Peter’s Exciting Dates with Models

One of the delicious ironies of retirement is the fact that my hobbies are more structured than my day is. It’s not that I’m complaining mind you, I worked directly with the public for most of my 40 years with the Canadian government, dealing with people during some of their worst times, as they faced crises both financial and of self confidence in many cases. Too often I had to face the unpalatable fact that I had done all that I possibly could for some deserving person. Although I developed the necessary ability to “leave my day” at the office, there were rare occasions when I just couldn’t get a situation out of my mind. While alcohol was always available as a crutch, I found it marginally more socially acceptable to immerse myself in plastic aircraft modelling.

GRAN’S CANADA HIGHWAY – EPISODE 4: ONTARI-ARI-ARI-O by Jaimie Vernon

The Province of Ontario has a total area of 9,984,670 km² of which 9,000,000 km² is either farmland, forest or impenetrable igneous rock which geologists have affectionately named The Canadian (Precambrian) Shield; Not to be confused with the post-Cambrian, menopausal-Cambrian or bi-Cambrian Shields. In the 1960s, NASA sent astronauts to Sudbury’s nickel mine slag heaps to do practice runs on its hostile terrain because it made for a close approximation of the surface of the Moon. When they actually got to the Moon, much to NASA’s surprise, there were no nickel miners to be found.

Peter the Nimble

Things at Chez Montreuil are coming together nicely, so this week, I am going back to revisit some of the stranger events of my track career. As I was thinking through my memories, these three came front and centre. so here they are.

Peter Plays in the Past

This week I am going to write about some of the encounters I had while playing over by the Leacock Home. Having shared my column with 3 Orillia Facebook groups, I was pleased with the positive feedback. I appreciated the “great column” remarks a) but also the comments about reawakening long forgotten memories. Especially nice was reading the reactions of old friends. It was also interesting to read of at least one “dodgy character” whom I didn’t run into. (Maybe those people are cyclical in nature.)

Peter Takes the Byways and Back Roads

I experienced such a range of emotions writing last week’s column that I decided to take a look at another childhood play area of mine, one which the vast majority of you would probably not be familiar with. This will be a two part column because of the sheer magnitude of the subject, and this first part will deal with the physical characteristics of the area.

Peter at the Beach with Tadpoles, Trains, and Morgan James

This week, I’m going back to revisit the seemingly endless summers of my youth, when my parents were always going to be there and the only decision I had to make was which tee-shirt I was going to wear. Our house on Franklin Street was one of the most easterly houses in Orillia, mere metres from Lake Couchiching and about a kilometre a) from Moose Beach, so named because according to local lore, a moose had once been spotted there. (Thank goodness it hadn’t been a skunk.)

Peter – Honk if you Love Jesus, Beer, Facebook, and Air Shows

I have always thought that those who have a bumper sticker reading “I love Jesus” on their car often drive as if they are in a “perishing” hurry to make His acquaintance. Frankly, that’s the only reason I can conjure up to explain the various pastors 1) who, in defiance of government directives to not assemble in large groups, did so, especially at Easter. I have seen video of various and assorted of these “servants of God” mocking this deadly disease, “protecting” their flocks with “holy” handkerchiefs in at least one case, or simply declaring this menace “illegal” and casting it out.(Yes, that will do it. Satan trembles in fear of your power…..or at least envies your Gulfstream V private jet.)

Hot and Cold Running Peter

This week I am going to write about more of my athletic endeavours from the dim and distant past, from the last millennium, from when my tummy was flat and my hair was brown and curly, from when ….

I have described what a life changing experience it was for me to go to high school. While my parents had been, and continued to be, liberal, my separate school environment had been pretty restrictive. Now, however, surrounded by people who thought differently from me, I began to push to expand my horizons and grow my world. So I decided that I would try out for organized extramural sports. I looked at the football team, but decided that my 136 pounds of lean, sinewy adolescent would probably not survive too many tackles.

Peter and the T-Ball Tutorial

Last week I outlined some of my exploits on the baseball diamond, in Orillia, in my youth. This week, I take you behind the bench as you are made privy to the secret life….of a T-Ball coach!

My daughter wanted to play T-Ball and, as a result, I took her to register. As I said last week, operations like this rely on so many volunteers. (I had no idea how intimately I was to become acquainted with that concept.) I paid the fee and the registrar looked at me and said “You know, Mister Montreuil we are always in need of coaches.” The fact that he pronounced my surname correctly should have warned me. I nodded a) and the registrar smiled up at me from behind his table.

Batter! Batter! Batter!

 

Editor’s Note – (I give up.

Been trying to add pictures and media all day to no avail We will have to be satisfied with Peter’s words and story. My apologies).

In a recent column, I mentioned that I could not play minor hockey because I didn’t want to burden my parents with needing to keep buying me new equipment as I grew into the incredibly studly man whom I eventually became a). I accepted that as the price of being in a large family. Let me reiterate that growing up, I got everything that I needed and a lot of what I wanted. Anyway, back to sports. There was an alternative available to me, however. I had a baseball glove and running shoes, I could enrol in the Legion Minor Baseball Program. They would even provide a uniform!