Shaun Newman Podcast - SNP Archive #6 - Ron Harris Jr.

Episode Date: October 16, 2020

Born in 1946 Ron was the 2nd of 11 children. We discuss his early years working as the equipment manager for the Lloydminster Border Kings when the likes of Max Bentley was suiting up, but the main discussion revolves around his road to recovery from alcohol addiction & his 29 years working at the Thorpe Recovery Center. Let me know what you think     Text me! 587-217-8500

This is Corey Cross. This is Wade Redden. Hi, this is Braden Holby. Hi, this is Scott Hartnell. My name is Jim Patterson. Hello, everyone. I'm Carly Agro from SportsNet Central. This is Keith Morrison.

And welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Friday. Hopefully the short week has been good to you. Before we get on to today's guest, let's get on to today's episode sponsors. First off, Jen Gilbert and team over at Coldwell Banker, Cityside Realty wants you to know for over 40 years since 1976. They have served Lloyd Minster in the surrounding area.

They're passionate about our community, and they pride themselves on giving back through volunteer opportunities and partnerships as often as they can. We know the home is truly where awesomeness happens. Coldwell Bankers, Cityside Realty for everything, real estate, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Give them a call 780-875334343. three. Clay Smiley, Profit River, Profit River is a retailer, firearms, optics, and accessories

serving all of Canada. They specialize in importing firearms from the United States, hard-to-find calibers, rare firearms, special editions, check them out at Profitriver.com. I mentioned on the last couple episodes that I'm teaming back up with Lloydminster Regional Health Foundation for giving Tuesday radiotan in December, December 15th, to be exact, to raise money for our for our hospital. We'll be doing a 12-hour 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Facebook live streamer. I'll sit down with different people from the community. We've got different people calling in from all over Canada, which is, you know, it's going to be pretty cool. The share stories about the hospital and why it's so important to our community. Last year, we raised $50,000 for a new Pixis automated pill dispensing

machine. And this year we're looking to exceed that goal. I know times are tough, but, you know, when it comes to our community, when times get tough to tough get going, and I'm excited to sit down and share some of the stories from the community, and you guys can be a part of it, December 15th, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Facebook Live on the Lloydminster Regional Health Foundation page, so be on the lookout for that. There will be more details as we move closer to it. Foremost, they offer smooth walled grain bins, hopper bottoms, and fuel tanks.

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Special thanks to the Lloydminster Archives who have helped put together these each week, and I know Lynn Smith is pretty humble, but she works tirelessly to help line up guests for me, so shout out to Lynn and the rest of the archives. If you're heading into any of the businesses that I've mentioned here today, make sure you mention them, you heard them on the podcast, and if you're interested in advertising on the show,

visit shan Newmanpodcast.com, top right corner, hit the contact button, sending me your information and a little blurb about what you're looking for, all right? We've got lots of different options, and I want to find something that can work for the both of us. Now, let's get on to your T-Bar-1, Tale of the Tape. He was born in 1946 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He was the second of 11 children. He was the equipment manager for the Lloydminster Border Kings

when the likes of Max Bentley were a part of the team. For 29 years, he worked at the Thorpe Recovery Center here in Lloydminster, and he started as hired help and worked all the way up to the position of director. I'm talking about Ron Harris Jr. So buckle up, here we go. Okay, well, it is September 27th, 2020. I'm sitting across from Ron Harris Jr. So first off, thanks for coming in the studio and sitting down and sharing a bit about your life.

You bet. Glad to be here. Now, you were born in Saskatoon, is that correct? Oh, the heck do you know that. Yeah, I was born in Saskatoon. Well, let's see if I can get the year right. Here's the big gamble. Was it 1946?

You bet? Oh, two for two. If you were talking to my mother, she would tell you that on the 8th of February in 1946, when she looked out the hospital window, the sky was full of northern lights. So I was born under the northern lights of St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon. Now, what do you remember first as a kid? Do you remember anything about Saskatoon? Because you must have been pretty young when you guys moved to Lloyd.

No, I don't. At that time, I don't remember. anything about Saskatoon. Right. How about Lloyd Minster? What's your first, if you go back to when you're a kid, what's one of maybe the memories that pops to mine? In the area where we lived,

we lived over where Kindersley Transport is. And right in that area, like Lloydminster itself was basically built on a slew. So we were at the back end of that, and we called it Husky Slu, because it was just south of the Husky Refinery. It was on both sides of the tracks. There was actually a trestle that went under the bottom. So I remember as a kid that being quite a interesting and exciting place for both summer and winter. Because winter, it was our arena, in summertime we had rafts on that slew.

That's one of the great areas about where we were. lived. Is you could throw out a raft and go cruising around the lake? Yeah. Or the pond or the swamp. What, your parents, do you know, like growing up, your father was in the Air Force. What was it like living with a military man? I don't remember any real military agenda.

I do know, you know, over the years I got to know more and more of the history of my own mom and dad and whatnot. But I do know that as we grew up, Dad's association through the Air Force, he committed himself to helping out with the local air cadets, which later on in life I joined. Great outfit, phenomenal. I got a couple of chances to go to Sea Island, but... I got a picture taken with me and my dad, both in uniform, and standing by a T-33 jet way back in the day. But anyway, he wasn't a dictatorial or anything like that.

He had some rigid rules. One, I think, I remember as a young guy that my brother, and ex-brother younger than me, Gordon, and I, we were sent to piano lessons to an older man, a German fellow. And me being the older, I was given the money to pay the man. I think it was like $3 a session,

so I would have an envelope with $6, three for my brother, and three for me. And one night, because this man was very strict, You asked about the military aspect. If you looked away from your notes to the keyboard, whatever, sometimes you get a little wrap on the knuckles. So anyways, I didn't care for the individual.

And I was to find out that that was probably the start of me being somewhat of a rebel. But anyway, one night when my brother and I were going, I said to him, we're not going tonight. And what do you mean? We're not going. We got $6 cash. And a popsicle cost six cents.

You can imagine what kind of stuff we can buy at the West End grocery store on route to where this man lived with $3 each. Man, we're living high on the hog. And guess what? There were no repercussions. So next week came up piano time again.

Got the envelope, we're going. And anyway, by the time we got back home, Mr. Fisher had phoned my mother and said, Florence, where are the boys? I don't know. They went to your place. They are not here, nor were they here last weekend. So anyway, you asked about the military connection to my dad. So when dad got wind of this, he sat me down and,

He said, what's going on here and so on and so forth? And I just basically told him, I don't like that man. And I'm not going. He said, then don't touch the piano. Don't touch the piano. So if someone told you, don't do this, don't do that, when your back is turned, I'll show you. So I self-taught myself how to play the piano.

and I got a son now that can do circles around me with that piano. But anyway, that's probably the start of this little rebel that grew up to be the son of Ron and Florence Arras. You had ten siblings. So there's 11 of you, correct? Yeah, and we adopted it. We tucked another one under her wing when she was 16. She's just a little bit older than me. So my older brother, three years older than me,

he was born in wartime in Prince of Rhode Island. And then after the war was over, Dad took his East Coast bride from PEI, he took her to Saskatoon, where I and my next brother Gordon were born. Then he heard about this oil boomtown because dad's background was electrical. And he was gonna come and hang a shingle up in Lloyd Minster

and that's when my first sister was born Kathy, and then Susan, and then Philip, Neil, Carl, Paul, Marianne, and Patrick. Do you ever forget the names? No. No, they're burned in the, we all came from the same mold. So 11 kids, and what's the, how much older is the oldest to the youngest? 20 years between the oldest. So every second year there's a new kid.

Boom, boom, boom, boom. Do you ever ask your parents why they had 11? I don't know. I don't know. And there's about five birthdays that are all, there's four in January and then mine's in the early part of February. So what was ever happening nine months prior to that must have been some special time or whatever.

