Monthly Archives: June 2018

Inspiration

1955 Penticton Vees Embody Canadian Spirit

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Ivan McLelland, legendary goalie for the 1955 Penticton Vees.

“Armand wanted to be a professional hockey player. He listened to National Hockey League games with his dad on the radio. He played hockey with his friends on the pond. He had the desire, but unfortunately, he really wasn’t very good.”

With these words, Ivan McClelland, legendary goalie with the 1955 World Champion Penticton Vees began a rather unlikely, but true, Canadian hockey story. Armand and the Vees should never have met. As a youth, he wasn’t a bad kid, but he wasn’t an attentive student. Poor judgment drew him into trouble repeatedly. On the advice of the school principal, he dropped out and wasted a couple of years. In desperation, his father suggested he join the Canadian army in the hope he might learn a trade. He did have an interest in working with tools.

After the initial training, Armand was sent to Canada’s base in Germany. His habit of getting into trouble came with him and one night, after partying with fellow soldiers, he failed to return to the base by curfew time. He was assigned to guard duty from 11 pm to 7 am at the Berlin Wall, then a highly fortified barbed wire fence. He was constantly taunted by Russian soldiers doing similar duty on the other side. They tormented him with reminders that Russia had defeated Canada in the previous World Cup Tournament.

But now it was 1955, height of the Cold War, and West Germany was hosting the World Cup. In spite of huge misgivings on the part of Canada’s hockey heavy weights, the Vees were there to play for Canada. After 7 games, both Canada and Russia were undefeated. The World Cup would go to the winner of one final Championship game between them. Canada’s government purchased 4,500 tickets to be raffled off among the armed forces in Germany. Armand’s name was drawn, much to his delight. An officer sent the soldiers off with the injunction, “You’re representing Canada. Behave!”

The determined, scrappy Vees astounded even their fans. With 3 minutes remaining, they led 5-0. Desperate to not be shut out by the previously unheard of Vees, the Russians pulled their goalie, increasing their scoring potential. In quick succession, two Vees players were sent to the penalty box.

Then, with 20 seconds to go, Armand could not contain his excitement. He leaped onto the ice and fell flat on his back. The radio play by play announcer said, “O my goodness, there’s a Canadian soldier on the ice! ” Armand was quickly whisked away by the police.

Three days later the Vees travelled to the nearby Canadian army base for a game against their team. Learning that Armand was stationed here, waiting to go before a Tribunal for his impetuous misdemeanour, the players decided they would like him to attend the game. The request was made by the team doctor, a decorated and highly respected veteran who had served in several dangerous theatres. The commanding officer told him that would be highly unusual. “The boys would really like to have him at the game,” the doctor responded. “They’ve all made mistakes. They understand.” The Commanding Officer relented out of regard for the doctor’s combat record.

Armand watched the game and then sat with the team at a special dinner. He was presented with a hockey stick signed by all players.

Ivan got out of hockey and this might have been the end of the story for him. But in 2008 while leaving the restaurant in the new Penticton arena, a woman approached him. She said, “Mr. McClelland, do you remember the soldier who jumped onto the ice in Germany?” For Ivan everything stopped when he learned she had been Armand’s wife, before he passed away from cancer. She had come from Quebec, hoping to meet a Penticton Vee.

“It was the high point of his life,” she said. He told everyone, even if they didn’t want to hear it. When he and his friends went hunting and sat around the fire in the evening, he always told this story. They threatened to leave him behind next time, if he told it again. What the Penticton Vees did meant everything to him. It changed his life.”

As we celebrate our nation’s birthday, this story is a reminder that a generous spirit makes us strong as a people. Happy Canada Day to the Penticton Vees and to all Canadians!

Hedley Times

Beverley Ceccon Explores Her Past

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At the Hedley Museum Beverley Ceccon found an early newspaper article mentioning her Grandmother, Johanna Green.

Canadian historian, politician and social activist Nellie McClung said, “people must know the past to understand the present and to face the future.” Observing the number of individuals coming to the Hedley museum looking for family information, it seems an increasing number of people are searching for personal meaning in their past. A conversation with Beverley Ceccon of Kamloops reminded me there often are intriguing, even tantalizing connections between past and present.

We talked in the Tea Room at the museum and I learned that Beverley had come to delve into a significant event in her family history. In response to my questions she told me a little of her life story, weaving a mosaic that included several individuals whose lives have attained almost iconic proportions in the Similkameen Valley.

The family event she came to investigate revolved primarily around her grandmother, Johanna Green. It was an event that also had profound implications for Hedley citizens some years ago.

Beverley began with a few details to provide a context. “Grandmother came to Canada from Norway in approximately 1915. She did sewing and after living with her brother on the prairies for a time, she moved to Princeton. Here she met Mr. Green and they got married. It wasn’t a good marriage though, and her two daughters helped her get away from him and move to Hedley. Here she did housekeeping and was happy.”

