Harry 'Butch' Pellow recalls Chapleau in Winter and Hockey on its Rivers about entertaining ourselves, laughter, being out of doors, pushing limits, building relationships

See names at end.Click image to enlarge

Harry 'Butch' Pellow is one of my oldest friends and recently I sent him an email asking if he had any memories of us playing hockey on the front river as opposed to the 'pond' on the back river. As he notes in the following reply, not too long ago we had chatted about hockey on the pond. Now he takes us to the front river.

Imagine how wonderful it was to grow up in a place with two rivers on which you could play hockey, and you could go "down the lake" by either one to a bay called Mulligan's. In Chapleau, you could go from your home as Butch notes through other people's back yards, up or down back lanes as the case may be, across lanes to that place simply called "the arena" or if you were old enough to recall, the old old arena was "the rink".

Harry is a member of one of Chapleau's early pioneer families, and was the architect for the Chapleau Civic Centre, Chapleau Recreation Centre, Cedar Grove Lodge, Chapleau General Hospital, the golf club house and the Trinity United Church. He is also a great storyteller.

Here is Butch with Chapleau in Winter and Hockey on its Rivers. Thanks Butch for the memories.

Chapleau in Winter and Hockey on its Rivers

By Harry 'Butch' Pellow

Not that long ago we chatted about hockey on the pond over the old wooden bridge and across the back river, over a hillock and north of the old sewage treatment plant. Who can forget it when your best recollection was that your hands were blue, your laces were frozen (maybe from Saturday morning’s practice) and your skates unrelentingly accepted your now almost frozen foot. But it had its moments and the braver amongst us endured. I have said before I was not one of the brave.

Harry Pellow 2012

But there was another venue too and it was on the front river just west of the concrete swimming pier where so many gathered this past July during the Chapleau High School 90th Anniversary Reunion to celebrate the homecoming and watch the fireworks. 

Like the pond, it arrived when the ice did but it was far more accessible, and collecting a group required far less planning and organization to pull together enough players for shinny. It was often after school and on weekends and as you recall surfaced one Christmas holiday and maybe because “Ice” Sanders was unable to make a rink on the ‘clinker’ surface of the public school grounds. 

Pickup included anyone who could get enough equipment together to make it worthwhile and at the same time wear warm clothes. Warm clothes because the west wind, however mildly blowing, was cold on that open river front and by the end of a school day or an early winter weekend evening the sky was grey, sunless and foreboding; and, had it not been for wild enthusiasm why would anyone choose the river over The Boston Café?

Harry 'Boo' Hong, Roger Mizuguchi, Butch

Well the Hong brothers did as you and I did Mike, and what greater motivation should there have been than that?

What made river hockey exciting was its spontaneity, the boundlessness of the perimeters of the playing surface, the almost undefined roll of scraped-off snow and ice along the edges; and that you always had to watch out for the ripples that had been created in the surface by the last breezes that sculpted the ice before it froze.

Boo and Butch 1947

Think of that slap shot by Hong, Hong, Hong, or one of the really big guys when it accelerated over the ice ridges and soared away out over the river; or at you directly, then veered away as it embraced the ripples. Can you recall the sound of the skates cutting through the crisp surface as they raced for the puck, can you recall the whack, slap, and clicking of sticks on each other and on the ice? 

What about the yelling and chanting and the code words that defined the play. “..over here” “…pass it, pass it”; “…go, go go”; “he scores!” etc….; wild enthusiasm and true abandonment because it would be dark very soon and there were very few lights to mark the way home.

Tee Chambers, Butch, Aldee Martel 1954

There was a collective enthusiasm to make the most of every minute and everyone was in sync.

Remember how difficult it was to take a breath in the cold air, how your breath made fog as you skated up the ice or paused for ‘a breather’? Wow! Your eyes were often half frozen shut and the ice crystals on your mitts made it impossible to swipe your nose. Never to be forgotten.

Do you remember how the Hongs played hockey and skated? Yen sprinted, was light on his feet, very fast and dipsy-doodled like no one else (except maybe Max Bentley). He even bore the nickname “Ziggy”. Jim was a powerful steady and fast upright skater and a great stick handler as I recall; and our friend Boo skated low, took long steady deliberate strides and always made skating fast look easy; he also had his skates rockered so there wasn’t more than a couple of inches touching the surface.

