For some strange reason - started thinking of LHS

Feel kinda foolish here. Posted the original message back in Sep during a bored and despondent moment between IEDs, rocket attacks and suicide bombers - didn't check it for over two months and forgot my password. Easiest thing to do was to get a new account. One good thing about dealing with terrorists is that it gives you a decent excuse for not answering your mail with any degree of alacrity.

Ahne Crawford! Great to hear from you. Of course I remember you, but I thought it was Ann or Anne. Oh well, they say that memory is the first thing to go. Teaching in Dubai and for the last seven years no less! What a great experience that must be for you and your family. The UAE is one of the friendliest places in this part of the globe. Great town and I know it well. Transit through it quite often. I have to get there again before I go home for Christmas to do some proper gift/jewelry shopping (there’s only so many pashminas and cashmere scarves you can buy in Kabul before it gets boring and parochial).

You asked the question wrt travels after LHS. I didn’t realize how complicated that would be until I tried to formulate an answer. The Reader’s Digest version follows: After CEGEP, I was bored and looking for adventure. Quite simply, I joined the army to see the world and to get a hockey sock full of free education in the process. In short – served all across Canada with residences in Chilliwack, Gagetown, Shilo, Petawawa, Kingston and Ottawa (and most of these on more than one posting). During the Cold War years, worked in every NATO nation, Norway and Germany being the most frequent. Spent a while in Shrivenham UK at the Royal Military College of Science to finish up my Masters. A few years in Fort Sill Oklahoma as an instructor to the US Army and USMC. After the Berlin Wall fell, our government found lots of gainful employment for us in disparate civil wars, bringing peace to fractured states, fighting terrorists and dealing with international trouble-makers in general. Subsequently, I found myself in fun places like Angola, Mozambique, Rwanda, Croatia, Bosnia, Haiti, Kosovo, Ethiopia, Darfur and Afghanistan (where I’ve been since Aug and am here for a year). Somewhere during all that, I was fortunate enough to meet a beautiful gal named Lynn who has been my very patient and loving wife of 25 years. We have two great kids. Christine, 21, is an Environmental student at Carleton U and David, 19, who has followed in my footsteps as combat-arms soldier and is currently serving in Petawawa (and is scheduled to come here in the near future).

Alan Belanger. Actually, I do remember you too, but not well. I seemed to remember that we had an extraordinary turnover of students in Grades 9 through 11 from various high schools in Lachine, Dorval and Lasalle as the PSBGM experimented with novel bussing programs. Calgary is a great town and another that I know well. Did lots of training in Wainwright and Suffield. Calgary was also my favorite R&R spot when I was a young fella on training at our Mountain Warfare Training Establishment in the Bow Valley and Kaninaskis Country. It’s long gone now, since that area became Peter Lougheed Provincial Park sometime in the late 70s or early 80s. Anyway, hope that you are doing well and enjoying life in Canada’s fastest growing city. Go Flames! Go Stamps!

Anyway, its been great to actually talk with somebody from days of yore! I’ve read a few of the LHS posts and I find it fascinating to see where people have gone – who is married to whom from high school – etc. I wonder how many actually stayed in Montreal after the huge exodus in 76? A spurious thought…… I go back every so often to check on my Mom (my Dad passed away a few years ago) and I can’t help thinking that the place has gone downhill. The overpasses are crumbling, streets and highways are in exceptional disrepair, streets have been renamed in order to re-write history, St Catherine’s Street has lost its ambience, and Place Jacques Cartier has a MacDonald’s and an IMAX where the 300 year old Sieures De Gouvenor used to stand.

Adieu for now. All the best to you and your families.

Cheers

Fred