A potpourri of stories from working with Tee Chambers to Junior Red Cross play at Chapleau Public School plus the 'devilish deed' and more from Chapleau

Let me begin with a definition. As I was going over my notes for this column, I immediately thought of 'potpourri' but wasn't exactly sure what it meant. I recalled that the late J.M. "Jack" Shoup, the longtime principal and teacher at Chapleau Public School, township councillor and veteran of World Wars I and II, once wrote a column with that title in the Sudbury Star.

I went to dictionary.com and the first definition I saw said it was a mixture of dried petals of roses or other flowers with spices, kept in a jar for their fragrance. That wasn't the definition I was looking for. The second one came closer: Potpourri is a miscellaneous anthology or collection: a potpourri of short stories...

So, with thanks to Mr. Shoup for the idea I am going to share some of the stories and comments I have been receiving recently from readers of Chapleau Moments in the Chapleau Exoress and my blog plus the story of the "devilish deed."

WORKING WITH TEE
Michael Cecile, formerly of Chapleau, now living in Calgary wrote after seeing the column with his sister Susan's comments on rock and roll and a photo of Garth "Tee' Chambers with Harry "Butch" Pellow and Aldee Martel.

Michael wrote: "Like all the others I’m really enjoying your articles!

"You’ll be pleased to know I get the Chapleau Express by a method something like a portaging trip on the Chapleau River. Marie Fortin has the Express sent to John Champion. He passes them on to me when we meet in a park, walking our dogs in NW Calgary. Not technically sophisticated like email, but it works, and I get to talk with John, his family and friends (he's a Grand Dad now!!).

"I really enjoyed the ‘53-‘54 picture of Tee Chambers! I worked with Tee’s Cartage one summer (like many others). We unloaded box cars and transported goods to the Dominion Store.Then we delivered groceries to Dominion customers around town. If you worked for Tee you’d know he had a great sense of humour and I was the recipient of one of his favourite jokes. We had formed a chain, moving boxes person to person from a box car to his truck. When we came to heavy cases with cans, Tee (next to me) called out “Heavy”, and again “ Heavy”...etc. I of course adjusted my catch-lift accordingly.

"Then Tee called out “Extra Heavy”, I adjusted my lift even more and ended up smashing the box of Kleenex, or something
lighter, right into my face. Of course we all had a good laugh, especially Tee!

"I also enjoyed reading a quote from my sister Susan’s article on “ the mostest rock and roll”. Your readers might like to know that Susan had a stroke in December but is recovering very well with great support from her kids."

Thanks Michael and all the best to Susan.

Louis Fortin's sister Muriele wrote to provide interesting comments on her brother working on the ice gang and Dr. Bill Pellow's memories of the ice house in the winter. Louis worked on ice gangs in the summer and Bill spent winter weekends at the old ice house across from the Boston Cafe. Both graduated from university.

THE RACONTEUR
Muriele wrote: "Mike you are such a great 'raconteur'. As I'm reading Bill Pellow's and Louis' details of ice gang and pre ice work, I'm thinking what physically demanding work that was for young people. Is it any wonder they and many others went on to futher education and successful careers, less physically demanding. For several years I raised my two sons in a rural setting where their summer jobs entailed washing milking cows, haying, cleaning barns etc. I believe it was during those gruelling summer jobs that they decided to pursue higher education. It happened. I'm happy. They are happy."

OFF ON A GOOD TALE
Steve Degeer, a former student from my time at Chapleau High School wrote after paying a recent visit to Chapleau. "I just recently returned to Chapleau for a visit with my parents and I read your article in the paper and I love it! I can remember that you loved to tell us stories about the old days! Someone would bring you a Mars bar and start talking about hockey or chapleau and you would go off on a good tale! You were one of my favorite teachers! And that's to date! Well I'll be looking forward to your next article! Keep up the good work!!!"

Thanks Steve, and yes, I have enjoyed stories and story telling for as long as I can remember. Since I was a child growing up in Chapleau has been central to me whether I was playing in the living room or creating my own plays for the Junior Red Cross Society performances in Grade four at Chapleau Public School. If I remember correctly Alison (McMillan) McMullen, Ted and Brian Demers starred in the first play I created. We rehearsed in the basement of Demers' home on Beech Street at the time.

Thanks to my mother, Muriel E. (Hunt) Morris, who instilled a love of stories in me before I could hardly walk, and gave me the freedom to explore all the great children's literature of my time, story has been the place where I have lived. And I very much appreciate all the kind comments that I receive from so many of you who were her students over the 32 years that she taught at Chapleau Public School.

