Rodney McNight
Class of '72

One of my favorite people I like to remember from highschool.

Some of us were mean to this young man either to his face or behind his back- and he took it - when he should have given us what we all deserved.

But he was so kind instead.

These days when I contemplate Bhuddism, the Dali Lama and the ideas, courage and action required to actually grow in life, I think back to people in highschool who embodied kind heartedness like this man.

..we were kids and many of us still are.

I'm certain the memory of High School is not warm and fuzzy for everyone.

Before Pierre Lacroix died the month or so before the reunion of May 2007, he wrote to me and brought this point solidly home. Rick Rankin will remember that week. I was really bowled over. I actually thought Pierre was being a little heavy handed, but I had no idea the pain he was enduring at the time. I only found out later he knew he was soon to pass on.

Things become very clear in that light. One gets to the point quickly and dispenses with those lacking in at least an element of depth or resonance with what is important in this gift we call life.

I remember bringing Pierre's comments to my wife - I was feeling a little sorry for myself, given that someone was actually raining on my parade. And Jane responded in her usual well thought out counter-point,"Well you can't expect everyone to feel the way you do."

Then she told me about how she had called a girlfriend of hers from John Rennie High (where they had gone to school) asking if she would like to go to their reunion. " I think I'd prefer to stay home and stick HOT needles in my eye." was the response, ever so calmly.

It is good to remember there were many kind hearted souls in High School who were bull dozed aside by the cliques, who were not stars, not clever tounged little devils. They just had to be who they were and try to get by and beyond that phase as soon as possible. Back then it seemed minutes would pass like hours as we watched that clock ...get to the end of a day.

Not so any more I'm afraid.

From One of our Readers

Robert Leonard - Class of 69 if I recall correctly

(... who else do we recall from that year?> Shannon McManus, Dale Kiperchuck, Andrew Mutch, Debbie Mizener, Valerie Mumford, Anne Wells, Shirley Ascroft, Carren & Carrol King, Muncey Oliver, Wayne Skelhorne, Ferenc Somogyi, Klaus Tiefenbrunner, (the late Heather Bedard?), the late (and great) Eddie Quinn, Bob Marsh, the late Blake Jennings, Susan Hague, the late Russel McKoy, and there was Kendra Redden, Ray Mcleod, Shirley Bulmer, Bev Jones, Carla Klop, Paul Enros, (Edson Phipps -the great and wonderful), Norman Leroux, Dave Noel, Larry Busch, Peter MacHardy, the inimitable Scott Pashley, Janet Boudreau, Sue McInnis, Ted Kirschberger, Florence Lanigan, Judy Lawless, Brent Timms, Amelia Agnew and Mitch Morrison, Barbra Allen, Michael Pierce, Lousie Ranger, Randy Phillips, Debbie Leedham and of course Medelaine Stevens, Don Walker, Gail Brophy, Don Tatry, Hal Thwaites,Phil Seary, Cornelia Wesslow and Anja Mechielsen...just to name a few...I used to look up to and/or observe from afar, many of these people. I was just a twerp from grade 8 or 9 while they were all graduating! Some seemed like movie stars and greatest athletes, some seemed like personalities unto themselves, some seemed lost others found. And they all seemd so grown up already!)

Say's Robert...

I just want to thank you for bringing back those memories of days gone by.

And it is true - that when we get old all we have are the memories.

So thanks again.

Robert Leonard
5:46 AM

You are most welcome Robert.

Your comment was a response more or less to the entry on home territory, swimming pools, Seigniory Park, the Canoe Club, and I guess to our old memories of home and growing up in Chateauguay and through the "Chateauguay High/HSB" experience etc.

Aging is one of those strange things in life isn't it?

We become -perhaps a little smarter, due to the bruises of experience. Then we leave our past behind with some of the people we loved and will always love.

Down the road, we have all this wisdom to dispense to our children, who cannot seem to "hear" and in the end, must experience for themselves their own mistakes and glories.

When our memories play themselves back in our dreams or fantasies, there just seems to have been so much adventure, fun and excitement in making the mistakes - in class, in the hallway, on the playing field, on the ice, at the dam, at the dance, the basketball court, the Canoe Club, "his appartment", the tennis club, at the Beach, the Alamo, the Railway bridge, the Pines, the Curb, behind the Church, in her house when her parents were out, while she was babysitting, in the basement, the Freeman, the Raja Mood, escaping out the basement window as her parents came in the front door - all this and more, before the serious consequences of life set in.

I guess some of the mistakes I truly regret are those "actions not put into motion" which in retrospect I could have or should have. But then -we were kids...and those kids still live inside us don't they? - no matter how far away we go.

On the otherhand there are those mistakes I'm sure we all regret which turned out to be the "wrong roads taken" or the hurtful things said in spite, even when our conscience whispered clearly to our hearts "don't do this!"

There are those things we can never "un-do". But maybe we can be forgiven? We'll never know unless we have the itch and the courage to find out -consequences bedamned. As long as he or she is still alive, the possibility does exist. It is only too late, if one waits too long. And then we become haunted by regret.

But then, yes... we still have all the memories...
Be well.
Les

From Tom Lauder on the Passing of Gerd Weigel

I lost a friend today.

It is with great sadness that I tell you that Gerd Weigel lost his battle with cancer today.

Gerd was one of the good guys.

I hadn’t talked to him in a while; sent him the regular email jokes every now and then, and the too infrequent phone calls, but he was still my friend. And a very good one.

I’ve known Gerd since we were 6 years old.

He was someone I always looked up to and I thought that he was the smartest person in the world when I was growing up. If you wanted to know how or why something worked, you would ask Gerd and he’d tell you.

And he wasn’t showing off, he just knew and thought nothing of it. No conceit, no ego, just happy to answer your question and pass on the knowledge.

I give him credit for influencing me and making me want to know the answers to questions that people had. I wanted to be like Gerd. That is how he influenced me and probably why I am the way I am today.

I've cried a couple of times since hearing the news, but on Wednesday, I'll be making my way to Montreal to celebrate his life and remember all the good times we had growing up together, and I'll be laughing and smiling and so will Gerd.

I'll miss you, my friend.

Tommy Lauder