Barris Beat Archives • Page 27 of 86 • Ted Barris

A photo in-hand is worth…

Written by Ted Barris on November 22nd, 2019December 29th, 2019. 1 Comment

Photo of Dr. Carl Puterbough, taken in early 1990s by Fred Phipps, with wartime image of Puterbough as pilot trainee in background.

A friend and I got talking about our grandchildren the other day. Writer Peter Jennings and I were kind of comparing notes about our granddaughters. It turned out both granddaughters celebrate birthdays this fall, and Peter shared a magical discovery.

“You know what I got her for her birthday?” he said. “An Instax Mini 9 camera.”

I admitted to PJ that I had no idea what he was talking about.

“It’s an instant print camera,” he explained. “It takes a picture and spits it out – developed – within a minute.”

“You mean like those old Polaroid Land cameras.”

“Yup! And she loves it.” (more…)

Squeezing Grapes out

Written by Ted Barris on November 14th, 2019November 14th, 2019. Leave a comment

Don Cherry has offered his opinion on everything during editions of “Coach’s Corner.” (cbc.ca)

This past Tuesday – the day after Remembrance Day – I rose to speak at a Probus club gathering in Bradford. I was still wearing a poppy on my jacket lapel. As I was about to speak, when someone asked if it was still OK to wear a poppy on Nov. 12. I nodded, suggesting that it’s still Remembrance Week and I was offering stories and reflections on the experiences of veterans, so why not still wear my poppy?

“Besides,” I added, “this is my ‘You People’ poppy.”

That got a few moans and a couple of laughs from the audience.

“No laughing matter,” I added quickly. “You see, I’m the son of immigrants to this country. And I’ve worn poppies proudly since I was a teenager in high school.” (more…)

Bill Paton – warrior on the mound

Written by Ted Barris on November 5th, 2019November 5th, 2019. Leave a comment

Canadian all-star baseball team inside a WWII POW camp in 1943, featured pitcher Bill Paton (back row, third from left).

It wasn’t quite the fall classic, but it did happen in the fall … the fall of 1943. Sometime into the fourth of fifth inning of this baseball game, the umpire behind the plate threw up his hands and marched to the mound. A man in ordinary pants and shirt, and a pair of well-worn Air Force boots stood where the mound should’ve been (were this an official baseball park, but it wasn’t) and waited to hear what the umpire had to say.

“Bill, the Americans haven’t managed to hit the ball out of the infield,” Larry Wray said to pitcher Bill Paton. “Let’s make this game a little more competitive.” (more…)

More than a century

Written by Ted Barris on October 30th, 2019October 30th, 2019. 1 Comment

Mosquito pilot Russ Bannock (left) and his navigator Robert Bruce, c. 1944.

He was born the same year as the original Felix the Cat cartoon and the inventor of the Kalashnikov rifle. He survived the Spanish flu epidemic the year of his birth and, though he wouldn’t remember it, was a contemporary of the Treaty of Versailles that officially ended the Great War. His lifetime spanned the administrations of 22 Canadian prime ministers and four British monarchs. And tomorrow, Nov. 1, my friend and occasional visitor to our town, Russ Bannock, turns 100.

“The family’s gathering for birthday party – just the immediate family,” Russ told me this week. “They’ll fill a room at the Granite Club.” (more…)

Tony Mellaci – first responder for father and son

Written by Ted Barris on October 24th, 2019October 30th, 2019. Leave a comment

He saved my father, and he saved me. In fact, he saved both of us multiple times. The first instance occurred 77 years ago this December. Just before Christmas of 1942, both Tony Mellaci and my father, Alex Barris, arrived at Camp Phillips – a U.S. Army training facility in Kansas. The army had posted them there to train as medics in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. Then, something happened on Christmas Eve.

“The lieutenant told me to go to the headquarters barracks and pick up a soldier who was sick, and deliver him to the hospital. So, I and another ambulance driver picked up your father (although I didn’t know him) and took him to the hospital,” Mellaci told me. “But we never saw the sick soldier. We stayed in the cab while other medics loaded him into the ambulance.” (more…)

Seated with respect

Written by Ted Barris on October 17th, 2019October 14th, 2019. Leave a comment

Head stones vandalized at a cemetery in Israel. *Times of Israel* photo.

The images penetrated right to my core. I felt angry and hopeless both at the same time. Last week, a dear friend forwarded digital photographs she’d received from overseas. The pictures showed tombstones of fallen First and Second World War soldiers pushed over and spray-painted with swastikas.

A poignant quotation accompanied the images from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery in Israel.

“Why would someone want to cause pain in a place like this?” the caretaker of the cemetery said to the Times of Israel reporter. (more…)

The turns of war

Written by Ted Barris on October 9th, 2019March 5th, 2020. Leave a comment

Roger Parliament swears oath of allegiance at RCAF recruiting office, in front of his father, Garnott Parliament

When he turned 18, in 1941, Roger Parliament travelled to a recruiting office in downtown Toronto to join up for wartime service. He’d prepared all his enlistment papers and anticipated vision and hearing tests.

Then, LAC Parliament officially signed up.

But perhaps the most critical part of his decision to enlist in the armed services occurred when he came before the second-in-command at the recruiting office on Bay Street.

“I’ve decided to join the Air Force,” he told the pilot officer he faced.

Across the table from him was Pilot Officer Garnott Parliament, Roger’s father. (more…)

We need grads, not geniuses

Written by Ted Barris on October 3rd, 2019October 1st, 2019. Leave a comment

The faceless, helpless time writing Grade 13 Departmentals.

They crammed us into a single hall at the school. Often it was the high-school gymnasium filled with rows and rows of movable desks and chairs. We were allowed pencils, an eraser, a ruler and limitless sheets of what we used to call “foolscap” paper on which to write our answers. In came an adjudicator, who announced the name of the exam, the time available to complete it and strict guidelines for decorum during the exam.

“If we catch you cheating,” the adjudicator announced, “we will disqualify your mark. You will fail the term.”

In my day – back in the 1960s – these meat-grinding assemblies to test the cumulative knowledge of students at year’s-end were known as “Departmentals.” (more…)

How dare we!

Written by Ted Barris on September 26th, 2019September 24th, 2019. Leave a comment

The tension in the air was palpable. All the representatives of power – politicians, diplomats and corporate leaders – could see and hear the assembly of youth in front of them. The whole world was watching as young people stepped up, stood tall and condemned decisions of the day. They decried blatant abuse of that power and they shouted to the representatives of the establishment to change their ways.

“How dare you!” they shouted, in so many words. (more…)

Youngsters aren’t joiners

Written by Ted Barris on September 19th, 2019September 18th, 2019. Leave a comment

The president began the meeting by departing from the usual agenda. Normally, after bringing the gavel down to start the latest meeting of his local Probus club in southwestern Ontario, Rod Devitt would invite members say hello and shake hands with the members next to them. But this time Rod had a special guest to introduce.

“Gentlemen, I’d like you to meet Preston,” Devitt said. “He’s slightly underage for our club, but today he’s celebrating his 12th birthday.” (more…)