A day in the life of room 42, grade 12, 1967, John Suszko’s rogues gallery. RD, left, beyond the mayhem, chatting music with Wayne Fraser.
After graduation, June 1967 to age 72:
-went to University of Winnipeg for 3 years where I met the Love of My Life: Karen Reade from Westwood Collegiate;
eventually married her–we celebrated our 50th anniversary this spring; had a boy and girl–he works for U of A, she for Govt. of AB. (2 grandsons via the boy).
-at university, was able to follow my bliss–literature and books, and completed my BA and 2 grad diplomas at U of A, enabling me to teach high school English which I did for 30 years before retiring early in 2002.
-left Winnipeg in 1970 for Edmonton, settling there, teaching there.
-but did have a whole other fun career as a singer-songwriter-musician-band leader on the side from 1973 until 2003, playing for thousands publicly, including many gigs for students and staffs.
-and a whole other career on the side from 1980 to 2010 as a major Canadian English senior high textbook author producing over 50 texts and guides (selling over a million), many which were authorized and widely used across Canada (which also led to a long career as a workshop presenter at many teacher conventions). I would eventually give some of my books to my gr. 11 teacher Brian Kells and to my 12 teacher George Brown, who both inspired me to become an English teacher.
-I also worked as a film classifier for the province of Alberta and acted in and directed some plays.
-I started writing and reading poetry in 1980 and self-published several chapbooks. I created the only illustrated blog on the history of Canadian literature (Canlitbooks.ca) and a personal consciousness blog (Tothineownselfbetrue.ca) which is entering its 9th year and features my main writing since 2010.
-Along the way, I became a rare book collector,
a movie collector, a Classics Illustrated comic collector,
and a music collector and seller. My favorite trips were 2 to New England visiting the haunts of famous authors in the 5 states in September-October (including Dickinson, Frost, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Wharton, Melville, Twain, Emerson, and Eliot)
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-It’s a long way from Silver Heights Collegiate (1965-67), but I maintain my contacts with Winnipeg’s Hugh Hanson (who runs one alumni group), David Cherrett, Wayne Fraser (my long-time music connection, now living in Calgary), and long-retired Brian Kells.
(Richard.Davies@shaw.ca)