’t pretend to say that the boy was fat and strong?

No, sir, I would not say he was a rugged boy

You don’t pretend to say Miss Findlay struck him that day in the harvest field?

I didn’t see her.

In what condition were his hands and face?

They were very dirty very often.

There was nothing very extraordinary about his turning that fanning mill a few minutes? It was no test of strength?

It would have been if he had continued at it. It is hard work for me to run it right alone.

Turning half a bag of grain through it, that would not amount to anything?

There are six or seven bags, but they were not very full. About a bushel and a half in each bag.

Do you know if Miss Findlay assisted him?

Perhaps she did. I didn’t stay there.

Did you ever notice his habit of walking?

Yes, I didn’t think he was a very good walker, he took a long stride but I thought he was not a smart walker…not

very smart on his feet..

He was humpbacked?

No, I should say round shouldered and carried his head forward.

His mouth was also drawn to one side?

A little.

And his lower jaw projected more than the upper? You are the first witness to admit that his mouth was drawn

to one side. He was cross eyed also. right?

His face being drawn around I would not be sure whether he was, but had the appearance of being cross eyed.

Did you know he was left handed?

No sir.

You didn’t know that?

Left handed men used to be the best in olden times.

MR. MAcKAY

You say he seemed to be clumsy on his feet. Did you know he was absolutely blind in one eye?

No sir.

Would that account for his awkwardness?

It just might.

Suppose he was blind in one eye and short sighted in the other?

I think it would. And I think that is why he walked with his head down.

END OF EPISODE….COULD THE TREATMENT GET ANY WORSE?

Picture of Big Bay not far from the Findlay Farm.

July 31, 2021September 9, 2021

EPISODE 399 THE SHORT AND HORRIFIC LIFE OF GEORGE EVERITT GREEN, HOME CHILD , PART THREE

Note…some readers may get upset as this court case unfolds. Be forewarned. Of all the Home Child cases

I have read, and there have been many, this is the worst. It seems many journalists agree for the case is

mentioned often. No other journalists seems to used the court records though. For good reason.

EPISODE 399: THE SHORT AND HORRIFIC LIFE OF GEORGE EVERITT GREEN, HOME CHILD , PART THREE

alan skeoch

August 2021

The condition of George Green when he arrived at Miss Findlay’s farm was critical to the case.

If the testimony of the stage drive was competent then Miss Findlay could not be held responsible

for his death. He was mentally and physically ill. James Jeffery, blacksmith apprentice in Kemble, was called to the witness stand.

JAMES JEFFERY. SWORN. EXAMINED BY DEFNSE ATTORNEY TUCKER ND CROSS EXAMINED BY ATTORNEY MACKAY

FOR HE PROSECUTION.

QUESTION: MR. MACKAY: You told us the first time you saw George Green he appeared to be healthy and straight?

ANSWER: JAMES JEFFERY: Yes sir

He was not all twisted and tangled up, like Mr. Johnson said?

Not that I noticed.

Then you didn’t see him again until the end of September (one month before George Green’s death)

Would you say he was thinner?

I think he was a little, sir

He did not look as plump and healthy looking.

Did he look as if he had been weakened down from some cause?

Yes, sir.

HIs face was not clean and not as good a colour, is that right?

When you saw him first he had a pretty good colour….was a healthy boy?….mannerly? polite? kind and docile?

…he did not seem impudent…inclined to be bashful.

Yes sir.i

Did you ever see anything in him that would indicate he was a saucy or impudent boy?

I never saw anything.

Did you see the boy’s trunk or valise?

Yes I did..not very long ago.

Did you see it in the stage that day?

No sir, not that day.

Do you know the difference between a Home trunk and a valise?

Lately I do sir

What is a Home boy’s trunk.

A wooden box, sir.

Not leather like a valise at all?

No sir.

What size would the trunk be?

I would judge about 26” across, 30” long and 18” deep.

Then Mr. Johnston is not right when he says it is a valise?

That wooden box is not a valise…I’m sure of that.

