I’ll move on from Remembrance Day thoughts eventually

Today I intended to move along, embrace and enthrall others with another idea or two, other than thoughts related to Remembrance Day, but a phone call last night from an 84-year-old gentleman who trained with my father in 1941 changed all that.

I’m meeting him this afternoon, to trade stories, to help me fill in a few gaps about my dad’s early days.


And while adding a photo this morning to the post below (re the gentleman’s phone call) I received a call from another gentleman, Alasdair R., whose wife came from Wallasey, England (mentioned in my most recent column) and who told me in no uncertain terms that I must go to England and Scotland and visit the places where my father trained with Combined Operations before his involvement in WWII.

I’d been thinking about such a trip.

I’d like to visit Irvine, SW Scotland, and raise a glass at The Harbour Light with any remaining members of the Skinner family that poured rum down my dad’s gullet to warm him up after his stint on a lonely sandbar during a training exercise.

I would happily visit Wallasey and Liverpool, departure points for The SS Silver Walnut, the ship upon which my dad served in 1943.

And, thanks to dad’s short stories about his time in England and Scotland, I’d like to visit a few distant relatives and other neighbourhood pubs he mentions.

So, I’ll move along soon to another enthralling idea or two, but not before I’ve walked a few more miles down Memory Lane.

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