I used to listen to our local FM news/talk radio station all the time. The talk portion during the day and the syndicated sports shows at night held my interest. For months now anytime and every time I tune in I’m subjected to an ‘encore presentation’ of the same flagship morning show EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Is this the only show this station broadcasts?
What the hell happened to you? How about an ‘encore presentation’ of something else… anything else? —Not So Jolly Rogers
This article appears in Feb 9-15, 2012.
First it’s cheap and second not everyone hears it in the morning. It could be worse, it could be Rick Howe.
This just in: Bitcher’s Summit scheduled for this Sunday has been canceled. Lovely PK will keep us apprised of the new date.
I loooove Morning Morgan. He’s my old man crush ;D I cringe at the abundance of people who call him “Jodi”.
Wouldn’t be the same without our lovely P.K. so that’s jake with me.
i’m heading out to ex park to see the hkc show. keep your powder dry, pilgrims^^
i haven’t listened to any radio in about 15 years. and this is as good as an excuse as any, not to start again. most of the shit, that is radio today is well,shit. i don’t even bother to listen to news there, or yuck, fucking sports. i don’t even bother with traffic reports, because i don’t drive anymore. and even when i did, that fucking noise box stayed off, or i ripped it out.
so o.p., some of us can actually live without this day to day mindshit, that is now radio.
“THIS IS MBC, THE MARITIME BROADCASTING CORPORATION: CHNS IN HALIFAX”
Do you realize that these were my call letters as I worked the late night shift at CHNS on Tobin Street? Do you care? I was the MC for “The Peoples Gospel Hour.” Actually, it wasn’t my style of music.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
“It’s 12:00 Noon, and here is CKCL news courtesy of Mac’s Home Bakery”
Summer job in Truro, 1980, & 81.
Dennis, was that with Pastor Perry F. Rockwood? He was a hoot, in a Westboro Baptist sort of way.
dudes—I was in radio as well—OK, I ‘sold air’ and wrote copy but still—
LS you must watch a lot of TV. I am a radio hound.
…Are you saying Stephanie Domet is off the air? I ♡ her show!
xeno sweetie, i have wifi t.v., no commercials and what i want to watch. it costs a few bucks more, but well worth it. as to music, if i want it, i have over 25,000 songs on c.d.’s. that i have burnt over the last 10 years. my music, not some crap that is just a lot of noise. and mm, and ivan. remember style 1403 wonder bras, i was the voice doing those things. i still have the tapes here someplace.
most of my air time was with a bloke named george on cable 10, gospel show years back. i selected the music and sermons for him. yes, i’m fucking ancient, i know, but still horny, girls.
Do you mean you watch TV on your computer? So do I.
Interesting how many of the regular Bitchez used to be in radio…(I know there’s a joke in here somewhere, but I can’t think of it…!)
PS: in re: to your question of the other day, it takes about seven seconds to reload the bitch page from here…
yes xeno, i use my comp as my t.v., and no fuckings ads to drive me more nutso, than i am. it streams out really well, and the buffers handle the stream excellant. i get all the locals, plus about 150 out of country, including some asian ones. people’s t.v, is something to watch, if you understand chinese. i_k, would love that one.
but i hear that there is going to be a blackout in a month or so, on comp channels, and cable companies are the ones responsible. fucking crooks gotta get every buck they can. but i’m working on a free wave device for receiving digital signals without the bullshit, buying them. i pay 300 bucks for my service, and it lifetime gaurenteed by company. there’s a new one called “stormai.com,” check it out sometime.same as i pay, but one time deal.
http://canadaenglish.stormai.com/
RSVPs
: Ivan (Feb. 9, 7:59PM)
Ah yes, Pastor Perry Rockwood. Remember the name and the style but he wasn’t in the announcer’s booth with me. The “People’s Gospel Hour” featured black singers singing, um, gospel. I think they were locals but I don’t remember. They came on at 11:30PM. Just made you want to get up and dance!