But I love every one of them. On Saturday mornings we get together. and have breakfast. We usually try to find someplace where are we going today, whatever, but those of us that are around here, they're scattered in different places. How big of a house did you guys live in

for all those kids? I assume you were rooming with kids on top of kids. We had a wartime house, so all three floors were occupied. Upstairs, the main floor, in the basement. and two bathrooms, you know, one up and one down. And anyway, I do remember being up when we were younger,

before there were a lot, being up on the top with, again, I don't know, maybe because of me being that rebel guy, but they had two bedrooms upstairs, and I was assigned to one, and my older brother and next younger brother were in the other bedroom. Anyway, I would go out of my way to sneak across from one bedroom to the other, you know, crawling along on my belly and trying not to hit boards that squeak or anything. And then all of a sudden, the younger one, Gordon would say, Ronnie's in here someplace. I even would say, no, he's not. Then I'd make some kind of a little sound, whatever.

And then all of a sudden the pillows would be flying, right, in my direction in the dark. And then pretty soon the military man downstairs, mom would say, that's it. I'm sending dad up. So dad would come up the stairs. And I'm pretty well standing there with my butt pointing in his direction. Go ahead, give it your best shot. And he's given the Supreme Dickens to my older brother

because he should know better. And the younger one is kind of like, I didn't do anything. But anyway, I think there was a reason probably why. I was segregated to that one room. But anyway, that's the way it was. So you label yourself a rebel an awful lot. That was something that... I look over the course of my life.

And I don't know what it was that, you know, as authority figures and different things came into my life, I just didn't buy everything that was coming down the pipeline. And lots of examples that happened in school in different places where I didn't necessarily buy the status quo. And for whatever reason, maybe I wasn't sold on whatever idea it was, whatever. But I can look at lots of places in my life now that over my shoulder. that why did you think like that, whatever, but that's the way it was.

Do you remember the first thing that came down the pipe and you were, or maybe one of the ones, you just like, that doesn't make any sense. Or I don't like that. Yeah. There was lots of areas. You know, I think of me being in school in about grade eight or nine at the St. Thomas Catholic Catholic school, which at that time went from grade one to grade 12. And I took a wrap for somebody in the classroom, so I had to do detention and stay after school.

And when I was released from detention, a school bus had arrived with a bunch of students from Hillmont. They were going to play ball against one of your... And out of the back of the field was the ball diamond. There's only one ball diamond there, and I mean it's got three bases around it. And this teacher that came off traveling with this, I was just released from my detention, still angry at the guy that, you know, that did the foul deed that I did the detention for. So I'm still in that frame of mind when this teacher from Hillman says,

excuse me, is that your ball diamond? And my little brain in here kind of says, are you blind? I'm not saying that out loud. There's three diamonds. There's a great big back net. I said, no, that's not our ball diamond. That's our high jumping bit. And I just kind of look at that lifestyle and kind of say,

where did all that come from? But anyway, always kind of the smart ass, you know, sometimes getting to know it all. thing but didn't realize too much later in my life that I didn't know a whole lot about a whole lot of things

isn't that all of us though yeah yeah I mean if you look back I was literally just having this conversation last night if you look I'm only 34 if I look back five years and five years before that and five years before that every five years

I think I'm pretty smart and I think I'm really smarter than where I was five years prior but then I move five years over and things change and you keep you know and you just keep learning i mean as long as you're learning i guess but i just keep looking back five years going man i thought i should probably just stop thinking i know a lot and just listen learn enjoy life because when you're young i mean i think a lot of kids think they got the world by the tail and know everything yeah growing up did you play sports? Yeah, we did lots of stuff like I told you about that Husky Slu. All of us in that area

where we learned to skate. So there was another family across the street. They had 17 kids. 17 kids. Yeah, well they were they were not all there at the same time. Okay. Some had already growing up. But anyway, so between the, that, that was. That, was the BORN family. Between the Borns and the Harris's, we pretty well ran that slew. There was a couple of Lightfoot brothers that made really, really good rafts. They were older guys, but they lived directly right behind the slew. Then the Borns and that old area, we kind of, we were kind of the gatekeepers. Yeah, the central key of that place. Yeah. What do kids do on a slew every day in rafts. I feel like they're pirates and everything else. Oh, I can remember one of those

born boys that fell by the name of Melvin. Melvin and I, it was one of the really nice rafts. It could hold two people, keep two people floating. And this girl named Lucille, who was a younger sister of those Lightfoot brothers, she was a really good looking girl. She was a little older than us, but she was really attractive. She wanted to go for a ride across the slew. Melvin said, I'll take her. I said, no, that's okay. I'll take her.

Melvin said, no, I'd like to take her. No, I said, it's okay, Melvin. Anyway, we ended up in a pushing match, pushed each other into the water, and she never did go. But anyway, that raft was so neat that that trestle that went under the tracks because the slew was on both sides of the sea and our tracks.

that raft was so cool and small it could actually go through that trestle to the other side go underneath the right underneath the tracks you guys playing on the tracks at all you know being that close to talk about that I don't know yeah we were where we get our our some of our raft material from from old old the railroad ties that were there and how do you get them how do some kids get them down the railroad track

put them on the rails and roll them lengthwise, right? And then all of a sudden these guys with these yellow stripes on their pants show up, what are you guys doing? Anyway, we were trying to get material for building our rafts. That's summertime activity, winter time activity was crack to whip, bonfires, you know, unbelievable, just a whole world all by itself. What about school? Did you graduated from high school? I did after after the fact I started school and the school they just dismantled it was called Chamber of Commerce Building or the FCC building on the corner of 52nd Avenue and highway 16. I started in that school in 1952 and staggered between those that school

and where City Hall is, there was one called the Meridian School. That's where I got my first strap when I was in grade three. I guess the strap is not something maybe that. I never got the strap. Okay. I've heard a 34-year-old. I'm a 74-year-old. So the strap was one of the methods used to discipline.

In the Meridian School where the City Hall is, it was basically a three-story building. One floor was underground, the ground level, then another floor, then another floor. And for fire exits, off the second floor, they had tubes that were about as high as this room. This room was about 10 feet. They had tubes that came out the side, and on the high floor, they had tubes that came down from the high level. And those were fire escapes. They had little panic door hardware on them. And in the day of winter, me and another guy fired the guy out the tube with no jacket on, no shoes, no nothing at the second floor.

And he had to go around the perimeter of the building and then come back in the front door where he was confronted by one of the staff. Well, Ronnie Harris and this other guy put me here. So that was the day we were introduced to the strap, grade three. but anyways we used to go later back when school was not on in the summertime those were a great place to play take off your socks and your shoes and go up the big tall tubes and you just slide there were great slides they must have been shined up by lots of us kids you know as i went to college in ashland mscotson which is this small uh small school and a small city in the United States

and there's old schools with those tubes and even as a guy in college I went man that looks like fun so you actually got to ride it in the heyday oh man there's yeah they were a popular spot you know for a good chunk of your life um you're mentioned before we came on here that you worked for um with our recovery center when did when did that become, I don't know, and I don't know the word, Ron, is it issue, problem, addiction, whatever the word is in your life, when did substances start to show up? Well, I don't know, I guess as my life unfolded, and we always looked at things that seem to make make sense, right? And when I would look at a movie, say for example, we'd go to the three movie

venues that were available in the day where the, all owned by Charlie Coombs and Gordon, or they called them Spud Hudson. Anyway, so the Coombs and Hudson owned the Rio Theater downtown, the Empress Theater, and the C&H drive-in. And those facilities all were significant. And so when I go to a movie and I see a guy, for example, like John Wayne, when John Wayne is kind of knock him down, sock him down, tough, rough guy and good to people and women. But when he goes into a bar situation, he doesn't ask for a Coke or a, you know, latte or, you know, latte. He asked for whiskey.