Butch and Boo

When you think of the sound of skates on natural ice, you can’t help imagine these really great players doing their stuff can you? Wouldn’t it be great to experience it all again?

I recall one other particularly relevant experience on the front river Mike and that was when I was in grade seven or eight. There had been a fast freeze, the ice was smooth and crystalline, there was no snow, and along with a few others including Tiny Martin, Charlie White, maybe Boo and you too, we all ventured onto the ice oblivious of the danger. It was the beginning of an event that could have been catastrophic if one of us had walked too close to the edge and what a sad night that might have been.

I vividly recall Vern Goldstein clambering down through the snow from the Town Hall office where he had seen us from the Clerk’s north-eastern window and then called us off the ice and sent us home. I knew we had done something wrong but it was the threat of Police Chief JackAngove calling my home that gave it meaning. This was an experience I have never forgotten and the beginning of a long list of confrontations with nature that have caused me to be very respectful of it, and the dangers that lurk in its beauty. 

When I got home that evening Wilf Simpson had called my mom, Jack Angove had called my mom, and she was prepared for me when I arrived very cold, very afraid and very apologetic. I’m pretty sure that was a Friday evening because I have a vague recollection of being told “no more hockey unless..” as I dressed for practice the next morning before making my trek in the dark through Evans' backyard, through McKnight’s, down Lansdowne, through Therriault’s, and to the front door of the old unheated arena for a much different experience.

The wonderful thing about river hockey in Chapleau that I think we all need to think about a lot as we get into the season of joy and remembrances is that it had no religious, racial, language or nationalistic perimeters; there were no upper town or lower town distinctions and I don’t recall there being good players or bad players; albeit there were little ones and big ones too. We were all players and it was a game, a spontaneous moment, a gleeful opportunity to engage in role playing and in doing what northern boys and girls and their parents had done for decades before us. It was about entertaining ourselves, laughter, being out of doors, pushing the limits and building relationships.

Was it Joseph Conrad who said

“youth…. the glory of it!”?

A few names who might have been on the river ice at any time: Jim Evans, Boo, Jimmy, Yen, Ian Macdonald, Dave McMillan, Gilles Morin, You, Me, Jack Poynter, Terry Shannon, Tony Telik, Leo Vizena, Charlie White, and more.

(Note: Likely all the players on the 1956 CHS hockey team in photo, at one time or another)

A highlight of the year for the Chapleau High School team of 1956 was a trip to Terrace Bay. Back row from left: David McMillan, Doug Sleivert, Stan Barty,Thane Crozier, Clarence Fiaschetti (teacher and coach), George Lemon (principal) Second row: Doug Espaniel, Roger Mizuguchi, Bill Cachagee . Front are Jim Hong, Bert Lemon, Harry Pellow, Ken Schroeder, Robbie Pellow (Mascot) Marc Boulard, Harry Hong, Jim Machan, Ron Morris. Most would have played river hockey.

Thanks for the memories Butch. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

BUTCH ON ROAD HOCKEY  http://michaeljmorrisreports.blogspot.ca/2010/03/harry-pellow-recalls-enthusiasm-at.html

BUTCH WITH MEMORIES OF 'THE BIG ROCK' http://michaeljmorrisreports.blogspot.ca/2012/11/harry-pellow-shares-memories-of.html

Moment of childhood ecstasy for Neil Morris riding in steam engine cab with his Uncle Nick as engineer

IAN TELLS ABOUT ENGINES BELOW!!!!!!!

When Neil Morris was 11-years-old, he took his first ride on steam engine with his uncle F.A. 'Nick' Card, a Canadian Pacific Railway engineer in Chapleau.

Years later, Neil, no relation to me, a reporter at The London Free Press, wrote 'Moment of Childhood Ecstasy' after his uncle had retired from the CPR in 1978. It appeared in the Chapleau Sentinel, and is a wonderful heartwarming story about a child's trips in the cab of steam and diesel engines with his Uncle Nick as the engineer.