Beverley paused, then apparently deciding there was something else she wanted me to know, leaped ahead a number of years in her account. “While I was living in Princeton, I met Les, the younger brother of Rollo Ceccon.” Rollo’s name is very familiar in Princeton. Prior to retiring, he had owned a trucking and heavy equipment company. He is well known for having moved the Princeton caboose 11 times. He also gained considerable public notice when he and his dump truck plummeted 250 feet into a “glory hole”. His construction company was first on the scene at the Hope Slide. Several years ago I spoke with him and wrote his story. Now age 90, I’ve heard he still goes for coffee with several cronies and continues to have a zest for life.

“In 1956 Les and I were married by Rev. John Goodfellow,” Beverley continued. “He had baptized me some years earlier. ” I welcomed her mention of the Goodfellow name. John became well known locally for his 19 annual walks from Princeton to Hope, always taking along 15 to 20 boys and mentoring them. This was before the opening of the Hope-Princeton Highway in 1949. John Goodfellow’s name still has the power to inspire a sense of reverence in people who remember him.

Beverley has high regard for the Goodfellow family. “When John retired from officiating at weddings, his son Eric was asked to take on this role. My 3 children, Linda, Brad and Lisa were all married by him.”

The shift from Grandmother Johanna Green to Rollo Ceccon and the Goodfellows may seem less than smooth, but they were all essential strands in the web of her life story. When Beverley now resumed the account of grandmother and the family event she was here to investigate, I felt she was probably fitting the pieces into place in her own mind.

“I learned today there is an account in the January 19, 1939 Similkameen Star [now defunct]. It says that Johanna Sophie Green, my grandmother, and Peter Strand decided not to go to the community dance that night. She did house work for him and they had become friends.”

Rock Slide, January 1939 – (from Hedley Museum Archives)

She paused to recollect the details. “At about 1:30 am, a number of large boulders came hurtling down Stemwinder Mountain, some weighing about 20 to 25 tons. The newspaper report said they were probably loosened by expanding ice. Five buildings were struck. Peter Strand was killed instantly and grandmother died by the time she was brought to the Doctor’s office. Had they gone to the dance, they likely would have escaped this fate.”

Rock Slide, January 1939 –
(photo from Hedley Museum Archives)

Although our conversation didn’t end on a celebratory note, Beverley’s face showed no hint of sadness. Coming here had been a quest for understanding of the past, a journey of discovery. Now she knew how her grandmother had met her end. Probably more important, she knew grandmother Johanna had been happy in Hedley. Knowing the past, Beverley seemed  more complete.

Please Note: In the original account, I mentioned that Les Ceccon had passed away. This was an error on my part, as was pointed out to me by his wife Beverley.  Les is very much alive. I apologize for the mistake.  Art Martens

Politics

Will Trump Hurt Similkameen Valley?

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President Trump by
jurist.org

Donald Trump’s perverse new tariff on aluminum and steel is causing much wringing of hands in Ottawa. As citizens of the Similkameen Valley, it’s easy to feel somewhat sheltered from the president’s fondness for erratic policies. Anyway, we know that Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland have raised their (unfortunately puny) political fists and assure us they are vigorously defending Canada. Surely it’s ok then for us to carry on with our usual activities, whether its playing with grandchildren or drinking beer and smoking marijuana (now that it’s just about legal).

His considerable financial success seems to have persuaded the president he can unerringly shape world events with irksome tweets and boisterous outbursts. Certainly his influence is immense, but does he comprehend the potential havoc? In War and the American Presidency, Arthur M. Schlesinger suggests “history teaches us that the future is full of surprises and outwits all our certainties. Many of the pivotal events of our age were unforeseen.”

I realize Donald Trump has a reputation for not valuing advice. Even so, if I had the opportunity, I would urge him to examine the results of President Herbert Hoover’s attempt to protect America by imposing high tariffs in 1930. Stock markets had crashed in 1929 and America was already in the first stages of the Great Depression. Less than average rainfall was resulting in a serious drought.

President Herbert Hoover
(www.history.com)

Understandably, Hoover needed to do something if he hoped to serve more than one term. To him, raising tariffs by passage of the Smoot-Hawley bill seemed a viable solution, even though there was opposition. 1,028 economists sent him a petition against the bill. They understood such a tariff would produce unintended far reaching negative ramifications for the nation. Auto magnate Henry Ford spent an evening in the White House hoping to dissuade him. Some high ranking Republican leaders favoured the bill, however, and their wishes prevailed. Approximately 20,000 imports were impacted.

What was the result? According to Amity Shlaes in The Forgotten Man, “Smoot-Hawley provoked retaliatory protectionist actions all over the globe, depriving the U.S. of markets and sending it into a deeper slump. The Act, and the following retaliation were major factors in the reduction of U.S. imports and exports by half during the Depression.” Nations that retaliated included Canada, France, India and Switzerland.

Political leaders tend to make decisions with the next election in mind. Certainly implementing high tariffs during an already financially and socially difficult time is not understandable from a business perspective.

In the midst of serious adverse social and economic circumstances, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff created a shudder of anxiety around the globe. Donald Trump’s “America First” thinking has the potential to cause similar reverberations that may be felt even in the Similkameen Valley. Already Mexico is threatening to boycott U.S. apples. Will desperate Washington state growers dump their crop into our province, thereby causing huge losses for local orchardists?

