Scandal at the Presbyterian Church in Kitimat

During my Kitimat days my mom for a time went to the Presbyterian Church and would occasionally bring me along. I liked a bit of the Sunday School aspect but found the sermons quite boring.

The church was pretty aggressive for money, beyond other churches I’ve been to.  Members were even given a list of income ranges and how much should be donated at any given income level.  Once the reverend (whom I won’t name) made a particular strong push for money; I believe my mom finally left the church over this. Not long after the church had gotten the extra money the reverend took his family on a vacati0n to Hawaii.  The church did get wind of this and while he wasn’t dismissed he would relocated to a different municipality.This was the 1980s so it's likely an entirely different regime there now.

You're Choking, I'm Chatting

There was one time at Mt. Elizabeth Secondary School in Kitimat I was sitting down in the hallway eating my lunch.  Nearby was one of the teachers doing a lunchtime patrolling of the halls.  Abruptly something I'm eating got lodged in my throat and I started to choke, and was having trouble breathing. I tried to signal to the teacher but he was having a chat with another student.  For the next little bit (it felt like over a minute but that may have been the panic) I continued to try to signal the teacher while also trying to deal with the food stuck in the throat.  Finally the food got dislodged and fully swallowed and I began to breathe normally again. It was only then, after I had just finished recovering from choking that the teacher approached me to ask if I was okay. Uh...

Dog: Long Time First See

One day in Kitimat I was on a walk with my mom, heading home from the Nechako area I think.  On the way home we see this huge black dog, one of the biggest I'd ever seen.  I had never seen this dog before. And yet it came up to me and gave a loud groan and rubbed against me. It was very surreal, like the dog felt it was being reunited with some dearly loved and missed friend from long ago.  It was very sweet and I was really moved by the dog, but I also felt a little awkward because of what appeared to be a mistaken identity.

If there really was a long lost friend and the dog wasn't just eccentric with every human it took a liking to, then I hope that the dog did get reunited for real with them later on.  The dog clearly had a big heart and I strongly suspect that there was some human who was deeply missed by the good-hearted dog.

I was Columbus for a Few Seconds

In elementary school classes were supposed to do plays but the teacher wasn’t enthusiastic about it.  Eventually he relented and there was to be a play where Columbus was the titular character, albeit a walk-on. I thought it might be fun to play a famous character who only shows up for a few seconds, but at the end of the play, so I tried out for it.  There was heavy competition from another student (albeit one who hadn’t noticed it was a cameo) but in the end I won.  Alas, after the audition process the teacher lost interest again and it didn’t go any further, no rehearsals even.  But at least I won the part.

Taking Turns at Gym in Kitimat

Once at high school in gym there was an activity where there was one player too many, so we were supposed to rotate subbing off. Knowing that I wasn’t popular among other kids I saw the writing on the wall and decided to be the first odd man out. After my time was up I got someone else to sub off. But then after his time was up the other teens told me to sub off even though no one else had taken a turn. They even got the teacher to ask me to do so. I refused. That unfortunately meant that the other person stayed off for the rest of the time (which admittedly wasn’t that much longer). But at least I stood up for myself and refused to sub off twice before everyone else had done so.

Budgies Have No Failure to Communicate

Once as a kid in Kitimat, shortly after getting a budgie, I talked to another kid and told him that while my budgie didn’t talk, budgies were capable of “talking” (i.e. mimicking human sounds, a la a parrot).  He didn’t believe me. My mom soon got me a record while actually had a recording of a budgie talking.  Not long after the other kid told me that he’d talked to his mom and she “confirmed” they couldn’t talk and he seemed surprised that I was amused rather than agreeing that that settled it. It was probably one of my first indicators that adults aren’t always right about stuff. 

I Was a Flintstone Vitamins Addict

As a kid, to try to get me to improve my health, my mom bought me bottles of Flintstones vitamins from a store in Kitimat.  I didn’t mind at all taking the vitamins, since they added sugar to them, as well as a nice fruit flavouring.  In fact I liked them very much to the point where I ignored recommended doses and downed a bottle in just a few days. I’m pretty sure that’s why my mom stopped getting them for me.  Alas, I was a junkie for Flintstones vitamins, and that proved my downfall with them.

Camp Caledonia Memories

In grade 6 in Kitimat students had to go to a camp called Camp Caledonia.  It wasn’t a favourite experience of mine and probably turned me off summer camps. But I go recall various memories. In random order here’s a few:

The first night everyone got up really early (around 4 or 5 am) and started playing outside.  I joined them briefly but it didn’t feel right so I returned to my tent.  The ones who stayed out soon after had to go on a long walk courtesy the counsellors.

Everyone got to do horseback riding. Happily my group did so near the end so it saved one of the more fun experiences for last.  The only thing was, the horses walked together in a single line, so the horses kept farting in the faces of the horse right behind them.

My sleeping bag got some permanent stains due to the tent absorbing the water from the rain (neither my tent mate nor myself were that great at setting up the tent properly.

I recall my group got nearly a perfect score in chores activities and won an award at the end (shower privileges I think; otherwise you weren’t supposed to use the showers there due to some water issues with whoever owned the nearby land).  We only lost points for something at the beginning where something else delayed us). More points were nearly lost because one day I needed to do chores and some of the “counsellors” were higher grade students serving ice cream or some treat like that; they actually made a point of serving me last to delay my getting to the chores. Luckily we didn’t lose points (the teacher probably figured out what happened).