NOTE: Why is this debate between a valise and trunk important. What point is Mr. MacKay trying to establish?

The jury had a great deal of difficulty since witnesses tended to contradict each other. Some witnesses were

lying. But why? Mr. Johnson testified that George Green was an imbecile…a museum piece. On the other

hand James Jeffery, a Home boy working in Kemble, testified that George was ‘very healthy looking’ when he arrived

in May but by September he wa ‘rather thinner (and had) no conversation in him’.

Subsequent testimony by Alexander Amos, a nearby farmer, suggested starvation when George Green came ‘for a

basket of green leaves’ in August. Mr. Guido, another neighbour testified George wore boos while others said he

was barefoot. All agreed he was bareheaded much of the time which accounted for the peculiar marks on

his head. Sunburn. On the other hand the prosecutor witnesses believed the mark on the head and body

indicated George had been struck several times. Who could the jury believe.?

Farmers Guido and Horne were called to move the body from his bed to two boards. Mr. Guido’s testimony was

in sharp contrast to the medical doctor who was called at the same time. (both Guido and Guidi names are used for

the farmer)

MR. JOSEPH GUIDI, SWORN, QUESTIONED BY MR TUCKER.

(Joseph Guidi or Guido had the farm to the west side of the Findlay farm)

QUESTION: Had the boys’ physical appearance changed from the time he was first seen in June until the

time he was seen again in the middle of October?

ANSWER: No, with the exception that he looked cold, I could not see any difference as far as physical condition.

Did you ever see him alive again?

No, this was the last time.

Did you ever see him dead?

Yes

What day was that?

Sunday morning…he was in his bed. I was over helping remove him from the bed he died in.

Who assisted you?

Mr. Horne

What condition was that bed?

Well…middling fair

What do you mean by that?

Possibly I have seen cleaner and I have seen dirtier clothes, I would just call them in between.

What was the atmosphere in that room?

It didn’t smell very pleasant, I suppose on account of the corpse…but it was a good deal the smell as in

a farm house where the were boiling turnips for the pigs. I didn’t smell anything until we moved the corpse.

What was the condition of the floor of the upstairs?

I didn’t see anything out of the way on the floor.

It is said by one witness there was old harness and rags it was generally dirty.

There was no harness that I noticed.

What was his physical appearance Sunday Nov. 10 as compared with when you first saw him in June?

The body looked quite natural to me with the exception of the scars on his nose and face.

The condition of the room was described by Dr. Cameron in quite the opposite manner. The room was so indescribably

filthy that the doctor had never in his whole practice, even in the slums of Glasgow, seen such a room where a

human being was expected to live. George Green was found curled up in the fetal position, in the centre of a

nest in a straw tick. Around the nest was a hardened ring of excrement. The smell was overpowering . The

Findlay bedroom was the dirtiest, most unwholesome living quarters Dr. Cameron had ever seen…and caused him

recurring nightmares ever since. To Dr. Cameron the marks on the boys’ body suggested terrible abuse;

DOCTOR SCOTT, EXAMINED BY MR. MACKAY

(Another medical opinion solicited)

QUESTION: MR. MACKAY: Suppose the boy was used in this way: struck with a broom handle, with a manure fork handle,

kicked around, punched with fist when he was down, hit with slipper and that he had been repeatedly thrashed in that

way throughout the months of July, August, September, October … and also compelled to sleep in a filthy room…

Would all that accelerate death?

ANSWER, DR. SCOTT: Yes

TESTIMONY OF DR WILLIAM G. DOW

QUESTION BY MR. MACKAY You are a practising physician of how many years?

ANSWER BY DR. DOW: Nearly ten years

You went down to the Findlay farm on 11th November with coroner Cameron?

I did

You held a post mortem examination I believe?

Yes

Did you see the bed in that room?

I did

Give me the condition of the Bed in which he died or was said to have died.

We found the room very dirty, a good deal of old rubbish. On the bed was a blanket, part of which looked like it

had been in the stable.

