A Real Pot Pourri Of Old Photos And Memories
Well believe it or not this is me in 1962. Formidable looking character no? How would you like to be arrested by a sour looking old copper like that? Actually I was not really that old then .... just thirty four at the time. The years I Policed the Stouffville Area were probably the years I relaxed more than anywhere else as far as Law Enforcement goes. Other than continually fighting politicians (local mostly) that thought all Policeman were their "private messenger boys" to be used for whatever purpose they thought was a good idea by their warped and sleezy standards, I did enjoy working with the youth of the Community.
As a matter of fact I swear I was their "Father Confessor" most of the time. They ineviteably came to me at any time of the day or night when they couldn't or wouldn't go to their parents. I acted as a go-between on many an occasion but generally resolved things amicably for both sides in the end. I am proud of "my boys" as they all made their marks in life since. One being John Candy and another, Bill Murray, believe it or not!
I personally raised the required money and formed No.94 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets and had mostly Policemen as my Officers in it. This was done so we could show these young men that the law and law enforcement people were not as bad as they thought. We had one of the finest Squadrons in Canada and as a matter of fact it is still functioning to this day! It was moved to a more populated area, being Newmarket. It does sadden me though because I attended a Squadron re-union about five years ago and when I heard them read the "history" of the Squadron and how it started, they had the facts all wrong! They said that the Stouffville Legion started and maintained the Squadron when in reality I had approached the Legion first to sponsor it and they just laughed at me! The same reception was met from the other "Service Clubs" in Stouffville when I approached them for sponsorship so I went door-to-door and raised the money myself! I needed a location for offices, lecture rooms, parades, etc. and the Legion building was the only place I could get. Guess what? That's right ... they charged the Squadron RENT!!
Well, with a lot of persistence and help from friends and local business people of Stouffville I managed to collect the $550.00 I needed for the Air Cadet League of Canada to start a Squadron. When I got together with a Mr. Smith there, we decided to re-activate the old Squadron Number that was in existence during WW2. We now had our Squadron offically and in honor of the old Squadron, designated it as No. 94 Squadron, Stouffville. Several years later when I moved to Florida, it was taken over by one of my Officers, Flying Officer James Mc Kellar and because of lack of backing from the Stouffville Legion (MEN Members only), the Squadron was moved to Newmarket and sponsored by the Optimist Club there. At no time did the Stouffville Legion ever offer any financial assistance to the Squadron except what the Ladies Auxiliary there did for the boys! As I had not been old enough for WW2, I asked Jan Falkowski, former Wing Commander of the Polish Air Force in the Battle of Britain and test pilot for the Arrow if he would be the Commanding Officer, which he did. Due to business commitments, he only stayed for the first year and the Air Force asked me to take over as C.O..
The Women's Legion Members (wives of the guys too busy downstairs boozing) were absoluteley wonderful helping the boys. They provided a Canteen for them and cooked and catered all the Father and Son Banquets, Dances, etc., then donated their profits back to the Squadron! I shall forever be greatful to the Women Legion Members of Stouffville but in my opinion the men members were nothing but a bunch of "booze artists" that devoted their time mainly to drinking! My but they must all have felt very proud of themselves if and when they may have taken an "honest if not somewhat bleary-eyed" look in their mirrors to finally realize that what I did was what they should have been doing .... setting a good example for the young people!
Somewhere I have a picture that the Press took of "my boys" standing in front of an Air Force Bus prior to leaving for Trenton Air Base (then known as RCAF Air Transport Command) but although my wife searched for it for me (I am not too organized you know) it's still a mystery as to its whereabouts. I'll put it in when I do find it. The picture to the left is on another occasion where I met a few of them at the small train station near the Air Force Base at Trenton for their Summer Camp. I took the picture as they were waiting for the Air Force to come pick them up.
Eureka! I was looking for some other photos and actually found that picture myself without Joyce's help ... amazing! I am too lazy to take the trouble to maybe put it in a more sequential place so I'm "popping it in right here!" This is one that was taken by Jim Thomas, Photographer for years for the now defunct Toronto Telegram. As it was a very elongated picture I had folded it up and slipped it between some others to keep it as preserved as possible. Unfortunately the crack showed terribly where it folded and I had to "doctor it" with Photoshop to take that mess out. On the left is ... yep ... that's right ... me ... commonly referred to as "The Old Man" , Squadron Leader and Commanding Officer. The next Cadet to me is Warrant Officer Wayne Taylor. Here they are ... "my boys" and I loved them all even though I was a "tough disciplinarian to them!" But you know what? I think they looked forward to it each week.
**** Update May, 2005 ****Ever since the inspection I mentioned above, I have been "burning" somewhat about the wrong people getting the credit for the Squadron so I finally copy/pasted this write-up in an e-mail and sent it off to the present Commanding Officer. I was absolutely ecstatic to receive an instant reply from her, Major Lynda Holowatyj, Commanding Officer, 94 Newmarket Squadron advising me that she was indeed going to make certain that the true history of the Squadron would go on their records and that she and her husband wished to drive down and meet Joyce and I after this year's Official Inspection. Maybe at long last the truth will prevail.
As I know she will be purusing this web site of mine, I am going to put in a small but perhaps to her, an interesting vignette here. After finding that the Stouffville Legion and the local Clubs would not sponsor the Squadron, I did a lot of soul-searching and "scheming" as to how I could raise the money myself. I took two days off work and got a clip board ready and went down one side of the Main Street Business section of Stouffville and back up the other soliciting pledges. I got very few the first day as the majority of the business people had the same criticism .... "that's for the boys, everybody's always doing things for the boys .... but I have daughters! What are you going to do for the daughters?" (At that time, girls were not in the Cadets) Well, needless to say I went home tired and frustrated as hell. I grumped around the house all evening racking my brains trying to come up with a solution ... to no avail.