And you don't see him asking for whiskey and ice or whiskey and water. It's whiskey. So my first experience was me and another guy. We stole two-thirds of a bottle of whiskey from his dad. And across the railroad tracks was a place called the Consolidated Salvage. And there was a building there that contained a bunch of old military, closed, surplus clothes and stuff. And although the doors slid to open, the bottom was not fast into the building. So we could pry the bottom back. We couldn't slide it open because it was locked

at both ends. But we got ourselves into that building and we proceeded to be little John Wayne's. We passed back and forth this bottle with our eyes probably spinning around like a pinball machine. and you know how's that taste oh good and you're kind of just about ready to throw up but anyway I don't know what it did for my buddy but it did for me it kind of made me fill a bunch of vacant parts in my body and I felt like a little like a little John Wayne you know I felt more free at ease I felt this is pretty good stuff I didn't like the room spinning and all that stuff. I didn't care for that part, but I like the, what's the magic word I'm looking for?

The feeling, the effect that this gave me. I remember after that sometime we walked down to the old pool hall, which was a place that most adults would say, now you stay away from there, you know, because there's pretty colorful language in there. Anyway, we went to the pool hall kind of just to stag around a little bit and show the menfolk in there that we were young John Wayne's. And I don't know whether it was trying to fill some kind of a missing gap, but it did something magical for me. So when situations presented themselves where alcohol was available, and in those days you could actually get a bottle of wine, a 26 ounce bottle of wine for 95 cents.

And so it wasn't hard to start procuring people to buy it for you, right? Buy one for them and get one for you. And so when situations presented themselves as they came along, whether it be a high school dance or some kind of event that's going on. Alcohol always seem to be the part that would fill that hollow leg or that missing, that missing component. How do you talk to a girl? How do you dance with a girl?

Have a few shots of rum. Give me half a bottle of rum. I'll dance with you, right? But anyway, yeah, it, you. I guess what basically I looking at it in hindsight, I was quite mature. I was 13 years old when that was happening. With the help, a lot of other people, I was 31 years old. With the help of many people, I got to put the plug in the jug.

But I was walking around with the emotional growth of that 13-year-old. I was walking around in a 31-year-old man's body. emotionally stunted from the day that I started relying on alcohol to fill in all those empty pieces. Now I had to do them like a human being without, you know, without my crutch. So when you looked back at it, could anything have changed you going down that path, do you think? I'm thinking of role models. It had been through our family.

My dad had obviously had problems with alcohol and had quit drinking. And I got thinking, well, anybody who quit drinking, they're less than. They're, you know, drinking is, that's a man's sport. That's, you know, we found this whiskey that was, made in Saskatchewan

is called number one hard. That's the name of the whiskey. Number one hard rye whiskey from Weber in Saskatchewan. And, you know,

John Wayne types, little John Wayne types, that is the kind of, we got to get some of that. Number one hard. So every event in my life during that period of time

was involved or evolved around hockey. It wasn't taking total control at that time because I did get involved in lots of other things you had asked about sports and I took a real like into hockey but I wasn't that good of a player

but a lot of my friends were and so they a man that one of the first jobs I got in high school was in the stockyards you know chasing cattle around as a student, and that man kind of tucked me under his wing. Ted Humphrey was his name, and he was the coach of the Leibnester Nelson Loggers.

And anyway, he kept me around being a guy named Tom Selby. We became the equipment managers for the team. I guess I did a pretty good bang-up job because in those early teen years, they told the powers that be or the executive of the Lloyd Minister Border Kings, we got this young guy that's a real go-getter. He really knows what he's doing.

So, anyway, they must have gave me a pretty good accolade. So the next year I was introduced to Alex Robertson, Jim Hill, Jerry Mills, some of the administration behind the scenes of the Lloyd Minister Border Kings. And I became, their junior equipment manager. And so I got to rub shoulders with a lot of great people there.

And we'd go off and play. But they brought in this guy to play hockey. You've got to remember I was a teenager and I didn't know all the facts about hockey. But anyway, they brought this guy in from Delisle, Saskatchewan to be the player coach of the Porter Kings. This was in the old original Ice Arena in Lloydminster where the Saskatchewan Provincial Building sits

to be right north of it between there and the tracks. And I'm in that dressing room when this guy appeared. He's 52 years old. Player, coach, come on, you guys. Give your head a shake. Anyway, and see him getting dressed and putting an elastic bandage around one leg I didn't know that I was in the company of Max Bentley.

Yeah, who'd won multiple Stanley Cups. Traded it at one time for five players and $100,000 to be on the same team with his brother. Anyway, get to watch him. I was just in awe. I didn't realize all the things that were going on. I heard a lot of stuff later on in life about, you know, he was paid $1,000 a month. and then any arena he played in, they had to put money up front

because he was a crowd drawer so for playing the Bonneville Ponniaks or, you know, St. Paul Rangers or Vermillion Tigers, made stone jets. Anyway, that was quite a life all by itself. I learned to kind of hang out with the guys. And somewhere along the way,

drinking appeared there once in a while too. But anyway, the hockey had admiration and growing up with those guys. Yeah. Well, right behind your head is a Border King's jersey. I don't know if you saw that. No, I didn't. Yeah.

Now I'm now I'm really curious because I'd had Shep on here well, probably over 100 episodes ago now. And we got talking about Max Bentley because I had no idea who, I mean, he's well before my time. And then I looked it up and like you just said, like it's holy, holy dinah, right? Like that's pretty cool. As an equipment manager back then, you would have been privy to on the road with them going to different places here at home. What was the, I've heard different stories about the fan support and how much, how, I don't know,

that it was a big ticket to come watch Border Kings in Lloyd. Well, what happened in those days, people in public relations to do with the Border Kings, they would go to service clubs, and we had a lot of service clubs in Lloyd Minster, the Lions, the kinsmen, the rotary, you know, so on, so forth. And what this PR person would do, they'd phone up, and they'd say, Sean,

We got a game going on in Coal Lake. No, we never went to Coal Lake. We got a game going on in Bonneville, Bonneville Pontiacs. Anyway, we got a game going in Bonneville next Tuesday night. Could you supply a vehicle to take three players and some of their equipment? My golly, I'll get right on that. and now it necessarily won't be me driving the car but you want me yes i like you have your car at the civic center at such and touch of time and so you who's not really maybe a very avid hockey fan

you get to drive a car all the way to bonneville with three guys in the car and you get to talk with those guys and when you're at bonneville you're kind of a captive audience and you're watching that hockey game. And which guys in particular are you watching? Those three that are traveling with you. When you come back home, you're saying, boy, man, you really dug that puck out of that

corner. And it becomes personal to you. Next time when the Lloydminster, Border Kings are playing in Lloyd Minster, you're there with your family. And so those games, that arena would be full. And you know, nowadays it's bus

transportation and lots of other stuff but that gave a real personal note to it yeah the the support behind it was phenomenal unbelievable and i was treated just like the players i would be disciplined you know i get there late i remember byron mccreman saying to me ronny you got to pick up your speed you got to be here you got a job to do you know and i liked it i like the fact that They treated me like one of the guys. And, yeah, great memories. Lots of guys in that room. Lots of guys in that room, yeah.

So the Smiths, I think, Gordy Smith and Vic Smith and Armstrong brothers and Frank Rogaveen, even got to Lynn Bentley, Max Bentley's nephew. Lots of guys. I had lots of memories. Those are stories that probably very few people know about, because that's a long time ago. I grew up in the era of the guys that are on the photo behind you, the Morgna Merv Man, the Falcher Boys, et cetera,

winning Allen Cups here and, you know, and going to Allen Cups. And I've had them on to talk about it because it's fascinating. But you're going back to decades and decades ago where very few people probably were even in that building anymore. Those are some pretty interesting stuff. What's one of the things you know when you walked in the dressing room that just sticks out to you know you were talking about Bentley and how he was You know getting dressed and everything else but what were they smoking in the dress room? Did they drink in the dressing room?

Sometimes drink would appear afterwards But mostly there was a place someone would say let's go to the whatever right and So they would meet somewhere or there might be a party at some individual person's house and whatever. But that wasn't, those weren't, weren't big things. The drink and the smoke weren't big things in those days, but the camaraderie and, yeah, I just, I could sit down with Jim Hill.

