 Well, I Was obliged to join the King's Regiment as a political move Two years of compulsory National service it ended up that I went into a Aim to the assault regiments that it's come about duties in Korea. I was quite Attuned to it because it was Holding a tenant of the United Nations Security council have approved the filing in Korea and let's not do all the talking. Let's surely we've got some teeth It was a long down business and Korea is still Not sorted out yet. It's still a very contentious thing and has been all along, but we did a bit The comforting thing is that South Korea is blossomed in a very rare way and This photograph just shown you proof of that and North Korea's put his energy and effort in a different direction and there's still not any solution but high satisfaction of serving in Infancy regimen that had to do some real old-fashioned fighting women isn't the world war one But I survived it messifully The experience doesn't Ever leave you it's become dormant and as I do this program I've Examine some of the best ups and downs which have made me more What was the word we use? Tough you go get something done. I Mean I was not in the Regiment like the pay-core I was in an assault the regiments that did the filing The front line and those soldiers were tough guys and very good soldiers But don't cross them at the wrong time. You see these are two-way swords. Oh Dear me I've raked up some things that I've forgotten about And there was me with my little typewriter in the HQ sounded Let us home. I don't know It's on the one to break all these things. You know that I'm very grateful for this opportunity Incidentally my doctor here Dr. Kelpin who just on the road his father's in the Canadian Navy and there's a bench on the Waterfront just down from ahead Commemorating the sinking of the ship a HMS HMS C Skeena, it's a river class Destroyer and it's was torpedoed off the coast of Iceland and There wasn't enough room in the lifeboat So they tied him to the lifeboat And when the it was washed ashore in the morning He'd lost the use of his legs and he's a pretty decent hockey player and my doctor tells the story He never played hockey with his boys again But he got his life He's very keen on Investments he's helped me quite a bit in the way You know when the benches just stand on the sea from right in line with us And well, I'm in this very library like I asked him this if you guys think about HMCS Skeena and so yeah, let's go. It's one who was older. She's a new all about the naval leaders Which is encouraging Yeah So I got quite a lot of help from the doctor who understand veterans, right? So that's a good thing. Don't you think well, this is where I get personal now It put the EVG bees up me I'll tell him. I mean it took four weeks to get to Hong Kong on very crowded Troopship, but you put this thought aside you just got through the day Somehow on a very crowded ship And then we got up to the Border in Hong Kong where we're going to do final battle training. We just fair enough But I got a weekend pass It's 28 miles from the Chinese border to Hong Kong and a little too down on the train getting on the camp was release you and I didn't know anybody. I just wanted to run on Kong a free agent And I went in the YMCA and there was this life magazine with pictures of the ladies incursion by the Chinese and the American Marines had done a Amphibious operation in northeastern Korea right up by the Chinese border They were trying to destroy the dams on the reservoir it's right up them and It was in the winter it bit of the cold and Chinese interfered and The Marines for the first time in the history, I believe Treated as best they could It is a mountain seed they had to get from the shore Through the mountains to where the lake was with the reservoir was and that job was to blow up the reservoir blow up the dam Well, they didn't get to the dam in the meantime. It's too tremendous casualties Well, they did it for our own marine spirits I was with respect for the American Marines But they were obliged to turn around and try and get back and off the beach again And they had terrible casualties and I was reading about this In this nice warm room in Hong Kong and I thought this is what we're in for Why you wouldn't talk about this one? the Chinese intervention Made it the crucial difference. I can say that North Korean troops were quite well organized at the beginning of the war and they made Unexpected see the intelligence was Not really good. The Marines have plenty of troops in Japan and in South Korea But they had five years of indolence just being occupation troops and and join themselves and They got soft And all of a sudden they picked up from his Christmas is Japanese bonds They picked up from the cushy job in Japan put in the front line to fight the Chinese in no contest The war went from north all the way down to very close to Pusan. In fact, there was a possibility That they would be kicked out all together Terrible defeat So then the American sent out a cry for help and 16 countries line up and it's amazing. They were very diverse countries. There's Colombia There's France The British crowd and the British Commonwealth, but there are all kinds of countries that takes I'll give you a little hint him if you ever fight the Turks make sure you fight on their side. I Was talking about Which way one of my friends it was in the Canadian contingent They were fighting as a text and the text were hopelessly outnumbered and They were given the option to retreat and the Turkish cancels as retreat We're not retreating but six Ella has given us a chance to kill as many North Korean Johnny's That's possible. I'll have a look after us And he's also given us this opportunity of killing people. We don't like let's get on with this What do you think about it? It's you don't fight people like that. See that's what went wrong with that battle in World War one Dardanelles the Turks were very very Warlike people from Central Asia, and it's still in their genes and you don't mental with them Okay incidentally one of the jobs I did towards the end of my time in Japan was interrogate not interrogation's right word identify Returned prisoners of war and it was such an interesting job The different countries had of course had different attitude towards POWs No, take it POW was indoctrinated and Americans had a quarter number the British had some and so on but the Turks none and if it if they Can't hold the other side the Turks was gone after them themselves It's like That's a little side thing there, but the the Turks were Still Asiatic nomads and that's the way they were They only just explicated a handful of people and the Chinese came down in numbers that Amaze the MacArthur Just amazing And he said well the only thing to do is bomb China is the troops assembling across the Yellow River That's the difference in Korea and China We'll bond them before they get across the river and that's when to Yes, you said just a minute hold on what we're getting into Can you understand? You start bombing China itself It's it's gonna trigger off Something much bigger than this little contained war in Korea Anyway, the Chinese in the venture made a serious difference And it still does I've said China's behind what's happening in North Korea today in spite of the fact they say they're not Yeah, I don't think the North Koreans have got the technology to burn those rockets. Do you think so? It's there and the money, you know, my my incursions into North Korea Left me with the idea that North Korea was an impoverished country and so was relatively important except for that town just north of the border the city's border Where the South Koreans are put serious money into it and Everybody looks the other way when it's in North Korea Because it's making so much money. I think the technology must emanate from that area It's Not what I thought it's great. That's very prosperous when you get these shots So there you go. It's lovely. I to my wife and daughter there in Recent times and