west uptowner

19 years ago, originally uploaded by plastictaxi.

I had a chat with Layne yesterday. He was talking about the fabulous summer he had in Blyth this year. And somehow conversation turned to a wonderful show in Goderich that he took in (forgive me for not knowing its name, I'll edit it into this post when I find it out) -- it was about the loss of a large ship and a substancial number of people, back in an autumn storm in 1913.

I said "oh that's a story that used to be common on the Lakes," and immediately started yarning about my times sailing the training ships and getting the shit kicked out of me on Lake Huron in the late season's storms. I've limped into Goderich. I have friends who've done worse than limp in -- but those are not my stories to tell. Here. Buy me a beer, though, eh...

Anyway, as luck would have it this clipping was near to hand, and it gave me a chuckle. That's me, exactly half a lifetime ago, in late September 1988: disgusted with the state of my ship, disgusted with the lack of help from people that (I thought) should have helped us prevent this, not disgusted enough with the state of my hair apparently, and overall too exhausted to have the couth to hide my shame (for the state of that ship - The glorious St. Lawrence II -- was my shame) from the reporter.

# posted by trev @ 7:32 p.m.