{"id":4039,"date":"2019-11-14T00:17:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T05:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=4039"},"modified":"2019-11-14T00:20:24","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T05:20:24","slug":"gordon-ball-vandals-have-been-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=4039","title":{"rendered":"GORDON BALL…VANDALS HAVE BEEN HERE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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   GORDON BALL \u2026 VANDALS HAVE BEEN HERE<\/div>\n

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    (AND  OLD MAN\u2019S WINTER NIGHT, by Robert Frost)<\/div>\n

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alan  skeoch<\/div>\n
November 12, 2019<\/div>\n

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There was a shadow\u2026some would say a ghost\u2026at the Grodon  Ball Farm today.
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    A chill in the air.  Snow on the ground early in November.  Some roads closed. others<\/p><\/div>\n

   as slippery as a  scam artist.  Perfect kind  of day for a  shadow to fall over the<\/div>\n
   farm.  The shadow  was in my mind really\u2026locked there.   <\/div>\n

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  It was the shadow of Gordon Ball.  He was dead, had been so  for several years.<\/div>\n
  Killed in a car accident.   After that the farm was boarded  up.  Not well boarded<\/div>\n
as  things turned out
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Gordan Ball was eccentric.   He wore bib overalls.  He carried cash to pay his<\/div>\n
debts and for his purchases.  This bankroll carrying, whether fact to not, drew  the<\/div>\n
attention  of some unsavoury characters.  For the most part though Gordon was a<\/div>\n
regular antique buyer…Scottish grandfather clocks and whole inventory of  Applachian<\/div>\n
lamp collectors.  Was he rich? Some thought so.  I was never sure.  He was a  collector<\/div>\n
and his farm with its many barns  was  jam packed with things\u2026crocks, dog treadmills,<\/div>\n
coal oil lamps by the barrel load, old cars, a sawmill, a shingle making machine,  enough<\/div>\n
fine wooden  chairs and tables to outfit a hotel.  <\/div>\n

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Today all that remained was up for auction.<\/div>\n

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Gordon Ball once lived here\u2026is that him stepping out?  No!  Couldn\u2019t be.  Gordon<\/div>\n
Ball is only alive in my mind.<\/div>\n

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THE SETTING<\/div>\n
The south field was jam packed with half ton trucks.  All expecting a  plethora of<\/div>\n
great finds that Gordon had squirrelled away.<\/div>\n

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But what we found is best seen below.  <\/div>\n

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Vandals had  been here before us.  And  they had  come often it seems.<\/div>\n

EVERYTHING Gordon once owned was thrown aside by vandals  thinking<\/div>\n
squirrelled money might be hidden in an old sock or behind  a picture frame.<\/div>\n
They\u2026must have been several of them\u2026got the good things and threw the rest aside.


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Ravages of time \u2026 peeling  paint<\/div>\n
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could not explain away the  presence of thieves, vandals\u2026low life criminals<\/div>\n

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Just looking at Gordon Ball broken  kitchen stove brought back a flood of memories.<\/div>\n
like the time one winter when Marjorie, Kevin, Andrew and I dropped in to visit.  It was early <\/div>\n
December and Gordan, Florida and their boys were in a Christmas mood.  The stone house<\/div>\n
was cold  in the corners  but warm around this  stove.  On s side table Gordon or Florida<\/div>\n
had  erected a small  Christmas  tree on which hung a couple of coloured  balls.   The<\/div>\n
tree was scraggly.  It had been cut in Gordan\u2019s forest.  Chosen not because of its<\/div>\n
perfection but because it was of little value.  The vibrant trees were left to grow.<\/div>\n
Visiting that winter was Dickensian\u2026a time warp that put us in the home of Cratchet<\/div>\n
or even Scrooge after his  conversion from penny pincher to do goober.  The room<\/div>\n
was lit with coal oil lamps.  <\/div>\n

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This was Gordon\u2019s problem.  He wanted to be living in the 19th century and he<\/div>\n
forced that longing onto Florida who came from the Philippines.  Gordon could<\/div>\n
not understand  why Florida and her eventual two boy progeny were in revolt.<\/div>\n

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I am not sure what happened in the months after our visit.  But I know it was<\/div>\n
tragic  for Gordon.  Shyly he asked  me once about child raising.  Just asking<\/div>\n
me was embarrassing.   It seems some social agency was  interfering.<\/div>\n


After he died, Florida and the boys  went forward into another life.<\/div>\n


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They nailed up the doors and window I suppose.  No barrier for vandals.<\/div>\n
The whole collection of buildings  had been stripped.  Gordon\u2019s collections<\/div>\n
thrown in piles  here snd there.  Whatever had much value was taken.
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Today, what was left behind was in a public auction.  A mish mash of broken artifacts.










