The center in Oust served as a vacation retreat for children and sometimes lodged people with mental deficiencies. The work consisted in doing simple renovations and maintenance. When I arrived, they fed me and led me downstairs to the dormitory where about twenty volunteers were sleeping on bunk beds. I quietly walked around in the dark searching. The beds were all occupied except one, mine. As I laid down, I perceived a huge lump in the middle of the mattress. “The reason nobody took it,” I told myself, but I was so tired that I slept like a log. The next morning, at a long table with the vo ..read more

I wanted to leave England, so I found a job doing voluntary work in the Pyrénées, France. On my way, I stopped in Paris, rented a room in a youth hostel and  walked around. I came upon a place where men were playing ‘pétanque’ I approached the cast-iron fence and slipped my face between the bars to watch the game. One of the men saw me and walked over. The ground was elevated and as he stood in front of me, his hand, holding the iron balls, were positioned in front of my face. Without any greetings he said, “You want my balls?” This was my first encounter with a Parisian. I left to see th ..read more

In 1984 I was in my late adolescence. President Reagan could hit the red button at any time. I was in college but the future was bleak so I took a plane. I landed in London, England to find myself in a squat with hippies lying around on dingy mattresses complaining about the unfairness of the world. They informed me about a big manifestation that was to take place in Scotland to protest the buying of Trident, a nuclear submarine. So I got on a bus with them headed towards Fastlane Peace Camp, a big assembly of hippies but lying around in trailers. Some of them wore badges that said ‘MILK MEANS ..read more

The first thing I saw of him was the back of his head. He was sitting in front of a computer. He introduced himself as my new boss and let me know that I will not be working for him but with him. We shared a tiny office space, big enough for two bureaus and a classifier. Besides was a small kitchen with a fridge, microwave and coffee maker. The next day, as I hung up my coat in the kitchenette, I noticed his shoes neatly placed one beside each other, the laces neatly placed inside. I could hear the vacuum cleaner coming from the office and saw Normand squished between the two bureaus vacuuming ..read more

   While helping Pearl make her pickles, she told me a story about  a minister at the Anglican in Dunham. The story dates a while back… He got booted out of his church in Ontario and was shipped to here. “He was a mean bastard and cheap too, his wife couldn’t even buy herself clothes.”  The minister and his wife had two boys and a girl, the oldest. One day a lady of the parish complained that she had been getting obscene phone calls. She told Pearl that she recognized  the voice, “Is it possible that it’s the Minister’s son!?”  “oh yah” answered Pearl. Anyway one ..read more

I was helping Pearl make stuffed eggs when the phone rang, it was her friend Lorraine. Pearl didn’t feel like talking. “I’ll call her back, she can go on for hours” When the eggs were finished she called her back . “Yah, it’s me…have you got your pants on?” On avait planifié d’aller à une vente d’église alors quand je l’ai vu dans ma cour le lendemain je savais que c’était elle; pas aussi âgée que Pearl mais plus maganée. Il s’avère qu’elle habite dans mon voisinage, et elle est venue pour m’informer qu’elles venaient m ..read more

81 year old lady who lives in Bagtown. She’s short and has a really wide ass, wears pink pants and has a little hairy dog who makes her complain at. Doesn’t have a boyfriend, doesn’t want one. “they’re too self centered” She prefers the dog. The first time I saw her was on the sidewalk. I walked up to her to say hello not knowing how she would react. To my surprise she was open to conversation. I mentioned her plants growing in front of her house looking for a topic. We could hear her dog yapping away from the window. “Oh be quiet” she yelled at him from the sidewalk, he didn’t care and kept b ..read more