{"id":722,"date":"2018-03-23T12:37:24","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T16:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=722"},"modified":"2018-03-23T14:47:08","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T18:47:08","slug":"38th-rover-crew-1956-catawba-is-cheap-wine-ted-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=722","title":{"rendered":"38th Rover Crew… 1956 : CATAWBA IS CHEAP WINE: TED IS DEAD"},"content":{"rendered":"
CATAWBA IS CHEAP WINE: TED IS DEAD<\/div>\n
(38TH ROVER CREW, WINTER 1956)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
ALAN \u00a0SKEOCH<\/div>\n
MARCH 2018<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Those were grand \u00a0years, the 1950\u2019s. \u00a0I thought they would never end, as the song goes. \u00a0But they did and as \u00a0near as \u00a0I can \u00a0see they have not been repeated. \u00a0The innocence, sense of \u00a0adventure, opportunities, simplicity, thrift, tight friendships \u00a0of those years are difficult to replicate today.\u00a0 This \u00a0picture for instance, was taken on one of \u00a0our winter camping trips with the 38th Rover Scout troop led by Ed Hisson (right) where we tramped into a huge log cabin built by a group of older WW2 veterans deep \u00a0in the Canadian \u00a0Boreal wilderness north of Parry Sound. \u00a0They shared it with us for some reason I cannot fathom\u2026perhaps just the Rover Scout bonds. \u00a0That\u2019s \u00a0Big Red Stevenson in the foreground, one of my lifetimes friends and me in the background. \u00a0Our coats come from the War Surplus stores of which there were many in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

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My behaviour on this trip was not something of which I am proud. \u00a0I was \u00a018 years old and experimenting with alcohol. \u00a0Rot gut\u2026red wine. \u00a0Bought a bottle of Four Aces for 69 cents ssnd took good slugs of the stuff \u00a0as we slogged into the cabin on a dark winter night. \u00a0Cold. \u00a0Wind. \u00a0Deep snow. \u00a0Seemed \u00a0a good idea to warm myself up with cheap wine. \u00a0I \u00a0shared \u00a0it with the guys but kept the bottle in the cavernous pocket of my WW 1 Great Cost. \u00a0Which meant I had too easy access. \u00a0We had several miles \u00a0to slog. \u00a0 And my the wine tasted good. \u00a0I was not a drinker\u2026this was the first bottle of wine I ever purchased. Foolish, I know, but young men can be really foolish.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I remember the moon punching a hole in the winter clouds and lighting up our bush \u00a0trail. \u00a0Then everything went dark. \u00a0Black dark. \u00a0And I \u00a0was immobile\u2026could \u00a0not move. \u00a0The wine did it. \u00a0I fell over into a deep snowbank\u2026head first with snowshoes flapping in the moonlight and my head rammed into the snow. \u00a0Red \u00a0or Ed or Don Strathdee or Doug Mason or Jim Garde Jr or Ted Christiansen\u2026I remember them all. \u00a0They pulled me \u00a0free. \u00a0Little good that did. \u00a0I \u00a0was wobbly\u2026could not keep on the trail. Needed support but there was still a long way to go. \u00a0So Ed and Red noticed smoke coming from another cabin \u2026 mid way to the lodge. \u00a0A cabin built by the same war vets. \u00a0They pulled \u00a0and \u00a0directed me in that direction.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cCan you take this guy for the night>\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSure but why?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cCheap bottle of Catawba or Four Aces Red have done him in\u2026drunk\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cJust a kid.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHis first experiment with booze sand snowshoes\u2026bad combination it seems.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSure flop him into the bedroom\u2026he can \u00a0sleep there in his clothes.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I remember the wall of heat that greeted us as we opened the door to thst cabin. \u00a0The cherry red \u00a0embers of a maple cordwood fire in the Quebec heater \u2026 all I remember because everything seemed to be moving\u2026cold \u00a0not tell up from down\u2026east farm west\u2026bed from floor.\u00a0 But I \u00a0was \u00a0conscious enough to know I was a \u00a0poor example of a Rover Scout snd to notice everybody was laughing at me. \u00a0Then came the sensation I was about to vomit. Fine thing. \u00a0Vomit in the cabin of my rescuers. \u00a0I \u00a0held it down snd thst was not easy. \u00a0Eventually I passed out. \u00a0The sensation that the world \u00a0around \u00a0me was in motion was terrible. \u00a0Anyone who has drunk too much liquor knows the feeling. \u00a0But this \u00a0was \u00a0my first experiment with the evil liquid. \u00a0And nearly my last. \u00a0Once in the Yukon \u2026 at s bar in the tiny villager of Mayo Landing when<\/div>\n
I was \u00a0temporary chief of a geophysical crew our client got the best of me.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cHere Alan, bought you as \u2018Double OP\u2019, suck it down.\u201d<\/div>\n