it was still very tricky the chicken grenade at each other and It's the first time that this They allowed tourists up to a point to go and see the MC Demilify zone, but my daughter was she's only about 14. She was very sharp memory. She said I never forget that Atmosphere She was a long cut and the tables were set on either side of an imaginary line Which was a 38th pearl. Can you imagine and they're not going to sit on one side of that Make me lying in the in the hut and they make the season on the other and We were allowed to see this and They said to me would you like to go out on patrol Because the patrols were quite vigorously at the time along the line But I've never been so happy to be with a big big bunch of American Marines the big chunky guys and I'm me show my wife and daughter got right in the middle Because of a chicken grenade around all time around that excursion and I thought No wonder it stuck in my daughter's memory. She's never seen that kind of animosity Before The Koreans Have been split artificially from North Koreans and South Koreans they're all Koreans Before the big part started working You see what I mean? It's been like each Germany and West Germany And it was quite an education for her. So that would be the answer to my question That Magazine was a wake-up call About the cold and how to fight in all circumstances. We had decent clothing actually It was for the terrain, but we didn't have the personal experiences to Wicked up You know So that's my answer to that one incidentally in the late 70s There was a law in interest in these Martial laws and some is you want to scream under the carpet? so This the world war two and Korea were too close together for comfort I Person told that it could develop into a third world war without any trouble at all You see what I mean? That's why I'm a bit like you. I read history quite carefully and It could have spun into a third world war without too much trouble and Well, we didn't want to do that because we knew Fresh memories lingered in our minds. I used to wear linger carefully They lingered in our minds about what it was like And we didn't want a repetition because it gets you nowhere Except a lot of damage and wreckage and bloodshed and slaughter and so on Makes you wonder why What's the room human race can do? No, all those kings We would all talk about They were not up to the job of sorting out a complex political Situation for the democracy in 1930 late 90s didn't know about a job of dealing with Hitler before he started Sowing his ways around So He won't have that Somehow he's back. He's down on the kings and I'm also agree with him on that but when they elected democratic goons such as Churchill and the French guys and So I'm trying to handle it. They were no better. It's a human family. I think don't tell how he was Because I Don't know where to start. There was a definite feeling of Comrade me and he wasn't built up and fostered it just was there a Few nights ago. We had a guest for dinner She's an old lady. She's a Kiwi from New Zealand and she refers to Britain as the mother country still my my Brothers went off to have the mother country naturally. There's no question involved And that's the way it was We had a common language common heritage common history and He called to the colors came naturally It came in 1939 and when they United Nations, I'm very strong on the United Nations I can't get her agreement to go along with this the United Nations did a good job the security council of five men five member members Nets to do something about the Korean war Russia Vito would be to anything, but they didn't attend because they were annoyed and I gave them a chance to pass and Resolution Unanimously, so the other four voted to do something about Korea and I I don't think my fellow soldiers were Cognizant of this, but whenever I had the opportunity. I rubbed it in we're not fine. They feel extra nothing We're fighting for a good reason and it's time to come when you have to go and show the teeth not just talking around a Table in you know in a conference room Do you agree with me on that one? You know, I don't know There were very tangible things. I mean I told the story how the Friends helped me when I was kicked out of hospital on Christmas Eve. Oh, it's death Yeah, I got my morning cup of coffee late with rum it happens every day every year my in my sons Mother-in-law sent some Christmas morning coffee especially for that certain These little things make it Take the edge of the horror. Don't you think so? You know and also makes them rise Some people have to do it The Canadian contribution to my Knowledge of the calm was at the time was interesting enough meaning from the Vandu's Which is a double interest because the Vandu's believers are not had trouble fitting into the Canadian army at all because the name the Canadian army was assumed to be a British kind of organization which had beaten the French at that famous battle and They were still nesting their wounds, but I'll tell you the bloody good soul is the Vandu's The Vandu's Salon fight. They don't retreat And there was a guy next to me in the hospital. I told you this who gave me his badge I showed you that over there and When I lost the badge it was Replaced by return mail It was very In the interest of Canadian unity it was very encouraging Do not ask very encouraging but in that camp Which was a big sprawling camp on the edge of a curing in Japan where you weren't really first some people went out first and the Different commas companies out there allotment and so on The Vandu's were almost a separate entity even by the Canadian friends and I went in like the Vandu Pub and was well received and got a badge and I thought what's wrong with everybody, but I think the English-speaking soldiers Have been brought up to dislike the Vandu's There's a reason for something But there are several young beings and bloody good fight and bloody tough guys. They were used to the cold I used to feel sorry for the Australians who've never seen snow imagine You know, I did Anyway, that's there were lots of instances where Marketed ourselves from the Americans because we didn't like the American Assumption that they only people could fight the only people who knew how to fight and the Americans are basically Soft and Do you know what I mean? Alark and they told as I spoke to Special the ones in hospital where I met she don't meet them When you in Korea very much because you may not be positioned next to them, but in hospital you're in You won't believe the crowd and how crowded the hospital was It's a bit of a couple of inches But it's better lying on the battlefield the way they used to but where we're going with this the Tomatoes mixer of Canadians. That's when it's give you British guys And we had this feeling that we had something in common. So it's an intangible feeling But it was there. They were better fighters And we if we did retreat we took our supplies with us We were conditioned not to leave anything behind if we had to retreat now the Princess Pats the Western Red William They got American Citation for the way for selling still and fighting and that's the spirit that was shown by a British regime called the glasses And the answer amazing these guys are running out of ammunition and haven't retreated Yeah the answer didn't like it. I think the answer being brought up in Easy living The the Canadian soldiers that met were mainly from the East No, but for me and they had a refined they worked in the woods And the wind it was severe just as it was in Korea. No, it's cold water. Tell me something. I don't know Told us sorry about the tanks on the ice And before they went into battle, I was Lucky to get a job in the HQ of my region And I got the job to go out in front and do the reconnaissance to find a suitable place to have an HQ with HQs like a big Camping with a Plane of space I never down below on the road The it must have been the engine room When I think about it now But these tanks parked on the edge of the ice