Canadian Tidbits # 4 Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1957

Sputnik 1 was launched from the Soviet Union on October 4th in 1957, becoming the first man made object to orbit the earth. The satellite stayed up for three months before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and burning up on January 5th, 1958.
The Grey Cup is the holy grail of Canadian football, it is a trophy donated by a former governor general of Canada, Albert Grey. In 1957 the Hamilton Tiger Cats soundly defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 32-7 in the season final earning them title of Grey Cup champions of 1957.
Loreena McKennitt was born in the Canadian province of Manitoba in February 1957. She moved to Ontario and is a singer and composer. If I had to categorize her music, Celtic would somewhat fit. She has won several Juno awards, and is a member of the Order of Canada. Some of her albums which I have are 'The Mask and the Mirror' The Visit' and 'An Ancient Muse'. If you have never heard her you are missing a lot!
Obviously the Sputnik satellite, the Grey Cup, and possibly Loreena McKennitt were even more news worthy than me, as I can't find a newspaper reference to my birth at all! I get no respect.

Answer: Butternut Ridge

When the area was settled, there were a lot of butternut trees around, so they called the village Butternut Ridge. In 1859 they changed the name to Havelock to honour Sir Henry Havelock. Some of the locals apparently were not too impressed by this change, as most continued to call the place by the old name well into the 1960s. Mail was still addressed and delivered to Butternut Ridge. I only knew of one butternut tree still living in the area, the rest had died of disease or been cut down for firewood.

The nut was fuzzy like a kiwi fruit, but hard. You had to break it open to get at the meat inside.

Answer: Royal Canadian Army Service Corps

It was the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps. Did I manage to fool you on this one? I had fun making up the other choices! The RCASC was responsible for transporting supplies, troops, food, gasoline, vehicles, weapons, personal, and a myriad other things. The RCASC was deactivated in 1968.

Answer: brook trout

Salvelinus Fontinalis is the scientific name for brook trout. Some other common names of the brook trout are brookie, and speckled trout. They have a green to black back, with green to brownish sides covered with coloured spots of white, yellow, and red.

The males can have a brilliant red belly, the females are white. To catch them I would simply use worms on my hook to attract them, and depending on the water probably a sinker. I didn't see the need for expensive lures when worms were free. Seemed to work well too. Brook trout like cool, clean, dark water, so if you see a tree overhanging the stream it should be a good place. I was such good a fisherman, when the trout saw me coming they would surrender and just jump up out of the water into my creel. I can spend a whole day on a cool stream fishing. I wonder if MY secret fishing spot is still there.

Answer: Ford

Ford made it. The first Galaxie was made in 1959 and the last in 1974. It was a great car! Some were souped up high performance muscle cars, others were 'family' designed cars. I had the lower end version. They were made out of steel not that silly plastic they use today! I got it off the local bootlegger for $25.

He was a Ford man, he had several Galaxies, Comets and Edsels behind the barn. All I had to do was change the rear end from the junked car next to it! It ran like a charm, you couldn't kill the engine! Gas back then was around 50 cents a imperial gallon, and you didn't need insurance!

Answer: keep it beautiful

'Keep it Beautiful' was the motto. 'Yours to Discover' came later. I think the car owners polished that license plate more than the car. It signified that you undertook the long journey to usually Toronto, Ontario, where you got a good paying job resulting in this new car. Rent was cheap in Ontario, work was plentiful, and the money grew on trees! No more cutting wood in minus 30 degree weather in winter or working in the mills for me, no siree.

It drove everyone green with envy. Some came back home to stay, some just on vacation, (a few over a long weekend!) but in any case you would just have to drive the trophy car back home to show it off. Bragging rights were yours! This would usually prompt a new generation of people 'going down the road' to Ontario, me included.

Answer: by the cord

You would get your cheque based on how much you cut which was piled up into cords. A cord of wood is stacked four feet long, eight feet wide, and four feet high. My 'pilot'(the guy with me in the bush who piled the cut wood, hence the name) would also put our mark on each four foot piece, sharpen the saw teeth, have a fire going for tea breaks, and lunch. We kept track daily of each stack of wood by adding them up roughly into cords, so we would have a idea how many we had altogether, as they were being continually removed out to the marshaling yard.

This is where they would get tallied by the 'bossman' each month. He usually kept a cord or two for himself, from everybody, there was no point in complaining.

Answer: hunting deer illegally at night with a light

Hunting deer at night with a light was and still is illegal. However when you were between jobs and the soup on the stove was getting very thin, you and a friend would take a rifle (in my case an old Lee Enfield 303), a small knapsack containing a motorcycle battery and a powerful hand held light connected to said battery. You could make one out of car headlight if you couldn't afford to buy one and go to some field where you knew deer fed. Your partner in crime would shine the light on the field hopefully lighting up a few deer. The light would 'freeze' the deer, and you could get a shot off. You would then field dress the deer, and carry it home. Chance of getting caught? Almost 0%. Then one year the Ministry of Natural Resources put huge searchlights on an airplane. Very bright searchlights that lit up the whole field including us! We froze like the deer. Ah well, as it turned out the food in the local county lockup wasn't that bad during the two weeks of my 'visit'.

Was it illegal? Yes. Unsportsmanlike? probably, but it put food on the table!

Answer: it had a propeller facing backwards that would 'push' the aircraft

The Woody Pusher (sometimes called Woody's Pusher or Wood's Pusher), was classed as an 'experimental homebuilt aircraft' The 65 horsepower engine was mounted on the wing above the fuselage with the propeller facing to the rear, causing the aircraft to be pushed rather than pulled if the propeller was on front, like on the Maranda, another homebuilt.

The wingspan of the Pusher was actually longer than the length of the aircraft. The open cockpit was a joy to be in, with the wind whipping by. You would need goggles and a leather flight helmet like they wore in World War 1. If you had a strong enough headwind you would swear you could walk faster. We once landed with only about two pints of fuel remaining in the tank. My favorite flight was to the Moncton air show in the pusher.

Not only did I get to ride in the front seat (the pilot would usually sit here, but it had dual controls for the rear seat), but I got to actually pilot the aircraft. The Pusher was put on static display at the airshow, and I felt like a king that very long and exciting day!

Answer: Sault Ste Marie, Michigan

Sault Ste Marie was originally one city with a river running through it. In 1797 the place was divided in half with 'The Soo' on one side of Saint Mary's river being given to the Americans, the Canucks got the other half on the northern side of the river. The Canadian city is the largest of the two, you have to cross the river (and border) to get to the American town. 'The Soo' is the nickname of both places and used more often than the full name!

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