He was like a, to me he was like a, like the godfather of hockey, right? He was, he was just, and pure bread, pure Lloyd Minster roots. I just love listening to him. Was there a rivalry team back then that either you love playing and you hated playing or I don't know? Verminion being so close, the Verminian Tigers were always a challenge. And, of course, the whole perimeter of teams that were around here, they were of good

caliber. I mean, we had guys that came in here. They used to run a payroll. I got paid for my services later on. What were you getting paid to be? I think about $40 a month, something like that. You know, it was just an auxiliary thing. But, you know, you talked to Brian Shepard. I can remember taking pairs and pairs of skates

in that back door at, Armstrongs. At Fosters. Fosters, yeah, yeah. And Brian would be the man, and I remember taking Shalak out and shalak and the toes of these skates and, yeah. Well, what? Shalak was kind of a varnish.

Yeah. Why when you do that? It would stop the moisture and different things from rotting the leather. No kidding. Yeah, we did a bunch of them when we went up to play against Flinflon, the Flan Bombers. number of years ago. That's a trip all by itself too. I remember riding in a vehicle going there,

and two vehicles, two of the vehicles going there, and each vehicle has got at least four people in it. And I'm with Bill Armstrong. And anyway, we went to this restaurant, and Prince Albert and a Chinese gentleman served us. And, you know, it might be in two or three people ordered the same thing out of these two or three cars

that had stopped at the same thing. time. And there was no buffet or nothing like that. But I remember that Chinese gentleman coming back and putting every plate in front of every person exactly correct. And I know that he never wrote nothing down. I was really impressed with that. And the other thing was being in Flynn, Flan. It was a longer road trip. But we were representing the provinces of that time. We had already had the championship for Alberta and society. Saskatchew and so that was going after the Manitoba and I don't remember the results right now, but I remember the trip just like it was yesterday.

Well, Flin Flaw is a place that loves their hockey. Yeah, that is a got to play there a couple times in my lifetime and that is a special place. Yeah. A little bit secluded. When you traveled to Maple Ridge, BC, what takes you out that way? Well, I'd like to say that I was on a road trip, but I was, when the drinking continue, you start to accumulate headaches. And I don't mean physical headaches.

I just mean life itself. There's always a bill collector looking for you. There's always some gal you kind of left in your wake. There's a job that you walked away from or whatever. And so I guess what I could best describe it as is I'd been in Lloydminster, and I'd been in Lloydminster in the oil field, I got transferred in the oil field into Calgary, where I learned to work with the men, fight with them in, drink with them in, and then back to Edmonton, back to Lloydminster, back to Evanton, and then to Vancouver.

And basically, I look at it in hindsight. and say I was probably running, just getting away from everything. And it was an appealing area. There was a guy that I knew from hockey. Jimmy Johnson lived over that way in Maple Ridge, BC, or Haney, if they called it, in that time. So it seemed to be a nice place to gravitate to. And there was another guy, Lyle Schuller, that knew the route there. So he was one of the guys on our road trip.

Another guy named Billy Bittner. These guys were all fairly decent hockey players. And when you get out to BC, if you can play a decent hockey player, you're almost a superstar out there. So all three of these guys played for the Haney Maroons. But I sat on the sidelines. I remember being at one game

where I had bought me and another guy named Bill, Billy Rooks. We had bought a bottle of whiskey And we were going to get mixed when we got to the arena But the staff was on strike And there was a little kind of a portable concession stand provided They had one of them juice machines that sprayed the juice up One side was orange, one side was grape Anyway, I've never had either one of those two things

Mixed with whiskey That day I tried grape and whiskey I made a new discovery You can't even taste the whiskey just like drinking soda pop. And, you know, somewhere along the way I woke up, kind of like one of those deja vu moments,

and I'm looking around, I'm in a small room, these men standing above me are wearing helmets and stripes. What's going on here? Are you okay? And, you know, checking me out. I guess I, this is long before they had shields in front of the ice. I guess I fell out of the stands, onto the ice. Those were the referees that had skidded me,

across to the first aid room and they were just kind of checking me out because I was so inebriated I had fallen out of the stands but anyway that was the that was the days of back in those things so you know you and you lend yourself and those those ones there I definitely after the hockey game was over I definitely look forward to the drink that would be sometimes even more of the highlight than the game itself You mentioned going from Lloyd to Calgary, Eminton, Lloyd, Calgary, Emmington kind of doing it. Who are you working for at this time? I first started working when I actually went to Reeves Business College, became a graduate of Reeves Business College.

But anyway, this job came up. Again, we go back to the Border Kings. Gordy Smith worked for a company called Proofreading Guns of Canada and he told me of a job and by golly I went and checked it out and I went on the rail liner used to be able to ride the rails

on this rail liner to Edmonton and I went to the head office of proofreading guns and did my job application and there was another guy on that rail liner he was going to the same place because I got talking to talking to him on, I said, don't I know you? He was from Lashburn and anyway, I got hired and he didn't. And one of the things they put on there was, would you be willing to, you know,

transfer if it need be? Well, I was young and, you know, piston vinegar and whatnot. And anyway, I should, sure. So I know sooner got trained here in Lloyd Minster when they transferred me to Calgary. They were supposed to give me three days off to find a place to live, but it was go from the start, you get over there. So they put me up in the airliner hotel, which was brand new then,

and I'd see people coming in with their three-piece suit and their valise and so on and so forth. Here's me coming in with my coveralls on after doing a day's work, and I said to boss I said do you have accounts at any other hotels here and they said yes at the crossroads so I said could I move there so until I get time time off to find a place you bet so the crossroads was the ideal place for me because it was a very

active bar like I said I learned to work with them in drink with them in and fight with the men so were you drinking when you say you know you're you're drinking and you enjoyed it even more so after it came and stuff. Are you saying like every night you were in the bar? No, not every night. One of the highlights of Calgary was to go to the Calgary Stampede. Okay. But Larry, the guy that I lived with, told me about a place downtown at the holiday inn up on the second floor. They got a whole big banquet room that they convert into kind of like a party room. And with the fire regulations,

they only allow so many people in there. So you queue up in line to get into this place. So when we're all in line where there's lots of camaraderie and joking, and then you see two people come down the stairs. You know, they're leaving. A round of applause from the crowd in the line. That means two of us are getting in. When I got to the top of the stairs after being queued up,

up in his line. There was a guy with a girl over his shoulder twirling in a circle. I was to find out he was a member of the Calgary Stampeders, a football club. And I thought, this is my kind of place. You know what? During that time, I went there whenever I could during Stampede Week to this place because they had big circular tables that would sit about 10, 14 people. And the camaraderie and the goings on. It was like I've died and gone to heaven. This is a John Wayne place, you know, action and the center of the universe. And so I remember during that time, you know, trying to work and burn the candle at both ends.

I remember being in the bathtub, having a cigarette and waking up with blood blisters on the inside of my fingers, because obviously that cigarette had burned right while I'm laying in the bathtub. Right? You know, if someone come along and said, do you think you have a drinking problem? Who, me? No, you got to look at those guys down on the drag down there, right? Anyway, I couldn't visualize that anywhere along the way because I had a picture in my mind of some guy drinking out of a paper bag, you know, pee in his pants and, you know, destitute.

And that certainly wasn't me. I was a young guy with a, you know, living in a place called City View. towers with a swimming pool and a credit card and, you know, anyway, I was to lose that job. I was for, you know, not showing up different times. In those days, you didn't have cell phones. Every time you went someplace, because you were on call, I'm going to the Lux Theater. I'll be in the third row on the right-hand side, you know, if you need me. And here's the phone number for the Lux Theater. Anyway, tardiness and just not showing up, I got my walking papers, right?

And so what? There's lots of other jobs out there. Fast forward then. When do you go, I got to stop. Like this has become too much. That really didn't happen. I mean, there were times when I kind of would, would entertain that idea, but my idea of a person that didn't drink was there's nothing there.

Because if my life is involved and evolved around this substance, and you're suggesting that I move away from that, what's going to replace it? You know, so there's a void there. But I had been spitting coldest And I got to the point where It wasn't that you want to drink I need a drink And It was a Saturday

And I went to this guy place His name was Neil This is Maple Ridge And once again gaining access to his place I asked if you had any alcohol He said yeah he's still in bed And he said there's some in the fridge I looked in the fridge, what has he got, one bottle of beer?