and the game hockey was taking place And I found out later somebody told me in the legion. Yeah, some benefactors sent the hockey equivalent of deliberately They warmed up they got the blood going playing hockey then they went Con the tanks and went up the road and the battle that's a very careful story, but it's true What do you think of that one? I think there's a guy in the legion Notice a bit more about it. He said they had a choice to play in hockey or find the Chinese It's it find the Chinese is the better alternative There you go No, we all pull together There was only one source of Potential problems might not mention it though. I was a Consulate soldier and paid next to nothing The common soldiers were paid Vast I wouldn't say 10 times as much but they were different scale than we were There were regular soldiers But the pay was fine in advance of any British soldier The Canadians were the best paid Don't came to us when it's there in New Zealand was a closer to us But it's very embarrassing with the amount of money they had to fling around That's the only It never became a problem because most of the other soldiers Sure, this isn't when you're on leave They should they share the money with a little bit very generously But it was a problem. It could have been a problem minor problems the Person of the local Korean vats. He's just tired actually. He's a tough old soldier made, you know caricature of an old-fashioned soldier and And On that Christmas day when I came out of the hospital, we had turkey. You see and that was the traditional thing but The Canadians were sent lamb because I'm just trying to get him fresh meat and The Canadians got some of this lamb and they didn't like that. They've never tasted. I'm really they wanted ham or Turkey that was the all they had to grown of us And The other things were very good with them They was the closest come with country and they shipped the food directly from Australia And it was much better than we were getting in post-World War two Britain I mean they did export quite a bit to Britain at the time but it was scarce and Greatly valued was just friends wouldn't fight without Fresh meat and fresh fruit and that kind of thing and lots of beer so it was It was interesting to see I leave in Tokyo before I went home And Cam was called Ebisu in the middle of Tokyo and that's when they for main countries and to come what makes and you could see there was a Laracup around to be there which you can't take it away But there's also a bit of rivalry Especially when one crowd got too much money so like when you first saw it well, I tell you what it was like It was winter It was even snow. It had been fought over twice It looked like they were those short you see us Serene towns today It smashed the pieces and people were Mainly women and children the men had gone They're in the fighting line and We're holding up in the snow It's terrible and now you go to Seoul It's freeways and high rises the Change is incredible absolutely incredible and And that's why they make so much first We live with the idea that we would get it the worthwhile thing in South Korea. I don't know if you agree with that or not, but I'll cut a photograph to show you about that in a moment, but South Korea is like industrial success North Korea is one-sided thing the peasant asylum Living at a poverty level while they spend what money they have on munitions Yeah, I didn't actually write any articles for the little boy's paper because I never got the Center Okay to do it, but I did write to My the you newsletter of the church I used to send one of the boy I've still got a copy of it. If you're interested I can produce them It's a day-to-day breakdown of what we did And that's what I had in mind to do And The little poor paper was published like the Sun and I could send an article off and of course The ways of getting the information on a bit crude that they know this but it was get there But I never got the chance to use it because I got that terrible fever Which changed the whole story of I mean I don't know if I even talk about it. It was like a plague from the Middle Ages and I've never sold it out Where they come from? Lies carried it by the rats off on the droppings of the rats I've talked to doctors about this and the the The Opinion is still not firm But the rats were terrible. I can tell you the biggest rats have ever seen We used to bane at them Before they could get away. Can you imagine? They're just tell you like the filth of generations was in old bloody trenches and the rats thrived on it they're very tenacious creatures and The disconcerting when you live in a country like Canada You don't see that way often, but they're still around It's all around but the Koreans were accustomed to them and We're not disconcerting the way we were but they're bloody nuisance You get into your sleeping bag at night and you feel something crawling over you. It's a bloody big rat It's the daddy told my sleeping bag. This is a little anecdote on the song out I know I can't don't put me down the actual Incident but it was incident when The Chinese and North Koreans it took the company by surprise And the dead of night is called over it's in the sleeping bag and they couldn't get out of the sleeping bags fast enough to Return the fire and the whole company was wiped out And a band went on using sleeping bags that useless blankets, which is not nearly efficient But if you are an emergency you sort of like it off when you're ready to go Riddling out of a sleeping bag No matter how fast you are take time and to my Amazement sleeping bags with band Totally banned which made sleeping a lot of difference Issue Yeah, that just came to me Because it's um It's like light at the end of the tunnel. I've been in this hospital for about six weeks and I was still alive now. Yeah, there was a high mortality rate Will people had that fever and I Incidentally, I was only one of my regimens to contract it and It was really Painful I'm just really disincentive you coughing blood all the time Couldn't eat anything and for some reason I didn't get into Intervenous feeding. I don't think it was available. It certainly was available From a medical point of view, but it wasn't available in the hospital So if you couldn't digest something you didn't eat. I couldn't keep them in town. I didn't want it When I you know cough blood came up and eventually the blood Coughing up overtakes you and you die Some people in that ward died every day So it became a routine thing But anyway, I was still around and it was Christmas Eve and the canal the full canal Hospital made a special visit. He says Langley. He said it's Christmas Eve You're still alive. Would you like to be discharged as oh, yes, sir He says there's one caveat. You're not doing any booze. I'm both a fruit freely available I Cross my heart. He's all right give kid packed and get out of here before changing my mind So I packed my kid. I didn't have much back Total blank how I supposed to get from the hospital bed to the British camp I don't know they just turn me out into the black knight with my rifle my kid back and There's a fairly weak put person in fact very weak Just left to my own Imagination to find it, but these are these came along and they could see I was in the stress and the big guy That's running commandos who fought the Japanese in New Guinea only too pity on me And they said why are you going Mike? I'm not going anywhere Can you help me and he said well before we help you you were gonna look after you will take the Aussie pub Oh, I can't drink I promise again. I'll just have a little bit You know how that goes To sit down at the table you put some money in the middle and then you can sit down and I had only army the British army script. It wasn't legal that currency, but it was in the camps So I put ten shelling down Which was a job for the Australians so we have few drinks and I enjoyed it because there's no boots and a hospital ward and After that, I don't remember very much. I said waking up at