In August 1968 I had just recently turned 17 and started at McGill University as a French and Russian major. Since I was a foreign student, they didn’t have room in the dorms so I had a one-room apartment in the heart of downtown Montreal just 5 minutes from the university. I knew no one in Canada. I had almost never cooked before and did not plan to eat out. This should have been quite a scary experience. Looking back it seems scary to me now but it didn’t then. I quickly made a friend in Alvin, who had the apartment next to mine. He and I also shared an apartment with two others in my third year. Alvin was a big help during this time of my life, helping to keep me up with what was happening in Montreal.

When I did a local university radio show (called “Got the Blues”) a few years ago, my old friend from Montreal, Alvin, had found me and called in during the show. We have been in contact since then and we made arrangements for him to meet me when the train stopped for four hours in his current hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Alvin was waiting for me at the Winnipeg train station at 8 AM today. Alvin has really impressed me. He decided he didn’t like his weight so he took up bike riding, but in a big way. Every year he takes 600+ mile rides through the west as part of a group that raises money for Habitat for Humanity. He had recently come back from a bus tour with his girl friend through Spain and Morocco. He does this type of tour frequently. He’s retired as a school psychologist but works part time. He has an enormously upbeat attitude.

Margaret was looking for a place to run in Winnipeg since it was difficult to go without running on the train. Unfortunately, the best trail by the beautiful downtown train station was flooded. Alvin and I ate breakfast and Margaret joined us after her run. Alvin took us on a sight seeing trip of Winnipeg. This was like the personal guides I had in my 8 weeks of travelling but much better in that it was a friend.

Flooding in Winnipeg where Margaret wanted to run

My old friend Alvin who met me at the station at 8 AM (left), keeping my tradition of touching water, in the Forks area in downtown Winnipeg (right)

An unrelated story is in that first year in Montreal, there was a massive (10,000 people or so) demonstration to turn McGill into a French speaking university as part of the movement for Quebec independence from Canada. The apartment building where Alvin and I lived was right in the thick of things. I was standing on the stairs with friends when suddenly the police attacked the crowd and everyone was running wildly to avoid getting hit by the police. We climbed the stairs to re-enter my building but they had put undercover police in each building to make sure the demonstrators didn’t go in. I started to explain that I lived there when I felt a police baton hitting the back of my legs. I turned around and realized my only option was to run away with the demonstrators. We were now behind the police lines. For several hours, demonstrators set bonfires in downtown streets, taunted the police, and regrouped in new locations. After a few minutes, we could have gone back to the apartment but it somehow became fun. We ran around with the demonstrators, not getting too close to the police but had a good time and didn’t go back until well after midnight. You can find a brief reference to the demonstration at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGill_University#Language_Policy. Some of the sites I found when googling “McGill Francais” spoke of how peaceful the protest was but the following site had a live broadcast from that night in French that described the police movements and the protestors throwing burning placards (archives.radio-canada.ca/c_est_arrive_le/03/28/).

Small part of the McGill Francais marchin 1969  to turn McGill into a French University. I started as an observer, then got my legs hit by a police baton, then became a participant.

We had from 8 AM to 11:30 AM in Winnipeg and Alvin took us all over. I was impressed with Winnipeg. Alvin showed me the downtown, including the famous intersection of Portage and Main, which has been called the windiest in Canada. They had converted the ugly train yards downtown to a sculpture area and small shops. They are building the bizarre looking Canadian Museum of Human Rights. I really enjoyed Assiniboine Park’s Leo Mol Sculpture Garden www.manitobaphotos.com/mol.htm. We almost saw the Governor-General’s visit to the Manitoba Parliament, which would not have been a big deal.

Sculptures in downtown Winnipeg (left), the most famous intersection and the windiest in Winnipeg, Main and Portage. (right)

The future Museum of Human Rights


From Assiniboine Park’s Leo Mol Sculpture Garden

A really pleasant moment in Winnipeg

A highlight of Winnipeg for me was finding the bushy area where I slept under in 1970 while travelling across Canada. I distinctively remember that it was right downtown and near a fountain. We found such a place and Alvin told me that it could be a scary place to be late at night, which is exactly how I remembered it. There were nasty critters, both of the flying side and of the human side. I could be wrong but the place Alvin took me, right by the Parliament building struck me as the exact spot.

I mentioned in my blog about Israel that there really is no way to know if many of the famous sites are really the correct locations. We will never know if Jesus was really born at that exact spot in Bethlehem. Many things in life are like that. We guess at memories and choose to celebrate them on certain dates and at certain locations. Not that my sleeping behind a bush in Winnipeg was momentous but if I choose to call this picture the spot then in one sense it is. Who knows, maybe it really is the spot.

What feels like the area where I slept in 1970 while traveling in Winnipeg with lots of bugs and scary people around (left), the Manitoba Parliament just across the street from where I slept (right)

We got back on the train in plenty of time for the noon departure, with all new crew. We then passed through the flat prairies, which were made more interesting by the massive flooding. The farmers have lost many of their crops and will be suffering, along with there being higher food prices. Although it was exciting to see the flooding, the tedium of the similar views for hours on end got to us.

Flooding in Manitoba and Saskatchewan as seen from the train

To break the tedium, fortunately Robyn Dell’Unto was playing again in one of the activities areas. She wanted me to play the tambourine with her and I had the courage to say no. She met someone on the train to play with her who came late. They clearly had not had much time to practice together but they sounded really good. Robyn was a real treat. I enjoyed talking with her on a few occasions about the old days and about her career. One of the great things about Canada is that they fund the arts much more than we do. She has received some funding to help her put out her CD, to travel on this train, and in many other ways.

Robyn Dell’Unto could be a real star. Check out her website at robyndellunto.com Click on the video for a wonderful song where she dresses as a bird.

Screen shot of Robyn Dell’Unto singing her song “Just a Bird”, from robyndellunto.com

 Not the kind of audience Robyn’s used to but very appreciative nonetheless

Robyn singing with a friend on the train without the bird costume

Besides Robyn, today’s highlight was clearly visiting with Alvin in Winnipeg. Going back to what I wrote about on Canada Day 2, Alvin showed me that someone from my circle of friends can go through the craziness of that era and maintain respectability without becoming boring. I like the sound of maintaining respectability without becoming boring. Is that enough for a life goal?