Photo (Web)  Downtown overlooking Marina.  My Uncle Frank and Auntie Louise Yochim along with their seven children operated this Marina for over 30 years.  On Uncle Frank retiring from the business, my cousin Lorin, the second youngest son, took over the business for several years.  My Grandpa and Nana, spent many summers with their children lazing around this Marian.  Cold Lake, of course, was my Grandpa’s hometown about which he has written many stories in the Family 1940-1965 series. (Grayson)  

This Book is Only Available On Amazon

Photo (2012): Grayson gazes out over the North Thompson River and the
mountains beyond:  “Grandpa, we need to go see what’s beyond those mountains.”
(Cover Photo Arrangement by Alysha McNeill)

Link to KDP Book (make sure you order on the January 4, 2025 edition)

Dear Reader,

The following chronicles were written during the magical summer of 2012 when five-year old Grayson Edward Walker, along with his Grandpa, Harold David McNeill, his brother, Jay Wesley McNeill and a close family friend, Bjorn Oscar Simonsen (Uncle Bjorn) completed an exploratory expedition through British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. While the trip through British Columbia was relatively peaceful, once they hit the Alberta border, they entered a new and perilous world. After visiting family and friends across the Province they hit out for Saskatchewan to visit the places where Grandpa was born and where Uncle Bjorn and his family first landed when they emmigrated to Canada from Norway in the early 1950s. In this Province they would again be faced with many hurdles as they visited the many farms and historic sites that were part of the family history.

The 200 page book is filled with dozes of full colour photographs of family, friends, events and special places in the lives of the intrepid explorers. Dozens of Chapters are written from the perspective of Grayson.

Cheers,

Harold, Grayson, Jay, and Bjorn

Contact Harold at: lowerislandsoccer@shaw.ca

Pictures of Cold Lake Air Base: LINK HERE
Pictures of Air Base of Cold Lake History Museum : LINK HERE
Stories of Grandpa’s years as a Crash Rescue Firefighter: LINK HERE.
Story of the Big Kinosoo (Chapter 1): LINK HERE
Story of History of Cold Lake (Chapter 2) LINK HERE

Photo Below (from Web) Global Hawk of type used by German Air Force

Photo: Mockup of CF-18 Fighter Jet at CFB Cold Lake

Link here to photo’s of Frog Lake adventure: LINK HERE

September 19, 2012.  The following information was plucked from a Genealogy site:

Also note by Phylis Wicker.Glicker

Hazel Martineau [Wheeler] daughter of Adrien Louis Napoleon Martineau b. Oct. 18, 1875 St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada and Margaret Delaney b. Nov. 30, 1885 Frog Lake, Alberta, Canada. Adrien is the son of Hermin Martineau b. Brittany France mar. (1) Annie Macbeth (2) Angeline LaBelle. Hermin Martineau is the son of Ovit Martineau b. Brittany, France.
I have just begun researching the Delaneys and Martineau”s so I don’t have much. But I would love to hear from you and share what I have. I was married once to Frank Martineau, grandson of Adrien Louis Napoleon Martineau and would love to learn about Margaret Delaney’s family for me and my childrens sake.

Email: pwicker@telus.net

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This Book is Now Available On Amazon

Photo (2012): Grayson gazes out over the North Thompson River and the
mountains beyond:  “Grandpa, we need to go see what’s beyond those mountains.”
(Cover Photo Arrangement by Alysha McNeill)

Link to KDP Book (make sure you order on the January 4, 2025 edition)

Dear Reader,

The following chronicles were written during the magical summer of 2012 when five-year old Grayson Edward Walker, along with his Grandpa, Harold David McNeill, his brother, Jay Wesley McNeill and a close family friend, Bjorn Oscar Simonsen (Uncle Bjorn) completed an exploratory expedition through British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. While the trip through British Columbia was relatively peaceful, once they hit the Alberta border, they entered a new and perilous world. After visiting family and friends across the Province they hit out for Saskatchewan to visit the places where Grandpa was born and where Uncle Bjorn and his family first landed when they emmigrated to Canada from Norway in the early 1950s. In this Province they would again be faced with many hurdles as they visited the many farms and historic sites that were part of the family history.