six I had the bugle going at 6 a.m. In the British camp and the right bed Somehow the Australians have got me to the British camp and found the correct bed, which had been allocated to me And there's a southern major and the sergeant One with a big canteen of tea and the other with a huge bottle of rum And trying to wake me up Because I was weak I didn't have a bed booze knocked me out very quickly and I was in the right bed and two slingers were off me Tea leaves with rum No wonder it became a family ritual You know, well that's that story The kids in my wife they do it very dutifully You've got to see the funny side of these things only think so Yeah Yeah Just forgive me for me Yeah, I never knew a British sergeant major could be so kind But it's only for the day though a midday. No good talk about this There's a practice Practice in the Canadian army too. The officers wait on the men at midday meal on a Christmas day I've checked with the boys in the KVA Kumiwes here the officers put little aprons on and They serve the meal And it's an it's an old cousin what coming from England was a lot of the man serves the serves A meal for the work they've done for him on as a state John the John the young and It's the army and the bridge arms always been based on rules role Demarcation and social Layers and all that kind of thing, but they break it on that day and it was broken That's why the they had this Magnificent meal and The we never had Here's the thing to think about this and the food goes from Australia The Situation five years after world war two In Britain was no better than they were during the war The the bread was rationed. There was no Russian during the war gasoline was rationed Although gasoline was not available during the war, but There was no Can fruit from Australia or that kind of thing and it was just flowing This Christmas day and you have this senior officers Carving me in front of you It makes you feel now you know a Russian surf Don't you got the general admins? Yeah, that was a good occasion. Yeah I've still got the menu Can you imagine and I also know that it's a Canadian army follows the same Ritual it's a ritual. I can see what the Americans do the Americans recruit the soldiers from any place in the United States, which makes them Indifferent to each other I think My legend was recruiting from a very specific area Everybody knew each other I Got a Christmas calendar from my sister who lives in Liverpool and then it was a Month of April there was a Photograph of the Santa To the King's regent Liverpool who for an always was and There's a race there was and After telling you it doesn't seem to be around very much now You could not walk into a pub and buy a drink if you if they knew you were a member of that regiment the drinks were on you on the house and people get gathered around and Ply you drinks and it was because they were proud of being the local regiments And that gave you a sense of comradeship lonely thing Now in in Canadian terms the pbc li which have that fancy name they do the same thing and And they stick together Where the Americans couldn't be from anywhere and they disliked each other because they come from different parts of the United States Now the thinking behind this is if there's a bad occasion and a lot of men are going to be killed They all come from the same area So there's a lot of casualties to be dealt with from a very concentrated area now that that is a Consideration But the other way of doing is you fight harder if you know that your body does so judging you and they judge you when you get home and if you didn't stand up in battle You better not go the local pub You get the idea And it does no harm You're laughing but it does no harm Yeah You belong to that Fraternity Yeah, that's what it is. You know the beds are very close together, but this bed happened to be opposite me and For quite a while I was bedridden I couldn't get out of bed. It was too weak and Very slowly it would come sit and talk to me as they wanted one that we had to find their own Amusement but since this guy was right opposite we got to know each other especially in the afternoons the afternoon drags a bit In the morning they come round and look after you and with best they could The afternoon drags and he used to sit on my bed and tell me stories about for over a year And he made it sound so romantic and it wasn't But you know, he said I was number one clean the log jams, which is a very dangerous job This guy's not really interesting guy and we're talking in what I call Frank left some French some English We're getting like this fine because we're both soldiers Come on soldiers. You see and there was a plant coming and I One is a Vendoo badge because I was collecting badges you see the collection of on the wall up, which is quite a good momentum and Finally gave me his badge when he was discharged ahead of me And I treasured it for years and years and years and then I lost it at the parking lot into Washington It hasn't been that because I kept on my key fob And I meant we went for the ferry and it's a routine thing to pull the key out of your pocket Badgered and I looked around the car in the gravel Because it wasn't there and I was knocked out knocked out That's all I wrote to the van do's in Quebec City And they send the badge back by every 10 mile. I think that's a moving story. Don't you? You know, I do It's a bit emotional for me, but when I first went to Quebec City a couple of years ago It has a sign on the counter Canadian servicemen admitted to free So I said to the woman behind the counter I was not a Canadian serviceman, but I fought in the Korean in the Commonwealth Division And she said, oh, she's telling me that immediately in English. We've got a Korean vet here And so we're giving them all treatments And it's very much It's the only barracks in Canada which is owned to the public. Did you know that? It's a military functioning people on parade people doing machine-gun training All the routine things are solely does in peacetime And it's functioning and people coming and going do military things and We was shown around and anybody can go in but you only see it said in parts of it. Now in that particular day I was taken down to the inner sanctum Where the record of anybody in the vandu's which been killed is recorded in It's called turning the leaves and down in the chapel down below It was about to be done. It's done every morning at 10 30 by the army sergeant and an army officer And it's a very sacred tradition and I because of our telling a story about a badge They allowed me to be present Now my wife is taking over the office of mass and showing other parts of there and not open to the public So I thought we had a pretty good visit and you know people don't like the French Let's not kid ourselves But when you get to know them as I did they're very outgoing people and my Elder the Sponson as a French Canadian girlfriend and she's so boisterous and she's a good girl. She's good-looking she works in the old fields with her With my grandson She works outside 40 below with the men doing the pipeline She's good in the kitchen. She's more wine than I do all the state after But the people the energetic people and that's the problem. They don't like getting pushed around Well, I don't like it But they're colorful people and when you get on the right side for them, you've got a woman behind you I took this girl called Jessica. That's my grandson's girlfriend. I Took her up to the Okanagan where they live And she couldn't believe how much wine was available and she joined a very elite Wine club So instead of going around all doing tasting of these spudges off the highway You phone up in advance and they got a flight of wines ready for you on each side of the table They only told me to go make sure you go Designated driving with him, but she can put wine away, but it's part of their culture and her father came over to see us as a He was puzzled to see what it was like in Western Canada I mean he drank more bloody