Was there any clean clothing at all?

Not what would call clean.

Give me the condition of the bed in detail.

It was an old fashioned posted bed with board in front and a straw tick opened down the middle showing straw which was short, very

filthy and semi-solid, very filthy…no spring.

What kind of filth?

Well. the only way I could describe it wa as being a place where possibly a pig might have lain for a week or longer.

What kind of filth? Human?

Yes, Might have been there for weeks.

Did any part of that bed show any signs of having been made up in recent times?

None whatever

What about the atmosphere.

Stifling.

Note: Readers might be asking themselves if this case of abuse could get any worse. It can and does.

NEXT EPISODE

July 31, 2021September 9, 2021

EPISODE …HOME CHILDREN..”OUR GUTTER CHILDREN CARTOON

July 31, 2021September 9, 2021

EPISODE 398 THE SHORT AND HORRIFIC LIFE OF GEORGE EVERITT GREEN, HOME CHILD PART TWO

EPISODE 398 THE SHORT AND HORRIFIC LIFE OF GEORGE EVERITT GREEN, HOME CHILD , PART TWO

alan skeoch

July 2021

NOTE: The fifteen year lifespan of George Everett Green is not a story of idyllic rural life

on an Ontario farm. The last six months of his life are the direct opposite. I used the word horrific in the heading…that

says it all. Rather than type a new manuscript I will stick largely to the script written in 1992 with

corrections added. In 1992 I did not know what happened to Rose Findlay, the tormentor of George…murderess

is a better term. Documents recently discovered state she spent at least one year in the Mercer Reformatory

for Women located in the Parkdale district of Toronto. The Mercer Reformatory has been demolished only the home of the matron remains.

Rose was convicted of child abuse rather than murder. Convicted. She did not escape justice even though

many people considered her innocent. Some Canadians believed Home Children should never have been

shipped to Canada owing to the fact most of these children came the slums of English cities.

The negative attitude to Home Children circulated among many Canadians. The attitude is best

seen in the political cartoon below. The children were regarded as the sweepings of the slums. Worthless and

diseased. Children that England was glad to send to the colonies. Children that many people in Canada

felt were not legitimate immigrants. As a result many Home Children were overworked and abused. Mind you Others

were greeted warmly and became valued as future farmers. Love and hate were expressed among Canadians when Home Children

were mentioned in casual conversation. That will be apparent as my story unfolds. But first take a close look

at this wretched cartoon….titled “OUR GUTTER CHILDREN” being rescued by a Christian missionary called Dr Barnardo. George Everett

Green was abandoned by his laundress mother when he was 6 years old.

WHY TELL THIS STORY OF NEGLECT, ABUSE AND MURDER?

Why is this story so close to me? My grandmother, Louisa Bufton, was nearly such a child. Her mother had been impregnated by

one person named Doctor Price…a medical doctor. He assumed no responsibility for grandma. And her mother was too poor to

do much . How could single women with little children even survive? No help for them.

A distant aunt, Miss Webb, heard that Louisa was being mistreated and possibly becoming a street child in Manchester.

Aunt Webb rescued her and brought her along with another child to a farm in Herefordshire where she grew up. But always with a

bit of the stigma that abandoned children carried through their lives. Grandma was a very bright woman whose cheerfulness dominated

her life. A good marriage happened when she met Edward Freeman who became the head gardener on the 1500 acre Eywood Estate

near Kington, Herefordshire. Migrated to Canada in 1908. Shared adventures and tragedies. She sang and played the organ as an

integral part of her Erin Township, Wellington County, Ontario community after she and

her husband Edward Freeman migrated to Canada. Somehow they made a living and raised two children on a tiny 25 acre

farm with stones strewn liberally on the bit of dry land and four large swamps where nothing could be grown. We still have

that farm. Today it is our country estate.

The Eywood Manor House before it was demolished in 1954 and the Estate sold in pieces.

Edward Freeman’s brick walled gardens still survive to this day. We have been there often.