Well, that's not going to wet my appetite. So I know another guy that come from Nova Scotia, and I'm heading for his place, a guy named Eldon. And I got my capped bottle of beer in my pocket. And I went to Eldon's, but I wasn't to find him. And so I headed back in the other ground. walking, of course. I didn't own a car during those days. I didn't have a driver license. I didn't have glasses on my face to have a driver license. The only identification I had during

that time was an expired Legion membership card. And the only reason I joined the Legion was that I was kicked out of the other two bars. I remember phoning my dad and saying, hey Dad, can I get your service number from when you're doing? you were in the Air Force? Why, son? Because I'm joining the Legion. And if I join as an associate member, I can have full voting rights. Well, good for you, son. Here's my number. So I joined the Legion in Maple Ridge to have another water hole. If I had any degree of honesty, I could have told my dad that. but I was just trying to butter it up, but the Haney Hotel and the Maple Ridge Bar

had both asked me to stay away from their premises. So anyway, what had happened that particular day? I was going back by the Legion. It wasn't opened yet. But anyway, by the Legion building on the corner, I saw this sign going up, pointing up the side of the building, and on the sign it said one-way club. And I saw these people going in there.

One-way club. Well, I'm a prairie boy. Clubs, hurling club, golf club, club, club, there's a bar someplace. I know that. I'm not stupid. So anyway, I go up the stairs where this one-way club is, and I go into this door that says one-way club, walk inside and, you know, brass.

I'm not drunk. I've been drinking, but I'm not drunk. And I asked his lady behind this counter sort of thing, I'll get a Ryan Coke. And she kind of looked at me with a big smile on her face. She said, you won't get any of that ear. And I said, and just why is that? She said, this is a sober club.

Sover club. I don't remember all the incidents. of them were told to me filled in by these people that were there that morning. But I guess I said some obscenity because I was kind of bilingual in those days, profanity in English, and said something like this isn't the effing place for me. And they said I left. But they said about 15 minutes later, I came back and asked if I could have a cup of coffee. The lady said, yes, if you give me that bottle of beer in your pocket. What are you going to do with that? She says, I'll put it away for safekeeping. I said, can I get it when I leave? She said, you bet. Well, I remember being there

in that place, and they say I was buying coffee for everybody. 50 cents a shot. She can be a real high roller. Anyway, I liked what these people were doing. I liked them, something about them. They were just characters that seemed to magnetize to me. I remember a woman named Florence that morning. I was sitting close to her, and she was crying because three of her children were going to be coming back to her later that day, being returned from social services because they were taken away from her. days, many months previous, but something to do with her drinking and reckless life. But now she's with this sober club somehow.

And anyway, I left there, and I forgot my bottle of beer. But when I left, I do remember asking that lady, are you open here tomorrow? She said, yes, we are. I said, could I come here? She said, yes, provided you don't drink. Well, that made complete sense to me. I need a place like this once in a while to go and lick my wounds.

Anyway, I was back there on Sunday. I bought a newspaper because today I haven't got any alcohol in my system from just what was left from the previous day. And I bought a newspaper so I could sit in the corner and hide behind this newspaper and just study this place, study these people. The newspaper was just a front. A front. And I had a little bit of shakes in my hands.

And anyway, I saw things around the walls. You know, I saw something that I'd seen in our own own. They belonged to my dad, this thing called the Serenity Prayer, God grant me the, you know, whatever. I guess that's a nice thing to have on the wall. Anyway, so I went to work on Monday. My boss dropped me off at a waterhole every day. So he said, you're going to the lead you today, Harris?

I said, you bet. And as soon as his truck was out of sight, I wasn't going to tell him or any of my coworkers that I'm hanging out with sober people. That means you're less. then, right? Anyway, as soon as his truck was gone, I didn't go in the region. I went

up to them stairs again, and I wasn't there very long. A guy looked at me across the way, and I looked at him, I said, is that Johnny? I used to live in this flip-flop motel, a divvy place. There was no phones in there, no televisions in there.

And Johnny lived there, and I hadn't seen him about two years and Johnny spotted me and I spotted him then we both made the recognition. He came over and made such a fuss all around me and up and down and Ronnie, how are you doing? I couldn't get over how good he looked. You look, clean shaving and nice clothes on him and something different about him. And so anyway, this is about 5, 5.5.30 in the afternoon. He says, what are you doing later on tonight. I says, I don't know. Maybe come up here. I kind of like this place. He says, how would you like to go to a meeting? A meeting? Yeah, he said, most of these people here go to meetings.

Isn't that right, Fred, turning somebody to his right? Isn't that right, Lucy? Everybody in here said, yes, yes. This is a front for the, that A-A outfit. How could I be so stupid? as to walk in, I should have known by that serenity prayer. That's one that my dad had at home. Anyway, I felt obliged to him. I felt while I'll go, I was going to phone him up and try and duck my way out of it. But his last name for a program that's supposed to be anonymous is Smith. And I couldn't even find you.

I know how many Smiths there are on a phone book to make up my excuse. But anyway, I felt obliged to him. So anyway, about 7.30, Johnny showed up. And we got into this car, and it was a beautiful car. Big, big car. And I said, Johnny, whose car is this? And he said, it's mine. And I said, you're a liar.

Like guys like him, and we didn't own cars like that. He says, look in the glove compartment. And I looked in there, registered to John. Smith. He said, I don't own it outright. He says, the bank is a shareholder. Wow, not only the way he looks, but this car, something is happening here. So we went to a place down in Pitt Meadows, BC, got into this hall, all kinds of people. There was one of these meeting things they're talking about. And I couldn't believe the, like, where are the bottom enders? There's, there's People are smiling and laughing and drinking coffee and shaking hands and hugging and what am I at?

Some kind of a loving or what? Anyway, a lot of them made talk to a guy who was obviously having a sober birthday, whatever that might be. He was having a four-year sober birthday. The very end, they called him up. They called this guy up to the front. his name was Bob and I watched him as he got up from where he was sitting when he went up to the podium thing at the front

and I guess I took an assessment an inventory of him and got thinking he's not much older than I am he's not sober four years he looked like a kind of a younger model of Charles Bronson and when he got up to talk and started talking I knew he was four years sober I knew it. He talked about taking the ring off his mother's finger

at an open coffin funeral for a keepsake and it ended up in a pawn shop. And I got thinking, why is he telling them people that that's none of their business? Then all of a sudden my head said, Ronnie, those are the kind of things he had to go through to get that plug in the job. If you don't quit drinking,

that's kind of stuff you're going to be doing. And it rattled me. After that, I wanted to get out of there. Johnny wanted me to meet these people. He took me over to this guy that was sitting in his chair, an old guy with big bushy eyebrows. I'd seen a Cadillac sitting outside that meeting with horns on the front.

And I thought, that's pretty cool. I like that. Anyway, I once to find out the man he took me to, I later on found out that was the thing. the guy that owned the Cadillac with the horns. His name was Morris. I was 31 years old. And Johnny took me over to meet this man who was seated. And when Johnny brought me over, Morris stood up. He looked me square in the eye, stuck his hand out, gave me a firm handshake. And he said, you know what? This outfit needs guys like you, young fella. You keep coming back,

Okay. You know, Sean, that look in the eye, that hand sheet was affirmative. He almost melted me. Because at that time in my life, a lot of people weren't saying, you know, come on back. Nice to see you. When are you leaving? Let's pack him a lunch with a roadmap with every arrow pointing away from our place, right? And here's a guy saying this outfit needs guys like you.

So I went through that stage of sorting out. Am I going to accept or admit that I am one of these people? Does that mean, like, what do you do? What do you do at Christmas time? You know, da-da-da-da-da. In my whole life, I spent so much of my life learning how to drink. And here we are with a whole bunch of people, but I like these people. I really like them.