wine than his daughter They love life You've got a channel in the right way Have you been to Quebec very much? The it's a different experience. I Didn't remember though right downtown Crossing the main road with the green island in my favor and a youth truck going roaring through Is this is? Nothing's happening God mighty They're different Wife said to me smiling Me sure you talk about her shima and I will make sure I do because It's a tricky subject When I was assigned to duties in Japan not sent back to Korea for the duration of my natural service I Was assigned to a camp which was half an hour away by train from his shima now That it was a wonderful fluke of history and I knew what it was all about. I mean I wasn't just an only soldier I took advantage of the fact I could go every Sunday afternoon I got on damn train and went to the shima and I was fascinated by it fascinating and by the opportunity it gave me and The first thing I wanted to say is We were told that nothing would grow there for years and years if at all it was thriving five years later There were building ships that things were growing you wouldn't know what had been bombed except for the commerce building and It has a kind of spherical top and all the steel that survived. It's part of the heat and it survived because it was The epicenter was directly above it The water collapsed and they left this skeleton of a building as a Momentum because it was directly below the explosion of the bomb The real damage was done whether it spread out and it's all to periphery to these things and And people get not killed but terribly wounded The Americans build a hospital near her shima to deal with people who wanted and they were riding up and studying the Material and they got so bad they closed the hospital down yeah, and Preventing doctors from going there because it was so disconcerting. I don't want to have to in the long run But the people on the edge did worse than the people right in the middle Because it explored it and spread out in her shima when I was going there five years later Well In they didn't so in the yummy The Accepted the fact that they lost the war The emperor told them self-fighting if they had ever hadn't stolen the self-fighting It's anybody's guess how many more casualties would have taken place in vain Japan itself The Japanese would have fought on every hill top all the way to Tokyo Yeah, I think in the end it saves human life But I see this may be a bit confidential between you and me The Japanese started this business when they bumped Pearl Harbor And so the American minds said okay, you want to fight? We'll give you a fight. We'll we'll finish it with her shima Don't repeat that but I think there's something in it You don't declare the Japanese didn't declare war before they bumped Pearl Harbor. They just came out of the blue and the Americans Were sleeping as the whole Japanese fleet across the Pacific Surely they could have got some idea what would go wrong, but it didn't anyway my Sunday afternoon visit to shima Gave me a deep respect for the Japanese And it was cemented by the fact I picked up a lovely Japanese girlfriend And one of these questions is you know, how do you get along with the Japanese? I studied their culture carefully I could do I couldn't do the kanji now. Do you know anything about Japanese language? There's three systems I mean I'm a bit of a Greek scholar and that's about enough, but Japanese is a test They borrow from China the basic ideograms That's called the kanji Now they've got another system called the Hirakana where they put Signs on the end and beginning to show tense or case According to what the words used in the sentence And they've got a third of them called the Hirakana Another kanji I forget what the exact name is now for modern Words which are not No Example exists in the Japanese so they make a Seven language altogether and sign I was just telling my wife about it What one in my extended family one of the girls by the Japanese guy And I I said down at the table that would just have a bit of coffee and I felt his name out doing these Ilegrams and I only got one of them wrong. He's he can't believe it But it's definitely difficult because it's so different to our way of doing things Each one is an individual Beautiful brush I Don't know how they manage the cyclist But anyways going to the shima I picked up this girl. She wasn't a sweet girl. She was a very nice girl And we used to meet on Sunday afternoon and it got you away from military life For a couple of hours. It was a great delight Then I told her I'd have to go home to England And she started crying Said I'll come with him. I'm willing to come with him And my father found out about this is and he said she's not coming in my house Under any circumstances because you know why of course the feeling to the world war two And it was physically very difficult together on many other one of my friends did manage Japanese girl I haven't talked to her. Sorry about I'll keep it for you And so anyways, it was an interesting thing to take my wife and daughter the years later And it was the 30th anniversary of the bombing of her shima And they were both a bit our ledge How they would be treated by the local arguments But you know, the whole thing was handled by the birds religion The birds have always been present in Japan I took my wife and daughter to see a bus of the great burden casting bronze in the 11th century Kamakura, which is on the edge of Tokyo That's how far ahead they were with the buzz It's the Shinto religion that became dominant and warlike and warrior like And told the Japanese the different sound advice So we have two different very important values The buddhist been in the minority, but still functioning And the buddhist looked after the ceremony when I went for that particular day And it went off very well indeed the people left them all over the world And my personal comment on it is this Every major statement should be obliged to go to the museum in Hiroshima And see the photographs they took of the damage and the actual fire Because the bomb with bombs we got now are much stronger And you talk about getting more and fighting I mean you can destroy the whole of Vancouver one go And I don't think people realize that They talk about it, but Go see a city that has received that Having said that, I've told you how Hiroshima revived itself It's a bit of a paradox, don't you think? The human race is very resilient But you don't want to try this Anyways, I My dealings with Japanese people who live in British Columbia who lived during the war here Are a bit mixed I talked to one of them Who had gone back to Japan Just in time before the war broke out because he He thought it was going to be badly treated by the Canadian government Well, it meant what he meant by badly treated You would say you probably was taken away and you were sent up into The communities of someone and you probably was not given back to you I talked to a man in Tokyo in the immigration about this And when he realized that I had personal interest in it He put this work aside and he's told to me for one And he said well I could see that it's coming And I was hard on my Japanese I took my family back to Japan in time He said but if there'd been white guys in the same situation in Japan God help them They'd have left them on that probably So that is one man's view of it I think he's probably right Because the way prisoners of war were treated by the Japanese Was not up to Western standards Or let me say expectations See the Japanese hadn't signed the Geneva Convention and to them the Prison War Camp is an extension of the battlefield And they do not like people surrendering you fight Until you die And you're doing this for the Emperor And there's no debate And it looks marvelous to Western minds You ask the Western soldiers to do a difficult thing If they're brave and there's a chance Even if there's a small chance They will respond But if there's no chance They don't like it It's not part