Memory Lane PT 4: ‘Navy Days’ have more meaning now

In 1992 the following single sentence - about what sounds like my dad’s chief form of recreation during his days in the navy - appeared in one of his weekly columns:


["Poor picture of a banner, w Dad's name aboard, now in Esquimalt, BC"]

“I was on the navy softball and hardball teams and we played as many as six games a week.” (“Down Memory Lane: Navy Days,” Norwich Gazette)

The next sentence moves on to another topic, i.e., weekend activities in Courtenay.


["Esquimalt, SW of Victoria; Comox and Courtenay are N": photos GH]

Not that the rest of his days in Comox, British Columbia in 1944 were all work and no play. He fished for salmon, mucked for oysters and visited the Sons of Freedom Hall in Courtenay for a show or beers and dancing on occasion too.

The whole article helps round out the meaning of his ‘Navy Days’ for me. I know he liked to play ball and my youngest sister recalls he used the term ‘semi-pro’ to describe some of his wealth of baseball experience.


["Senior Champs, 1949; D. Harrison - top row, third from right"]

As a young boy and later as an adult I didn’t think much about his days in the navy or his own love of sports because I was too busy with my own life - including lots of sports.

Hockey filled my winters, baseball filled my summers, and many other school sports, including football and track and field, made mostly welcome demands upon my time.


["The back of Senior Champs photo; I was born in 1949 - a very good year"]

Now that I’m older I am growing in appreciation of my dad’s role in the navy and in my life “way back when” and now even though he’s gone. Perhaps, because he is gone.

For example, I certainly am happy to learn about his activities and pastimes in 1944, that they took place on home turf, i.e., in Canada, and that I can visit some of the places in which he spent some of his youth. (In 1944 dad was 24 years of age).

I’m also glad he had time for a bit of ball after long and harrowing months on a merchant marine ship in convoy upon the Atlantic Ocean the year before. (More about that later).

So, one day in the future I’ll find that spit of land near Comox where he was stationed in barracks, see if a ball diamond can be found and swing for the fences in memory of a proud man who still comes to mind every day.

***

Earlier I mentioned I’ll one day visit Esquimalt too, home of a Naval Museum, but said it is found on B.C.s mainland. I am wrong. It is on the southern tip of Vancouver Island.

Comox and Courtenay are on the eastern shore of the island.

Memory Lane PT 2

Memory Lane PT 1.

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