Grand Bend, Ontario community newspaper and entertainment events guide. Also serves Zurich, Dashwood, Port Franks, Exeter, Parkhill. Casey Lessard photos.
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Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. It was early November 1953 when my fellow apprentice soldiers and I arrived in Montreal by train. It seemed to us a huge city. We were staying at the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps on Hochelaga Street, and after debarking from the bus, we were taken to the administration [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. My military career of 18 years took me to many places I probably would never have gone on my own. When I joined the RCOC in 1953 at the age of 16, I was sent to Montreal, where the ordnance corps school was located. For a kid that [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. (Editor’s Note: Please remember that these are memories of a time long ago, and the activities described in the following story are neither condoned nor recommended.) My buddy “Bobbie” and I were walking back to the barracks one summer evening when, out of the blue, he says, “Let’s [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. Arriving at Camp Ipperwash in 1960, I was directed to the battalion orderly room, where I was greeted and my name entered on the battalion nominal roll. After all the paperwork was completed and I was told about my assignment to headquarters company, I was directed to that [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” Those were the words that came out of my mouth the day I slipped and fell on the ice next door. I had been to town in the morning and walked in and out of a number of stores with no [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. It all began about the middle of November. The weather was perfect for the harvesting of corn and beans, and the planting of winter wheat. Also, it was ideal for the installation of Christmas decorations. Dark evenings became brighter and brighter. First, one resident put up a couple [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. I was privileged to attend the Grand Bend Legion’s Remembrance Day dinner on Saturday November 7. My first order of business was to purchase a nice cold beer at the bar. Next was to find where Rita was sitting. My sister-in-law Joan, who volunteers at all of the [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. (Continued from last issue) The saga of the sewers continued throughout the town with no end in sight. Rumours abounded that the sewers would be finished by December, and the road paved the following year. These optimists must have been talking about another town. Once the sewers were [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. Not long after Crediton’s bridge repair was finished and traffic resumed (but not back to the amount we had before the bridge was condemned), tenders were requested from all companies vying for contracts involved in the sewer project. Finally, the shovels hit the ground. No financial aid was [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. It all began many many moons ago. This is the saga of the bridge, sewers and roads. “We need a new bridge,” they said. “And your septic systems are shot, and have to be replaced by sewers.” Detour signs began going up, which meant there would be no [...]
Tales from the 2009 Lessard reunion Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. My Sunday morning began at 2:45 a.m. when I woke to a bright light shining through my main floor bedroom window. I first thought that someone had forgotten to turn off the ballpark lights, which are directly across the street from my [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. My family moved from Windsor to Waterloo in 1944 because my dad was starting a new job. Since my siblings always told me that I was adopted and that I was a German, it didn’t sit too well with me living a German community during World War II. [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. I think it was 1969 that word came down from the top that the battalion was going to fly to Jamaica for a month of jungle training. This was during the month of March, as I recall. After all the paperwork was done, we held QM parades to [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. On a warm, sunny day in November 1957, some of us were told to pack our gear (what little we were allowed to take out of the country) as we were leaving for home. It didn’t take long as I’m sure most of us had been ready to [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. “Hey, Tom! Have you ever been to Tillsonburg?” No. But I’ve been to Jerusalem. It happened while I was stationed with the UNEF in the Gaza Strip. Somehow my name came up on a list of possibilities of taking a tour of the Holy Land. (I think someone [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard The time came to get out of the desert, so a two-week leave in Beirut, Lebanon was set up for us. We trucked to Gaza City to catch a Greek yacht for our journey. I seem to recall that there were 20 of us on the boat. We set [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard With Rita away in the sunny Dominican Republic, I was reminded of my trip to the Middle East when I was 19. There I was in January 1957, debarking from an aircraft carrier in Port Said, Egypt and embarking on a new experience. We boarded trucks to travel down [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. Frankenmuth, Michigan is a beautiful little town on I-75 between Saginaw and Bay City. The big attraction is a Santa’s Village, but it is also known for having a variety of excellent restaurants and parks. It also has its very own brewery, from which you can purchase buckets [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard It all started on my birthday this October. My boys bought three tickets to see Montreal (my favourite) play Buffalo in Buffalo. Hearing this, another son and my grandson wanted to go, too, so they bought two more tickets. Then a friend of Billy’s thought it would be a [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard, C.D. I was born in Windsor, Ontario in 1937, the seventh child. I had three brothers and three sisters. My mother was very handy with the sewing machine and needle and thread. She would get hold of Maple Leaf flour bags, take the stitching out, bleach the bags and [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard On the 16th of December, 1974, at the South Huron Hospital maternity ward, a cute little guy named Casey Kyle Baxter Lessard was brought into this world. In those days the mother and baby stayed in the hospital for a few days. In the interim, Father Moody visited Rita [...]
Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard In the spring of 1958, there was a posting on the board for an increment to go to Wainwright, Alberta for three months attached to the RCEME (Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) workshop. Of course I applied, and was accepted. I boarded the train in London and met [...]
Or, how to get into real trouble Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard Many years ago, there was an upcoming municipal election looming. I resided in Huron Park where there was probably the largest number of voters in Stephen Township. I was pretty well known as a helper, a doer and a goer in the [...]
What to do when you have to go Keeping the Peace By Tom Lessard At Protective Plastics Limited in Huron Park, we built fiberglass reinforced plywood panels, roofs, and doors for the trucking industry. You didn’t need to be on dope to work there because after a day in the plant you were pretty well [...]