of the culture But the Japanese still had this idea To die in battle is the ultimate honor It's going back to the 12th century actually But that's the way it was Anyways I have a personal friend who was A Japanese guy who's dispossessed And he became quite a well-known architect In Vancouver when he Got on his feet again And he had no business in his mind at all He was lucky to be able to function When the war was over He felt that I can only say what he repeated to me in Vancouver The Japanese at the end of the war were forgiven And allowed to get on with their lives But they didn't get the property back And he said okay, that's the way it is Okay, going and it became a very successful architect I went to this funeral recently And met lots of Japanese people Who both liked him And liked the western friends he's got So it's a very Be-ordering thing, isn't it? The school I taught, I taught secondary school for a while I was teaching a school called Gladstone Which is a very rough and ready school I think most of the kids that had enough before May 12 They should be on olden ships At the dock His riding was around in Desk, it was not for them They're big strong guys And he wanted some physical outfit So I gave him rugby And that did some good Do you know the school on the west sides in Georgia? We went out in Georgia and beat the hell out of them I never got along with any principal I worked with Because I didn't But on the occasion He said like me You took the seam over to Georgia to mark them off the bloody field I said, yeah, the only Spotted kids on the west side Yeah, it was quite a novel I opened the Gladstone I've also told you that I still, I need to continue this Still get a Christmas card From one of them Who was the biggest total maker When I started to bugger around He became a fireman That's how it started his life And the discipline and so on I said these kids Don't have enough discipline All these mountain theories See, I spent some time Thinking about being a professional Educated That's a few words In the education department Not the English department It's just in 1970 When that place was In turmoil You don't know much about it these days It was The love in the news all the time The big turmoil What they wanted to do Was imitate the antics Of European students Who grew up with Demonstrations and barricades All the time And they both barricaded The bottom of the hill And They were playing the game I'll tell you how I took them in the pub And introduced them to the working class Who gave them hell The big trucker said to me I want my son to go there I wanted people like these kids to teach him Anyway From my point of view I would have to go and get a Ph.D. And in all these Can you get a Ph.D. as son frozen In education It was not available at the time I'd have to go to Boston For at least two years An environment in the American Theories that probably didn't agree with So I packed it in And went the other way In English and sort of English instead But we have quite a bit In common actually I've always been nostalgic When I go back to some phrases You know that That's, I think, much more pragmatic I'm told by the education faculty Now They have a So many guys Teaching Practicum And it lasts for a couple of weeks And they judge you on that So I'm afraid you did a whole semester It's just like being a dog You go in the water and see What you can do And I have a personal friend He's passed away now but He went through it in UBC He failed But they didn't fail him He was not a teacher anyway He just didn't have the innate Basically How to deal with human beings He was a mathematician Really Doing A set of Mathematical calculations Nothing to do with dealing with blood And flesh people On one occasion When I was looking after Student teachers I Engineated so that One of my Leadership In some of the schools in Richmond He had a guy to teach And he was not good He was fine with the students And he should have been failed But UBC never failed him It's done everybody a favor Through him But I also felt It was a fresh start And they would have failed the guy And They had to put him in a favor I enjoyed everybody I met But there was a feeling Of A new start, a freshness UBC is old And It's a bit of A tradition Of conventional ideas But What a university should be like I lived on the campus When I was going full time to UBC In the army huts That was the last year the youth Of the army huts Anyways We lived in an army hut And it reminded me of the army hut Isn't that funny Can't get away with that The rent was 40,000 a month I had a wife And If you want to do some studying She just walked over in the evening To the library And I would come back when The kids had been Bad enough being in the noise And all that kind of thing And do a bit more studying But I think it was A bit of history in itself There was one prof Living in the army hut He shouldn't have been there He lived there for Accentric reasons Music And his name was on My tongue Next time I will He played the piano And his wife was a musician too And they lived The way a student lived But they were taking up student Accumulation which they shouldn't have done But they lived very carefully They didn't have a motor car They went to Paris In the spring They bought back a lot of Paintings And went to every country you could find And totally eccentric And the color way Was taking up this Little army hut But just being there There was suddenly a military field About it Do you know what I mean? The student buildings That they have now are quite Luxurious But they got rid of those huts With reluctance Because they have become A kind of Part of the history Of World War II Because there is also Feeling that the Japanese Would do something on the west coast In fact they did Summering Did fire That Lighthouse on the west coast That's documented So there was some Reason to have it And they trained soldiers out there Because It was just near the farm When I was there The farm was Still next to Agronomy Road Agronomy Agronomy Road was the edge of the farm And people doing agriculture Were Using that space To look after animals And study animals And now it's all built up Two things to say It took me three weeks to get back to Civilian life How's that? I had two weeks of leave Paid leave Which wasn't very much But two weeks to finally Bearing the best And then I got a job teaching Teaching I liked It was advertised in the local paper I went For an interview, got a job It was in February of that year March I thought well I'll try it out I've never done any teaching But I'll try it out And I liked it Again it reminded me Of the kids that came to teaching Between the Dockland area And these little bully kids Strong as hell And I am in control In no time But you've got to do that I thought well This is okay And I went through In those days There was a special Stream Two-year qualification And I went to the teachers training College Which was in the angelic part Of the English countryside And I met my wife there Would you like a story about that? Well It was a delightful place A residential Because you don't even have to service You got it free The people who had not done that Had to pay the regular fees But it was run on Whole fashion lines There was The dining room Was laid out Like at Oxford's college With the faculty Along with the table To the right angles Made broadened things Put on the middle of the table It was quite full Now There was an arrangement where If you wanted some more food You could go to this Dutch door You know what I mean by Dutch door The second half Operates independently And see if you could beg some left over food Now It happened at that particular evening This is early in the first semester The rugby team had been Suspended for bad behavior And My army skills came into Full gear there I managed to escape Being Suspended You know when the army is If you get into trouble in the army It's real trouble It's not just a slap on the wrist And I managed to get out of it I had all the fun