And the first time I ever spoke, I would be at these functions and they'd say, how about you? And they'd point at me. And I'd say, I'm glad to be here. Thank you very much. I'll pass because most of them would stay something like I'm an alcoholic or whatever. And one night I felt kind of obligatory to these people. They were treating me so good.

I said, you know what? If I get asked to speak tonight, I'm ready to speak. and it was that same meeting location. There were meetings in lots of places, but this was the same one that I went to with Johnny. And anyway, about five speakers in, the chairperson pointed at me, said, how about you? And those meetings, you went to the front and stood there.

Man, I tell you, I got up there, 225 pounds, whatever I was, and stood there, and I remember my legs shaking, My hands kind of shaken, not because of the booze, because I haven't drank for a lot of days. But I managed to blurt out of my mouth. Hello, my name's Ron, and I'm a part-time alcoholic. Well, they all started to kind of laugh. You know, I wasn't there as a stand-up comic.

But after the meeting, this little kind of a red-nosed Irishman, his name was Jimmy, he came up and he said, pretty funny story you told them. there tonight young fellow. He had me in the hand ship and then his hand grip got tighter and he pulled me closer and he said look why don't you shit or get off the pot. I was ready to, I was ready to co-cock him and I got thinking, look at you little red-nosed Irishman. You're probably one of those full-blown elkies but don't be shoving that down my pipe. And I went home with this this resentment. But then at home I was asking myself,

what are you running from? What are you scared of? I'm scared of giving up everything I don't know. And anyway, somewhere along that way, I talked to my creator and said, I need some help here. And anyway, I was to become one of the flock. I've been a flock ever since, I guess, my first day was in November 19th, 1977.

So that's the day when I stopped the intake and started a few days later, started on this recovery path, which brought me back to my hometown. Later on, I came back here about 11 months sober on a kind of a holiday to see my family first time and a long time while I was here my two brothers that were in the process of buying out my uncle elf and my dad they were in the process of buying out the Harris Electric business they offered me a job which I flatly turned down and then my dad had a talk with me and said you know this might be a great opportunity for you and I got thinking oh I'm gonna just end up lock and horns

with those guys. Anyway, we made a 60-day deal, and 60-day deal we'd meet. They'd tell me what they think of my work, and I'd tell them what I think of the job. And anyway, we were really busy. They were training me to an electrical estimator. I knew a lot of the electrical work, because that's what we grew up doing.

As kids, we just learned that stuff through the family. So anyways, I was being trained to be, so estimate what it costs to wire this building or whatever. So construction had been in my blood. This very building we're in right now where you are, was owned by Kraftex Construction. That was where I had my first job when I was 15 in summertime, tearing down the old hospital. That's when I first got a social security card. So I knew a lot about construction. I knew a lot about buildings, and my brothers were willing to stick their neck out.

and my dad said this would be a great opportunity. So the 60 days passed, and anyway, I got kind of quiet. And, you know, kind of going on through this time, someone asked me in this if I would let my name stand to be an institution chairman for this self-help group. I said, what's an institution, chairman? Well, they go in here and they conduct a meeting. I said, we got no institutions. Lloyd Minister, oh, yes, we have the police station.

We have the hospital. We have this Thorpe Recovery Center. I said, look, I'm not a product of treatment. I said, I'm, anyway, I said, what happens at the Thorpe Recovery Center? He said, well, we conduct a meeting on there on Tuesday nights, and we need a person to spearhead them. We'd like you to do it. I mean, you haven't drank now for a while.

After I've been to Lloyd, this is about four years now, being working with the brothers. Anyway, I got thinking about that. So, okay, I said, well, where's the previous person that did this job? and you can teach me the ropes. Well, that person has relapsed. They're in the treatment center. I said, I'm not going to learn much from that.

So anyways, I found out what happened. I go in there on Tuesday nights, usually have somebody else with me and we'd conduct a meeting and, you know, hand out some of the literature. Anyway, I got to really like what was going. This is a factory that's pumping out sober people. And I asked the boss there one day, could a guy like me work here? He said, we have a position open right now. You do?

And he told me about it. It was called Detox Aid. Wow, that's a pretty cool title. So he said, yeah. So I went and talked to the brothers and whatever, and they had freed me up even before that. And so I said, I'd like to try this. So anyway, I did the 60-day deal with him, man by the name of Bill Ewitt. And so, a detox aide.

Well, one of my first days there, the nurse took me aside, and she's going to teach me how to make beds. You know, I've got my inside head here. I got this retaliatory thing about me. She doesn't know, this nurse doesn't know that I've been in Air Cadets. that I was just shy of being a sergeant. I was a corporal one. I know how to make beds.

I can make beds that you can bounce a quarter off of them. Besides, she doesn't know much about us drunks. She's better off taking those mattresses and put them on the floor, get a big soft, you know, quilt or sleeping bag, some soft pillows. That way they don't have so far to fall. and as usual I got my mouth motion before my mind

and I said Beth I think you're wasting your time with these beds I think we should put the mattresses on the floor get a sleeping bag and she looked at me like I was from another planet she said Ronald we helped us sober people up not down

You don't know the last time any individual coming here laid between two clean sheets and she said we treat people with dignity and respect you know what that was like a branding iron going into my brain I never forgot that moment

Beth McBain beautiful beautiful lady that we treat people with dignity and respect became my motto and and the detox age you're kind of like an adult babysitter you know mopping up vomit or doing things that are you know all the but I wanted to learn everything about addiction about drugs I wanted to learn about alcohol I wanted I had a insatiable appetite that I wanted to learn so I bugged my boss and

and got sent off to every course that was possibly available and of course I was a bachelor, 35 years old, had money in my pockets. I went to Nietzsche Poundmaker and St. Albert, took the administration course there. It took lots of courses through, at that time, ADAC, the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, and also through SAADC, Saskatchewan counterpart, everything I could get my hands on. And a guy by the name Eric Bloch Hansen and Darryl Arneson, kind of taught me some of the ropes along the way, and I started in as a bottom-in counselor on the floor.

And I just loved it. I just loved everything that they stood for. Later on in life, Bill Hewitt had left his position. There was hiccups going on there governmental-wise, and somebody with a loss. against the facility. Anyway, they talked to him about maybe stepping out of the scene for a while until this was addressed. He said, I'll step under the scene, and he gave his resignation. Well, here's this whole team there. They don't have a leader. At that time, we had a satellite office

in Wainwright. I ran it from 1992 to 95, an outpatient office. Anyway, so I thought, well, to least let the team know that I'm still with them, I'll put my name in the hat because they're applying for a new director for this facility. I put my name in the hat. I found out afterward there were 13 applications. And anyway, two men, a phone call was made and two men called me in to see them. One was Peter Gulak and the other one was a guy by the name of Butch Kendall, Larry Kendall. And they said, we'd like to let you know that we've made our choice and you're our new director. This was in 1995, which was also the same year I got married, a beautiful lady.

Things were really happening. I stayed on at the Thorpe Recovery Center, 29 years all in all from October of 81. I don't know, the math, but 29 years. I actually went to the board in some of my latter years. as the director and said, you know what? An airplane is an airplane when it's sitting on the end of a runway with its wings stretched out, but an airplane is mostly an airplane when it's in the sky

doing what is designed to do. And so they said, what are you saying? I said, you know what, we really don't need an addictions counselor to be the director of this facility. We need someone who knows how to arbitrate with two governments and then the feds. somebody that knows about business administration, you know, and that kind of stuff. And I'd like to go back to being a counselor.

And I said, I don't care about the difference in wages. So anyways, that opened the door for a brand new way of thinking. And I did go back on the staff. And a guy that you had been a board member, a fellow by the name of Craig Feather. Stone was hired to be the director and Ronnie got to do what he got to do. And yeah, a lot of my heart was in that facility. I stayed in this building down here just behind the wayside. I was part of the committee that was trying to drum up business for this new place out on the

highway and anyway my my time was spent in the other building I was there from when it was brand new in 88 until until they moved on well A thank you for sharing all that I was good I'm but that's a very interesting story I mean Jiminy Crickets you've seen some things I have to go A I find it I don't know what that is in the world. I can't put my finger on it. And I hate to go too deep. But the fact that the reason you get clean has nothing to do with you wanting to be clean, unbeknownst to yourself. It's a club, a sign. You walk in. You can't put your finger on it. You keep going back. And that's what leads you down the path is. I don't know what that is. I got a pretty good feeling what it is.