But it was my voice, my golden voice, that did the trick. Good resonance and that “mid-Atlantic” accent. I remember a tape was required to audition for the job – I was a student at Dal Law School at the time so it was just a part-time gig – and Fred Arenberg, the Station Manager, had a reel-full of hopefuls. (It was actually a reel-to-reel machine.) Then this voice came on. I laughed to myself. What a snob! Then, quel suprise! – I had never heard my voice on a tape before – I discovered it was me!
They gave me a long, narrow microphone to practice on at home. It was called a “prick.”
; Sucks (8:41PM)
You were the voice behind the style 1403 Wonder Bra? Could you give more particulars? Were you breathing heavily at the time? Could the audience understand what you were saying?
: Xenophilia (8:46PM)
Was that my question, dear, or somebody else’s?
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
I hadn’t listened to radio in decades until we got a talk station… usually 957 wakes me up in the AM. Nothing like current events and news to get me angry enough to rise!
The only time I’ve ever heard repeats were on Sundays
Ah, yes, I knew it would come to me…something about having a good face for radio…
Moman, don’t be hatin’ on the engineers from Ryerson…if I say RPI, people think I’m talking about Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (where Dad did post grad work and Aesop got his BS)
and finally, what question were you referring to?
The one that LS answered in the post before yours? Do try to keep up, dear…
Yes, I had to edit my actualities on a reel-to-reel. It was a fun job, but it took me a while to learn that people in the are were far more interested in farm reports than the Iranian hostage crisis. It was standard practice to conclude news casts with a light,”feel-good” type story. My friends got a great kick out of the fact that , on my watch, the “feel-good” stories involved convicts being executed in Texas, or F-14s shooting down Libyan MiGs.
i attended ryerson in the late seventies
Lots of sirens, black & whites, ambulances and fire trucks going up and down B-St. in the last hour.
Everybody else having a slow Saturday?
RSVPs
: Xenophilia (Feb. 10, 11:15AM)
A “good face for radio?” Xeno, you must focus on your positive features like those other magnificent body parts. Well, a “poly” is a “poly” and not a “uni” even if it is located somwehere in Massachusetts. As for engineers, I don’t hate them, I just question the reflective (i.e., philosophical) quality of their minds. It would help, dear, if you dated and timed your references so that misunderstandings as to whom you were addressing would not occur. (See my next post to Ivan.)
: Ivan (11:35AM)
Yes, it wouldn’t suprise me if the people from the area were more interested in farm reports. Stout yeomen all! Did I mention that as another part-time job I drove the bus for Acadian Lines? My first trip outside Halifax was – wait for it – Truro! Wouldn’t have missed it for the world!
A pleasure as awlays.
Cheerio!
i’m home with the hound, he’s starting to get quite frail but doesn’t seem to be in pain. the bear is going to watch l’hockey and i’m watching ” the girl with the dragon tattoo” swedish version-subtitled. dubbed movies are only good for a larf
“Die Gotterdammerung” at the Met – a very pleasant afternoon, but the next person who asks “So, when are you moving?” is getting a pencil in the eyeball.
Do you take the beastie to the Dog Expo, Painey?
Dennis – pity my parents whose first sight of Truro came after hauling a 30 foot houseboat, a tranquilized cat and one very sullen teenager from Calgary.
Wagnerian Opera – FUCK YEAH!
Ivan-I was listening for awhile, but couldn’t deal with the end of the opera–too discordant.
Are you a fan of alt history, by any chance? I kind of liked the ‘ring of fire’ series by Eric Flint beginning with 1632. They make a good use of Wagner against the Imperial Army—Ride of the Valkyries scares the bejesus out of them!
