Reporter: Sabrina Corraini
President Heather opened the meeting with a discussion about literacy. She drew our attention to www.litrag.org, and suggested that we all check it out.
INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS:
Only three guests this week:
Joey from the Rotaract Club
Dianne (Dee) Laird – Guest of Heather Aked
Eileen Lavigne – Guest of Steve Sharlow
President Heather made an executive decision that Eileen no longer has to register as a guest – she’s one of us, now!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- Jack Petrie announced that his choir is looking for members and anyone interested should come check it out. Contact Jack for the details!
- A reminder that our last meeting in September (the 29th) is being held at the Spaghetti Factory with a trip through the BC Museum afterward, courtesy of Sanjay Uppal. Remember to sign up nex week!
- Jim Force announced that our club has a seat on our local Literacy Roundtable. Currently, we are looking for a representative within our club. If you’re interested in being the rep, contact Jim.
CELEBRATIONS MASTER:
Joan Firkins is our Celebrations Master this month. She doled out a fine to Steve Sharlow for getting the flags wrong while setting up our meeting. They should be as follows: Canada...UK...USA...Rotary.
Joan asked tables several other questions, such as
When is World Polio Day? October 24
What does EREY mean? Every Rotarian Every Year – each club member contributes to the foundation every Rotary year.
How many directors on the RI board? 19.
President Heather had happy dollars for Rib Fest over the weekend. Also, Alexander was put into a class without any friends. They thought about having him moved, but Alexander says he's fine where he is!
Mary Canty put in a happy dollar for Don O'Coffey and Corey Burger. They made 200+ burgers for the ALS Walk over the weekend, using her BBQ.
Tom Lidkea put in happy dollars because when he was at the travel clinic getting booster shots for his trip abroad, the nurse kept asking when his birthday is. He thinks she will get him a gift!
Tom Croft put in happy dollars for his 43rd wedding anniversary next week.
Anne McIntyre had happy dollars because she recently applied for a $35,000 grant and found out that she got $40,000!
Neil Madsen is happy that he has a new grandson.
Dallas Chapple is happy because she was in Montecito and Santa Barbara recently and it was 104 degrees!
Wolf Schopper won the 50/50 pot (just that day’s earnings). There was some controversy over whether a number should be drawn at all, because we ran out of tickets and not everyone could buy them.
SPEAKERS:
Joan Peggs introduced Jim Laing: Jim Laing was born and raised in Saskatchewan. He was involved in a family Enterprise, including the Broadcast Business and the Coca Cola Business in Weyburn, Estevan and Manitoba. In 1966-67 Jim was the play by play voice of "The Boston Bruins" when there were only 6 teams in "The National Hockey League.” Jim moved to Victoria in 2009 and joined Oak Bay Rotary three years ago.
(Copy of Jim’s presentation follows)
Hello Canada- hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland! Who remembers the original Hockey Night in Canada on radio with Foster Hewitt?
In a way that I didn’t realize at the time, I guess Foster Hewitt did play a role in my young broadcast life. I remember listening to him on radio on Saturday and Sunday nights on CBC. I was very flattered recently when 49 years after I was the radio voice of the Boston Bruins, that a gentleman now writing a book on Bruin history, contacted me asking for a picture and wanted me included in the book, telling me that when I was in Boston, my broadcast style was compared to that of Foster Hewitt. I was flattered just to be remembered 49 years later – never mind the Foster thing!
When I was first told that as a Rotarian I would have to give a vocational talk I wasn’t sure what vocation meant – we didn’t have vocations back then- but I think it had something to do with work. I learned to work when I was 12, sorting bottles in the back of my father’s Coca Cola plant, called Laing’s Beverages in Weyburn SK. Dad sold Laing’s Beverages in 1962. I left Laing’s Beverages and decided to go back to school. I was 18 and living at home.
My dad led a group of Weyburn business people who put 70K in a pot and applied for a radio station for Weyburn. They formed the Soo Line Broadcasting Co. and in 1957 CFSL Radio signed on the air. Two years later they opened a second station in Estevan, 50 miles east of Weyburn
Someone once asked me - how did you get started in broadcasting? I said – my daddy bought me a radio station – in fact he bought me 2 radio stations – what he didn’t tell me was they were fixer uppers!