The Freeman farm as it appeared in 1914…with Louisa Bufton Freeman standing and her daughter Elsie Freeman (my mother)

cuddling their dog Punch. The farm house remans much as it appears here. The barn is gone.

Why tell you this? Because it is best you know my bias before reading the story of George Everitt Green.

alan Skeoch

july 2021

THE MURDER OF GEORGE EVERITT GREEN

November, 1992: WE drove North from Owen Sound through the abandoned village of Presqu’ile where George Everett Green’s body

had been carried in November 1895. Mike Brillinger and I planned to made a video of the death of poor little George. We Drove through the village of Kemble where the old general store stood cold and empty on the dreary November

afternoon. Cloudy day. Then we ascended the limestone and shale escarpment that towers over the deep water port

of Owen Sound. Hairpin turns with the forest reclaiming land lost to pioneer axes a century ago. A mile or so on we

found the graveyard. The wire gate was open.

And there it was…the first gravestone. A large piece of square limestone with an obelisk top pointing to heaven.

Beneath that stone lay the remains of George Findlay, brother to Helen Rose Findlay. He had been killed in 1894 when his team of

horses bolted throwing him to his death on the dirt road leading to the forgotten village of Big Bay. Somewhere on this

road George Findlay died. He was 43 years old.

Helen Rose was 41 years old when she inherited their farm…Lot 42, Concession 25, North Keppel Township, Grey County, Ontario.

Settlement of the will was contested as many relatives felt Helen Rose Findlay should not get the farm. But she did. She spent the

winter of 1894 alone in the frame farmhouse. A tough winter for Helen.

I don’t think she was ready for the tasks of pioneer farming. I do not admire Helen Findlay but do have some compassion

for her situation. North Keppel is a poor place to try and operate a farm. In November. 1992 the land was abandoned. Thin topsoil,

poor drainage, brutal winters. A depressing place. Nearby is a lake named the Slough of Despond, a term borrowed

from Bunyan’s Pilgrm’s Progress. Slough of Despond … not much more need be said.

Helen could not operate the farm without help so she applied to Alfred Owen, superintendent of the Barnardo distributing

home for young destitute children located in Toronto. Her application was accepted since her brother George had taken a

Home child without any subsequent problem.

Fifteen year old George Green was sent by train to Owen Sound where he was picked up by William Johnson, the stagecoach driver.

A few months later Mr. Johnson would be a key witness in the murder trial. William Johnson testified that the boy was an imbecile

who could not even get off the stagecoach without falling. Others described the boy as a kind of docile version of Frankenstein.

WHO WAS GEORGE EVERRIT GREEN?

He looked a lot younger than 15. (Some sources said he was 17 really but agree he looked younger than that). His early life had not been

pleasant. His father died 1888 when George was very young. Apparently his mother was a drunken abusive person. George became a slum kid…a street orphan.

Negative comments about the mothers of slum children are quite common. And also very insensitive. Seems popular these days

to judge the lives of people in the past using the lens of the present as I have said before. Single mothers in 19th century England

lived a vicious hand to mouth existence. No social services. Often carrying the stigma of loose and immoral behaviour. Alone and rejected.

How so many of these women managed to keep their children and survive is to me miraculous. The fact that many surrendered their

children to social missionaries like Dr Barnardo should be no surprise. Take a moment to think what you would do in similar situations.

George was rescued by Dr. Barnardo when George’s sister and mother signed him over to the Barnardo Home. Dr. Barnardo was

an English evangelist whose compassion for destitute and abandoned children led to the

creation of one of the greatest refuges for the poor in England. George loved the Barnardo Home…first time he felt safe. He was fed,

housed and given training in basic trades. He was also taught to read and write in order that he could read the bible and

become a good Christian. Then on March 25, 1895 he joined 167 other male Barnardo children being sent to Canada on the

steamship Parisian. Not a pleasant experience . The boys were jammed into the steerage part of the ship. George was sea sick

for the entire trip and had to live in foul conditions throughout.