Moman- RPI is in New York in an area founded by the Dutch (does Rensselaer sound British? Focus, man!) and plenty of Canadian Hockey playing guys went there, too…
If you really want to split hairs, poly = many while uni = one, but frankly, I don’t give a partie de merde what you think of my da. He did alright for a kid from North Dog Breath Ontario—three homes and a European cruise every year—Not So Pretty Bad, Eh, for a kid who used to ski to his one room schoolhouse. Maybe I should finish with a verse of “we are, we are, we are, we are we are the engineers! We can, we can, we can, we can drink 40 mugs of beer!”
this just pasd my desk, whitney houston is dead at 48. my fuck, this wonderful lady is gone. and you thought radio and some music was bad before.
let’s al bow our collective heads for a minute, and remember some of her songs. i, for one, had quite a collection of her music, and loved just about everything she sang. i will miss her. no cause of death yet.
RSVPs
: Ivan (Feb. 11, 5:28PM)
Calgary you say? Lived there for a year (17th. Ave. SW) and taught at Queen Elizabeth High School, Calgary NW. Ever heard of it?
Yes, I can imagine you’re being a bit sullen pulling into Truro. I didn’t mention it last time but I spent the night – yea spent the night! – in the Acadian Lines room for drivers at the bus terminal. It was not, repeat not, the Ritz. I was on my way to Sydney, another spot that will not make it on the Grand Tour.
I can imagine your parents were a bit miffed too after pulling their 30′ houseboat from Calgary and then noting the absence of water in Truro. At least I don’t think there is.
: Xenophilia (8:31PM)
Yes, it occurred to me that the name “Rensselaer” sounded rather Dutch and so would be in New York and not Massachusetts. I was thinking of the wilds of Massachusetts because that was the site of your naked snow angels, right?
Xeno, I was casting no aspersions on your Dad from North Dog Breath, Ontario. My thoughts were, as always, generic, concerning the reflective quality of the minds of engineers in general. If, in the future, life is found on other planets, can you imagine the disappointment if it is discovered that the inhabitants are all engineers? What a downer!
Yes, the engineers’ song reflects precisely this mentality. I beieve there were a few more verses that got progressively, um, more graphic. The engineers’ newspaper at McGill was called “The Plumber’s Pot.” It got yanked. That says it all.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Dennis – I served a 2 year sentence at Central Memorial in the SW. If Queen Elizabeth had a football team then I, no doubt, subliminally hoped for it to soundly trounce our own “Rams” and then to build a ziggurat of their severed skulls on the 40 yard line for if ever a
high school jock squad deserved to be Columbined, with Extreme Prejudice, it was them.
I read a couple of years ago that my junior high, Sir Sam Steele had been closed and is now The Museum of the Regiments. A much better use.
Xeenie – Never read any Flint, because I just don’t do a lot of fiction any more. Years ago I read and enjoyed Harry Turtledove’s “Guns of the South” in which the South African Broederbund gets access to a time machine and go back to 1863 to offer to equip Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia with a marvelous new repeating rifle called the AK-47. “Ride of the Valkyries” was our party song in uni, along with Sid’s version of “My Way. Good times, indeed
Happy messy Sunday to y’all. I’ll be drinking a virtual Caesar at high noon and toasting my fellow round tablers.
that’s a shame sucks, she had a wonderful voice. no, commander, i’m too busy too take the hound. gotta keep my eyes peeled for trouble^^
Inspector Painey Callahan
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2…
Did she fire 6 shots or only 5?
RSVPs
: Ivan (Feb. 12, 10:34AM)
Go Rams Go!
Never heard of South Central High School but it sounds like my kind of place (joke). I think that Queen Elizabeth probably had a football team since one of the Phys. Ed. staff was an ex-Stampeder and he wasn’t even the Head of the Department. A big guy. Liked to hit the tables in Las Vegas on vacation.
Calgary was a considerable culture shock since the previous year I had taught at British Institute of Rome. Yes, that Rome. The Calgarians actually wore black cowboy hats – only the tourists wore white. Did you have your own black Stetson, Ivan?