Neil wrote that his uncle to him as "a giant of a man."

"His engineer's cap shoved shoved back on his prematurely balding head he'd toss that enormous plumber's tool box that was really his next 24 hour's meals onto to the steel doorway. Then he was up the ladder and through the doorway."

Then it was time for Neil to join him.

"Up you come fella," his uncle would say "with a grin, arms reaching down to me when what I really needed wasn't a help up the ladder but something to hold a kid's pounding heart from exploding."

Nick Card was born in Lady Minto Hospital in Chapleau in 1914, and served the community as a councillor and reeve as well as being active in other community organizations throughout his life. He attended Chapleau Public School and graduated from Chapleau High School in 1934. His father, William Card, also had served on Chapleau council.

Neil continues: "Inside the warm cabin with its throbbing steam guages, his fireman smiled my way while swinging huge shovelfuls of coal into the gaping firebox.

"The engine lurched as my uncle's gloved hand eased the throttle lever open. Steam blasted from the cylinders behind the cowcatchers. We were moving."

Neil explained that for an 11-year-old it was a moment never to be forgotten, "a thrill relived every time I see a huge steam locomotive on display for a new generation of children to stand in awe over, albeit never to ride."

I contacted Ian Macdonald, now professor emeritus and retired head of the department of architecture at the University of Manitoba and a great railway buff to ask if he knew the type of engines being used by the CPR when Nick was an engineer. Ian also worked on the CPR and received training on both steam and diesel engines.

As always, Ian was back to me quickly: "Steam engine 5433 was actually a Winnipeg locomotive but this locomotive type was the dominant locomotive type on the Schreiber Division during the time Nick was on the road.  This is what makes it the  most appropriate locomotive to preserve. Kudos to Art Grout."

Steam engine 5433 has been on display in Chapleau Centennial Park since 1964 when Mr. Grout, the president of Smith and Chapple Ltd.,  arranged to get it from the CPR. N.R. Crump, then CPR president, was on hand for the ceremony.

As a matter of historical interest, when 5433 was being moved to the site on a temporary track, J.M. 'Bud' Park was the engineer and Earle Freeborn was engineer on the yard engine.

Back to Neil's story. Although he wasn't there  when that "giant of an uncle" retired, others were, nephews like himself who had "enjoyed their moment of glory in one of his engines in their childhood. Each in his turn had climbed that ladder first of steam engines then later of those diesels with their strangely different sounds and smells."

He explained that the diesels were never like the steamers with their familiar pant, hissing jets of steam and huge clouds of smoke billowing upward as they strained to tug a long freight" out of Chapleau.

Referring to his uncle's retirement:

"Gone are the days when an engineer's heart was in his mouth as his own headlight reflected back at him of a snow-covered evergreen on a curve  - his moment of  terror that he was meeting another engine head on.

"Gone are the days when he climbed back into an engine, his coveralls ice coated after a water tender spout took a crazy turn and drenched him in freezing  January weather.

"And gone are the nights of the 'call boy' shouting at the front door that he was called for this train and that.

His Uncle Nick would be home for Christmas when Neil wrote his article and would not have to leave when his 'call' arrived just as the aroma of turkey was starting to emerge from the oven.

"And then he would be gone into the snow without a grumble - just a grinning wish for a happy Christmas for all"

Neil noted this was the railroad life and his uncle loved it adding he hoped other uncles or dads would continue to slip a son or daughter, a nephew or niece onto one of those big diesels for Their "moment of childhood ecstasy."  I don't know if it would be possible today but Neil's story sure brings back memories of train travel.

Neil concluded: "To me, my uncle was a close kin to Santa Claus. Perhaps, in away, he was the spirit of what Santa Claus is all about. And not too surprisingly his name just happens to be Nick."

F.A. 'Nick' Card died in 1986.

Ian sent me other photos and explained: "There are two types of Alco locomotives.  Both were of the earliest type used on the CPR in the 1950's and 60's.  The two road engine consist is pulling a freight train over the trestle into Chapleau. The other more typical locomotive onsist is sitting outside the Chapleau shops.

