Scudrunners

Try not to think of Don Cherry today.

My father’s father and his brother flew biplanes in War One. My great-uncle Tim didn’t come home.

My mother’s father spent War One in the trenches. He was wildly underage. From O’Connor Township where he was from, outside of Thunder Bay, 32 young men went to fight in War One and 30 of them died. Fatality rate of 30/32. Almost as bad as COVID.

My Grandfather came to Canada because of WW1, Scottish soldier tired of being used as Cannon fodder for some snobby English ass hats plan for glory. So he had enough of Europe for good reason and wanted to get as far away from their after the war as possible.

Him and a fellow soldier from his home town had fought along side some Kiwi thought they seemed like an ok bunch. So they hatched a plan and figured New Zealand was about as far from Europe as they could go. The plan went something like this, work their way across Canada during the summer then down then down the Pacific Coast of the USA as winter approached then book passage from California to New Zealand whatever they could manage to find.

Then while working to bring in the crops at a farm in Saskatchewan he met my grandmother at some church dance. He lasted about 2 Canadian prairie winters before heading to farm on Vancouver Island. , smart move. He never set foot in Europe again and that didn't bother him.

My Great Grand Dad was a cheese maker in Ontario. Signed up at the start of the war, went up Vimy Ridge, got decorated twice. One of the citations was for attacking an enemy patrol his group came across while doing a recce. Great Grand Dad’s squad were only carrying revolvers, but managed to kill several of the enemy, capture 2 of them and “put the remainder to flight). He was a 22 year old Sgt. I never met him, but family lore is that the war really took its toll on him. He was an alcoholic and died at age 45.
I look at the way the world is heading and it pisses me off. I signed up, and I’ll go where I’m sent; but I’ve got an 18 year old son and I’m scared as hell the ass hats in charge are going to get us into a mess that’s going to suck him into it.

Awesome.