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| Bed pushers MJ behind Tom in black coat Other names below |
Sitting around in Willison Hall, the men's residence and at the time, seminary and library too, just before the first winter carnival in 1961, we were looking for some activity we could undertake.
The dining room was also attached.
I don't recall who said "Let's push a bed" but once said the project started to become reality,
For the most part, the participants were were first year students at Waterloo College later Waterloo University College of Waterloo Lutheran University, now Wilfrid Laurier University.
In no time, we had a hospital bed with wheels -- and my memory fails me on who actually prepared the bed, but it happened pretty quickly, and off we went in a cavalcade of cars, including my mother's, which I had at university with me.
We started from London at about midnight determined to set the world bed push 'record' over a distance of 71.3 miles. We did it in 8 hours 23 minutes, and set an unofficial record. I really don't recall if anyone else ever pushed a bed that distance. We pushed in teams of four in a relay -- accompanying cars drove us to our next point.
Remember now, this was all happening on a two-lane highway.
There were no mishaps. although in due course there were more Ontario Provincial Police cruisers appearing on the highway. We had not bothered to seek permission from anyone - including the university to undertake the bed push.
As we approached Waterloo, it was decided to end the bed push at Kitchener City Hall, rather than head into Waterloo -- we were a bit concerned that we all may be expelled from the university for this antic. The university was owned by the Lutherans.
No need to worry as the media had picked up on our push and reporters from the newspapers, radio stations and CBC Television appeared.
The college public relations people saw the publicity benefits and we were greeted by the president, Dr. H.M. Axford, at Kitchener City Hall where he extended congratulations, and the winter carnival was officially opened. No way were we on the carnival program when we set out.
Although most of us who lived in Willison Hall were involved, other students also joined us.
In the photo I discovered while looking for something else entirely on Google, here are the names. From left Tom Kinnear, Foster Stark,Paul Barton, Tom Ramautarsingh, Mike Morris, Steve Underhill,Eric Renman, Collin Campbell, Art Pollock, Jim Wilgar, John Saso, Ralph Reichert. The photo was taken by the Kitchener-Waterloo Record but copyright has expired now.
As an aside, the bed push was featured on CBC National television news, the next night, and my mother, Muriel E Morris was out playing bridge when the news came on and the university's name was mentioned. As Mom looked at the television, her car happened to appear on screen, and moments later she saw me -- but i was not driving the car, I was pushing the bed. Mom's bridge partners were Mrs. Aldythe Pellow, Mrs. Beth Goldstein and Mrs. Opal Simpson.
We did not have television at home at that time. I had some explaining to do.
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| MJ on right bed in helmet |
In the 1970s after I returned home to teach at Chapleau High School, and became involved in the community, we added bed pushes to our Summer community celebrations. I was involved in one on a team composed of Chapleau Intermediate A Huskies players, but they made me sit on the bed and wear a helmet.
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| Fire department won |
Great memories folks. If anyone sees this post and has more information on the great bed push, I would love to hear from you. My email is mj.morris@live.ca
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