{"id":27326,"date":"2025-12-04T16:34:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T21:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=27326"},"modified":"2026-04-03T01:44:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:44:27","slug":"episode-1463-the-grade-13-field-trip-beer-trumped-skeoch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=27326","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 1,463;  THE GRADE 13 FIELD TRIP:  BEER TRUMPED SKEOCH."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"postie-post\">EPISODE 1,463 : DO THE COUNT: THE GRADE 13,FIELD TRIP \u2014 SHOULD WE LEAVE SIX BOYS?<br \/>\n\u201cOK, do the count\u2026should be 32 of you deadbeats.\u201d \u201c32, sir\u2026let\u2019s hit the road.\u201d<br \/>\nMy grade 13 class was loaded.  The kids were excited.  Little wonder. It was the middle of May in 1970 and we  were topping our Canadian history course with a field trip to Niagara On The Lake and the Brock Monument.<br \/>\nThe kids ranged in age from 16 to 18.  Take a close look at that.   I had some kids who could legally drink beer. This would be a big problem\u2026a fumble  by the quarter back so to speak. Namely me.<br \/>\nFirst stop was Fort Mississauga built by black troops who were not entrusted with guns in the War of 1812 but were trusted with bricks from the ruins of Niagara on the lake.<br \/>\n\u201cDo a count!   We should have 32.\u201d \u201cWe have 35, sir, remember we got your wife and kids.\u201d \u201cFull count 35, right on the nose.  The Brits and Canadians built another fort at the south end of the town and that is our third still\u201d \u201cThird stop?  What about the second stop , sir.\u201d \u201cYou will have two hours to get from Fort Mississauga to Fort George\u2026take your time \u2026 this is a beautiful town with lots of shops and fast food joints all strung out along he NiagaraRiver.  Enjoy yourselves. We will meet at Fort Geroge. They scattered like leaves in the wind.  The boys moved fastest.  Historic sites be damned.  A few clustered around Marjorie and I.  Some liked our kids, Kevin and Andrew.  Mostly girls.<br \/>\nLet me cut to the problem.  At the south end of the town there existed a beverage room\u2026a beer hall called the Duke of Wellington.  Rather run down place in 1970.  Today it is fancy hotel catering to affluent tourists. We passed it en route to the bus waiting to take us to the Brock Monument.  Never gave the beer hall a second thought. \u201cDo a count.\u201d \u201c29, sir.\u201d \u201cCount again.\u201d \u201c29,sir\u2026six missing.\u201dCan you see them coming?\u2019\u201d \u201csir\u2026some of the boys stopped at the Duke for a few beers.\u201d \u201c damn, damn, damn!!!<br \/>\nWe could not wait. Let the boys get home on their  own? \u201cNext stop the Brock Monument\u2026the boys can get here if they can run for a few miles.\u201d<br \/>\nThe boys came running &#8230;Thinking how in hell they would get back to Toronto. \u201cWould Skeoch abandon us?   Truth is, I don\u2019t know what I  would have done.<br \/>\n\u201cDo a  count.\u201d \u201c35, sir\u2026all here.\u201d<br \/>\nalan skeoch december 4, 2025<br \/>\nP.S.  What would you have done\/?  Leave six boys to fend for themselves? I gave them a good story to tell their grandkids.  The good old days when beer was cheap and Skeoch was waiting.<\/p>\n<p> Which they did. By the time they reached the bus the beer in their guts waswellsloshed.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EPISODE 1,463 : DO THE COUNT: THE GRADE 13,FIELD TRIP \u2014 SHOULD WE LEAVE SIX BOYS? \u201cOK, do the count\u2026should be 32 of you deadbeats.\u201d \u201c32, sir\u2026let\u2019s hit the road.\u201d My grade 13 class was loaded. The kids were excited. Little wonder. It was the middle of May in 1970 and we were topping our [&hellip;]<\/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-27326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27326","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=27326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}