Unfortunately, by 1962, Soo Line was going broke. A group of shareholders came to dad and asked if he would take over as president and manager; he took the job for one year for one dollar.
In the fall of 1962 I was sitting at the kitchen table doing my homework and my dad was pacing up and down the room listening to CFSL trying to do a hockey broadcast. They were having technical trouble and the guy doing the broadcast was having trouble too. I happened to say – that guy isn’t very good to which dad replied “Do you think you could do better”? To which I responded “Yes Dad”. Within a day or two I was on the Weyburn Red Wing hockey bus heading for Saskatoon where I launched my broadcast VOCATION as a color commentator. The play by play guy had already planned to take another job in radio and the next time the Wings played I was the new play by play guy. As you can tell, I had a lot of training – it was sink or swim, you did what you had to do. The next year I was asked to move to Estevan as that sister station was going broke. That was CJSL Radio and the staff consisted of one – me!
We were located in one room on top of the local movie theatre. I began by selling and broadcasting the play by play home and away games of the Estevan Bruins and it was very well received. I learned quickly that nothing happens until somebody sells something! In those days the NHL had direct sponsorships with the junior hockey teams in Canada and the Estevan Bruins were sponsored by the Boston Bruins. One day I met a man named Weston Adams who owned the Boston Bruins and the Boston Garden. He came to Estevan to see what our junior players looked like, could they play for the big team someday. He would play a major role in my future vocation.
In 1965 my dad decided he was going back into the Coca Cola business and we formed a family owned company called Beverage Services and our first buy was a broken down plant in Brandon that we bot from Coca Cola. It meant that I would move back to Weyburn and manage Soo Line Broadcasting at the ripe old age of 22. In 3 years we had turned around the failing company and I said to dad we should start thinking about buying the place. I was back to broadcasting the Weyburn Red Wing games home & away and managing both stations. About this time the NHL announced that they were expanding from 6 teams, Toronto, Montreal, NY, Detroit, Chicago and Boston to 12 teams in the 1967-68 season. I thought if I could broadcast games in the SJHL I could broadcast in the NHL. I set about putting together tapes of my games and sought references from current NHL executives and broadcasters like Foster Hewitt and Danny Gallivan. One day a guy named John Fox came to our station. John was with the RSB out of Toronto. I told him my plan and he listened to one of my tapes, thought it was good and offered to take it to Foster Hewitt to hopefully get a letter of support from the dean of hockey broadcasters. Meantime I fumbled along managing the company and putting together plans for my dream.
In the late summer of 1966 John Fox phoned to say that a Boston radio station had called Foster Hewitt indicating that they were looking for a radio play by play announcer – did he know of anyone? Foster called John to suggest I contact WHDH Radio in Boston if I was interested. Obviously I called and sent a tape. Remember the name Weston Adams, owner of the Boston Bruins. He had heard one of my Estevan Bruin broadcasts and wanted WHDH to hire me. They asked me to fly to St Thomas Ontario to attend the Boston training camp and tape an exhibition game between the Bruins and NY Rangers. I was told that based on that tape I may be offered the radio job for the 1966-67 season. I did the game, returned to Weyburn, waiting for the phone to ring!! I was pretty sure I had the job, not because I was better than anyone else, but because the guy that owned the hockey club wanted me. I did get the call, by now it is late in September and the NHL season started in a few weeks. I told Dad what was happening and felt bad about leaving when the Brandon project was taking all his time but he wanted me to go.
It was a once in a life time opportunity, the odds on a kid from Weyburn getting a broadcast job in the 6 team NHL were staggering, my dream had come true - one year early.
It was 1966 and the most famous junior hockey prospect in the world, 18 year old Bobby Orr, had signed with Boston and the entire city was waiting for the arrival of the messiah. The Bruins had not made the playoffs in years and everyone hoped Bobby could change all that. I had the privilege of watching him play every game and he did things on ice I had never seen, he seemed to have 14 different speeds of fast! We got off to a great start, by mid-December we were a few points out of first and life was great. On December 14, 1966 the Bruins were at home to Toronto. Bobby was leading one of his famous rushes and tried to cut between the boards and Maple Leaf defenceman Marcel Pronovost. Pronovost caught Orr with a heavy hip check and Orr never got up, carried from the ice on a stretcher, he was to have the first of several knee surgeries and never played for the next 6 weeks. We went from second place to last and never got out of the cellar. At the end of that season Boston completed the most famous trade in hockey, the Bruins got Phil Esposito, Fred Stanfield and Ken Hodge from Chicago for basically nothing. Esposito and Orr hooked up to set NHL scoring records and won the Stanley Cup two years later.
