{"id":21966,"date":"2022-08-22T11:23:41","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T15:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=21966"},"modified":"2022-08-30T18:51:18","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T22:51:18","slug":"fwd-ewpisode-639-we-bought-hats-to-hide-our-heads-private-jack-skeoch-speaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=21966","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: EWPISODE 639 “WE BOUGHT HATS TO HIDE OUR HEADS” Private Jack Skeoch speaking"},"content":{"rendered":"

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EPISODE 629       GRANDSON JACK SKEOCH TO GRANDPA ALAN SKEOCH<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Aug. 19. 2022<\/div>\n

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\u201cGrandpa,. all our unit bought hats to hide our heads.\u201d  <\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n

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Jack\u2019s answer makes me ashamed to be a Canadian… but at<\/div>\n
the same time proud of my grandson, Jack Skeoch.   These are bad times<\/div>\n
for us all, but particularly bad for young people of principle.<\/div>\n

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Today, Jack and I spent the whole day clearing the barn.  We talked a lot,<\/div>\n
Not preachy kind of talk   just grandpa to grandson.  Just an old man<\/div>\n
talking to a young Canadian soldier, Princess Patricia Light Infantry (PPLI) who had just passed basic training.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 Now Private Jack Skeoch.  Pleased with himself\u2026. for Basic Training is no joke.  <\/p><\/div>\n


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\u201cWe get yelled at a lot\u2026and <\/div>\n
push ups are demanded for tiny tiny infractions. Our unit surprised the sergeants because we are remarkably<\/div>\n
physically fit. Watch this\u2026.\u201d  <\/div>\n

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Jack dropped flat to the ground and did rapid fire push ups as if they were handshakes.He is tough.<\/div>\n
And that is where the hats enter the picture.<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhy did your army unit\u2026your new friends\u2026buy those nondescript baseball hats, Jack?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe hats hide our short haircuts.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy hide the haircuts?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBecause our short hair\u2026shorn like sheep\u2026our short hair identifies us as Canadian soldiers\u2026new soldiers.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo what?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo when we get week end  leave we like to have a beer or two in Edmonton pubs\u2026not a lot Granddad\u2026sometimes we<\/div>\n
 get into trouble.  A lot of the local guys in Edmonton like to pick fights with us.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMust be a reason?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo reason Grandpa\u2026makes no sense at all but it happens.  So we all went out and bought<\/div>\n
the baseball hats to disguise ourselves.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMaybe the locals are jealous. It takes guts to join the Canadian army\u2026.and not everyone is accepted.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSome make comments\u2026try to egg us on.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDo fights happen?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot yet.  Anyway we are not allowed to fight back.  The sergeants made that clear.  If we get<\/div>\n
into a fight we could be sent home\u2026booted out of the army,\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI guess there is a point.  We do not want Canadian soldiers running around<\/div>\n
looking for fights.  We expect better of them than that.   Does that sound right, Jack?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSeems so.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Jack just came home this week.   Three weeks of leave after passing basic training.  He went away <\/div>\n
as a 19 year old kid unsure of what life path he would take.  A lot of kids face that today.  They<\/div>\n
dom\u2019t have clear steps in life\u2019s journey. Voltaire\u2019s Candide\u2026.young French kid who ventured into <\/div>\n
the world around him and concluded \u201cIf this is the best of all possible worlds, what then of the others.\u201d<\/div>\n

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  When I was Jack\u2019s age I had no idea what I would<\/div>\n
do with my life.  Just rolled along.  Went to Victoria College at the U. of T. for no firm reason.<\/div>\n
Best reason I could think of was it might be a good place to find a wife.  But that thought was suppressed<\/div>\n
at first.  Went with my best friend Russ Vanstone who was just as lost as I was back then.   Nicest ting about first year university was our college football<\/div>\n
team.   Just like Jack\u2019s army unit.  New and firm friends.  I skipped a lo of lectures and drank a lot of beer.<\/div>\n

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\u201cJack, what do your high school chums think of you joining the Canadian Army?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMost do not know\u2026.I never say.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMost would not understand.  Being a Canadian soldier is the last thing on their minds I think.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBut they must know?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNope, they don\u2019t.  We do not wear our uniforms\u2026no one back here suspects I am a soldier.  And I<\/div>\n
like to keep it that way.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYou had a goo job before enlisting\u2026making good money\u2026gave that up.  Must have been hard to do that?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot really.  I wanted to do something myself\u2026find a purpose in life. you might say.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat do your mom and dad think?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThey agree\u2026they don\u2019t go around boasting but I think they are impressed<\/div>\n
that I made the decision.   Dad  welcomed me into his business.  But he did not interfere.<\/div>\n
You know that because you and Grandma came with them to my graduation along with my sister Molly.<\/div>\n
Some of the guys did not have tha kind of support.\u201d<\/div>\n

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So Jack and I Spent the whole day making the barn presentable.  I have a small rental busiess . Historic objects<\/div>\n
used in the motion picture industry.  Piles of things that movie set people rent.  A lot of the things cannot<\/div>\n
be seen due to the clutter so Jack and  I sorted the good from the bad.  Then hauled the bad to the dump. It was good fun.<\/div>\n
Some things we found were just plain junk but Jack never said that.  He respected my collection. <\/div>\n

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\u201cWhat\u2019s that, Grandpa?<\/div>\n
\u201cTree climbing harness \u2026hang tools from it and a chain saw\u2026Heavy\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd you don\u2019t want it?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo movie request\u2026horse harness is more popular.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cCan I have it then?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSure\u2026but dangerous.”<\/div>\n

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Jack and Molly Skeoch, long ago, admiring my collection of ancient machines\u2026.fanning mills.<\/div>\n

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\u201cJack, some people are horrified at this stuff.  Fine by me.  They will never be competition.  There is<\/div>\n
a secret few people understand in this business.  To make a period movie believable then things worn. bent or busted<\/div>\n
by the human hand are necessary.  Especially for rural sciences.   A broken plow leating against a rusty 45<\/div>\n
gallon drum with a broken pump inserted makes a good background scene.  A teeter totter with peeling paint  for a playground..<\/div>\n
A bashed up hawker\u2019s cart for a market scene.<\/div>\n

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.   Jack did not object to these gems..  We debated the fate of a wooden four drawer filing cabinet\u20261920;s kind\u2026.then<\/div>\n
cast it in the junk pile which made room for an 1890 grain cleaning machine which looks prettier.   A set of spike tooth harrows on wood<\/div>\n
mounts was also hauled to the dump.  Just too dangerous to lay hidden in the weeds like a bear trap.<\/div>\n

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I learned more about him.    He is a good <\/div>\n
person making his way on his own like hundreds\u2026thousands\u2026of high<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

school students cast adrift by the Covid pandemic.   He made me feel good about our<\/p><\/div>\n

collection\u2026.never used the word junk.regarded artefacts from the distant past as treasures.<\/div>\n

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Strange thing about the day.  Ordinary day really but I think it will be fondly remembered forever.<\/div>\n
I am thinking about Jack\u2019s decision to wear a hat.  Such a simple thing but full of meaning\u2026a lesson in life.<\/div>\n

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alan<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 629       GRANDSON JACK SKEOCH TO GRANDPA ALAN SKEOCH alan skeoch Aug. 19. 2022 \u201cGrandpa,. all our unit bought hats to hide our heads.\u201d   \u201cWhy?\u201d Jack\u2019s answer makes me ashamed to be a Canadian… but at the same time proud of my grandson, Jack Skeoch.   These are bad times for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}