Okay. I'm interesting. Mom and dad never gave up on praying for us. I know that as a fact, especially my mom, very strong, Christian woman. And I think the day that I wandered into that club, I think that was the start of her prayers being answered, because being a non-drinker was not on my agenda. Not at all. So I think that the grace of God, whatever that might be, and prayers being answered

kind of said better get that guy in there he's got some I got a use for him well and then not only does that you know call it a fork in the road

call it whatever you want you take that left turn up the stairs and it leads you to where you eventually are the director and helping other people you know get control of their life again yeah

it's unbelievable And get to rub shoulders with such, and watch, like, you know, a garden you're watching the garden unfold. I get to watch human beings unfold. And the things and the people I've seen, phenomenal resilience of human beings is unbelievable. What's maybe, you know, what is one of the misconceptions? that society has about what you do or what people go through or how maybe easier, hard it is, or I don't know. You've been on, you've been a part of the Thorpe Center for a lot of years.

You certainly must deal with the similar type questions or misconceptions or whatever, probably on a daily basis, but I assume over 29 years, seen some things. There's a stigma attached. From from the perspective at the bottom end of my life, I'm used to that get away from me. We don't want you, we don't need you. You're no good. You've never been any good, you know, when are you leaving? And an outfit that comes along like Morrison says, this outfit needs guys like you. So love,

love is the leader. When they were going to build that new facility for the Thorpe out on the highway here, they gone to the County of Verminion River and we're seeking land and I think the original piece was over by morning gold estates or somewhere in there. And there was a meeting held to discuss this out in the Blackfoot Hall and, and

local people where do come and, you know, offer their input. And you'd hear things, well, I don't want them people walking off there, raping my daughter or robbing our place.

By the time the people get into Thorpe, they're beat. They're done. They're not packing no weapons. You know, they're the unloved.

And our job in the Thorpe is to treat them with dignity and respect and start building them up. And it was shocking to hear the community, but they don't know. You know, they don't know what they just see what they see and, you know, the drunks break into places and drugies break into places. And yeah, that's the track record in a lot of places. But once they're in under that roof, it's a whole different ballgame. ballgame. You don't know the amount of effort that was taken to get him under that roof. You know, I know a friend of mine the other day that was working with a guy and his family and whatnot. Right now, that guy is, he's under the roof, under the roof of a treatment facility.

And anyway, so the attached part, those of us that get exposed to recovery, it becomes a way of life. It's not a cult or anything like that. It's just a better way to live. Because they have this 12-step program and 11-5-the-steps don't have anything to do with my drinking. They got to do with me and practicing principles. You know, stop wheeling, stop dealing, stop steaming,

stop sleeping with the neighbor's wife. You know, putting the plug in the jug is the, is the first part of half of the first step. Anyway, there's a program that gets you way beyond where I would ever conceive of being and the people that are out there that help you, whether they be we call Earth people or program people or whatever they are, they're all over the place.

This community is full of them. The mosaic of Lloydminster and the people that are here, Sean, I'm telling you, we got them all over the place. Lots of them that are like human angels. I can just think of lots of coming into my mind, piles of them.

That are just great people. Yeah. You don't have to go very far to find them. There was a galby named Jackie, and I won't go into blow by blow, but she used to be the spirit of the Salvation Army. I could take a guy that's in detox down to the Salvation Army and say, look, Jackie,

all this guy's got is what he's wearing. Can I get some clothes for him? You help yourself, she'd say. And so to give the man some honor, we'd write it on a piece of paper. Two pairs of pants, five shirts, and then they'd have brand new underwear, socks. And anyway, we'd fill out the whole sheet.

and whatever the value was, it might come up to $29.35. And I'd give that to the guy. And, of course, Jackie's saying, this is all a gift. This is for you. But to give the man dignity, I'd give him that piece of paper, say, now look, when you're on your feet, don't forget about this place. And Jackie was another one that at the Thorpe Center where you would spear at a community Christmas dinner.

that became phenomenal. Unbelievable. That's just one person, but there's lots like that. I can pick them up just all over the place. On a completely side tangent, somewhat, what then did you think of weed being legalized? Another drug?

Well, Sean, I don't know if I'm prepared for that one or not. I told you I took time out of my life to study addiction. Yeah. And for me to get up a set of stairs, we came into your building today, up two flights of stairs. So when I was a young man drinking three bottles of beer, I could have a pretty good buzz or effect. After a while, three beer didn't do anything, right?

And I'd have to have more beer or top it off with some hard liquor. to get the same effect, not a better effect. Yeah, you're talking about tolerance. Yeah, so marijuana that I learned about is a stepping stone drug. And the quality that they can provide today is not like the hippie days or whatever. This is top grade stuff. And it's a stepping stone. So if you're getting a pretty good effect or a buzz from one joint of marijuana,

if one is good, two should be better. And, you know, I mean in our day, after the two wasn't better, they would get some liquid ashish and then pretty soon stepped to something else. So the word stepping stone, as we call stairway, it becomes a stepping stone drug paving the wave. Because to get that same effect, you need to take more of the drugs it were. So, I mean, it's a great, the revenue provided to help pave the highways and look after the aged and the infirmed and, you know, the people on age and so on and so forth. Great. But the thing that takes the food out of baby's mouths, breaks up families, I've seen both sides of the spectrum. And the price we pay for alcohol and drugs is exorbitant.

If you could give, if somebody's listening to this and they don't want to admit to, you know, maybe having some issues, what would you say to? If it works, don't fix it. We have a vehicle in place. I don't know the magic answer, but I do know that going it alone for me, with my, Being with my own self, I'm singularly dangerous. But there's an expression that says, we can do together what I alone cannot do. So if you're driving a vehicle outside

and you want to put it from here to there and your engine doesn't run, if we have four, five, six, seven, eight, good strong men, we can just about pick that truck up and move it from. And it's the same thing. So I guess I would tell him that don't go

it alone. You don't have to be the lone ranger. You don't have to pack the cross around all by yourself. There's lots of other people. Men, women, old, young. I'm an older model. Some of the young people say, oh, don't smoke around him. He's been dry so long.

He's a fire hazard. You know. But anyway, but there's lots of people out and from all backgrounds of life and to see the smiles on their faces and know from what garbage can they come out of or what their life was like and what it's become. I've had a chance to be a part of that and I'm still, still am. I get excited about that. I go on a camping trip up to the Meadow Lake Provincial Park every fall to meet up with a bunch of people that I know from all over the place. Yeah, beautiful.

When you look back at your time thus far, what do you maybe look back at as your biggest achievement or something along that line? You know, from the perspective where you heard I got to on my downslide, being able to come back to buy a hometown and be somebody decent and respected and be a contributing part of society. I joined the Rotary Club,

and somewhere along the way, I don't know, Glenn Fagnon or Elmer Nicophoric or who it was in the eye, and the scenes suggested that I would make a good president. And what, me, the guy from where I come from, the president, with doctors and lawyers, and business owners and, you know, all this stuff. Sobriety has led me into a whole new life. Yeah, I did become the president of the Lord Mr. Rotary Club

when it was 99 members. I became number 99. I felt like Gretzky. I was pretty honored to be a part of that outfit. I still go back and I'm not a member today, but I still go back and try to help out with Lobster Fest. Lobster Fest led me to become the steak boss of Lobsterfest. And Randy Aston does that job now.

Then I went working with the lobster crew with Dave McCaw and Sheldon Servold. And did such a good job, I guess, his steak boss, when they opened the, what did we call? call it the communalplex or the sportsplex and the south then when they had the grand opening there was VIPs people who had made substantial donations to that building and then there was the general public i was steak boss with 16 guys barbecue and steaks for 2200 states and that's another phenomenal moment that happened as my my exposure to rotary i guess and glen fagnan but anyway Yeah, those are some pretty cool things.