The 200 page book is filled with dozes of full colour photographs of family, friends, events and special places in the lives of the intrepid explorers. Dozens of Chapters are written from the perspective of Grayson.

Cheers,

Harold, Grayson, Jay, and Bjorn

Contact Harold at: lowerislandsoccer@shaw.ca

FOR MORE PHOTOS OF BEAVER BOARDWALK: LINK HERE

FOR MORE PHOTOS OF AUNT PAT’S BIRTHDAY: LINK HERE

COMMENTS ON THE STORY CAN BE MADE ON THE MCNEILL LIFE STORIES FACEBOOK PAGE 

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This photo, which places Bob Rae in a diminutive position in front of the large Liberal backdrop and with a rather sad, resigned look on his face as he gives a farewell wave, captures, in a poignant way, the current status of the Liberal Party of Canada. Any new party leader will need to change the face of the party by bringing an inspired vision and indefatigable confidence about the future.

February 2015.  This post is brought forward from the summer of 2012.

I am a Liberal.  There, I’ve said it again. It sounds suspiciously like the preamble to a confession of having had an addiction, does it not?  Also, is it not funny how saying those words out loud has a better feel when sitting at the top of the heap rather than at the bottom?  Well, not exactly the bottom, we are still above the Greens and the Block, but as the Greens are in an ascendency period, they are still savouring the euphoria of success.

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It has been a couple of months since dinner and a movie and last night’s choice was excellent even though it was our second choice as the first choice at Silver City didn’t start until next Thursday (hmm, I wonder if it could have been ‘he’ who misread the blog?).

Not to worry, a quick run downtown to the Odeon, saw us picking up tickets for Hope Springs, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep as Arnold and Maeve Soames. Steve Carell, as Dr. Bernie Feld, rounded out the largely three person drama that was everything we could have hoped for.  Although listed as a ‘comedy’, it was much more a drama with some great humour injected at just the right moment to relieve some of the building tension.

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March 22, 2017, Updated Story (1750)

Each week across Canada dozens of domestic violence cases are reported. While the definition of domestic violence varies, it often involves a pattern of behavior where someone desires to establish power and control over another family member through physical, psychological, emotional, verbal, sexual, and/or economic abuse. The cases often remain hidden as abuse usually occurs behind closed doors with victims reluctant or not capable (e.g. a child)) of coming forward.

Police officers, health-care and social service workers are often among the first to intervene. In follow-up investigations, it usually emerges that other family members and friends were aware of what was happening, but were hesitant to become involved. The challenge for everyone is finding the ways and means to effectively intervene to protect an adult or child from what might be ongoing abuse.

As for the background causes, fingers are often pointed at families struggling to make ends meet or at cultural or religious practices, they suggest, produce the abuse.  My experience suggests the socio-economic and cultural backgrounds are as varied as is the make-up of our society. In the context of the cases outlined below, a skilled professional manipulates the minds of his wife and child in a manner that satisfies his need for control.

Tabula Rasa (Merriam-Webster): 

English speakers have called that initial state of mental blankness tabula rasa (a term taken from a Latin phrase that translates as “smooth or erased tablet”) since the 16th century, but it wasn’t until British philosopher John Locke championed the concept in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1690 that the term gained widespread popularity in our language. In later years, a figurative sense of the term emerged, referring to something that exists in its original state and that has yet to be altered by outside forces.

Introduction

While watching a 1999 rerun of a Law and Order¹ episode by the above title², it struck me how the theme, minus the murder, paralleled an Oak Bay case in which I became involved 40 years earlier.

In the TV episode, the husband, a psychiatrist, had taken his two young daughters and disappeared from his wife, the girl’s mother. The man assumed a new identity for himself and the girls, then remarried. His first (legal) wife spent years searching for her children.

Fifteen years later, with the girls now in their late teens, a University Professor, who knew the couple in the early days and maintained contact with the first wife, recognized the woman’s former husband at a subway stop.  On realizing the woman might well tell his first wife, the man pushed the woman in front of an oncoming train and she was killed.  The follow-up investigation led to the man, but one of his daughters maintained it was she who had murdered the woman.