Long after going to bed, I couldn't sleep because of my dilemna and around 4:30 am it came to me! Eureka! I knew how to get the money I needed and after scaring my wife out of her wits with my enthusiasm, I could hardly wait until the stores opened again that morning! When they did, I retraced my previous days steps and the first store I went into, the owner said, "I told you yesterday ... what are you going to do for my daughter?" I held my clip board up with pen in hand at the ready and said .... " I am going to give your daughter a BETTER BOY TO TAKE HER OUT SIR!" I got much more money than I needed that day and after "I" recruited a Committee of a lawyer, doctors and my good friend Howard Mills, Optician ... then contacting Mr. Smith of the Air Cadet League ... No. 94 Royal Canadian Air Cadets of Stouffville was re-born! The rest is history of which I am very proud to have been a part of. ****END OF ADDENDUM****
Although I had a great deal of help with my Cadet Squadron from many people, I would be remiss if I left out giving "honorable mention" to my best friend, Larry Brasseur of Stouffville. We owned houses next to each other in the fifties there and became very good friends. Both our families had their good times and their bad times of course. The fifties, although talked of "fondly" nowadays, were not really that great at times. There were many times when we could barely make the mortgage payments or purchase the bare necessities for our families then! I left Stouffville for a few years and later moved back to Police the area. That's when I started the Air Cadet Squadron there ... to try and help the young lads from "getting into trouble" with the law especially. Larry, being the good friend he was, came along on many of our "camp-out trips" and helped us many times. I don't think Larry had chance to get too good a formal education when he was young but he studied hard and became an Engineer, which he retired from around the same time as I did. We are the same age by a month. He was born in April and I in May of 1928. Old "buggers ain't we??
However some of my teacher friends, especially an English professor (now an author) named Terry Meagher told him once, after an evening of fairly heavy "intellectual" talk, that he knew fellow teachers with "Phds" that were not as well versed as he was. Terry stated to us one night that it was people like Larry that really should have a "Phd." A nice compliment from a professor to be sure. Larry is always working on some "project" and the one he has worked on for years and years is now on the Internet. He just purchased a computer the end of April and I guess his son Greg put it up for him so it appears he is like me ... I too have to rely on my son to keep me straightened out with these damn things!
I guess vanity made me drop this very poor quality photo in here. When my wife was looking for that picture I mentioned above, I found this one of me taken when I was quite young. In 1941 England was short of experienced fighter pilots and the "Battle of Britain" didn't help matters any as quite a number of our pilots were lost. Pilots were recruited from wherever they could be found and sent to England with a minimum of training and they went into battle as soon as they arrived! A national emergency call went out for young lads all over the United Kingdom to train to be pilots and Canada of course was the source of many good pilots, i.e. "Bush Pilots", etc.. It was around 1943 that the Royal Canadian Air Cadets were formed and the main goal at that time was to pre-train pilots, airframe mechanics, wireless airgunners, etc. in readiness to ship overseas as soon as we were 18 years old. In those days we all considered it an honor and our duty to fight for our country (I still feel that way), so droves of us "young lads" volunteered without hesitation.
In 1943 I joined and studied with a vengeance and in a very short time was chosen as what they then called a "Flight Cadet." These were the young men that showed a more or less natural feel for flying and were impressed into rigid flying instruction to be ready to go into action as soon as we turned 18. Flight Cadets wore the same uniform as all the other "ratings" with the exception that on our "wedgie hats" we wore a white insert inside the flap of the hat at the front, curving down on each side disappearing at the lower edges about three inches toward the back. This was so we could be recognized as "pilots in training." One did not have to be an Officer at that time to be a pilot. Many excellent combat pilots were Sergeants and up, especially "Wireless Air Gunners." Early in 1944 we were in not too good a condition over that bastard Hitler and his gang and I was beginning to think that I would actually be able to get over there and "get my licks in" under-aged or no. But oh no ... I was born on 8th May, 1928 and if you are old enough you will remember. If you are too young then I'm sure you paid attention in history class and know that World War Two in the Euroupean theater was declared over on 8th May, 1945, My 17th Birthday! VE Day was declared on that day and all my dreams of becoming an Air Ace dissolved! Actually I prefer to think that Hitler heard I was coming and gave up because of it!
I think I took the picture above right in one of those booths while a bunch of us were "raising hell" at Wasaga Beech on Lake Huron were you dropped a dime in a slot and it came out framed and all, about one and half by two inches in size. I scanned it using 600 dpi to try and get as best quality I could as it was very badly faded and marked up. I had to do some clean-up on it to take out the stains, etc. from it. Of course the original one was not that good anyway. I then had to lower the dpi so it wouldn't take up too much file space on the server. Vanity ... oh vile vanity. But ... what the hell! The picture on the left was taken at No 1 S.F.T.S. (Service Flying Training School) which was Camp Borden near Barrie. It still exists to this day but not as a flying training school. That's me on the left, a Flight Sergeant and my best friend, Dick Mc Gregor, Sergeant on the right. The two girls in the picture worked in the Sergeants Canteen there part-time and both of them were from Angus, a village just outside the gates of the Camp. The girl in front of me, Ann was a local Doctor's daughter and the other one, Gladys a good friend of hers. Nothing to it folks .... just a picture posed in front of the Sergeant's Canteen there for posterity.
This page is © H.Heatherington, 2003