["Dave received the Navy hammock in 1943 aboard the
SS Silver Walnut; he returned it to the Canadian navy in 1986"]
["Dave and the crew survived engine troubles
and escaped the eye of enemy subs"]
I use double exclamation marks only on very special occasions. The night before, while reading a book on the train, two days before visiting the Esquimalt Naval Museum to see a WWII hammock with my father’s name on it, I discovered a paragraph about the officer who returned it to the Canadian Navy in Australia in 1986. I actually got excited for once in my life. !! My last words follow:
That’s coincidence? NO. TWO capitals. So, shower or not, I’m a happy camper.
The next morning, however, my first recorded thoughts about Day 5 indicate I’d suffered a broken sleep and woke up restless. I listed several ‘quick thots’:
1. bad sleep in economy but enough
2. @ 8:03, very close to Vanc. Central, but VIA engineer has us sitting in boonies.
I must have been thinking that the earlier I got into Vancouver, the earlier I could catch a bus to the island and Victoria. Time was a-wastin’. I’m sure I felt like saying, let’s get a move on.
Yes, I’m pretty sure that was what I was thinking. Fortunately, a few good thoughts entered my weary head and I jotted them down too for safe keeping:
["My journal reveals I maintained
a fairly positive mood at all times"]
3. good column re 2 coincidences
Apparently, I felt there was a good story in what I’d seen and read in the book ‘Combined Operations’ the night before and all I had to do was write about it, for which I’d get paid. Life can’t get much better than that, can it?
4. left message for Pat. not home. out with NICK.
NICK is my wife’s imaginary boy friend, he has been for many years, and I refer to him often since it was i who had dreamt the guy up (it’s a long story), in a dream. Whenever I mention NICK, I’m making a joke. (And it’s often quite hilarious, in my opinion.) So, it appears I was in a good mood in spite of a bad night’s sleep during which I’d felt like a football cleat was jabbing into my back.
Before I started scrounging for breakfast and a place to wash up, I also listed two tasks I didn’t want to forget, as if on a to-do list:
5. UNBROKEN: A WWII story of Survival, L. Hildebrand
This entry refers to ‘Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption’ by Laura Hillenbrand (author of ‘Seabiscuit’), a book recommended to me by a fellow passenger. (And I’ll look for it once I’m finished ‘Mortal Combat’, a history of WWII, and ‘Life in Nelson’s Navy’, a book I purchased a few days later in Victoria).
I also listed the name of a car rental agency I needed to call soon after I landed in Victoria so that I could make preparations for an upcoming trip to a library and archive in Courtenay.
["Lovely map to help me get to the hostel
on Yates St. Makes sense, right?]
Busy, busy I was, and I hadn’t even brushed my teeth.
I rummaged for my toothbrush while looking forward to the key events of the day, i.e., landing in Vancouver, bussing to the ferry, ferrying to Victoria, walking to the hostel, enjoying a shower, taking a ‘walk about’, renting a car and finding a great spot for supper.
Easy kap-easy? Stay tuned.
***
Please click here to read “GO WEST, YOUNG MAN”: Chasing my dad Part 9
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