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  #1  
Old 18-02-10, 20:55
Ian McCallum's Avatar
Ian McCallum Ian McCallum is offline
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Default WOW What a response

Well folks, what can I say! I was only enquiring if this was a regular do and was there any chance of attending. I was not proposing for a gathering from the far flung corners of the province and beyond. I know of no reason why the 18th should present problems, so I go with the command decision.

Think however I will still use the 4 wheeled steed, I hear the weather is still a mite chilly for us soft Brits. David McCallum? Personally I never met him although family folk law says he is from my grandmother's sister's side of the family.
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  #2  
Old 18-02-10, 21:22
Alex Blair (RIP) Alex Blair (RIP) is offline
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Default Normal affair..

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Originally Posted by Ian McCallum View Post
Well folks, what can I say! I was only enquiring if this was a regular do and was there any chance of attending. I was not proposing for a gathering from the far flung corners of the province and beyond. I know of no reason why the 18th should present problems, so I go with the command decision.

Think however I will still use the 4 wheeled steed, I hear the weather is still a mite chilly for us soft Brits. David McCallum? Personally I never met him although family folk law says he is from my grandmother's sister's side of the family.
Ian.
It is quite normal for the ROT(Rusty Old Truckers)ers to get together on occasion..
If it has to do with rust..green...greasy parts..beer... old military vehicles..more beer..you can bet there will be a call to parade.,..
We have more than willing participants that attend our gather ups..
Here is where we will be meeting ..the East end location..You can google up a map from the address or site..
The 18th will be booked.
http://www.gracies.ca/home.aspx
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  #3  
Old 18-02-10, 21:50
Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)'s Avatar
Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP) Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP) is offline
former OC MLU, AKA 'Jif' - sadly no longer with us
 
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Originally Posted by Alex Blair View Post
Gee, just checked the website and found there's a Gracies here in Tronna! Gonna hafta check that out, and incidently, I reckon we'll have to have a remote ROTTERs get-together here one day!
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  #4  
Old 18-02-10, 22:34
Alex Blair (RIP) Alex Blair (RIP) is offline
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Default ?????????????????

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Originally Posted by Geoff Winnington-Ball View Post
Gee, just checked the website and found there's a Gracies here in Tronna! Gonna hafta check that out, and incidently, I reckon we'll have to have a remote ROTTERs get-together here one day!
Jeez Jif..
I'm stumped..where's Tronna...???
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  #5  
Old 18-02-10, 23:02
Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)'s Avatar
Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP) Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP) is offline
former OC MLU, AKA 'Jif' - sadly no longer with us
 
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Originally Posted by Alex Blair View Post
Jeez Jif..
I'm stumped..where's Tronna...???
Look south and west of where you are... it's that big smoke on the horizon...

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  #6  
Old 19-02-10, 03:38
Bob Carriere Bob Carriere is offline
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Default 18th......

it's ago.......

Boob
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  #7  
Old 19-02-10, 11:13
Ian McCallum's Avatar
Ian McCallum Ian McCallum is offline
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Lightbulb Is Ed Storey Local?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Blair View Post
Ian.
It is quite normal for the ROT(Rusty Old Truckers)ers to get together on occasion..
If it has to do with rust..green...greasy parts..beer... old military vehicles..more beer..you can bet there will be a call to parade.,..
We have more than willing participants that attend our gather ups..
Here is where we will be meeting ..the East end location..You can google up a map from the address or site..
The 18th will be booked.
http://www.gracies.ca/home.aspx
I seem to remember from the distant past that Ed also lives in the vicinity? A name and colleague from tours of the distant past in Holland and Normandy. First time I met Ed he was with John Marchant 'on tour' in 'Tiny', now residing in the War Museum.
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  #8  
Old 19-02-10, 13:28
Alex Blair (RIP) Alex Blair (RIP) is offline
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Default Ed Story..

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian McCallum View Post
I seem to remember from the distant past that Ed also lives in the vicinity? A name and colleague from tours of the distant past in Holland and Normandy. First time I met Ed he was with John Marchant 'on tour' in 'Tiny', now residing in the War Museum.
Hi Ian..
Yep,Ed is a local lad..
He may join us at Gracies..I haven't seen him for a few years ,but he does exist..He should pipe up here to let us know his intentions of attendance on the 18th..
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  #9  
Old 19-02-10, 13:47
Alex Blair (RIP) Alex Blair (RIP) is offline
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Default John Babcock..last WW 1 Vet passes on..RIP

Published On Fri Feb 19 2010

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/arti...n-babcock-dies

John Babcock in a 1920 photo. Babcock, Canada’s oldest WWI veteran, died Thursday at age 109.

John Babcock in a 1920 photo. Babcock, Canada’s oldest WWI veteran, died Thursday at age 109.



Nicolaas van Rijn Staff Reporter

John Babcock, Canada’s last World War I veteran, has died at the age of 109.

A 16-year-old when he went in search of military glory, Babcock was the last of the 650,000 men and women Canada recruited to serve in the “war to end all wars.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper saluted Babcock Thursday, paying tribute to “Canada’s last living link to the Great War, which in so many ways marked our coming of age as a nation.”

The men and women who served, Harper said, “paid dearly for the freedom that we and our children enjoy every day.

“Today,” he observed, “they’re all gone.”

Gov.-Gen. Michaëlle Jean, head of the Canadian Forces, also paid tribute to Babock.

“You know how dear the members of the Canadian Forces and our veterans are to my heart,” she said. “And while I am deeply moved and saddened, I am also very honoured to be the Commander-in-Chief and Governor General to pay final tribute to Mr. Babcock.”

At one point Canada had mooted a state funeral for Babcock, but he demurred, saying that because he never saw active service — because of his tender years he spent his war years loading trucks in Halifax and digging ditches in England — he wasn’t worthy of the honour.

