(10-30-2026 09:37 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 09:22 PM)TripleA Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 09:18 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 09:00 PM)TripleA Wrote:  Now you guys have me worried. Not about the bears. About you guys.

We were there for a year. They pulled pilots off the flight line, except for Bomber pilots, because they were trained radar operators as part of their instrument training for the state-of-the-art fighter planes. The pilots all pulled one stint watching for Russian Bombers coming over the Polar cap. That region of Canada was gorgeous and unsettled. Our entertainment was cribbage, any kinds of cards, shooting pool, or the one movie we got every week when the Mounties came in on horseback with a sled bringing provisions. They'd get cleaned up put on their dress Reds and set up the projector and we saw a current movie. That was it for another week. No television, but we did have radio. And we did have bears. The one at the baptism sniffed both sides of the aisle, turned around and walked out. Most were as curious about us as some of us were about them, but they were a hazard. We were taught a poem which might come in handy for you as a reminder.

"Benji saw a bear. The bear was bulgy. The bulge was Bingy!"

OK, that was...well...weak, lol. But I'll be sure to look out for them, anyway.

You mentioned cribbage. My dad taught me that game when I was very young. One of the things he and I connected on. Played together a lot for many years.

Weak? Yes. But it was easier on kids 5 to 12 than coming out and saying, "Those bears will eat you!" When we left Sault Ste Marie for Florida, I never saw another cribbage board other than ours. I'm afraid it's largely a game lost to time. Maybe it could make a comeback if there was a video version.

I wouldn't have changed a thing about my formative years. I saw the nation and our Northern neighbors. It was just weird being in San Antonio watching President Kennedy's motorcade in Dallas the next day on TV. He had just visited one of the A.F. Bases, I don't think it was Lackland, maybe Randolph, in San Antonio the day before. Then he's killed in Dallas. Everyone was stunned!

That was pretty much the end of my age of innocence.

Ha, I missed the part where you were just a kid, lol.

Yeah, I vividly recall the day JFK was assassinated, too. I was in 11th grade English class. I even recall exactly where I was sitting. Very sad.

Maybe the saddest until 9/11.