P.S. I forgot to mention (Montrealman, 9:25AM) that I enjoyed reading “The Plumber’s Pot” immensely. You just had to hold it so no one could tell you were reading it.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
**Dennis – pity my parents whose first sight of Truro came after hauling a 30 foot houseboat, a tranquilized cat and one very sullen teenager from Calgary.**
Wow—how much portage was involved?
i wanna be a DI, admiral. clever xeno…coming to you from icy road
LOL Xeenie – there was a ’73 Olds Cutlass involved. I forgot that part >; )
“South Central” That did make me laugh out loud, MM. It reminds me of the truth behind the old joke. What did we call black people in Southwest Calgary in 1977? Mike – because that was his name.
I never wore the Stetson. My sartorial trademark was a British Army para smock and 1943 pattern Wehrmacht Bergmutze purchased with carefully hoarded dollars from Crown Surplus – whose prized possession was an ex CF Centurion tank.(not for sale, unfortunately)
Stephanie Domet stabbed the girl before her in the back and took her show. She was supposed to be a producer and instead took her job.
http://memegenerator.net/user/13492172/ima…
I guess I’m sorry to hear that Lisababe.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of Rachel Maddow, but I worked with her at her first radio gig in western Massachusetts. She went on to Air America, where she was supposed to produce a show hosted by Lizz Winstead and Chuck D. She ended up co-hosting, then Air America offered her a solo gig, then on to MSNBC, where she graces the airwaves every evening.
Broadcasting’s a tough business, LB. If Stephanie Domet had better chops, can you blame CBC for offering her the gig?
Painey: my plan was to get a grade 13 equivalency, then transfer to Ryerson… That’s awesome that you went there!
Painey-Is ‘Icy Road’ the name of a town up there, or what?
Heard a guy on the radio yesterday saying he has studded snow tires on his mountain bike and bikes on the frozen streams and rivers—that’s crazy—
Wheelie, this one’s just for you!
http://www.wimp.com/mobilityscooter/
Yes, it really is a shame about Whitney LS. She has been battling her pharmaceutical demons for over two decades now. That’s the problem with somebody of her status having an addiction, with a seemingly limitless supply of money and nothing but sycophants for support, there’s no putting on the brakes.
RSVPs
: Ivan (Feb. 12, 12:55PM)
“My sartorial trademark was a British Army Para smock and a 1943 pattern Wehrmacht Bergmutze…”
I bet when you came into the cafeteria at Central Memorial (got it right this time) in your smock and walking that German army mountain hound, the jocks must have freaked out. “He’s going to Columbine us!” they cried.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Hello, Hello
3 times I’ve tried to post this:
Unfortunately MM this was in 1977 and the average football jock would have thought that “Columbine” was how you spelled the place of origin of the contents of the baggie, hastily stuffed under the passenger seat of your second hand Pinto
At the time, your humble narrator was overweight, sucked at phys-ed (and didn’t care) read a lot, was involved in theatre and wore long-sleeved shirts which demonstrated that I had mastered the technology of “the Button”. Therefore I was obviously – a bundle of sticks tied together. >; )
I was also in my Grade 11 production of “Our Hearts Were Young & Gay” so you can imagine what fun the Robert Benchleys of the locker room had with that.
Suffice to say I had the same warm fuzzy feelings for Central Memorial that Johnny Cash had for San Quentin. In fact, were it not for the lousy food and no sex, it was much like prison.
We lived on 36th Ave, SW in the Currie Barracks PMQs
Oh Bird – Clever girl *nods head in admiration*
Moman—
The old man started as an engineer, but moved into marketing, then international marketing (where he totally charmed his French clients with his Canadian French.)
There’s more than a grain of truth behind the stereotype of an electrical engineer, though, I’ll grant you that. My mum had some succinct remarks in that regard, having to entertain that lot too often for her liking. When I was a restaurant manager at a big hotel in Boston, the GM warned us before a IEEE convention to alert our staffs to the cheapness of the clients!
