Posts with the Port Perry tag

Barris Beat

The gift I’ll never forget

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment

I had just completed my final public-speaking event of 2024. I had presented the same talk on my latest book nearly 70 times in three months, and that mid-December day I was looking forward to the holiday break.

The best present, I thought, would be a few days’ rest over Christmas and New Year’s. I was wrong. As I packed up my laptop, one of the aviation enthusiasts in my audience said he had something to give me.

“Come on over to the officers’ mess,” he said. “It’s there.”

After a short, chilly walk across the outdoor parade square at the Canadian Forces College in North York, I caught up with the man who’d invited me. “You might find this of interest,” he said and handed me a cardboard portfolio with red, white and blue lettering on the cover; it read: “RCAF: The War Years … Commemorating 40th Anniversary Battle of Britain.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Arnold Hodgkins’ art comes home

Written by Ted Barris on . 3 Comments
Arnold Hodgkins’ portrait of war trauma. “Victim ’43”

Some things are just meant to happen. About five years ago, a woman in Port Perry made a decision about the artwork that had accumulated around her home for half a century. A large private collection of sketches, water colours and other paintings created by Carol Hodgkins-Smith’s father, Arnold Hodgkins, suddenly went public. The calendar was approaching Nov. 11, and Carol decided her father’s war art deserved a viewing right then and there in her home.

“I think it’s finally time to share my dad’s artwork with the rest of the world,” she told me. She even decided that she would allow some of the artwork to be sold as individual items. (more…)

Barris Beat

Monumental trauma

Written by Ted Barris on . 2 Comments
Speaker of the House of Commons Andrew Scheer, left, and Minister of Veterans Affairs Erin O'Toole unveil Sam in relief.
Speaker of the House of Commons Andrew Scheer, left, and Minister of Veterans Affairs Erin O’Toole unveil Sam in relief.

Sam helped Tyler make it through. But when he needed the same kind of assistance – nearly 100 years ago – there was no one there to help Sam through. Tyler Briley, from Port Perry, was in Ottawa last Thursday. The minister of veterans affairs was unveiling Briley’s latest creation, a wax sculpture of Sam Sharpe.

“It’s been a form of therapy,” he said. “I’ve just gotten well in the last year, in part, because of my work on this.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Ticket to freedom

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A tow truck that's could probably use one.
A tow truck that’s could probably use one.

On the weekend, my wife and I motored north into what city people euphemistically call “cottage country.” We ended up at a friend’s cottage south of Sudbury. He’d invited us there to put our feet up at the lake and chill for a couple of days. Suddenly, however, in the middle of the weekend escape, our host faced a problem, an automotive problem, and he immediately got on the phone.

“Hey Rick,” my friend called into the landline phone. “You know that Nissan wagon of mine?”

There was a momentary pause, as I guess Rick, the cottage-country mechanic, went through a mental file of his customers and remembered my friend’s car from the city.

“A bunch of the electrical warning lights are on,” my friend continued. “Can I bring it over?” (more…)