Barris Beat

Aid, not Apolcalyptic nonsense

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The hospital at Sylmar, California, had to be demolished following the Feb. 9, 1971, earthquake.
The hospital at Sylmar, California, had to be demolished following the Feb. 9, 1971, earthquake.

The only time I came close to experiencing a natural disaster first-hand was in 1971. I landed in Los Angeles a few weeks after the 6.6 magnitude Sylmar earthquake rattled the San Fernando Valley. At the time, my parents and sister lived in the valley suburb known as Tarzana (where MGM studios shot all those movies with Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan back in the 1930s). I remember sitting in my folks’ living room a few nights after I’d arrived when I felt a faint vibration beneath me. I looked at my sister.

“Oh, that’s nothing,” she said casually. “Just an after shock.”

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Barris Beat

Keepers of the shelves

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School librarians give students more than a Library of Congress number and a table of contents.

I think I remembered discovering it when I was about 11 years old. Until then, I had kind of dismissed it as a remote corner in my life. I think because I happened to be in a brand new school – in a village northeast of Toronto – there were lots of other places I chose to explore first: the baseball diamond, the cafeteria and gymnasium. Then, Mike Malott, my Grade 5 teacher, challenged us.

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Events

Barris pays tribute to Charley Fox in London

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Hon. Col. Charley Fox with a Spitfire like one he flew on D-Day.
Hon. Col. Charley Fox with a Spitfire like one he flew on D-Day.

June 6, 2011, is the 67th anniversary of D-Day, the greatest military gamble of the Second World War. At dawn on that spring morning in 1944, 15,000 Canadians participated in Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy that would begin the liberation of Europe. A member of the RCAF, Spitfire pilot Charley Fox flew cover that morning and went on to perform 232 operational sorties and win two Distinguished Flying Crosses. But Hon. Col. Fox was – following the war – a well respected and active businessman and citizen of several southwestern Ontario communities, including London. The city has decided to honour his memory with the Charley Fox Overpass, to be inaugurated at a special ceremony on the anniversary of D-Day. Ted Barris will join the observance and remember his friend and revered veteran.

When: 10 a.m., Monday, June 6, 2011.

Where: Charley Fox Overpass, London, Ontario.

Contact: City of London, Ontario, 519-661-2500.

Events

Portraits of Honour mural has Barris for keynote

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Dave Sopha's "Portraits of Honour" mural
Dave Sopha's "Portraits of Honour" mural

Some 50 feet wide and 10 feet tall, the Portraits of Honour mural remembers the 155 Canadian soldiers, sailors and aircrew who’ve lost their lives in the Afghanistan operation since 2002. For three years, Ontario-based artist Dave Sopha has captured the faces of those lost in the mission. On Saturday, June 4, 2011, the Portraits of Honour mural will be featured during a fundraising banquet at Oshawa’s historic McLaughlin (Ontario Regiment) Armoury. Organizers have invited Ted Barris to offer a keynote speech, which will focus on events relevant to the date – Canada’s pivotal role in the June 6, 1944, D-Day operations on Juno Beach.

When: 6 p.m., Saturday, June 4, 2011

Where: McLaughlin Armoury, 53 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, Ontario.

Contact: Todd Doyle, Kinsmen (Oshawa), 905-243-0703, tdoyle8603@sympatico.ca

Events

Barris speaks at Lucy Maud Montgomery 100th

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The Great War and Maud’s Community: The Great War came to Ontario County in June 1915, when local lawyer and MP Samuel Sharpe began recruiting young men for service in his brand new 116th (Ontario) Battalion. As with other communities in other counties in other dominions of the Empire, the families in Maud’s vicinity responded. Young men joined “this great adventure” quickly because they feared it might “all be over by Christmas.” But the impact on those who served as well as on the world they left behind proved indelible. Of more than a thousand Ontario County men who joined Samuel Sharpe’s battalion, only one-tenth returned; they were truly “the lost generation.” On Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011, Ted Barris joins the 100th anniversary celebrations of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s arrival in Ontario with a talk that focuses on a few of those who enlisted from Maud’s neighbourhood, what they experienced and how the war affected the young men in uniform and community back home.

