Boom Arrives at Trailer Park!

I got through my holiday Monday paper route; it was something else! It was suggested that I begin at 3:00 am as the papers must be delivered by 6:00 am on weekdays. It was pouring rain, and had been all night; worse, it was dark! The numbers that had been difficult to see on the two previous nights entirely disappeared. I had to carry a flashlight to read my address sheet, and, not possessing 4 hands, it was tough to juggle a dozen newspapers, a flashlight, and five pages of address's in the dark. Amost calamitous was the fact that the address sheets began to disintegrate in my bare hands! Then it started to snow! Other than that it was a walk in the park; I got finished at 6:30, but it will improve - good things come to them that wade, and believe me, at several points I was wading!

After having something to eat and reading the paper, (waht a luxury, it was delivered right to my door ...by me!), I had a long nap, then got up and rebegan myday. I was talking to my wife, Julie, at about 4:00 when I spied what appeared to be two fellows setting up a movie camera on a tripod. They looked like normal fellows, but it seemed a much more elaborate camera than you usually see in a trailer park. I excused my self to Julie, and went to investigate. When I got to a better line of site I realized that there was a van, quite similar to my own, but it had something I have'nt got around to accessorizing mine with; a one hundred foot with a sattelight uplink at the top. Too Cool! It was the Calgary Global News Team, and my first thought was, "Good god! Somebody has ratted me out on my expired Ontario plates!", but such was not the case. They were doing a special report on the devastation caused by all the tourists pouring into the local RV Parks; the dapper little reporter read off a lengthy list of offenses to the comunity including drunkeness, fights, cars being abandoned and burned, (I hadn't heard anything of this unique form of May 24th fireworks!), death by misadventure, (two men died in a rock climbing accident), and last, but apparently not least, the tremendous amount of garbage they left in their wake! Now, I hadn't seen anything like that in my trailer park; rising at 2:00 or three in the morning, the only thing I noticed as odd was the number of TVs I could see flickering through various windows, but, other than that, I didn't even hear a fire craker go off! But, standing as I was, just ten feet downwind from the reporter, I couldn't help but notice that as he finished reading each page, he'd toss it on the ground, and the wind would whip it along straight towards me; I grabed each one as it went by.

When the live report was finished I walked up to him, gave him his sheets back, and introduced myself. He asked where I was from, and I told him Collingwood; I then asked him what kind of a slant he was putting on his story by shooting it here? "Well," he replied, "sometimes it gets as crazy around here as it does in Wasaga Beach on the big May weekend!" I was surprised and told him that this wasn't really a tourist RV Park, but more of a "Hooverville". He then admited that most of the trouble was in the parks to the south of the city, but they'd chosen to come here because this was closer. We chatted for a few minutes while his camera man wandered around shooting anything that moved, which, given the weather, wasn't very much. I finally retreated to my van to read a book, and watched as the camera man wandered around for the next hour filming inanimate objects. I wasn't too worried, I was backed up so close to the RV behind me that I was pretty sure my expired plates would not appear on the evening news. But I was sort of surprised when he approached the RV 15 feet to the right of mine, and took a long lingering close up of the contents of their fire pit. I never did find out what he found so intriging there; I guess that I lack a nose for the news. But I was glad that they didn't scope out my own pit; it's a heavy iron enclosure, with a substantial hinged grate accross the top. Every morning, upon returning from my route, I've been sticking the wrappers from my paper bundles in there; they won't blow away, and some evening I'll have a fire and destroy the evidence. However, had they looked, I could well imagine the indignant headline on the evening news: "Callous Ontarian Tourists flock to Calgary Campgrounds for the long weekend, spend three days carrousing along city paper routes, and abandon the detris in their retreat!"

Later that evening I reported all these events to Julie over the phone, and we laughed about them together. I've never really told you much about the Love of my Life, but I'll briefly remedy that now. We almost never met; it was kind of weird the way it happened. A friend of mine, Art Betts, had decided to throw his hat into the acting ring, and was going to audition for a local production of, what has since become my favorite Broadway musical, "Guys & Dolls", although I wasn't familiar with it then. Art suggested that I go down with him on the Saturday and give the audition a try myself. At the time it struck me as sort of a novel idea, and I decided that, time permitting, I'd do just that; however, I was busy that day and pushed the thought from my head. That night Art phoned me and expressed his disappointment at my non-audition. "James", he said, "they are having one more day of auditions, tomorrow; you have to go!" So, go I did; had to read a little, sing a little, and, nobody said anything about choreography ....just as well they didn't, because, "Twinkle-Toes" I ain't, and the mere suggestion of the possibility might have put me to flight at that point.

