Posts with the Saskatchewan tag

Barris Beat

Deception on a winter’s night

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How could something so beautiful, be so deceptive?

We got the call on Monday. Our grandkids needed a lift. It was a “snow day.” The school board had cancelled bus transportation, but with the schools still open, we were on deck to drive three of them to school. So, when we arrived, it was the wintertime routine of organizing boots, snow jackets, snow pants, hats and gloves. If you recall, despite the snowfall, that morning dawned sunny, so we got the usual…

“We don’t need snow pants,” they said. “Look how sunny it is!”

“It’s deceiving,” I said. And I thought to myself, “Does any kid understand what ‘deceiving’ means? Not likely.” (more…)

Barris Beat

The salvation community can give

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Sean Brandow, Humboldt Broncos volunteer chaplain, at Uxbridge Arena, Nov. 23.

All of his initial assumptions were wrong that night. When he neared the scene on a Saskatchewan highway back on April 6 of this year, Sean Brandow didn’t know there’d been an accident. When he got a text about it, it suggested that a busload of fans had crashed. When he spotted ambulances, police and even available conservation officers dashing back and forth, he figured it was bad. But not nearly as bad as he soon discovered.

“As I walked closer, I could see hockey bags everywhere,” Brandow, said. “I knew it wasn’t a fan bus. I knew the guys in the ditch, the guys on stretchers, and the guys being loaded into ambulances were hockey players.”

Sean Brandow, volunteer chaplain for the Humboldt Broncos Saskatchewan Junior A hockey club, still finds it difficult to describe what he witnessed that night seven months ago. (more…)

Barris Beat

As safe as … a game of hockey

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In a hundred years of hockey in Canada, kids and skates and pucks belong together.

It didn’t matter how early on a Saturday, he still came with me. Even if he’d worked half the night getting his last newspaper column of the week finished at the Globe and Mail, and even if we played the first game of the day at 6 a.m., my dad was always there. He helped me tie my skates, made sure my Butch Goring helmet was in place, and sent me onto the ice to play house-league hockey. I felt secure too, seeing him at the end of the outdoor arena, through the chain-link fence, cheering us on.

“Go, Agincourt, go,” I heard him shout between puffs on his cigarette.

Having a parent take me to the rink felt supremely comforting. And, as I remember, we had a couple of coaches – volunteers – who made sure we had sticks, pucks and jerseys. It was always reassuring to have those familiar people there for us. A virtual security blanket. (more…)

Barris Beat

Call of spring

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It’s been a while since we stopped to smell the roses, as it were. But a few weeks ago, just relaxing on our back porch, my wife and I sighed simultaneously. Aloud we recognized, despite the abundance of rain and the not-so-warm temperatures, and its rather clumsy entrance, that spring had finally, thankfully and delightfully arrived. But Jayne noted something I hadn’t noticed.

“It’s awfully quiet this year,” she said. “The sounds of birds aren’t there like usual.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Harvest record

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249 combines, 300 acres and seven minutes to a Guinness World Record. Courtesy Dennis Fisher.

We don’t very often get the chance to witness a world’s record. Oh, in the Toronto area, we used to be able to walk by the world’s tallest freestanding structure, the CN Tower, until they built one taller in Dubai a couple of years ago. I once stood within a metre of the world’s biggest gem, the Hope diamond, at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. And I’ve personally witnessed a bunch of The Great One’s goal-scoring feats, some of which are world’s records I guess (the 50 goals in 39 games, for example). But I’ve rarely associated the province of Saskatchewan (where I lived for a while) with any world’s records. Then, this week, I got a note from an old friend, Dennis Fisher, in Saskatoon.

“We watched 249 combines harvest a [half] section of land in seven minutes,” he wrote me. “It was a Guinness World Record.”

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Barris Beat

The reach to write

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A spiritual experience for some, the Sage Hill Writing Experience takes place each year at St. Michael's monastery at Lumsden, Sask.
A spiritual experience for some, the Sage Hill Writing Experience takes place each year at St. Michael's monastery at Lumsden, Sask.

Whenever I talk with writers, there are plenty of taboos. They don’t often speak about how much money they make. Not many writers will divulge the nature of any publishing contracts they’re negotiating. And some are even superstitious about not revealing either the title or the content of a new book they’re working on. But you can always tell a group of writers is really getting into a heavy discussion when one warns:

“No, no. Don’t use the ‘M’ word!”

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Barris Beat

A rearranged life

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The rearrangement of my life at home began last spring when we knocked down the old garage. The next phase began last week when my sister-in-law arrived from Saskatchewan.
The rearrangement of my life at home began last spring when we knocked down the old garage. The next phase began last week when my sister-in-law arrived from Saskatchewan.

My wife’s sister has been visiting from Saskatchewan the past two weeks. Unlike that cliché that a husband loathes spending time with his in-laws, I have always enjoyed time spent with Pat, as I did with the sisters’ parents. There is generally one time during Pat’s visits, however, when I sense I’d better butt out. That’s when I hear either my wife Jayne or Pat say:

“OK, let’s do some rearranging around the house.”

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Barris Beat

The spirit of writing

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It was a reverent moment. Our host entered. We had all enjoyed our first meal in the dining hall together, while on the wall over our shoulders a painting depicted Christ and the apostles at The Last Supper. Our host – a middle-aged monk – apologized that not all seven Franciscans normally resident there could be present; two of them – men in their late 80s – had recently been moved to hospital for elder care, he said. Nevertheless a younger 70-ish Brother Dominic bid us welcome.

Brother Dominic
Brother Dominic

“We are brothers of prayer,” he said. “But we welcome you here to St. Michael’s, your home away from home.”

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Barris Beat

A voice of unity

Written by Ted Barris on . 3 Comments

He helped save Canada.

Aside from times during the two world wars, I think some of this country’s darkest days occurred in the years immediately following the Centennial in 1967. First with the St-Jean-Baptiste riots and bombings in Montreal (1968), then during the October crisis (1970), when the FLQ kidnapped and killed cabinet minister Pierre Laporte in Quebec City, hope for maintaining a united Canada seemed bleakest in those early 1970s.

Then, in November 1976, the Parti Quebecois came to power on a platform that included Quebec’s separation from Canada. I worked as a radio producer/host for CFQC in Saskatoon in those years. Our morning program was heard all over the three Prairie provinces. And I remember our station manager, Dennis Fisher, calling us together soon after the PQ’s historic victory that autumn.

“The nation has never been so threatened,” he said. “It’s up to us to do something.”

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Barris Beat

Just give it time

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment

WATCHFACE-smallWe played the part of the cavalry last Friday night. You know, charging in at the last moment to save the day. Well, maybe it wasn’t quite that dramatic. But my wife and I provided our tag-team babysitting service to our daughter and son-in-law that evening. Of course, for us, the assignment was anything but a hardship. We revelled in the chance for quality time with our two-year-old granddaughter and nine-month-old grandson. And it turns out that’s exactly what our adult kids needed too.

“It was nice to have some time to ourselves,” our daughter has said on occasions such as that.

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