Barris at Uxbridge cenotaph showing WWI battle sites where community members fought and died.
Barris at Uxbridge cenotaph showing WWI battle sites where community members fought and died.

When: 11 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011.

Where: Uxbridge, Ontario.

Contact: Kathy Wasylenky, President of the Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario, 905-852-5284, kwasylenky@sympatico.ca

Events

Barris speaks to North York Historical Society

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Among his subjects, Barris has interviewed Afghanistan vets in this book.
Among his subjects, Barris has interviewed Afghanistan vets in this book.

As part of its fall 2011 program, the North York Historical Society has invited Ted Barris to address the membership on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. He will speak about the job of getting veterans to speak about their experiences; his talk is based on one of his recent bestselling books, “Breaking the Silence: Veterans’ Untold Stories from the Great War to Afghanistan.” Copies of a number of Ted’s books will be on hand for sale and autographing.

When: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011.

Where: Meeting Room No. 1, North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge St., North York, Ontario.

Contact: North York Central Library, Canadiana Department, 416-395-5623.

Tours

Beyond the Wall – June 2011

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Tour leader Ted Barris during a scouting trip through Prague, Czech Republic, in August 2010.
Tour leader Ted Barris during a scouting trip through Prague, Czech Republic, in August 2010.

Eastern Europe remains one of the least explored regions of the continent. Principally because of the Cold War (from 1945-1989), when nations such as East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland remained dominated by the Soviet Union, many of the Second World War stories and locations have not experienced the same exposure to battlefield tourism that France, Belgium, Holland and Italy have.

In response to many Merit Travel travellers’ requests, Ted Barris has drawn from his historical research and numerous contacts to organize a brand new wartime tour of Poland, Czech Republic and northern Germany. Our “Beyond the Wall” Tour will run from June 12 to 25, 2011, accommodating a limited number of seats…

For more information about this limited-seating tour, visit the Merit Group Travel site.


Barris Beat

Impatient to get on with life

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J.M. Barrie wrote
Reading from J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan"

I received a photograph online from my son-in-law this week. It shows his wife – our daughter Whitney – holding two very precious creations. One is a copy of the play/book “Peter Pan.” The second is her recently delivered son – Coen George Ross-Barris. The picture shows Whitney reading from the J.M. Barrie book in a hospital.

“All children, except one, grow up,” author Barrie writes in Peter Pan.

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Barris Beat

Keys to a musical life

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Susan Sparks (now Hall) at the time of her graduation from University of Western Ontario in 1967.
Susan Sparks (now Hall) at the time of her graduation from University of Western Ontario in 1967.

A few months ago now, our daughter performed a gig at a popular Toronto jazz nightclub called the Reservoir Lounge. Nothing particularly special about the venue. But when Whitney brought her piano, sax and bass combo on stage, the place just seemed to jump with the energy and interpretation of her music. Not so long ago, she and I talked about where that all came from.

“I always credit my being able to connect emotionally with expressing myself musically to Susan Hall,” Whitney said. “It’s not just that I’m telling the story with the lyrics, but it’s the story of the melody that a lot of singers don’t think about … It’s because of what I learned playing with her.”

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Barris Beat

Remembrance and the vote

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"The Canadians held on and won at Kapyong because they believed they were the best men on the hill that night," author Dan Bjarnason writes in his book. "And they were right."
"The Canadians held on and won at Kapyong because they believed they were the best men on the hill that night," author Dan Bjarnason writes in his book. "And they were right."

It was just over a decade ago, as I recall. We were on the eve of a different federal election. The membership of the local Royal Canadian Legion had asked me to address the Remembrance Day banquet. I chose to acknowledge veterans of a forgotten war for a forgotten principle. At the branch, that night, was friend and veteran Bud Doucette. I recognized him and those other Canadian volunteers who fought in the Korean War to uphold the peace charter of the United Nations.

“I felt very proud,” former Lance/Corporal Doucette told me that night. “The war and our service have gone pretty much unnoticed.”

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