BACKGROUND RECORD

“Until he was six, Green lived with his older sister, Margaret, his younger brother, Walter, and his parents in lodging-houses in the Tottenham suburb of London. In 1886 the parents deserted their children, who were admitted to the Old Parish School and then to the Enfield Farm School run by the Edmonton Poor Law Union, a local government institution. Their father died in January 1888. In May 1894 their mother induced Margaret, aged 17, to leave her job at the farm school for a place in service, and in retaliation the union discharged the boys into their mother?s care. Within a month Mrs Green was unable to pay the rent on her room, and she and the boys began to sleep rough. In July 1894 George and Walter were admitted to the East End Juvenile Mission of Dr Thomas John Barnardo at their mother?s request. George was described in the admission documents as well conducted, but with a cast in his left eye and a peculiar appearance. Eight months later, on 21 March 1895, the brothers embarked for Canada in a party of 167 boys.

George was sent on 3 April to a bachelor farmer in Norfolk County, Ont., who returned him to the Barnardo receiving home in Toronto within the trial period of a month because the boy?s defective vision meant that he could not drive a team. On 7 May, Green was dispatched to a second place, near Owen Sound, to live with a single woman, Helen R. Findlay. Since her brother?s death the previous summer, Findlay had run the family farm alone. Before that time, two Barnardo boys had been placed on separate occasions with the Findlays. Neighbours who saw Green soon after he arrived described him as clean, healthy, quiet, and backward. Findlay, who after her brother?s death had been observed doing field and barn work the community regarded as inappropriate for women, they viewed with suspicion”

These comments tell precious little about George. What was he really like? Was he an imbecile? Or was he just a shy kid with physical

problems. On this matter hinged the whole murder case. One of the first persons to testify was William Johnson who swore ‘to tell the the whole

truth and nothing but the truth” He was put on the stand by defence lawyer Tucker who was defending Helen Rose Findlay. The purpose of Johnson’s

testimony wa to persuade the jury that George Green was weak in body and mind…a sick boy suffering from congenital syphillis inherited

from an immoral mother or, should that argument fail, Mr. Tucker inferred that George suffered from ‘Scrofula’ …i.e. tuberculosis.

THE MURDER TRIAL: OWEN SOUND, ONTARIO, 1895: HELEN ROSE FINDLAY CHARGED WITH MURDER

THE STAGECOACH DRIVER’S TESTIMONY REGARDNG GEORGE GREEN

“QUESTION: You are a stage coach driver from Owen Sound to Big Bay?

ANSWER: Yes

Do you know George E. Green?

Yes, I saw him.

When did you first meet him?

I think it was the early part of May (1895)

As you first saw the boy describe his personal appearance.

He was very much deformed.

In what way>

Several ways, I think. One leg was very crooked or something wrong with his feet…he didn’t

seem to be able to walk properly.

You say his feet seemed to be tender one leg seemed to be crooked. Then his hips, something wrong there?

Seemed to nbe twisted some way, …he was crooked, twisted in the back.

How were his shoulders?

One shoulder seemed to be as if something knocked it, it was crooked.

His eyes?

His eyes seemed to be looking in two different ways. They were crooked in his head.

What is known as cross eyes?

Yes.

His mouth?

His mouth seemed to be twisted to one side altogether and his chin set out.

Do you know what hand he used (*note – Mr. Tucker knew George was left handed)

How was his intellect?

Very poor. When I would speak to him he would not make answer. I strove to get

some questions out of him and he would not answer me. Generally I wish to know what

they (ie. Home children) are like and I put questions to him but him I could not get

any satisfactory answer.

Did he have any baggage with him?

Yes, a valise.

Who handled the valise?

Well, I did at the last.

Did he handle it at all? He went to lift and he reached out in a different direction from where the

valise was sitting and fell over…he was awkward in all his movements.

Who went out with you on the stage that day?

I think Daniel Davidson was the only one.

How did he get out of the rig?