Michael Cecile shared the following about his mother Renee Cecile who also encouraged a love of reading and music and recipes in her children: "Some parents balked at their kids reading Classic Comics and comics in general but Renee was happy to see us read and encouraged that too. She liked to try new foods and recipes but my Dad was only liked well-done meat and potatoes, but she did experiment on us!" Those of us who worked with and knew Mrs. Cecile, through her years of devotion to the Chapleau Public Library and as school librarian are well aware, of her love of books and music.

FROM MID NORTH NEWS TO THE INTERNET
Little did I realize that my experience as the Chapleau High School reporter (with Joy Evans) for the long gone Mid North News, and a television program on CHAP TV in 1957- 1958 (with Phyllis Chrusoskie, Bill Mcleod and others) would lead to story telling and talking about the stories of others in classrooms in Ontario and British Columbia. And people even got me to write stories about people and events in daily newspapers, for television, in magazines and the internet and books.

THROUGH THE EYES OF A KID
Yvonne (Fournier) Kohls, sent me comments from her brother Rene Fournier who also loves storytelling. Rene wrote in part to his sister: "Thanks for sending M.J. Morris's stuff, I enjoy some of these that I can connect to. The Yen Hong and family article was interesting because Dad was close to the elders and of course I was the same age as Yen's sister (Jean). In fact at some tender age I asked dad if I could marry her. He suggested I should wait till I was ten, but it was O.K. with him if it was O.K. with her mother....

"I will say this, I actually do tell stories about life in a small town through the eyes of a kid such as the morning all the men and boys of Chapleau went to the freight shed to see ten wheel truck unloading. A huge Event! On par with the day the King and Queen's train passed through Chapleau. (they slept while we watched the silent event with our hats off)"

Thanks Yvonne and Rene. Great memories. The Yen story to which he refers is the one about the seven members of the family appearing on the game report of a hockey game at one time and the game played in the Boston Cafe.


THE DEVILISH DEED
The other day Hugh McGoldrick posted on Facebook that he had been talking with Lynn Hazen about the possibility of reunion in 2011 of the the 1976 graduating class of Chapleau High School. I immediately thought of a story that Lynn told about me in the newspaper marking the 75th anniversary of the school in 1997.

Lynn wrote in part that in 1972, two grade niners who had never done anything wrong took the plunge. "When Mr. Morris momentarily left the classroom, the wall clock came down. As they turned the time forward, it slipped from their hands and landed in several pieces on the floor. The two niners slinked to their seats just before Mr. Morris came through the door.

"The longer he grilled us about who had done the devilish deed, the more we dug in our heels and adhered to a new found code of silence. We all stayed for detention. We were together on this one."

To this day I have no idea who did this devilish deed. Perhaps if I attend the reunion, someone will confess.. Contact Hugh or Lynn for more information on their plans.

Tom Corston becomes ninth Anglican bishop of the Diocese of Moosonee

UPDATE... On July 6, 2010: Tom Corston was consecrated as a bishop in the Anglican Church today in a ceremony at St. Anthony's Church, Timmins, Ontario, and was later installed as the ninth bishop of Moosonee in a service at St Matthew's Anglican Cathedral in Timmins.


Thomas A. "Tom" Corston, born and raised in Chapleau, Ontario, the son of Frances (Jardine) and the late Henry "Chicken" Corston, has been elected the ninth Bishop of the Anglican Church Diocese of Moosonee at a synod in Timmins.

Tom, who is currently an archdeacon in the Anglican church is also Rector of the Church of the Epiphany, Sudbury, Ontario, in the Diocese of Algoma, is expected to take up his new duties in July, 2010. He succeeds Archbishop Caleb Lawrence, who retired.

Growing up in Chapleau, Tom was active in St. John's Anglican Church, as AYPA president, which is a parish in the Diocese of Moosonee which he will now be leading. Tom becomes the first Chapleau boy to have become an Anglican priest to have been elected a Bishop. Tom was also a president of the Students' Council at Chapleau High School.

He graduated from Lakehead University with the Bachelor of Arts degree and Wycliffe College with a Master of Divinity degree.

In June,1974, Tom was ordained a Deacon in a service at St. John's ina service conducted by Archbishop James A. Watton, then the Bishop of Moosonee. He was ordained to the priesthood a year later.

He started his ministry in the Diocese of Moosonee.

Tom is married with two children.

Tom's grandparents John and Lydia (Swanson) Corston, came from James Bay in the Diocese of Moosonee to Chapleau in 1907 where his grandfather began work with the Canadian Pacific Railway. They established their family home on Grey Street.

Tom is a successor to John Horden, the first Bishop of Moosonee in 1872, who travelled around the vast area by canoe, snowshoe and on foot. Bishop Horden was considered one of the great missionaries of his time.