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One large iron container held treasures.  The container had been shipped  here
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from Scotland  and firmly locked.  Vandal proof.  It was  here that the Gordon Ball<\/p><\/div>\n

collection could really be seen.  Grandfather clocks, sea chests, rum crocks, impeccable<\/div>\n
examples of fine Scottish carpentry\u2026including cases of wooden carpenter tools.
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Elsewhere \u2026 the vandals had their say
































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Gordon could make fine furniture himself.  He converted two of this  barns<\/p><\/div>\n

into 19th century industrial factories  where his line shafts drove saws, planers,<\/div>\n
jointers\u2026and the end result was beautiful furniture.  One or our sons commissioned<\/div>\n
Gordon to make a harvest table which remains the pride and joy of Andrew and <\/div>\n
Julie.    
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The vandals  had  ignored the Gordon Ball factory which was now up for sale<\/div>\n
to the highest bidder. Our son Andrew bought Gordon\u2019s ancient iron mounted jig saw\u2026<\/div>\n
\u201cthat\u2019s for you Dad\u2019  he said, \u201cA reminder of Gordon.”<\/div>\n


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Gordon built several small log buildings on the farm and he moved others from
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other doomed farms to his place.  He also  had purchased an ancient saw mill<\/p><\/div>\n

and their were piles of planks  here and there, all carefully spaced for drying.
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I had hoped to buy Gordon\u2019s  fanning mill\u2026hidden here under old clothes  and 
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furniture.  Price was too high for me which made me glad in a way.  A high price<\/p><\/div>\n

means the machine if valued and unlikely to become kindling for some fireplace.
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Andrew wanted to buy Gordon\u2019s shingle making saw but
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price got too steep.  A good thing I suppose\u2026.$550.00
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That\u2019s Jim McCartney urging a bidder on with his pointer.

























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\u201cAnd so it ended.  The broken and the perfect \u2026all auctioned off to men and women<\/div>\n
with half ton trucks.  Most of whom knew Gordon Ball the same way  we did.  A man<\/div>\n
with his feet in the past.  Shy.  Shrewd.  Capable.  But out of touch with the world<\/div>\n
around him.<\/div>\n


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That\u2019s Bob Severn in the white hat ..extolling the virtues of a case full of broken 
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coal oil lamps.  \u201cWho will give me five  dollars?”
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And here are the crew that take the money.  There was lots of it today.  all of
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those who once new Gorden come to buy a memory.  And that includes myself and<\/p><\/div>\n

son Andrew.  Nancy Belviso on the left.
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Let me tell one final story about Gordon.  One winter he found  tracks in the snow <\/p><\/div>\n

around his  stone house.  Someone was casing his place.  Someone planning to <\/div>\n
rob him.  Someone or some group who believed he kept cash.  Gordon asked the<\/div>\n
police to keep an eye on his house.  They did for a night or two but could not<\/div>\n
do so forever.  They gave up.  The tracks  reappeared.  Gordon was alone at<\/div>\n
the end of a dead end road with no neighbours.  And he knew he was being watched.<\/div>\n
So he waited\u2026hidden in his own home.  Then sure enough a man appeared and<\/div>\n
pushed open the front door with his shoulder.  \u201cThere were others out there in<\/div>\n
the dark.\u201d Gordon said to me.  Gordon had a club\u2026perhaps a baseball bat.  He knocked the intruder<\/div>\n
down and hit him several times.  Bloodied him and shoved him back into the the snow<\/div>\n
where others waited.  They slipped  away.  But he knew who they were.  Young<\/div>\n
punks whose father Gordon had done business  with\u2026antique business. <\/div>\n

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Next Day he drove to Guelph, dropped in on the father and said, \u201cIf your son<\/div>\n
and his friends show up on my property again, they may not get back<\/div>\n
one piece.  I have friends in Toronto who know how to deal with them.\u201d<\/div>\n

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As far as I know they never came back.<\/div>\n

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I could be wrong.  They could have seen the death notice and returned<\/div>\n
\u2026vandals.    They knew that Gordon could not get them with a baseball<\/div>\n
bat if he was dead.<\/div>\n

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SUGGETION:  Read Robert Frost\u2019s poem titled “And old Man\u2019s Winter Night”
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and imagine yourself as Gordon Ball waiting for Thieves.  Would you have
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Gordon\u2019s courage.  I think not.
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An Old Man’s Winter Night<\/h1>\n
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www.robertfrost.org\/images\/postquote.png<\/a>); overflow: auto; background-position: left top; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;” class=””><\/p>\n

All out of doors looked darkly in at him
Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,
That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.
What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze
Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.
What kept him from remembering what it was
That brought him to that creaking room was age.
He stood with barrels round him – at a loss.
And having scared the cellar under him
In clomping there, he scared it once again
In clomping off; – and scared the outer night,
Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar
Of trees and crack of branches, common things,
But nothing so like beating on a box.
A light he was to no one but himself
Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what,
A quiet light, and then not even that.
He consigned to the moon, such as she was,
So late-arising, to the broken moon
As better than the sun in any case
For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,
His icicles along the wall to keep;
And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt
Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,
And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept.
One aged man – one man – can’t fill a house,
A farm, a countryside, or if he can,
It’s thus he does it of a winter night.<\/div>\n

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We drove into the field on frozen sod\u2026but getting our was a far different matter.
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From Gordon Ball\u2019s barn to our barn\u2026two rocking chairs.  Comfort on which<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

to read AN OLD MAN\u2019S WINTER NIGHT.
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alan skeoch<\/p><\/div>\n

Nov. 12, 2019<\/div>\n

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Sent from my iPhone<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n


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     GORDON BALL \u2026 VANDALS HAVE BEEN HERE     (AND  OLD MAN\u2019S WINTER NIGHT, by Robert Frost) alan  skeoch November 12, 2019 There was a shadow\u2026some would say a ghost\u2026at the Grodon  Ball Farm today.     A chill in the air.  Snow on the ground early in November.  Some roads closed. others […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4039","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}