Instead, Babcock — who died at home in Spokane, Wash., on Thursday, where he had lived for many years — will be cremated, and his ashes scattered in the Pacific northwest mountains, as happened when his first wife died, years ago.

“I think his grandkids would probably want to do that,” said his wife Dorothy.

“Jack loved the outdoors, he loved to hike.”

Babcock, who was a few months shy of his 110th birthday, had been housebound since a bout of pneumonia last October.

Recent visitors included the choirmaster from his church, Messiah Lutheran, who brought along a keyboard and a violinist for an impromptu concert, since the Babcocks had missed the concerts at Christmas.

And although he left the country of his birth to become an American citizen decades ago, Babcock was recognized by both countries when he died, after having his Canadian citizenship reinstated in 2008.

“Jack loved Canada,” said Dorothy the day that he died. “His heart was there.”















Born July 23, 1900 on a farm in Lober Township, John Henry Foster Babcock’s parents James and Anna had nine other children, all of whom predeceased Babcock. Because his father died in a logging accident when John was six, he went to live with relatives and didn’t receive much schooling.

The blue-eyed 15-year-old — just 5’4’’ — signed up for the Canadian military in Kingston. Though he tried to pass himself off as 18 it wasn’t long before authorities twigged to his real age, 16, and put him to work unloading military trucks in Halifax. Lying about his age again, he got on troop transport to England.

“When they asked me how old I was, I said 18,” said Babcock in an interview a few years ago. “Well ... you had to be 19 to go to France.” While he was waiting for his pretend 19th birthday, official papers arrived that listed his actual age of 16, so he was sent to train with 1,300 other underage soldiers.

By October 1918, having finally reached the age of majority, Babcock was eagerly awaiting deployment.

Instead, after he and a group of fellow soldiers decided to defend Canadian honour by taking on a group of British troops in a bar brawl, Babcock spent 14 days of house arrest.

Unfortunately for Bacock, the Armistice was signed during those two weeks, and he never saw combat.

Decades later, he counted his blessings.

“I might have got killed,” he told an interviewer matter-of-factly.

In 1921, he moved to the States and joined the U.S. Army, which is when he fell in love with the West Coast. After being stationed in Ft. Louis and the Vancouver Barracks, he settled in Oakland with his first wife, Elsie. The two were married for 45 years and had two children, Jack Jr. and Sandra.

In 1932, the family moved to Spokane, where Babcock worked in the heating and plumbing business. In the late 1970s, after Elsie died, Babock married Dorothy, a nurse 29 years his junior. Between his two children and her two sons, the couple had 16 grandchildren and a number of great-grandchildren as well.

“We had a wonderful time together,” said Dorothy on Thursday. “I’m so happy to have taken care of him in his last years.”



“We should honour (Babcock’s) contribution to Canada,” said Rudyard Griffith, executive director of the Dominion Institute, an organization dedicated to promoting Canadian history.

“The duty not to forget now falls on a generation who has…been separated from the history of the Great War by a period of going on 90 years. I think there is a danger (that people will forget).”

France and Germany both lost their last WWI veterans in 2008, with the deaths of Lazare Ponticelli, 110, and Erick Kastner, 107.

Now the duty of Canadians, say other vets, is to never forget the sacrifice of Babcock and those 650,000 other Canadian men and women who donned their country’s uniform for the Great War, as it was long known.

Remembrance now mostly lives on through Remembrance Day, the Nov. 11 commemoration that recognizes those who fought in all of Canada’s wars and conflicts.

But those veterans, too, are passing on.

“When all the vets are dead, it doesn’t have the same meaning, because it’s an extraordinarily personalized ceremony of the generation who were scarred by it,” says Patrick Brennan, a University of Calgary historian who specializes in the First World War.
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  #10  
Old 19-02-10, 16:32
Alex Blair (RIP) Alex Blair (RIP) is offline
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Location: Ottawa ,Canada
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Default The traps are set...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Blair View Post
Hi Ian..
Yep,Ed is a local lad..
He may join us at Gracies..I haven't seen him for a few years ,but he does exist..He should pipe up here to let us know his intentions of attendance on the 18th..
Yeee Hawwwww..!!
The reservations are made..
Gracie's East
1151 Ogilvie Road
Ottawa, Ontario
(613) 842-0220
Only booked two big tables..more if we need it so
Here are the specs..
First for Rob..
The big hand is on 12..the little hand is on 5..in the afternoon..
For the rest of us..
5PM ..1700Hrs...Two bells on the first dog watch..
18March..
2010..
Under my name or The Ottawa ROTters..
They know us..
Ahhhh yes..!! says Matt..when I booked..
Hope to see everyone there for a good time..Jif..Don't forget your MLU propaganda..I forgot last time you were here and went to Indianapolis for a month with no MLU stickers ..
Ratz..!!
Need some before April when I'll be going again..
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  #11  
Old 19-02-10, 17:11
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RHClarke RHClarke is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Ottawa Area
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Default Progress!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Blair View Post
Yeee Hawwwww..!!The reservations are made...Here are the specs...First for Rob...The big hand is on 12..the little hand is on 5..in the afternoon...
Alex,

I am so proud of you! You have progressed on so many fronts:

You no longer use your sundial to tell time;
You no longer use your hour glass to tell time;
You can differentiate between morning, afternoon and nighttime; and
When you go out, you no longer need to buy something and read the receipt to tell the time.

See you at Gracies...
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  #12  
Old 02-03-10, 21:55
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servicepub (RIP) servicepub (RIP) is offline
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Default

Regrets. With any luck I will be in Jamaica (with Gunner) teaching a course to the Jamaican Defence Force - and enjoying a couple of days on the beach.
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