It seemed just another typical Saturday morning at the coffee shop. Kids pointing at the donuts they wanted. Adults craving that first cup. A local by-election candidate had even set up shop at a corner table to bolster his door-to-door canvassers with coffee, donuts and a pep talk. But near the door, I spotted an older man wearing a blue baseball cap with a Royal Canadian Navy logo and the name “HMCS Toronto” emblazoned on it.
“Navy veteran are you?” I asked.
“No,” the man said. “That’s the ship my son served on.”
“You’re a vet though, are you?”
“I served with the Royal Canadian Regiment in Korea,” he said.
His name is Ken Lardner. And in addition to his son serving aboard the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Toronto, Ken had a brother who served with the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders and another brother in the Lincoln and Welland Regiment – both in the Second World War. Then in 1950, when the Korean War broke out, Ken had enlisted and served as a heavy equipment mechanic in the 2nd Battalion of the RCR overseas. But having given me a sketch of his service, he wondered why I was interested.
“My oldtimers hockey team, the Uxbridge Oilies, holds a Remembrance Day tournament on Nov. 10,” I pointed out. “And we always recognize a veteran during the tournament. Would you consider being this year’s veteran?”
He sort of shrugged his shoulders. He admitted he rarely got involved in such things as Legion dinners, Remembrance Day observances or veterans’ events of any sort. He seemed a bit embarrassed I was so interested in his military service in Korea. But he also appeared to like the idea.
“Nobody’s ever asked me to do anything like that before,” he said.
And that’s exactly why Ken Lardner is the right person to be recognized at our Remembrance Day tourney this Saturday at the arena. Nobody’s every asked him to do it before. The message in many of the presentations, speeches and articles I’ve written in recent years has often consisted of a kind of call to action. I have invited veterans to step forward and share some of what they’ve experienced while on a tour of duty. And I have encouraged just as many family and friends to step forward and ask them about it. In other words, I’ve tried to connect those who’ve witnessed war first-hand with the rest of us who haven’t.
It turns out I am not alone in this crusade. Last Saturday night, I was guest speaker at the 8th annual “Take a Vet to Dinner” evening in Orillia, Ont. The event, initiated by Orillia resident Dick Johnston, has a very simple premise. In the days leading up to Remembrance Day, Johnston suggested, it’s not enough just to pay tribute to servicemen and women in silence at the cenotaph on Nov. 11. It’s equally important to get surviving vets out into the community to share a well-cooked meal, some conversation around the dinner table and, if possible, thoughts about how they served their country.
“Our dinner differs from a Legion dinner,” Johnston explained. “The onus is on individuals in the community to contact a veteran and then act as his/her host at the dinner.”
What made the evening most remarkable was that it wasn’t marked solely by seriousness and sombre reflection. Actually, it was a real gab fest. I sat with Bud Weeks, an infantry vet who’d survived the Dieppe raid and the Normandy invasion, and Doug Giles, a navy vet who recalled service in the liberation of Italy. Everywhere I looked around the banquet hall – and there were about 20 tables of 10 veterans and non-veterans – I saw vets exchanging stories, recalling comrades, remembering times past. I even overheard a few ribald jokes. But the chatter – among the 71 veterans and their hosts – filled the hall for several hours. There were high school students mixed among the diners too. And they took on the responsibility of introducing each and every veteran through the evening.
“We do a lot of good on this one night of the year,” Johnston said. “We need to pay more attention to these people.”
As far as Ken Lardner is concerned, the local Korean War veteran I met in the coffee shop, he’s not the least bit interested in attracting attention to his service. After I met him in the coffee shop and invited him to our event, I even had to contact his son about digging up his father’s service medals, just in case Ken decides to wear them this Saturday at the Remembrance Day tournament. Lardner even called me back this week to ask if I really did want him to participate.
“Mr. Lardner, you’re a veteran,” I said. “We don’t give you guys enough credit and we’re trying to make up for it.”