As the story unfolded in the courtroom, it became chillingly clear that both daughters and the second wife were being held under the absolute control of the husband – they were not allowed to think for themselves, nor perform a single action without first having his approval.  While the Oak Bay case was not as extreme as the TV episode, the psychological principles were precisely the same.

The Oak Bay Case

While working day shift in the Detective Office, two University of Victoria students arrived with a story to tell. They believed a twenty-year-old female friend, a classmate at University, was being mentally, and possibly physically abused by her over-controlling father. During their time in class, they learned the father was a highly skilled professional practicing in the field of psychology or psychiatry.  According to the students, every movement the girl made (who she was allowed to visit, where she went, what time she had to be home, what she studied at University, etc.) were scripted by her father. The girl always acquiesced as she felt there was no option.  The friends also felt the man’s wife was similarly controlled.

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McNeill Life Stories Facebook page and click Like.

LINK HERE

Lynn and I have been to many parades in the Greater Victoria area over the years. but never to Sidney. This year we made the trip with Linda and Bjorn, as Bjorn was in the parade along with other seafaring sorts confidently sailing the Son’s of Norway club ship  down Beacon Avenue.

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McNeill Life Stories Facebook page and click Like.
LINK HERE

An Amazing Coincidence

Following is an observation for the math guru’s among you.

While completing the Black Friday story, I first met P/O Bert Ramsden who, in the 404 Squadron photo, is standing immediately below and to the right of the nose cone V3 painted on the Beaufighter. No big deal, he just picked a place to stand and there he stood very near the symmetrical centre of the photo, a modest 1 in 59 chance of occupying that position.

Later, while researching the article, the name of one other member of the squadron air crew still living was found to be P/O Miller Bryce. It was not until I was highlighting names in the photo I discovered P/O Bryce was standing just below and to the left of the V3, shoulder to shoulder with P/O Ramsden.

Now there is nothing unusual about just two members being left alive as that was bound to happen at some point. However, that the final two living members of the 59 members in that squadron photo were randomly standing side by side seemed highly coincidental. This will be further discussed later.

In an email exchange with Don Flynn, the son of P/O Pat Flynn, I was told I had missed his dad’s name on the photo name list. He told me his father was sitting directly above Ramsden and Bryce on the nosecone above the V3. Sure enough, I had accidentally missed the name the first time around. Now, of the three members coming to my attention, all are sitting or standing in a symmetrical position around the V₃ nosecone!

Photo: Cropped section of the Squadron photo displayed in the introduction.  Link here to the full Squadron Photo. (Lead photo in the Black Friday Story)

During the Black Friday Ceremony held in 2008, in Naustdal, Norway, the two living members (and their families) along with the family of one deceased member, were represented.  Of course, the two living members were P/O Ramsden and P/O Bryce.  The third, represented by his wife and son, was, take a guess, P/O Flynn, the man who completed the Beaufighter nosecone triangle.

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To receive regular notifcations of new posts, link to the
McNeill Life Stories Facebook page and click Like.

LINK HERE

March 2012 Posts

March 17, 2012   Rogers Communications: Deceptive Business Practice

Rogers is a big company, do they need to stoop to such
shoddy business practices?

Call Centre in Ohio

May 1, 2012 UPDATE: I spoke to a Rogers Outlet representative I know and he confirmed the following marketing practice is commonplace…

March 17, 2012 Comment

A few days back I was nearly caught short during a Rogers Communications Customer Satisfaction Survey being conducted by a Call Centre in Ohio. Although I don’t usually take these calls near dinner, I was in a bubbly mood so decided to let the woman ask away.

After a few questions about my degree of satisfaction with Rogers, she went on to ask if it was OK to check and see if any savings could be found in our account. Why not? She then spent considerable time (20 minutes or so) and I was feeling bad for taking up so much of her time trying to find so little in savings. She stated: “no problem, Rogers is here to provide you with the best service we can” or words to that effect. 

(2020)