I marveled at how the American political system can work for some people. In the fall of 1966 when I arrived in Boston I was given a short term work visa that expired Nov. 30. A few weeks prior to that date my boss called me to his office and said take your visa to the JFK building – ask for this certain lady and your visa will be stamped to the end of the hockey season. I went to the JFK building – gave my visa to the lady and she said – Mr. Laing a gentleman would like to see you please. I was led to a office where a guy in a striking military uniform was seated behind a desk – this was at the height of the Viet Nam war and the military draft was in full bloom. We’ll call him General Patton said to me – son we are considering you for the draft. My knees were knocking and I may have soiled myself and replied in my highest voice – “but sir I’m a Canadian broadcasting the Bruin hockey games, working for the Bruins – I said you’re not going to draft me and Bobby Orr are you? The general said – we are not drafting hockey players but you don’t work for the Bruins – you work for WHDH Radio & TV. Obviously General Patton had the best of me so I simply asked “can I have a few days to think about this please, you know, to pack and stuff? The General said they would be in touch. I felt like telling him the same thing Muhammed Ali told them when he was to be drafted “ I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.“
I headed back to my boss’s office, told him what happened and said I was returning to Canada the next morning. He said sit down and relax. He picked up the phone, called the GM of the station and said to him “I think you should call our friend in Washington”
Ten minutes later his phone rang, he then handed me back my visa , told me to go back to the JFK building, give my visa to the lady, she stamped it as planned and my sight-seeing trip to the far east was cancelled – thanks to our “Friends in Washington.”
My vocation speech is like show and tell, you may have seen some of the player programs from 1966-67 and I thought you might like to hear a small portion of one of our Bruin radio broadcasts. This is from a Detroit at Boston game in March 1967.
So the 1966-67 season was over, the Bruins missed the playoffs again and the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup, that was 49 years ago and Toronto has not won it since.
The season and the dream was over and I returned to Weyburn. I didn’t think I would ever own the Bruins or the Boston Garden but I thought there was a good chance that we could own the Soo Line Broadcasting Co. In the 70’s we purchased many of the shares, increased our broadcast power from 1K to 10K watts, built new studios and modernized both stations.
Beverage Services boomed, we bot other small Coke plants throughout southern Manitoba and closed them and built a state of the art plant in Brandon. In 1981 Coca Cola asked us to buy the Winnipeg plant and we increased our market share against Pepsi to 65%.
Dad passed in 1987 and in 1989 we sold all our Coke holdings to Coca Cola Atlanta, we had built the largest privately held Coca Cola operation in Canada.
Tav Macpherson suggested that as Rotarians we should tell a bit about our personal lives so, in closing, a bit about your reporter. I have been married 4 times.
A few years ago I was married to Mrs. Laing the third and we were having a wedding anniversary. I went to a jewellery store in Kelowna and asked the clerk for some wedding anniversary gift ideas. She asked – how long have you been married – I said 31 years but there have been 3 women involved and a guy standing beside me said – perhaps you’d like to lease something!
In the mid 70’s – to help deal with some of this marital stress - I started running and finished 7 marathons and many other races over 13 years. In the early 1990’s while I lived in the Cayman Islands I was certified as a scuba diver, I have golfed for 55 years at some of the most beautiful courses in the world. I flew around the world on the Concorde in 1998, yes the world is round, you can see the curvature of the earth at 60 K feet, and at 1300 mph, that’s twice the speed of sound, the windows are hot to the touch and the ride is as smooth as the chair you are sitting in now. We all have some sad news in our lives and I buried 3 of my children before I was 50 and a guy named Bernie Madoff stole my entire US portfolio in 2008. In the early 90’s I went through the Betty Ford Center and five years ago I had triple bypass surgery and a mitral valve repair at the Royal Jubilee - but as that old song says …. I’m still standing.
