april 08, 2009 12:21am
July 24, 2008 Perth Andover mission almo
July 24, 2008
Perth Andover mission almost complete.
I had made arrangements to interview four veterans this morning at Richard (Dick) Jamer's home. I went to get gas before I headed over to his house because I was totally empty and luckily the New Brunswick Gov’t forced the gas suppliers to lower their prices. Finally a provincial government that is willing to stand up and require the gas companies to be fair, if you call $1.30 a liter fair. But I digress.
I showed up at Dicks house at 10 am as we arranged ( I know Harry, our veteran dispatch rider VP is laughing right now at that last sentence) and there was Dick and his wife of 62 years, Janet were waiting for me. Dick was in the Merchant Marine and he joined at the age of 18. As I was setting up my camera equipment the other three subjects showed up while the first to arrive was Milford Kinney. Milford signed up in 1940 in the Foresters, that was about the extent of Milford’s testimonial. Then I had the opportunity to interview two war bride’s. The first was Isobel Zoë Boone, an interesting lady who had a lot to say and donated $50. dollars at the end of our session. Then there was Margaret Jean Baird, a feisty Irish lady. I’ll bet she was a hand full in her time.
After the session was over Dick took me on a tour of his basement. I say basement but this room was a monument to the Jamer family. He had made up a picture wall that was arranged in order from the oldest to the youngest with all graduation pictures. Dick and his wife had some very prominent kids in the military, the business world, and as religious volunteers.
Dick let me have a shower in one of his three bathrooms, boy did that feel good. I also met his daughter that afternoon, she was a school teacher, so I took advantage of her knowledge about the school boards in NB. You see I would like to organize, during Veterans Week, a nation wide Video-a-Veterans week. I feel that if we could enrapt all teacher’s in Canada to video tape the veterans that come to their schools that week it would be a big boost to the cause and then send the video to the “Online Veterans Video Library” for a special section on the sight. She gave me some good advice that I will try to utilize.
Dick and his daughter led me over to my next interview of the day, Max Shaw. Max is very ill but graciously agreed to an interview. We were joined by his wife Francenna of over 60 years on the front porch. We had a short but sweet testimonial from Max with his wife filling in the planks. A very distinguished man with a great lady for a wife.
After the interviews I headed up to the Grocery store and one thing I noticed is that the prices for basic food stuffs in NB are quite a bit higher than Ontario. When I was going though the cash I found out that my credit card was maxed out and as it turns out that every time I fill up and use my card at the pump the gas company holds an additional $100. for insurance, whatever. Plus my insurance company made an mistake on a family members account which left the charity broke. I will not let this mission fail, so if I have to I will pitch in again. So far I have in over ten thousand dollars into this mission and keep in mind I am a working guy that has taken this time off of work to travel from coast to coast to gather our veterans stories and proud to do it. If you can help with a financial donation, that would be great.
I then headed back to the legion to use their phone to straighten out the card mess. I ended up sitting with some locals and having a good conversation. Later I met my first biker from NB who's name is Lewis Sullivan, he is a fellow Harley rider and had some great stories. It was good to talk to someone of my own ilk and it turned out that I had met his son who had resonantly moved to my home town of London Ontario. We both walked out to the parking lot and before we said our good-bye’s he invited me to a annual Labor Day bash at his house and insisted on feeding me. Little does he know that I don’t have fork marks in the back of my hands by being the last to get at the roast pig.
Before I turned in I got a call from Harry our VP. He assured me that our gas sponsor in Cambridge, Jerry’s Journey’s, will be cutting us a check for a total set amount for our fuel for the remainder of our tour this year. I hope they will see their way clear in helping us continue our tour next year. Cheers to the Van Dyke’s, if not for their donation this year the Veterans Video Awareness Tour would not be happening, thanks to Jerry and his family, a good bunch. During that same phone call from Harry he had mentioned that his sister had seen our news interview on CTV in Niagara Falls. Harry said that we were seen nation wide on CTV while I thought that the segment would be broadcast in the Ottawa area only, but we were national. COOL.
