Out Stranded in the Field, With Fielding
In late 1970 I joined a European mining company prospecting in northern Ontario, leading a ground geophysical exploration crew of Quebecois men. These men rarely spoke English so I had to get by on schoolboy French. There were four or five us us: myself and an assistant geophysical operator, and two or three men who would cut lines through the bush with axes and machetes. We lived in a comfortable camp near a village on a lake and worked projects located generally no more than a couple of hours of flying time from the camp. Read more
Hearing Lost, Listening Gained
In March 1969 I learned that I had a severe hearing loss when I applied for a job at International Nickel’s Sudbury mine. I was 20, apparently able-bodied and smart enough to dig ore. I failed to get the job when I failed the hearing test. Presumably I was a safety hazard.
I was shocked but wiser. No wonder that over the years, so many voices had seemed muffled. But clever me had developed the hearing faker’s comprehending smile and easy head nod at parties or at school when I could not quite make out conversations. Read more
Pom and Pommela (pomme de fair)
While traveling around the world in the mid-80’s I took a contracting job with a geotechnical engineering firm in the United Kingdom. A tall structure was planned at the Canary Wharf redevelopment of the London Docks and it was necessary to learn about the rate that water could enter the foundation caissons. When I joined the project, test shafts had been sunk and water pumps installed in them. I was the supervisor of the four woman crew performing the tests. It was unusual for a geotechnical engineering field project to be staffed with even one woman in the mid-80’s.
The job site at the Docks was a long walk from the nearest Underground subway station. On my way to work every day, I passed an elderly apple seller, a “barrow boy”, from whom I bought apples for myself and the crew. Read more
MMMM/Miserably Meeting Mayall
In 1970 I studied Public Relations at Humber College, a junior college in suburban Toronto, Canada. The program was affiliated with those of Journalism, Marketing, Communications and Broadcasting. As part of their mission, the Broadcasting program started CHBR, one of the first college FM radio stations in Canada. For a brief period I was an Assistant Station Manager at CHBR and an occasional disk jockey, pulling the LPs from a surprisingly large library of music, selecting music cuts, cueing and then introducing them. Apparently I was quite good at the patter (or, my fresh British accent was appealing) because I was asked to develop a lunch time radio show. I hosted Medley’s Magnificently Musical Medley for several weeks in the winter of 1969-1970. The show started with a few minutes of the Moody Blues tune Are You Sitting Comfortably?, from the memorable, lushly crafted, 1969 album On the Threshold of a Dream. I doubt that my show was audible over the student clamor in the cafeteria, but I was nevertheless proud of the show and my minor fame at Humber. Read more
Korny Kanchanaburi Kompany
In June 1985 I was in Kanchanaburi, Thailand to see the Bridge over the River Kwai, infamous for its role in WWII.
I arrived from Bangkok just as rain started dribbling; while exploring back streets for a place to stay, the skies opened and I was soon drenched. I probably looked sodden and silly, but became slap-stick when my flip-flops slipped on the slick sidewalk and I somersaulted onto my back. Smiles all round. It is amusing when sightseers become sights.
That evening I wandered the town and came across a merry throng gathered around a stage watching a group of traveling actors. Read more
Anomalies, Conductors and Half-Widths
In 1969 and 1970 I was a data man and occasional navigator of an airborne geophysics crew, working for Siegel Associates (Scintrex) in northern Canada. The aircraft were either Bell Jet Ranger 206B helicopters or a de Havilland Otter float/wheeled planes. The aircraft were equipped with several geophysics instruments, air photos camera and a radio altimeter.
The air photo film, instrument charts and radio altimeter data were all related by an intervalometer which produced a series of marks on the charts and film, and numbers on dials that could be read by the navigator up front in the aircraft and the operator in the back seats. Read more
