Early in his working life, John Shelley hadn’t planned on becoming chief of a major city fire department.  That came later. As a young man in the early 1900s, he worked for a company hauling heavy goods and equipment.  Back then, teams of two, four or even more horses provided the ‘horsepower’ of the day. … More Grandad’s Safe Job

 Early morning is a great time to observe wildlife in their natural surroundings. Just after dawn one day, I was on our deck with a spotting scope scanning a beach half a mile away.  A mother deer with a newborn were standing in shallow water.  The mother alternatively drank and lifted her head high checking … More Tender is the Wild

The aging man sat rigid on an unmade bed. He still wore his light overcoat.  He gazed intently at the TV, eyes watering.  The Rt. Hon. John G. Diefenbaker realized he’d been fast asleep while his friend Robert F. Kennedy had been assassinated 1,820 miles away in Los Angeles. It was June 5, 1968.  The … More Bobby Kennedy’s Friend In Canada

Without warning, the door of the tiny aircraft slammed up and open.  The panic lasted a nanosecond.  We were at 10,000 feet.  Time to jump. The slipstream screamed past the open door.  It was fierce. My daughter went first.  She mouthed an unladylike expletive as she paused briefly at the open door, her eyes wide. … More Diving Into The Bucket List

While growing up on the farm, John didn’t notice he tanned easily and rarely sunburned.  Many years later he’d discover why. Shortly after they were married, Anne commented on John’s tan.  She liked tanned skin.  So much so, Anne would add a few drops of iodine to her suntan lotion to jump-start the sun’s effect … More Red Skin and Suntans

Some men cherish a few hours in their workshop on a Saturday afternoon.  One began that way and ended with me buying into a nightmare – a two-year-old standard bred filly named Shilo Fantasy. On that fateful Saturday, there I was contentedly working on a project in my basement workshop.  Just before lunch, the basement … More The Filly Was a Nightmare

When three journalists climbed into the four-seater aircraft before leaving Yellowknife in the sub-arctic Northwest Territories, they had no idea all expectations for an uneventful ‘hop’ would evaporate around the mid-point of the planned flight. The destination was Hay River, an hour southwest by air across Great Slave Lake.  The journalists were en route in … More Emergency Supplies

All families have legends.  The Osborne family is no exception.  One of ours is how a woman and a man living many miles apart came to meet, to marry and to have 13 children. It was the mid-1850s, and teenager Mina Graves lived on her parents’ farm bordering the Petitcodiac River near Moncton, NB, Canada.  … More A Pettitcoat on the Petitcodiac

A SHORT SHORT STORY: Internationally celebrated violinist Yi-Jai Susanne Hou tells this story about how one person reacted when informed she’d been granted the use of a $6 million Stradivarius violin. Susanne told an audience recently she was in the middle of recording her latest CD when the loan agreement expired on an earlier premium … More The $6 Million Chrysler