Here is where Tom has served in his ministry taken from a curriculum vitae prprepared for his nomination for Bishop of Moosonee:

Curate, Church of St. Michael & All Angels, Toronto, ON, 1974-75
Incumbent, Foleyet, Gogama, Mattagami First Nation, 1975-78,
Incumbent, Longlac, Caramat, Hillsport, Nakina, Armstrong, Collins, Allanwater Bridge,
Ogoki Post, 1978-80
Rector, South Porcupine & Schumacher, 1980-83
Regional Dean, Deanery of Cochrane, 1982
Rector, St. Margaret’s Church, Fredericton, NB, 1983-85
Rector, Iroquois Falls, Matheson & Montieth, 1985-87
Rector, Chatham, NB, 1987-92
Regional Dean, Deanery of Chatham, NB, 1990-1992
Rector, Holy Trinity Church, Sault Ste. Marie, 1992-98
Regional Dean, Deanery of Algoma, 1995-1997
Rector, Church of the Epiphany, Sudbury, 1998-present
Regional Dean, Deanery of Sudbury/Manitoulin, 1999-2002
Archdeacon of Sudbury/Manitoulin, 2002-present

Michael McMullen recalls life in Chapleau celebrating hockey victory, earning 'real money' setting pins and listening to popular radio shows

MJM and Michael McMullen, co-authors 'The Chapleau Boys Go To War' 2015

UPDATED ON SEPTEMBER 5, 2015: Michael McMullen is the co-author of 'The Chapleau Boys go To War'.

The book is available in Chapleau at the Chapleau Village Shops, on amazon.ca, amazon.com and Kindle.  Key words: 'chapleau boys war'

Michael McMullen's memories of growing up in Chapleau in the early 1950s won him the first annual Buckwheat Award for most popular story on the blog. The award is named after my beloved cat Buckwheat, who died in November 2009 at 20 years and two months old.. MJM

Michael McMullen lived in Chapleau from 1952-54 when his father Keith came to work for the Austin Lumber company, but his roots in the community go back to 1885 when his great great uncle Patrick Mulligan (and mine) arrived and opened one of the first general stores, called Murrays and Mulligan General Merchants.

After reading Michael's family history of his grandparents, William and May (Mulligan) McMullen, both of whom lived in Chapleau in the early years of the 20th Century, I asked him if I might share some of his recollections of life in Chapleau. He agreed and his recollections capture much of life as it was for us growing up in Chapleau during the early Fifties.

Book presentation to Donald White, 102, World War2 vet from Chapleau

"I have fond memories of that time and still have many friendships that have endured since then," Michael wrote. "More importantly, I met my wife, Alison, during this period. She is the daughter of Leslie and Margaret (Jack) McMillan and sister of David McMillan. Les was a CPR locomotive engineer who operated out of Chapleau for over 25 years, retiring in 1966." Mr. McMillan also served as a member of Chapleau township council.

After arriving in Chapleau, Michael and his parents lived for a time in the offices of Austin Lumber on the second floor of the building at the northwest corner of Birch and Young Streets. Their bedrooms were in two of the separate enclosed offices. "There was a Dominion store on the first floor. (later the Bank of Montreal). Years later I would discover that this was the building that Patrick Mulligan had rebuilt in 1895 following a fire at his original store on this site."

"I remember the good times that a kid could have, particularly in a small town. There was a ball field behind the high school where everyone played ball on a summer evening, the natural ice arena, which was the place to go for skating on a Friday night and to play hockey on a Saturday during the winter.

"We also played road hockey on the snow packed, icy streets, particularly on Aberdeen Street, not with a ball, but with a real puck.

"I remember playing bantam hockey for the Chapleau Huskies team when we won the first Broomhead Trophy in 1953-54... It was an exciting 4-3 victory in overtime over the IOOF team.... We went to celebrate at the Boston Cafe where Harry (Boo Boo) Hong, one of my teammates got his mother to open their family restaurant for our celebration. That game is still mentioned among those of us who played."

(In the photo are in  back row from left Basil Collings, Mike McMullen, Mrs. Broomhead, David McMillan, Richard Pilon, Tim Goodwin. Front row from left Charlie White, Ken Schroeder, Harry 'Boo' Hong  In the ball photo, Michael is at bat and his cousin David Curry  is the catcher.)

He also recalled that it was on an empty lot to the west of the Boston Cafe that he first participated in building an outdoor skating/hockey rink. "Boo Boo Hong asked me, and several others to help him and his brothers (Yen and Jimmy) to do this." This was where the Bridgeview Motel until recently owned by Yen Hong was built. It was also location where Patrick Mulligan had built a warehouse and post office.