with Again cause I was the only one But there was a peric victory You know what a peric victory is I know what I wanted to go to the pub with on a Saturday night And there was a line of people Trying to beg some food And in front of me Was this Delightful young lady I was accused of Negotiating herself Maneuvering herself To a spot in front of me She denied that I put my hand on her shoulder And I said what are you doing tonight She said I don't know And that was me And that was the end of it And we've been married 59 years Everything else is funny That's fantastic It's a virtue There was a Thai college I was in a bit of a pickle there But it said me good Otherwise I'd have gone to the pub with a rubber crown When I came There were a lot of people in my circle In Liverpool Just wanted to get out of Brent 25 They didn't well out how impoverished they were When they De-counted The currency I remember when A pound was 4.5 American dollars And overnight They reduced it to 2.5 That's a They had Americans Provided lots of munitions But they made the bridge pay for them They made the Germans pay for The rebuilding of Germany They poured money into Germany Because one of the Germany's The Bullwalk against Russia and so on It was the way things worked out And the bridge went Not a word of the fact that they Exhausted themselves And still haven't recovered I think That's my view anyway They still haven't got the Lead in Technology they used to have And Don't get me into that Anyway this We were known as the two year crowd My friend wanted to go to Canada immediately And get out of this quagmire And I said to them I'm not going to Canada Or any other place Until I've got a qualification I don't want to be working in the woods Or washing plates or something So I got the qualification And I got on the train When I got off Canada Got off the train Place to place And when I got to Vancouver I thought this would be And I got a job immediately Because I had a qualification And Teachers were still in demand And so I got off the train Went to see the Superintendent of Vancouver And he says there's only one thing to do Get your qualification Recognize Over in Victoria So another friend took me on A fairly old Victoria Which is delightful And there were some of my Credentials And I started teaching in Vancouver And never looked back What about that? Teaching at all levels I'm afraid at the right time At all the time what was going on I was the right time when Suddenly the college system I taught at Langara But before Langara became Langara We used King Ed The actual building It was the only The city of Vancouver Were very adroit They wanted to build A brand new high school And it's now called Eric Hamburg And CPR were also Very gracious They owned the property That is now Amazon But they They Had the piece of the Real estate And the King Ed crowd Also were Sprelling out along 12th Avenue Now the hospital Wanted to extend The general hospital So the city and the CPR Did a very adroit Mutually beneficial trade They gave them some room on 12th Avenue In return for A place to build Eric Hamburg Couldn't be built And while they were building it We used the old high school And that was the beginning of the first college And I moved With the times And The enthusiasm of all those people Was Infectious They needed upgrading And the city In a class even an English class That's even an English class Someone found writing essays A bit of a strain They And Vancouver From grade one to grade eight And both sectors Left as grade eight The girls got jobs washing dishes And the men went and worked in the Plenty woods And not a lot of Background was needed But all of a sudden almost overnight There was a call for more Sophisticated qualifications And it wasn't Real estate to do Grade nine, grade ten, grade eleven Was there four years? It just didn't work So they had a composite course Of one year Of the four grades And that's what I was doing To begin with And after that I managed to stay on And get a proper job in the English Department And they transferred it from The old King Ed To the new College And I spent the rest of my time In the line garden Yeah I told you The old job I did Was not teaching I was president of the Faculty Association And keeping that crowd In the line Was a challenge And this is a personal thing I did something that I Recommend you do anyways My predecessor I sat in and I was vice president For a while And usually the vice president Exploded in his present In all kinds of situations But one thing You've got to be aware of The rules of parliamentary procedure Now the rules of parliamentary procedure Are not understood by a lot of people They talk about Robert's rules Which is American as hell And he's not used In the parliament in Ottawa I checked that out when I was in Ottawa And the other thing is My predecessor Got into a tangle on the floor Of a main discussion And he said I suspend the debate While I go down on the floor I'm told to somebody who knows more About this than me And when he did that They broke open the little knots Of people arguing and shouting at each other And he couldn't get the order back And he ended up in total chaos And I said to myself No way I'm going to let that happen I knew the rules of procedure From A to Z Before I started I did never happen And wear some close calls And I'm not going into the politics of it But I would have said If you don't do what The chair says I'm standing down I'm not doing the ghost of this quote My The chair will rule And this is what I rule Because I study the rules Don't get up in front unless you know the rules I still have a copy on my desk Of that It's a good thing to have Do you know the rules? You know my wife only More quite recently There's something happened over in the legislature In Victoria And she couldn't wait for me to come home She said what's Happening and I told exactly what was happening And they got The procedure wrong The procedure is laid out And it's laid out by what happens In the parliament Of our country And that's that and there's no getting around it The magnitude is slightly differently Well that's fine that's what they want to do But it's an interesting Thing to do It's interesting Because you serve people down If you don't like what I say I'm resigning because I know The rules And they're not flexible Otherwise you have Just a marked rule About what did the army do for you It taught you survival And I think the survival interest came out I didn't want to come to Canada Without any qualifications Otherwise you'd be Either a long time Trying to get qualified Or you would be doing some Third-rate job I got the qualifications in my back pocket Then I came and I was welcomed And I think the army told me that This answers that question Very practical Not very romantic But I balanced that By finding my wife In the process Yeah The army told me that All the Criticisms of The The way the army is run The army has a strong Feeling of You've got to get this right The old soldier major Used to deal with In the Korean vets He was a No-lun-sons Correct He would correct me And it's not a bad thing I think But I've been indoctrinated So there you go I think these kids who are doing drugs And getting into trouble And breaking the limits Get on the playground With one of these sergeant majors For a couple of weeks And anybody who doesn't tell the line Gets into serious trouble I'm a great believer Anyhow What do you think? Well, yeah But it gives them a sense of Self-discipline Which these kids alone Don't have One of the problems is broken families Which These kids They don't know who's in charge And I feel a bit sorry for them Because I was on the ship coming home I was in charge of The draft Who were caught up with the regiments See, when the regiments sailed from Liverpool I had a bit of Cohesion, local cohesion When the main regiments sailed They were paraded through Liverpool With a Bayonet fix Which is an honor, you see And then they started Outside the men's hall And were inspected