"2841 is a classic Hudson locomotive was used mainly on the transcontinental trains before they were replaced by diesels. 2841 was relegated to freight service in the late 1950's before being scrapped.

"I include an image of the GM demonstrator locomotives which were the first through Chapleau in 1949.  I include the image because it shows the complete train including the dynamometer car immediately behind the locomotives that monitored locomotive performance. I attach another image of the same GM type in CP paint sitting outside the Chapleau shops."

Thanks Ian as always for your assistance. I received the Neil Morris story from the late David McMillan, who gave it to me when he came to visit me in Cranbrook.  My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Santa Claus Parade was coming to Chapleau in December 1948 sponsored by Branch No. 5 of the Royal Canadian Legion following successful play presentation

Toddy Collinson, George Collinson, John Rose

Ted Soucie was telling his Chapleau Post readers that before reading his column, leave it aside and go to Major's Cleaners and get tickets for the play being sponsored by Harry Searle Branch No. 5 of the Royal Canadian Legion.
 Ted added: "Now that you're back, I hope that you got good seats. Let me remind you that it is a full program and you had better be there early. We're starting on the button -- but if you happen to get in a little early, you'll be entertained by some good music."
 It was Chapleau, December, 1948. Having returned from World War II, the new Chapleau Legion branch members joined the World War I veterans, in becoming a central focus in Chapleau life.
 For example, the play 'Cousin Jill from Junction Hill' was sponsored by the branch and was being directed by J.M 'Jack' Shoup, a veteran of both World Wars I and II, Legion Branch president at the time, principal of Chapleau Public school and member of Chapleau township council -- in fact Mr. Shoup holds the record for the longest serving council member with 16 one year terms in the community's history.

J.M. Jack Shoup

 Major's Cleaners was operated by D.T. 'Toddy' Collinson, a World War II veteran, who in 1976 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Chapleau Legion participated in honouring George Collinson, on being a member of the branch for 50 years. His father was a World War I veteran, Chapleau's postmaster and fire chief for many years, and always active in community affairs.
 Ted moved on to sharing news about the "new room" in the Legion hall, revealing that Henry Therriault had shown it to him and had "every reason to feel proud." A successful redecoration project had been undertaken. In 1948 the branch was in the same building it is today but it was not until 1955 when B.W. 'Bubs' Zufelt was reeve that it took over ownership from the municipality.
 Henry had also dropped in to see him and requested that he "plug" a Stag and Spaghetti feed scheduled for December. "It is going to be one of our old-fashioned stags and guess who is going to make the sauce? None other than George Bucciarelli himself! Nuff said." Mr. Bucciarelli who owned a grocery store on Lorne Street south and after whom Bucciarelli's Beach is named, perhaps needless to say, was famous for his spaghetti sauce.
 In 1948, Henry Therriault, after returning home from active service in World War II, had become First vice president of the branch. Always active in the Legion and other community affairs, he served 12 terms as branch president.
 SANTA CLAUS COMING TO TOWN

 Ted noted that he had received a letter from Santa who advised that Chapleau children were "swamping' him with letters which was just fine and all would receive their card before he arrived for the Santa Claus Parade on December 11. I have some of those letters written way back in 1948 and will share them in a later column.
 The parade, another activity sponsored by the Legion, under the guidance of Wilf Simpson, World War II veteran, , was being planned although some more volunteers were needed for Santa's Military Guard of Honour. The Legion was accepting donations for the Santa Fund to help the less fortunate at Christmas.
 Wilf and his orchestra were also playing for Saturday night dances in the hall. Admission was 50 cents.
 As I wrote in my 1984 book, 'Sons of Thunder ... Apostles of Love' the World War II veterans returned home, resumed their employment, married and started to raise their families.
All of them, from World War I and World War II having experienced the bitterness of war and having lived through the Great Depression were determined to build a better community for their children.
 They became involved in local organizations, sat on the municipal council and school boards, and were active in their church. As Mr. Shoup so often said, "They had a duty to serve." And they did, in time of war and peace. This is just a glimpse of one month in the life of Harry Searle Branch No. 5 (Ontario) of the Royal Canadian Legion. My email is mj.morris@live.ca