If you could go back to your 20-year-old self and impart some wisdom to them, what would you say? Find some people in your community who leave a favorable impression. You know, guys like Mo Price, Bill Till, Dave McCaw, you know, there's lots of them.

I've had lots of Peter Gula. I've had lots of, lots of, I don't know, disguised angels that are in this community. So I think every person, you don't come out of the shoots, knowing everything, although you think you do. And to find mentors in your community, I mean, if I'm going to be an apprentice in the electrical work, You start as a first year, a second year, a third year, then a journeyment, then a master journeyment, then maybe you own your own business. But anyway, there are many mentors out there that can help you do a better job. You know, when I first sat down with my brothers with doing some of these blueprints, and I look

at a blueprint, say, for example, a school, and there's four or five pages of electrical stuff. Big blueprints. And I remember looking at that and saying, holy man, this is big. My brother Gordon showed me with a ruler just how to take one quadrant. Just take a ruler

with a pencil and do one quadrant. Count all the boxes in that area and the distances. And then put a diagonal through it. That's done. Now do this one. Then this one and this one. And anyway, it's kind of like this point.

program is people that don't drink. They talk about how do you eat an elephant, one bite at a time. How do you stop drinking? One day at a time, one hour at a time. So I think the question that you've asked about is that make use of people that are out there, people that are in the know. You know, there's lots of them. There's piles of them out there. They may be through a church, through a community group, may be a business owner. But every, you know, there's lots of them. There's piles of them out there. They may be through a church, Everybody has a life and nobody's walking around with wings on their back or anything like that that's greater than anybody else. But there's lots of mentors.

I think the final one I want to bring up is you had a little gleam in your eye when you talked about your wife. I haven't asked about you getting married later on in life. Claudette? Claudeette. Well, I best take some advice from previous kids. and make sure that I ask about a significant other in your life. How did you meet her?

Obviously, that meant, I mean, I'm just looking at you right now. You got a nice little smile going on. Probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. I told you I go up up in the Meadow Lake Provincial Park every fall. A number of years ago, I was up there. And I wasn't at this time. I wasn't a woman. I don't think I've ever been a woman chaser. I had a daughter from another lady, and we were, I guess the mother and I were non-compatible. The mother has died a number of years ago from cancer.

The daughter is living in Saskatoon, and she has a daughter, my granddaughter. And anyway, going up to this camp of thing, we put up a great big tent and do a lot of stuff, and people come from all over the place and this whole bunch of gals came from North Battleford. They were all kind of hanging out together and they had kind of like a mother, mother hen with them. Anyway, it's kind of a do-it-yourself event. There's people washing dishes and helping set up and these big potluck meals and this red-haired gal that was with them seemed to be real lively

and full of life and anyway, I'd get it. all those ones that are kind of hanging around together, they seem to have a significant other that was at one time with an alcohol problem or perhaps still with an alcohol problem because they were the family and friends of someone with an alcohol problem. Anyway, I thought, well, that's quite a spark plug that red-air gal. Then next year she appeared again. But this time she wasn't with that big clan. She was with a couple that I knew a man and wife from North Battleford,

and she was staying with them at their camp. Anyway, I remember asking somebody, where is this red-haired woman? Where is her significant other? We usually come here as families and whatnot. And the guy that she was traveling with said, oh, they split trails a long time ago. She's not with him anymore.

that kind of put a little spark in my head that I'm not going to be disrupting somebody's marriage or whatever. So that kind of said that perhaps she's available. So I remember the event went over on the long weekend. I remember going down on Saturday the guy that she was with, a couple, they said, well, we got to go. The wife's got to be back to work tomorrow. And I said, well, what about that red-haired girl staying with you? Oh, she's down there, she's at the camp.

And I got thinking, holy lord. So anyways, the couple had gone back north battlefield. So I rode my bicycle down to the campsite where I remembered where this couple had stayed. And there was the red-haired gal chopping firewood. And my golly, look at that. And I did a U-ball on the bike. I'd come back and she looked, she saw me and she said, what are you doing? Are you checking on me? And I'm a pretty good liar. I said, no, just don't ride in my bike. I was checking on her yet.

Anyway, long story short, I was very attracted. And I remember telling her, you know that this program is a program of sharing and caring. and she said, yes, I know that. And she said, what are you referring to? I said, well, look at that beautiful red hair you have. And I said, you know, you got all that hair and I got nothing. And I said, maybe you could think of me sometime when you're getting a haircut, not knowing anything about what she does for a living or anything. You could think about that red hair and maybe you could save some

and I could put a little bit on top of this ball head of mine. And she kind of chuckled. Anyway, we were gone from there. I was running that satellite office in Wainwright. When over there I got a piece of mail and a brown manila envelope and the stamp I saw came from North Bottleford, but the name on the top said Santa's helper, and I didn't know what it was.

I opened it up, and here was about the size of the base of this microphone, There was about a four or five inch circular piece of leather with macted stick-ons and this red hair all over top of it. And it said, keep your head warm this winter, Santa. And I said, that's that red-haired girl, that Claudette from North Balford. So I started making more inquiries about her. There was a function going on in North Battleford. So I found out that she ran a hairdressing shop. So I phoned there and disguised my voice.

And you cut men's hair? Yes, we sure do. I'd like to make an appointment. Three o'clock Saturday afternoon. And anyway, I gave her some name, Joe Blow, whatever it was. It wasn't Joe Blow. But anyway, I appeared there shortly before three in the afternoon. and I said, you got any opening?

She said, no, not right now. I said, what about for a guy named, whatever my Joe Blow name was? She said, yes. I said, well, that was me. It was? So now I sat down in her beauty salon, in her chair, like that little boy

that has no alcohol in his system. I'm in her world, and she's got all the instruments and the tools, and I'm sitting there right, stiff and straight as she's buzzing around my head and I'm asking her questions and stuff. But anyways, it was the start of things to come. And I met her again on a date. We went on a date over to where K.D. Lang come from, the consort country.

And the same year, the July of 1995, when I became the director of Thorpe was the same year in North Matilford where we got married. And I often joke with people and say, yeah, I picked her up with the psych ward. I think it would be the other way around, but anyway, it makes a pretty good story. Well, I really enjoyed this. I thank you for coming in. I know everybody steps through the doors and goes, I have no idea what we're about to talk about.

I have nothing to talk about or what have you. But this has been really, really enjoyable. Sean, as a product of 1995 being married, and in the year 2000, the good Lord decided to present us with a son. He's now 20 years old. Music is every avenue of his life. And I don't know, it was probably a couple of years ago when him and I were together. I asked him, Levi. I'm going to ask you some questions,

and you can tell me to mind my own business or whatever. I said, have you ever smoked a cigarette? He shook his head to the negative. I said, have you ever put any alcohol in your mouth? No. He ever tried any drugs? And he said, no. I said, what the heck is wrong with you?

And we laughed. Anyway, he said, Dad, by being brought up around the people you hang out with by watching some of my own friends being sidetracked through life. I didn't see any rewards in that habit. So here we have a 20-year-old man that has got a strong Christian background. And totally different, totally different ballgame, yeah, how the world unfolds. Yeah, Levi. Levi.

That's pretty cool. Yeah. I don't know. We've been going at it for an hour, well, we're closing on on two hours. Holy Lord. It's, it's, I say this every time. I enjoy sitting across from people and hearing their stories.

And, I mean, this has been a treat. It's been really, I'm, can't thank you enough for sharing your story about some of the trials and tribulations you've seen and being a part of this community. And, I mean, it's been really enjoyed. for me and I'm sure people who eventually will listen to this will think the same thing so thanks again for coming in Ron it's been it's been really fun you're more than welcome Sean thanks for the service you provide hey folks thanks again for joining us today if you just stumble on the show and

like what you hear please click subscribe remember every Monday and Wednesday a new guest will be sitting down to share their story the Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple Spotify YouTube and wherever else you find your podcast Fix. Until next time.