I’ve lived in Weyburn, Estevan, Boston, Cayman Islands, Maui, and Kelowna.
Six years ago I moved to Victoria and three years ago I joined OB Rotary and I thank each of you for your friendship and for listening to my story.
Joan Peggs introduced Anne McIntyre: Besides working at Disaster Aid Canada, Anne is busy running her business, Active Advent-tures, which is an activity-based advent calendar - so instead of giving a child a chocolate each day, you give them a craft activity. It started 7 years ago when Anne used to do it for her kids and someone said she should box it and sell it. She has a lot of repeat business and also uses it as a fundraising tool. Anne also sells Art Cards with photographs she takes. She has multiple stores in Victoria and Mexico that sell her cards, plus the Costalegra Rotary Club was selling them and keeping half the profits for their club.
Anne has 2 kids, Maya (12) and Noah (10). She feels like the Tasmanian Devil in the morning, dropping them off at 2 different schools in separate parts of the city. (Maya is at Lansdowne and Noah is at St. Joseph's). She loves to paddle board and bought 3 this year so she could paddle board with the kids.
Anne was born and raised in Victoria and went to Oak Bay High School. She has a house in Mexico (Barra de Navidad) and goes down at least 3x a year - the house is rented out in the winter.
Her drink of choice is gin - she has 6 types at home and likes to experiment with different drink concoctions. Her famous line to friends is "You are not going to believe what happened to me!"
Anne decided to talk about travel rather than work. Travel has taught her 3 things: independence, unexpected adventures, and getting a glimpse into how other people live.
Independence: Anne started travelling at age five when she went from Fairfield to her Nana’s house in Gordon Head by bus all by herself. She did not stop talking for entire bus ride – she talked to the driver and other passengers. She had a note in her purse that said “Do not let me off until the end of the line.” Anne remembers that the bus driver bought her a milkshake from McDonalds when he stopped downtown midway through his route.
Unexpected adventures: In 2004, her former husband had just had heart attack and wanted to go to Thailand for Christmas. Maya was 20 months old at the time. Anne was terrified she wouldn’t know how to help her hubby in a foreign country if a medical emergency happened. In addition, she found out she was pregnant shortly after they arrived in Phuket. They had been there for three days and had not gone down to the beach yet. Anne woke up, on the fourth day, to what she thought was an earthquake. There was chaos everywhere and people down on the street were leaving. She could hear them saying something about how the “water is gone.”
They didn’t know what was happening, so her ex went to the water to see what people were talking about while she packed up all of their belongings. They were in the tsunami. Anne carried her daughter all the way up the mountain along with all the other people. At one point, someone grabbed her daughter out of her arms, and took off. When she caught up, the man who had taken Maya from her simply said he could run faster.
They came down the mountain next day to a devastated Phuket. This isn’t why Anne works for Disaster Aid, but the experience definitely affected her understanding of the need for disaster relief. Anne and her family stayed a few days in Phuket to let others use the airports, etc, to get out. Her family didn’t need to get out of Phuket as urgently as some others did.
Getting a glimpse into other people's lives: Anne is very fortunate that she has had a home in Barra de Navidad, Mexico, for the past eight years. She has great Mexican friends who have brought her into their homes and lives and introduced her to their culture.
Anne has found that she tends to be very “Type A” here in Victoria, but in Barra de Navidad, she has learned to go along with Mexican culture and “just show up” and not worry, to slow down a little.
Anne also loves that in Mexico, everyone talks to everyone – on the street, in the grocery store, in restaurants… She is sometimes sad that this is not the case in Victoria. Anne tries to bring traditions and customs back here to her home and friends in Canada, and she’s decided that she doesn't care if people look at her funny for talking to them on the street. She is headed back to Mexico on October 17th.
Rod Sim thanked both speakers while pretending to be Michelle LeSage, who was supposed to be on that roster duty this week. He said one of the best parts of being an Oak Bay Rotary Club member is that he’s surrounded by superstars such as Jim and Anne.
President Heather only had one “thank you” Rotary mug, so she gave it to Anne and told Jim he’ll have to wait for one!
CONCLUSION OF MEETING:
The closing song was a YouTube video of Stompin' Tom playing “Roll on Saskatchewan” rather than our usual ode to the Queen.
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