YES, YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN. I JUST DID AND I HAD A 'BLAST' AT THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION FESTIVAL OF CHAPLEAU HIGH SCHOOL

As I travelled to Chapleau for the 90th anniversary reunion of Chapleau High School, the one recurring thought in my always wandering mind, was the title of the wonderful novel 'You Can't Go Home Again' by the American writer Thomas Wolfe.


For the past three years I have been writing weekly about the life, time and people of Chapleau, but in the 23 years that I have been living in British Columbia, I had been home only once -- in 2001 for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of Chapleau as a municipality.

 That was a great time. I stayed with Dr. G.E. Young, and we spent hours sharing stories about the Chapleau I knew so well. There was also a hockey reunion organized by Earle Freeborn and Buddy Swanson, so I was so comfortable going home again.

This time was different. I had been kindly inviited to be part of the program by the reunion committee, which I so much appreciated, and extend my most sincere thanks to them, but it is one thing to write about Chapleau from the other side of Canada and another to be on the scene.

I was also travelling to Chapleau with my cousin Michael McMullen and his wife Alison (McMillan), which created the opportunity to chat about Chapleau moments going back to 1885 when our great-great uncle Patrick Mullligaan arrived in the community. Our respective grandmothers were Mulligans.

Thomas Wolfe told us that you, and me, "can't go home to your family, back home to your childhood ... back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting all the time -- back home to the escapes of Time and Memory."

I know I am taking Mr. Wolfe out of context, but for me, yes, you can go home again. I just did along with hundreds of others to celebrate to have a "blast" as I wrote to a friend on Facebook when he asked me how it was going.

Perhaps it was made even better by the fact the reunion had begun by the time we reached Suidbury and we had hooked up with about 12 others from my years as a student at CHS in the 1950s, who were now living all over the place but were heading home.

Yes, once home, I saw there have been changes in the physical face of Chapleau.

 However, even though I walked up and down almost all the streets of town, and some back lanes too and went on an expedition over the old bridge at the end of Cedar Street to my favourite walking place past Corston's farm and Pellow's field to the Memegos property, all that paled in comparison to the real reason that I came home.

To me, the greatest resource any community has is its people, and from the moment I walked into the A.W. Moore arena at the recreation centre, my belief was once again confirmed.

There you were -- students I taught at CHS, guys who played on hockey teams I coached, "kids" (now mostly over 40) who acted in plays I directed, members of St. John's Anglican Church which I attended, friends of my parents Jim and Muriel (Hunt) Morris, both of whom graduated from CHS.

I also chatted with friends of my grandparents Edith and George Hunt and Lil and Harry Morris.

I saw many old personal friends and met people I had never known and never would have if I hadn't come home. I had come home with a cousin from my dad's side of the family, and was able to chat with cousins from my mother's side.

I am sure as I type this column from Michael and Alison's home in Ottawa before heading back to British Columbia, you, in your way had similar experiences to me.

Mr. Wolfe, you can go home again "to the escape of Time and Memory." I just did and joined hundreds of others at the 90th anniversary of Chapleau High School -- all made possible because co-chairs Nadia Huard Fortin, Graham Bertrand, both members of pioneer Chapleau families, and their committee made it possible.

Rt. Rev. Thomas Corston, now the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Moosonee, and a member of the Corston-Jardine families, both pioneer families had asked me to read one of the lessons at the wonderful ecumenical service that closed the reunion. When Tom handed me my reading, and I saw it was from the Old Testament- Ecclesiastes 1: 1-8, I looked at him and said, "Thanks Tom. You know me well."

And to all of you, thanks so much, for your kindness while I was home. Trust me. You can go home again. My email is mj.morris@live.ca