Michael noted that when they first arrived in Chapleau they stayed at the Rectory of St. John's Anglican Church where Reverend E. Roy Haddon (the Rector at the time) and family lived at the southwest corner of Pine and Young Street with a tennis court beside it. The Haddons were on vacation at the time. The house was nearly opposite the church... To the right (east) was the Town Hall and then beside it was Chapleau Public School which he would attend. To the left of the church on the west was Chapleau High School.

"I would discover that right beside the high school was where Alison and family lived."

He would learn later that the original Anglican church in Chapleau was built in 1885 on the site where the tennis court was located. "I would also appreciate that my father and most of his siblings, if not all, were baptized at the current St. John's, which was opened in 1908, and went to the same public school I did"

As an aside, it should be noted that Michael's father Keith, and his grandfather, William McMullen, both served as Wardens at St. John's. His father was People's Warden when Mr. Haddon was the Rector and his grandfather was Rector's Warden in the time of Rev. J.N. Blodgett.

In photo are from left Michael, his parents Margret and Keith McMullen and me, taken in 1955


Michael recalled earning "some real money" for the first time in Chapleau. Mrs. Elsie Wilkinson, the widow of Dr. Steve Wilkinson paid him 25 cents to cut the grass on her property on Beech Street with her hand mower once a week.

"I was a pin boy at the bowling alley for probably 15-20 cents an hour. I was down at the end of the alley where the pins were placed. My responsibility was to properly position the pins during each frame, and to put the balls in the track to return to the players. As I recall, I was looking after two lanes at one time. You had to be alert because of where the pin could go after being hit. There was a foot slot at the end of the bowling lane that you stepped on that pushed the pins up from the floor for each of the five bowling pins to be placed on."

The bowling alley was located across on Birch Street across from the Chapleau News Depot store.

Michael also helped Raymond Soucie a number of times to pick worms to sell to fishermen for about 25 cents a container. He noted that in the early 1950s, 25 cents went a long way, as admission to the theatre was only 15-20 cents. Michael and I also delivered flyers for Simpsons order office which had been recently established in Chapleau.

"In the days before television, a radio was a great thing to have," Michael recalled. Radio was non existent during the day until the CBC installed repeater stations, but "... as the sun was going down the reception started to come in and after sundown the reception was really good, particularly for powerful stations from cities in the United States, such as Fort Wayne (WOWO), Pittsburgh (KDKA) and Boston (WBZ)."

Michael remembers some of the popular radio shows such as the Lone Ranger, Jack Benny, the Green Hornet and Inner Sanctum with "its scary squeaky door at the beginning of the program. Canadian shows such as Wayne and Shuster, and the Happy Gang were very popular. We got the Saturday night hockey games, usually from Toronto with Foster Hewitt and the Toronto Maple Leafs."

He liked listening to baseball games particularly his favorite team at the time, the Brooklyn Dodgers. They were on WMGM, 1050 on the dial from New York and the sponsors were Lucky Strike and Schaefer beer. Vince Scully was the junior announcer and he is still calling games for the Los Angeles Dodgers. On weekends there were baseball games on the United States Armed Forces Network on short wave radio with Dizzy Dean and Buddy Blattner.

After moving to Toronto in 1954, Michael did not return to Chapleau until the Chapleau High School reunion in 1997. Many changes had taken place in the 43 years since he left. The old Patrick Mulligan store was gone as was the natural ice arena on Lorne Street replaced by the Chapleau Recreation Centre on the other side of town. The movie theatre had closed, and the YMCA was gone as well. The ball field that was behind the high school was still there but the school had moved. The Chapleau Civic Centre was in its place.

But some things had not changed for him. The Boston Cafe, which had become Hongers, was still there and still owned by the Hong family. Chapleau Public School was in the same place and to him it appeared the same inside and out.

Before leaving Chapleau in 1954, Michael remembers going to the old Protestant Cemetery on Birch Street with his friend the late Harry (Boo Boo) Hong.

"(Boo Boo)... asked me to help him do some landscaping at the grave of his father. We got a wheelbarrow, two shovels and went there. The plot had sunk and needed some earth so we went to a nearby field and hauled earth back to do the work.

"While repairing the site, I browsed at the nearby plots and to my surprise, one of the plots close by, at the back fence, was the location of my grandfather William McMullen. It needed the same work as the Hong site. So, we hauled more earth and put both plots in a condition, which pleased us both."



Michael and his parents appear to have been the last of his McMullen line to live in Chapleau. However, some years ago, Dr. Bill McMullen from Sudbury was one of the medical doctors who came to Chapleau on a periodic basis to provide medical services. Bill is the eldest son of Hugh McMullen, his father's older brother. I am the last of the Patrick Mulligan line to have lived in Chapleau. My grandmother, Lil (Mulligan) Morris and Michael and Bill's grandmother May (Mulligan) McMullen were sisters.

My email is mj.morris@live.ca