Well, he eiher tumbled out or fell out. I stopped the horses, and the first thing I saw him on his face and

he was on his hands and face on the road. He either missed the step or something.

Mr. Davidson tells us that he jumped out of the side of the rig on the road.

He did not, he tumbled and fell out.

CROSS EXAMINATION BY LAWYER MR. MACKAY (LAWYER FOR THE PROSECUTION)

(He is trying to discredit the witness)

QUESTION: You could not trust him alone. He was such an imbecile yoU were

afraid to leave him alone?

ANSWER: I was.

He was so extremely silly you didn’t like leave him alone?

That is SO, he was.

He was not fit to be let loose?

I didn’t think he was fit to send to a farm.

He was in the kind of condition, such an imbecile, he might get lost and die in the fields?

I considered by his appearance he was an imbecile, and like an intoxicated one.

Oh, he was an intoxicated imbecile?

He was not but he looked like that.

Then you would not think this boy able to work at all?

I would not take him to work.

He was all twisted up?>

Yes he was.

Twisted in the shoulder?

Yes

Twisted in the legs?

Yes

Twisted in his back?

Yes

Twisted in the eyes?

Yes

What else?

The jaw was twisted too

And he was doubly imbecilic?

Yes, regular imbecile

(Then) Daniel Davidson is lying straight out when he says that the boy got out of the

rig..what kind of rig, ordinary box, was it?

Yes.

Then Davidson must be lying when he said George put his hands on the sides and sprung out?

I have nothing to do with Daniel Davidson.

Was there anything right about George Green?

His appetite,

Was his head twisted to the side of the high shoulder?

Yes, from the side of the high shoulder

It is a wonder they did not put him in a museum?

I winder they didn’t put him somewhere else.

Was there anything else crooked about him?

Yes, his mouth.

Squint mouth, cross-eyed,what else?

His chin around the jaw was just shot out.

What else? Anything else crooked? You have only told us about his leg, And neck and shoulder

and mouth and eyes…was there anything else?

There seemed to be something wrong with his spine.

His back was twisted?

Seemed to be.

Can it you give us something else. What else was twisted? (I think) You were to a little twisted that

day yourself, were you?

I don’t be as much twisted as you be.

You think your eye-sight was good?

I do.

NOTE: The physical condition of George Green when he arrived at Miss Findlay’s farm is

critical to the case. If the testimony of the stage driver Johnson was competent, then George

Everett Green was crippled and mentally deficient. therefore Miss

Findlay could not be held responsible. According to Johnson, George Green was a broken child before he arrived.

Mr. Mackay then called James Jeffery, a blacksmith apprentice in the village of Kemble.

If Jeffery contradicts Johnson then who is to be believed. Which witness is more credible?

NEXT EPISODE

George Everett Green, 1895 when he turned 15 years of age.

…one of the most notable Home Children ever sent to Canada.

…and one of the most tragic stories of child abuse.

Stark; cramped cell is all too typical of the living quarters provided for inmates at Mercer Reformatory in Toronto. They are no larger than the stalls for horses at the CNE. Many are without windows and the girls try to brighten them up by putting small pictures on the walls.

MERCER REFORMATORY FOR INCORRIGIBLE WOMEN…TORONTO

(Helen Rose Findlay eventually spent time in the Mercer Reformatory)

July 30, 2021September 9, 2021

EPISODE 398 COMING BUT WILL BE LATE

EPISODE 398 STORY COMING BUT MARJORIE WILL NOT HAVE TIME TO PROOF READ UNTIL TONIGHT
Alan skeoch july 2021
This episode has more print and a few startling picture…particularly an 1895 cartoon. I hope most of you are readers. A very tough story in these tough times when we seem to enjoy judging the events of the past by the lens of the present. The story will be sent tonight…part of a series I wrote a few years ago but never had the nerve to publish…never even tried after the story was written.
I have fallen into the habit of writing a story every day…some long, some shore…all illustrated. Episode 398 involve a lot of work and some fact checking. And there are other things in our lives. So glad that most of you seem to like the stories.
alan