Wow! How time flies when you’re having fun! It’s tons of fun that I’ve been having over the past three years since I was invited to write this column for The Reminder.
The Reminder and I go way back to 1946, the year of its origin, when Tommy Dobson took up the challenge of publishing a daily paper that highlighted local news and events. The Flin Flon Miner, under Harry Miles, was already present in the community, but its content leaned towards provincial and national news. In addition, there were the day-late-dailies - the Winnipeg-centric Free Press and the Tribune that arrived ‘next day’ on the train.
The Reminder, in its original form was basically a few sheets of paper printed both sides and stapled together. Basic, but well-received by the community – a fact attested to by the Reminder’s enduring popularity. As a six-year-old in 1946 – and over my childhood years, it was always interesting to get the Reminder from the mailbox and read Tommy’s take on the affairs of the town.
Thus, as it was - and is - with the Reminder, this month’s column will not feature a single topic but will offer a ‘gathering up’ of some miscellaneous items either missed from or discovered from past columns.
For starters, relating to early radio, did you know that in the 1950s, then-CFAR general manager C. H. ‘Buck’ Whitney would often do the Sunday morning ‘on air’ shift - mainly because he knew that some of his announcers either wouldn’t show up, or if they did, they’d be in no condition to be on the air. Mr. Whitney would play classical music between 10-11 a.m. – as he stated to my dad (I think, tongue in cheek), “to drive listeners out of the house so they would go to church.”
Pre-1960 and the renovations to “the Rink” – now, the Whitney Forum - there was only one penalty box. Things would get really interesting when two fired-up on-ice combatants were placed in those close confines and the battle would be renewed.
At the Rex and Northland theatres, they were obliged to play a film of God Save the King/Queen at the end of the movie. Everyone stood at attention and then filed out of the theatre. The exception was the few non-sovereigntists who leapt from their seats just as the movie ended and made a beeline for the exit. Interestingly, I don’t recall O Canada being played before the show started. And who remembers when the words ‘The End’ would be displayed at the conclusion of the movie?
Last month, I wrote about the siren that would warn of an impending underground blast. One of our favourite Church Street kids summer pastimes in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s was to tell visiting kids that the water tower at the South Main shaft was actually a moon rocket that was set to launch at 5 p.m. on the day of a blast. We’d lead them to the Main School grounds and tell them to watch the rocket, wait for the warning siren and then the explosive force of the rocket engines at 5 p.m. It was a hoot to watch these kids stare at the “rocket” in feverish anticipation. Hey, we didn’t have cell phones to suck our brains out in those days, so our imaginations ran wild!
Way back, I wrote about the challenge of pedaling my bike non-stop up Ross Lake hill. Reader Fred noted that it was one thing to do so, but in one’s teen years, it was another thing to make it up the hill in your car without having to shift down to second gear. (Remember manual gear shifts?) The solution: goose it just as you hit Boam Street and you’ll make ‘er in third!
And in a final note: The summer of 1956, my brother Ron and I were driving on busy Albert Street in downtown Regina and suddenly ran out of gas. We got out of the car and were pushing it towards a service station while cars whizzed by and horns blared. We were wearing Flin Flon Trout Festival Director shirts that we had ‘borrowed’ from our dad. A car pulled up behind us and the driver shouted out, “Hey, are you boys from Flin Flon? Let me give you a shove to the gas station!” He was an ex-Flin Flon miner - but not an ex-Flin Flonner.
There is no such thing as an ex-Flin Flonner.