About four days later I got a call, and was informed that, if I was still interested, they had a part for me; they wouldn't go into detail, but gave me a time and date to come down, get my script, and find out my role. I thought that was great, I'd get a small part, maybe two or three lines, and find out whether I liked it or not. As I was later to learn, the auditioners who showed promise might get five or six parts. That was my Julie, I think that she had eight roles in all! But, we didn't meet right off the bat; it was a few weeks into the production untill she really caught my eye. Our introducton was preceeded by a very dramatic turn of events. One of Julie's roles was in the chorous line, backing up the vocals of Adelaide, whom, in the play, was my long suffering fiancee. The first time I saw her, she came on stage in high heels, a provocative dress, a mink stole, a long string of pearls, and, if I remember correctly, a little hat. The reason my memory of what I saw may be a little vague, is I was sort of startled by what I did see! For, immediatly as she walked on stage, she started to sing, and the song went like this:

"Take back your mink!
Take back your pearls!
What made you think,
That I was one of those girls?"

As she sang, she disgarded every article I'd mentioned earlier. What's more, she repeated this strip tease over and over! Now, I'm a red blooded Canadian boy; I can only watch an attractive Canadian girl sing while disrobing before my curiosity begins to rise. "Man!" I thought to myself, "If she's that outgoing in public, she must be a real tiger in private!" As it turned out, my suspicion was right on! But, we didn't have a great deal of time just then, because we both worked full time, and there was so much to learn! As it turned out, my character, and thankfully I only had one role, was a bit of a shyster named 'Nathan Detroit', who ran a floating crap game in New York City. The two or three lines I'd hoped to have were there, and executed in the first couple of minutes I was on stage ....and the show ran about two and three quarters of an hour! Crap! ....I was feeling pretty dicey about the whole affair, (the one unrolling on stage, not the one transpiring in the wings!), and just wasn't sure I could manage it! It wasn't just the huge amount of lines, but also the blocking, because you have to be in exactly the right place on stage to deliver those lines! In addition, there were songs to learn, and ....just like they didn't tell me, ....choreography! If I was the type of fellow to be whelmed, I'd say that I was over it at that point.

Then, a man I always will admire took me aside for a friendly word of advice. Bob Vinton has his finger in every entertainment pie that occurs in 'The Georgian Triangle', theatre, comedy, and, as a sideline, frontman for his own band, 'The Bay Sound'. His real magic, though, lies in production, if you wanted to get an event off the ground, Bob Vinton was the man you wanted organizing it, everything from facilities, to financing, to talent; if you needed it, Bob could make it happen. "Nathan", he said as he put his hand on my shoulder, "you've got a lead! People audition all their lives, and never get a lead! You've got to do well!" "Thanks Bob, just what I needed ...a little more pressure!" But, Bob was right, and everything, even the choreography, proceeded, in the end, smoothly.

That's it! That's how it all began, and Julie Ann Eliza Mackay has been improving my life ever since. And she's just part of the overall package. Her maiden name in Hargreaves, and I've never met a family that I enjoy so much. A Family with a generous smattering of flambouyance, over achievement, social skills, and, most important in an age where the concept of 'family' is rapidly disintegrating, a real sense of the importance keeping the family intact, in a generous, entertaining fun way. Like any family there are problems, difficulties and misunderstandings, but, all these are swept aside at family get togethers. The second best times in my life have been when we've been entertained at various Hargreaves get togethers; the best have certainly been when Julie and I have entertained the entire group at our home on 56 Helena St. Julie is the youngest of 7 siblings, and, sorry fellas, I got there first, I won the Pride of the Hargreaves Clan.
I always delight in the unlikely circumstances that brought us together and enjoy sharing it with friends; but you have to be careful who you tell it to, or possibly, how you tell it! We met a very nice couple, Bev and Jerry, and one evening I was telling them the story. Bev is a retired teacher from England, Jerry is a retired Policeman from Australia. The two met in England, having each raised families in their respective countries. When they decided to get married they couldn't agree on which country to live in, so Canada was settled on as a compromise. They had never heard of 'Guys & Dolls', and subsequently wern't aware that I was talking about a Broadway show; they accepted the story vebatim! They are nice people though, and didn't let what they assumed to be 'real' events affect our friendship. But little misunderstandings tend to compound themselves, and, stories, passed from mouth to mouth, take on a life of their own. It was till about a year later that the facts got sorted out.

We had been invited to Bev and Jerries' place to meet some of their friends, and some of her co-workers. They were really nice people, but some, particularly Bev's co-workers just didn't seem to mesh well with us. Julie mentioned that they seemed, well, 'distant', but we shrugged it off; they probably just wern't comfortable in social settings. It wasn't till the co-workers left, and there was only we three couples remaining that the truth came out. The ladies in question were uncomfortable because they'd never socialised with a real stripper before!
Bev, Jerry, Julie and I, along with the other couple from Bob Cajun laughed the rest of the evening over this mis-understanding!

This being separated has been hard on both of us; only bearable because we know it will be of short duration. In the meantime, there is much to be done, both here and in Ontario. I just hope that when we are finally re-united, my honey greets me in her mink stole. How do I handle being alone out here, without my honey, when, to me, one of the best things about being together, is the press of a loved ones skin as you sleep together? I'm not talking dirty here, I mean just the reassurance that your lover is there in bed beside you; well, I guess it's just a Mackay thing, "Manu Forte!".

James (the B. is for "Bed Empty) Mackay