And lastly, we won’t find engineers on another planet. We will find the planet first, then the engineers will terra form it.
I fell asleep during the Grammys last night. Did Kenny West interrupt the Whitney tribute to point out that Michael Jackson had the best Tragically-Taken-Before-His-Time-Pop-Star-Death-Of-The Last-Decade?
RSVPs
: Ivan (Feb. 12, 5:15PM)
“Hello, Hello”
Wasn’t sure what that meant until I read your next comment where you indicate that you tried to post three times. Maybe the Montrealman virus is spreading. I usually favoured the more graphic “Hello out there!” indicating a sense of incarceration.
(5:44PM)
Re: “Columbine” – Yes, I realized the dates wouldn’t scan but I thought, “What the hell, I’ll use a little poetic licence.” However, I did think my “German army mountain hound” was enormously drole. The Currie Barracks resonates vaguely but, at 36th. Avenue, you must have been pretty well out of town.
(5:45PM)
What did Bird do, Ivan? And just how was it “admirable?”
Xenophilia (6:02PM)
Yes, dear, I can imagine that your mother was put out. Any broken china? Did you accompany your father to Paris? Is that where you polished what is clearly a nuanced understanding and pronunciation (I’m sure) of French which I have found totally admirable.
The only contribution I can make to a “big hotel in Boston” is the time I went to the Statler for an interview for a teaching position in Beriut. At that time it was the Paris of the Middle East but things, um, have since changed. Anyway, I didn’t get the job as I was stabbed in the back by a professor at Dalhousie’s Department of Graduate Studies who I put down as a reference without, um, asking him. He was quite a lad, but if you want to know how you’ll just have to ask.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Yes, I did grin at Bergmutze = mountain dog. >: )
The “hello hello” was because I was posting a comment that wouldn’t go through. Bird has put some sort of blocker in place that will not allow posts which contain a certain nettlesome word. And it only took 3 tries before it occurred to me why my comment wasn’t going through – a new record for me and computers.
Clever girl, like a velociraptor.
>; )
RSVPs
: Ivan (Feb. 13, 11:03AM)
Yes, I initially thought, with your “Hello, Hello,” that you were going to sing an old Beatles’ ditty.
Anyway, the “nettlesome word” arouses curiousity: Is the clue contained in the phrase itself? Can you “work around” it and supply some context?
“A new record for me and computers.” Well, maybe for you and your computer.
>:) ? Were you “velociraptored” again?
: Montrealman (9:52AM)
“Beirut” for “Beriut.” Sorry.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
The nettlesome word is one which could be understood as meaning: a bundle of sticks, or British slang for cigarette, or British public school terminology for a boy from the lower forms, or the N.A.T.O. phonetic designation for the MiG-15.
I learned recently that it is also the name of a sausage wrapped pastry. British, of course…”hmmm, I can’t decide between the (pastry with a colloquial name meaning burning sticks) or the spotted dick…”
Ivan (Feb:13, 12:25PM)
I can confirm your diagnosis. I posted about three hours ago using the term in its English connection and it was promptly deleted even though I made no reference to any homophobic reference. The block is on the word itself and not the context in which it is used. To be honest, I find this a rather stupid reaction. The term comes in its short (five- letter) and long (eight-letter) forms and my father, who smoked cigarettes, never, on taking a cigarette out of his silver case, asked if you’d like an eight-letter form of the word. I think we have a case here of political correctness run amok.
Xenophilia (12:58PM)
“I learned recently that it is also the name for sausage wrapped in pastery.”
Well, dear, I think it’s time for a little primer in English culinary terms. Actually, the English name for sausage wrapped in pastery is, wait for it, “sausage rolls.” Our sausage rolls were usually served at high tea – Sundays at 6 o’clock in front of the fire – while my mother poured.