Canada and other nations are getting set to apply tariffs against the U.S. This will raise our costs when we purchase those products. Arrogant and narcissistic, Donald Trump seems not to understand or care that by punishing us he may unleash a world wide trade war. He almost certainly will not be able to control the forces he is setting in motion.

I’m aware that at this point my concerns may be somewhat overblown. We are not in the midst of a drought or a “dirty thirties” depression. There are troubling issues, though. Vladimir Putin is seeking to unsettle the West by meddling in the Ukraine, the Middle East, as well as in democratic elections. ISIS indoctrinated fighters are returning. Over use of plastics is creating migraine level environmental headaches. Fentanyl addiction and deaths are a curse on our society.

I’m not looking for a cave to shelter in, but this seems a time for prudent decision making. On the national scene, are we wise to take on the Trans Mountain Pipeline when some reserves do not have access to clean drinking water? On an individual basis, avoiding unnecessary debt is probably wise. Do we really need that new SUV or the latest large screen tv?

Yes, I’ve become fiscally conservative. Unforeseen challenging surprises, sometimes referred to as “black swan” events, have persuaded Linda and me to consider the broader context before we risk. At the very least, until Donald Trump is impeached or defeated at the polls, it’s a good time to be prudent.

Hedley Times, Inspiration, People, Uncategorized

Ken Knutson, A Surprising Life

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Ken Knutson, holding one of his birdhouses for sale in the Hedley Museum Gift Shop

Until last week I knew little about Ken Knutson except that he is a retired mail carrier and his colourful birdhouses sell almost as quickly as gourmet hot dogs at a country fair. His mild, steady temperament seemed to suggest little need for change or excitement. I assumed this might have been the pace at which he had lived his entire life. My recent conversation with Ken helped me understand that assumptions are often a path to inaccurate conclusions.

I suppose Ken’s life might have followed a fairly uneventful trajectory if he had not read The Other Side Of The Mountain, biography of Jill Kinmont. She was an exceptionally gifted skier, preparing for the 1956 Olympics. “When her neck was broken, her life changed, but she didn’t let this defeat her. She said if you believe, you can do almost anything. I had failed grades 1 and 2 due to an undiagnosed learning disability. The book broadened my understanding of what was possible for me.”

Thinking this ex-Postie lived within the confines of a fairly constricted comfort zone, my perception of him was profoundly challenged when he said, “I’ve run in 18 marathons, several in major U.S. cities. Often I trained on a mile long hill, running it up to 5 times.”

I was further surprised when he mentioned a fascination with airplanes. “I’ve always been interested in airplanes. I learned to fly and bought a 1946 two seater Ercoup, a very safe plane. The plexiglass canopy was made to slide down so I could fly it open. It was like a sports car.”

Another adventure led to the purchase of a 1973 Volkswagen Westphalia. “I wanted to see Mt Rushmore, Custer’s battlefield, and the Badlands of North Dakota. I’m interested in history you can touch.”

His passion for history prompted a visit to the Vatican. “They have the most incredible art work in the world,” he said. In Buckingham Palace he was astonished by the age of the structure and the ostentatious display of wealth. He has been in the homes of painters Pascal and Matisse, both in Paris. In the Louvre he viewed the Mona Lisa.

Now in retirement, Ken’s zest for adventure continues unabated. “I still plan to go to the Mesa Verde in Colorado. I very much want to see the ancient cliff dwellings there,” he said. “I would also like to retrace the wagon trail from St. Louis, Missouri to Portland, Oregon. In places, the ruts are still visible.” Another interest may be beyond his reach. “I always wanted to cycle across Canada, but I don’t know if my body would take it now. I still dream of doing it.”

Ken’s wandering to places that intrigue him almost came to an abrupt end in August, 2017. He experienced a momentous life shift. “I had been feeling slow for about a week,” he recalled. “Walking to the Cenotaph ceremony that day, I huffed and puffed and my arm didn’t feel right. That night my arm felt numb and I got a ride to the Princeton Hospital. The doctor told me I should have come yesterday. They stabilized me and sent me to Kelowna. There they put in a stint. They don’t put you under for that.”

Looking back at the heart attack, he said “It was my Coke addiction that did me in. I’ve switched my diet. I eat more protein and vegetables, fewer processed foods and carbohydrates.” He conceded there are frustrations. “I love Dad’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Now I only eat them occasionally.”

His recovery program requires physical activity. I’ve seen him repeatedly walk up Hospital Hill in Hedley, up to 7 ascents. It’s a test of stamina and will. “Initially I could walk only 10 minutes. Now I can walk one and a half hours easily. I’ve been surprised at the body’s capacity to recover.”

He is probably best known locally for his birdhouses. “The one depicting an outhouse is most popular. Everyone has been in an outhouse somewhere. Sometimes the birdhouses are a mission.” Last week he completed his 900th birdhouse. “I didn’t have children,” he said. “They are my legacy.” An assortment of configurations are available at the Hedley Museum.

Now 67, Ken can look back at the years of his life with justifiable pride. A learning disability, 2 failed grades, and a heart attack haven’t deterred him. He has always found new adventures on the other side of the mountain.