JANUARY
While babysitting at a neighbour’s apartment one night, I hear the Beatles' newly released song, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, played on the 2 Wing base radio. It inspires me so much that I begin to write lyrics, but I'm unable to write the music that I hear in my head for them. However, I make little dots above the words to help me remember the melodies.
In the same way that I devoured Marvel Comics in 1961, over the next few years, I eagerly looked forward to the next releases not only from the Beatles, but also many of the other groups during the musical ‘British Invasion’ — Herman’s Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer & the Dakotas, the Dave Clark Five, Donovan, and countless others. All of them at the time, in some way, inspired my song writing and composing.
Along with the rest of my Grade 11 class, I travel by bus to the Strasbourg Opera House to watch a production of Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen. The experience enthralls me, and I become more interested in acting and theatre, particularly the behind-the-scenes areas.
A few of our 2 Wing friends throw a going-away party for my sister and me.
4 FEBRUARY
Tuesday
The time has come to leave 2 Wing. We drive to Marville, then fly in a CC-106 Yukon to Trenton, Ontario, from whence we travel to R.C.A.F. Station Bagotville in the province of Quebec.
We find a home in the Murdoch Apartments, roughly fifteen kilometers equi-distant from the air force base and the school I will attend.
Residence:
Talbot Blvd
Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada
MARCH
I enter Grade 10 at Saguenay Valley High School.
Dad buys me a Harmony Stella Flattop Acoustic Parlour Guitar and I begin to teach myself chords. I start to set the lyrics I've already written to chords and melodies, and I also learn my favorite hit parade songs.
I join the Bagotville Protestant choir
JUNE
I fail Grade 10 at Saguenay Valley High School.
The constant travelling to different R.C.A.F. bases, and switching schools, often caused havoc for many military kids [a.k.a. B.R.A.T.—British Regiment Attached Traveler, a term held over from the 1920s]. In my case, coming into S.V.H.S. halfway through the year, and to a different education system, made it extremely difficult for me to be able to catch up or learn new material. Hence my failure this year. Later, when we moved to Calgary in 1966, that would again cause difficulties (as you will read). Consequently, I failed once, graduated twice, and never left school until I was 20 years old.
Some might also say I didn’t work hard enough to bring up my averages by June. [Or, more than likely, I couldn’t be bothered]. I must admit, I was lazy back then.
SUMMER
Two movies I see at the Bagotville base cinema have an effect on me—Hercules, starring Steve Reeves; and Jason & the Argonauts, starring Todd Armstrong. Both ignite a passion for the sword ’n’ sandal and sword ’n’ sorcery heroic fantasy genres that I will enjoy for the rest of my life.
I re-read Haggard's Ayesha: The Return of She and design a poster of the movie I would like to make from the book.
Although I have this photo of the poster, I wish I still had the original. However, somewhere on my later travels, I must have lost it.
There was a girl named Carol Wilson at 2 Wing who apparently was interested in going around with me, but I didn’t find out about that until I returned to Canada, and we began to correspond with each other. Consequently, I drew a pencil portrait of her, and listed her as a ‘main lead’ on my ‘Ayesha’ poster.
SEPTEMBER
I enter Grade 10 [again] at Saguenay Valley High School.
I read Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series, and it inspires me to write my first short novel entitled Zorab.
From what I recall, this novella pretty much mirrored the plot of Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, but I used different characters and settings.
I continue to practice my singing and guitar chords by myself, and occasionally with my sister as we practice for an up-coming performance next year.
WINTER
Dad shovels snow that’s about two feet high.
I know what some of my readers might think—why didn’t I shovel the walk? Quite frankly, I was either lazy, as I indicated earlier, or I probably didn’t do a good enough job for Dad!