By contrast, “%^*$ and mash” referred to chopped liver, seasoned and then baked. A vile dish. Further still, “spotted dick” refers to suet pudding – a white lump made from animal fat – in which currants had been inserted. It would make you swoon, and not with delight. My father loved his slice of suet pudding covered in Lyle’s corn syrup. Delicious! All these dishes, you must remember, are not to be confused with “bangers and mash” nor with “toad-in-the hole.”
I think we can all agree that the principal contribution of England to Western Civilization has been its cuisine.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
**Well, dear, I think it’s time for a little primer in English culinary terms.**
Go prime yourself, Moman. The English actually have many words for the meat wrapped pastry as the left hand column of http://www.tonysbutchers.co.uk/ explains in loving detail. I did mention that my mum is English, right?
And high tea? Please. My parents were immigrant strivers who would never have sat down to anything as working class as a high tea.
RSVPs
: Xenophilia (Feb. 13, 8:35PM)
“The English actually have many words for meat wrapped pastry…”
Well, dear, while I think your little chart was interesting I do believe the issue comes down to what is to be understood by the expression “meat-wrapped.” For meat to be “wrapped” in pastry it must be rolled so that only the ends of the meat are peeking out and the finished product resembles a cigar shape. This would then disqualify meat and pastry (note the word “and”) dishes such as pies, pasties and so on. But I did admire your industry in researching the topic.
No, dear, you didn’t mention that your Mum came from England. Might I ask what shire or town? (You must be careful here.)
Yes, dear, I suppose the expression “high tea” is rather working class but I used the expression in order to acquaint the readers of Bitch with its culinary as opposed to its sociological role in English domestic life. Let’s just call it “Sunday Teatime” shall we? I think, in retrospect, that we were not so much working class as lower middle. My father was an officer (yes, an officer!) on one of the Western Union cable ships headquatered in Halifax. He would be gone for months at a time.
Anyway, and on further reflection, a more common dish at teatime was bacon and cheese on a slice of white bread. Cut the crusts off a few slices of a white bread, cut each slice into small rectangular pieces, place a small strip of bacon and cheese on top, put them all in the oven to heat. When the cheese has melted, take it out. Unfortunately, while the cheese will have melted, the bacon will not have cooked sufficiently so that it is still nice and fatty and limp. Ummm.
P.S. In my post to Ivan (Montrealman, Feb. 13, 7:45PM) I made reference to a “short (five-letter)” and a “long (eight-letter)” form of the banned word. The correct version should have been the “three-letter” and the “six-letter” forms. I have no excuse for such a blunder. My numerical neurons must have misfired causing my synapses to freeze (or something like that).
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
MMan: according to my birth certificate, my mum was born in Abram, Lancs., however she did move around a bit— The passenger manifest of the Aquitania I got at Pier 21 listed her address as Torquay. She immigrated when she was 15. Her mother was a widow who married a Canadian soldier.
You must have missed my bitch awhile back…here is the URL for your reading pleasure: http://www.thecoast.ca/LovetheWayWeBitch/a…
Moman—something you wrote about your father tickled a memory—did he ever work with or know Thomas Raddall? When I wrote earlier about a borrowed book I wanted to annotate so badly that I bought my own copy, it was “Halifax: Warden of the North” that I was referring to. I remember Raddell had something to do with the telegraph in Halifax…
RSVPs
: Xenophilia (Feb. 14, 9:40AM)
A very interesting post, Xeno. So your mother was born in Lancashire and came over on the Acquitania to Pier 21. Mine came over from London (i.e., from Southampton) also to Pier 21 to join my father who was on the “Lord Kelvin” operated by Western Union out of Halifax. When she arrived in Halifax she was so homesick that she returned to England the following year but then came over again and this time stayed. One of her greatest friends shortly after her arrival was also from Lancashire. Another interesting point: My father’s family came from Ostergotland in southern Sweden. They emigrated to London in the 19th. century as part of the “Swedish diaspora.” He was a tailor on Savile Row and married a Swedish lady.