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A \u00a0 Double OP is s double shot of overproof rum\u202680% rum\u2026that kind of rum was \u00a0sent to the Yukon to save transport costs of normal rum.\u00a0 I think it was expected to be watered down. \u00a0But that did not happen. \u00a0OP rum had the force of a 2 x 4 slapping to the back of my head. But\u00a0 only once.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The spinning of that rover trip was a \u00a0one time ting too. \u00a0Net morning I was treated as a goof. \u00a0The vets \u00a0served \u00a0me breakfast as a kind of joke. \u00a0just looking at slabs of bacon slithering in fried eggs was enough to get the vomit moving. \u00a0And \u00a0they knew that.\u00a0 Around 9 that morning, Red \u00a0snd Ed arrived \u00a0to escort me up the frozen lake to our winter camp. \u00a0I was gas to leave. \u00a0Being laughed at i bad enough.\u00a0 Feeling like s fool is worse.<\/div>\n
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Never did \u00a0that again\u2026never drank Catawba or Four Aces, that is. \u00a0Yes, it cost me 69 cents for the full bottled. \u00a0Now thst is cheap wine. \u00a0i think Red put the empty bottle up on one of the beams \u00a0in the lodge as a \u00a0reminder.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Suppose I was \u00a0alone that night? Someone would find \u00a0me, dead, \u00a0with my snowshoes in the air as a grave marker.<\/div>\n
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Those of you reading this \u00a0and laughing make me sick.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 Memory is selective. \u00a0Reading this \u00a0story might give the impression we were a lot wilder than we really were. \u00a0Most of our camping trips were chances \u00a0to get away \u00a0from our urban \u00a0lives. \u00a0We revelled in the outdoors. \u00a0Loved sleeping on the ground \u00a0in Spring summer snd \u00a0Fell. \u00a0Estingbarely digestible food made with thee minimum of sanitary food prep conditions. \u00a0We really enjoyed being together. \u00a0When Marjorie came along a few years later he became part of the Rover Crew as did the girlfriends and eventually the wives of the other guys. \u00a0It was s good life. \u00a0Oh are, there were badges snd ribbons that provide \u00a0something to other Rover Crews. \u00a0We never bothered with that stuff.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And there weer crisis. Like when Ted \u00a0Christiansen got killed. \u00a0He became s motorcycle cop on the Toronto Force. A great guy.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cHey, Alan, come on over the station snd see my motorcycle\u2026revd up like a tank.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDo all cops have these things?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo, just some of us\u2026the new guys.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow long will you be driving the cycle?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot long, I have applied to join the mounted cops?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMouned>\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe horses\u2026.we \u00a0have sa bunch of them down sat the CNE stables\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDoes everyone get s horse?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNope. \u00a0I am lucky. \u00a0Join the horses patrol next month.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Ted never made it. \u00a0 just a few days \u00a0after he showed me his \u00a0motorcycle, I got the bad needs.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cTed was \u00a0killed last night Alan\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDrunk driver at the Keeler Street underpass\u2026.drove right over him and his \u00a0cycle\u2026killed him .\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDrunk driver?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThink so… got arrested\u2026charged\u2026but it won\u2019t go anywhere\u2026nothing will be done.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYou must be kidding?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo witnesses\u2026.he claims Ted \u00a0did not make a left turn signal.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cis he the only witness.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHis word stands\u2026.only witness\u2026gets off \u2026 maybe he is right\u2026<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat about the drunk charge?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot sure\u2026measured… but later\u2026maybe not really drunk.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cJesus\u2026Ted \u00a0is \u00a0gone\u2026a hole in our lives.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
No one mentioned my Catawba incident but I \u00a0am sure it was on their minds. \u00a0It was certainly on mine.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
ALAN \u00a0SKEOCH<\/div>\n
MARCH 2018<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CATAWBA IS CHEAP WINE: TED IS DEAD (38TH ROVER CREW, WINTER 1956) ALAN \u00a0SKEOCH MARCH 2018 Those were grand \u00a0years, the 1950\u2019s. \u00a0I thought they would never end, as the song goes. \u00a0But they did and as \u00a0near as \u00a0I can \u00a0see they have not been repeated. \u00a0The innocence, sense of \u00a0adventure, opportunities, simplicity, thrift, […]<\/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-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","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=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":825,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions\/825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}