I visited Sweden in 1989 and prepared by buying a set of Swedish language tapes over which I pored for the best part of a year (oral and written lessons). It cost about $250 but when I got there I discovered that most Swedes, at least in the larger centers, spoke English. I only spoke three words while there: “Tack sa mycket” (“Thank you very much) at Ahlens, the supermarket in Linkopping. That worked out to about $60 a word!
(12:39PM)
I had of course read Raddall’s “Warden of the North” – still the best book on the history of Halifax – but never realized he had the same job as my father but on the MaKay-Bennet which was operated by the Commercial Cable Company. My father spoke of the Mackay-Bennett but never mentioned Thomas Raddall. However, Googling Raddall’s dates (1901-1994), I think they might very well have served at about the same time, so who knows?
When you say you wanted to “annotate” his book, did you mean for publication or for personal use? What would your annotations have consisted of,
additional historical information about Halifax or personal coments? Just curious.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
It’s a small world, moman—
I annotate my own books (in pencil only) with personal reflections, questions, examples and sometimes corrections!
My dad took a Swedish class for a couple of semesters. I don’t think he retained any more of the language than you did. When he travelled in Europe, his fellow travellers always thought he was German, anyway.
Deutche? They’d inquire. He’d shake his head “Svenska!”
SOCIAL CLASS IN HALIFAX
RSVPs
Xenophilia (Feb. 14, 5:42PM)
Well, Xeno, I’m glad to learn that you’re not annotating library books. But did you annotate “The Warden of the North” and if so, what were your comments?
Looking over my post of Feb. 14, 8:31PM, I see that I described myself as “lower-middle class” but on reflection I think this is wrong. I undersold my self. Looking back at my time in Halifax I can see that I was firmly in Halifax’s middle class, and this for a number of reasons, the least of which was that of money.
While we were never in want we were never rich either. My mother was frugal and managed to take her brood to England to see the relatives. (I also have a British passport which I got as a lark. Never used it.) Anyway, in Halifax at the time, money itself was not the primary status marker. It should be “old” money and preferably acquired from a venerable law practice, the pre-eminent profession at the time. My childhood friend’s family, the McInneses, with their home on the corner of Inglis and Tower Road, satisfied both conditions.
Of course, one had to live in the South End of Halifax which we did but only certain parts – Marlborough Woods, for example, were acceptable while Bland Street was not.
Religion played a part. Preferably one was an Anglican and attended St. Mathews on Barrington. We, however, were Catholics and went to Saint Mary’s Basilica. I was even an altar boy! But being a Catholic was not a positive class marker.
One’s clubs also mattered. We belonged to the Waegwoltic Club at a time when membership there meant something. I even had my own canoe which I paddled in solitary fashion around the Arm. We never belonged to The Halifax Club, however, the pre-eminent club of the gentry in Halifax. (The McInneses did.)
Education played a prominent role. Like me, all my siblings all attended private fee-paying schools at the secondary level – my sister went all the way through the Convent of the Sacred Heart – although they were located in Halifax. (I did spend Grade XII at St. Pat’s but that was because I didn’t know what to take at university. It was just assumed that I was going.) Unlike my private secondary school in Halifax, however, my childhood friend went all the way through – except for his (and my first year in Tower Road)to Ashbury near Ottawa. In addition I graduated from Saint Mary’s and Dalhousie (but not in Law) so that is another marker. (I did three other degrees in Montreal and Ottawa but since they did not date from this period, they do not count.)
However, perhaps the strongest social marker, at least for our family, was my mother’s cut-glass English accent which she never lost. She was never false or over-bearing – quite the contrary – and she had a huge social circle largely made up of the wives of the officers from the “Lord Kelvin.” They were all English and comprised something of an isolated caste. We rarely heard a Canadian accent at home.
Anyway, you get the idea. I was middle class. Do you agree?
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!