by The men Directly onto the ship Which was tied up nearby A big tie-up And one of my friends recently says to me I went down to see you Because I was working in one of these big buildings In the waterfront And I said, how much time did you get For your coffee break? He said I didn't care how much time I spent I spent two hours watching The whole show I didn't care But they wouldn't dare fire me Because of what I was doing And that's the attitude Staying together And I could well be a Liverpool brother Liverpool and Glasgow Very similar places They're both very Celtic cities With a lot of Potential Thermal, but they make very good soldiers Very good soldiers And they I think My furniture is the only door I may have mentioned it I was For a while I had to work along with My fellow soldiers Who were really From very rough background And very rough background Where things were done Not done in polite suburbs It was the same for granted They make good soldiers Because their living conditions Were worse than the career I used to say to them They used to have to Be paraded to have a shower Well, they had no showers in their houses They didn't get washed But there was none the worse for it Because they They were survival When I was coming home The same drafts of soldiers Were on the ship That I was going home on I was a corporal Now it's very useful for national Citizens to get two stripes And I was in charge of these guys And it's the only time I put anybody in the What I call the clink In the cells down below And we had Making trouble for people Oh I'll tell you the story And then I'll finish, I promise We had a big table And suddenly had to be designated A couple, each time you had to go Three and four legs We've been on the cruise ship You've got to go up where the galley is And you get the food in big containers The heart, you've got to carry it down And Put it on the table And I took it on the job Of sharing it out Now one side of the table were My buddies from the regiments On the other side were members of the pay-core And the pay-core Weren't getting the chair of food And my Soldiers, M.F.S. Soldiers of the foreign career Thought it was fun to make the life Misery of the little Clare from the make-or Now it hadn't been for me That they would have starved The pay-core guys We didn't pick them up to the Singapore And they were not used to Shoulders with these kind of guys And after that I instituted You know, equal rations But one guy had to go in the clink It was the only time I was there As authority And they got the idea The way it's done You say two men fall in And two older men Next one fall in Take his belt off You take the belt off of me And we're holding your pants off Take the shoelaces off And then they march in behind the clink And leave him there for 24 hours By himself to see all what's going to happen to him Then he gets 24 He gets two weeks in the clink It's not very nice I can tell you See, every time we did it Anyways, when I got on the ship We used to have a quiz Because it was long days To go And very hard and very crowded And this quiz was a midday And I said to all these Or call them scouts That's a little slang They knew all the sporting things The boxer The racehorse And I knew the history And geography things Together we won it so often And the prize was a case of beer That they discontinued They didn't do any harm For the discipline They said You knew how to do things That built up camaraderie Now, when we were Back into civilian life They'd fold me up on a Saturday night And ask me if I'd like to go on a pub crawl With them Now that really goes a long way Because you don't get that invitation From those kind of people Easily And you go to a bar Which is still a bit tricky Negotiating If you're on your own But with these guys There's no trouble But they saw it as a A backward bit of camaraderie This is the guy who helps on the ship And so on We want him around No drinks for the evening And I did that quite A while And that's what camaraderie's all about Don't you think? It's intangible You can't teach it, it has to happen And it has to happen I can go down the rock street And be untouched Walk into the dining room Of that lovely teachers Training college One part of the English countryside A guy came running up to me And shook hands with me And I didn't recognise him He said you saved my life And that's what he meant He said you saved my life on that ship He said I was in the pay-core I'll never forget the way You're on the table Yeah, it's a true story He said it was a nice little guy God help him teaching In the rough area But he said you saved my life, I'll tell you Yeah, it's gonna end on that note Because you can't Learn these things You've got to feel it Intuitively You can't know what was put in the cling But this guy He came out of the blue To shake hands with me My girlfriend at that time I told you about that She said what happened And I told her what happened In the bowels of a cruise ship Where you've got to keep discipline Because there's too many men moving shoulders I don't like discipline But in the army I lend that If you don't like discipline You've got to find your way around it Otherwise they'll have the last words They'll have the last words Don't worry There was a listen on Hill 355 In January of 1953 The fighting became very fierce The Chinese threw everything at it And I was out of hospital at that point But I was following the fighting inquiry very carefully And there's a bitter battle between the black watch That's the elite Scottish version And the Chinese And there's a national service guy Whose job it was To carry the ammunition up the hill To the front line itself And he said to the Sergeant Major Who was in charge of the ammunition I've been off three times And I'm not going back there again He was merely pulling irons And did two extra years As a national serviceman It was not a good thing to do If you don't want to go back again You take your time going up there Or perhaps But you don't challenge a serviceman That was an extreme example But that's what they do to you What do you want an ammunition At the front Get on with it You get to understand That these rules have A rationale Sometimes they don't On Christmas day In 1953 We sailed from Japan In a small cruise ship And ran into a typhoon And There was a good Me Set up for us But nobody wanted to eat it Because it was too rough Except myself I went into the galley And slid my tray along Loaded up with Christmas food And went to eat my food We used to sleep in the hammock At the mess table But everybody was in the hammock Spewing up onto the mess table Come on, let's not Be too squirming About that That was the ways of life I had the key to the orderly room The headquarters And I took my sleeping bag up there And my Christmas drink And my Christmas dinner And all by myself I sat down and I have My Bear free And slept in a quiet seclusion Thank you very much And that's how the Korean community Treat us They cannot do enough for us Unlike the young who went to Vietnam And were really cute And booed You put your life and limb on the line And what thanks you get for it We were Welcome That was only last summer It's a In my Home personal records That's a bit of a historical thing to have lasted that long Don't you think so? I agree The ranks have thinned out now But there's When I joined the union It was about 30 people Now it's down to six But the Korean community Is so Anxious To show their gratitude It's What's up in you? You must get that into the program Somehow or other We It gives you a feeling that You've done something worthwhile When you come to the Remembrance Day parade here Right across the road It is so many people In this community I don't know When I lived in Point Gray I was not involved very much Because There's no focus This is a focus for this community And the same thing in North Man There's a focus And everybody turns out And everybody claps And when the parade is over You go down the legion Of a few That the legion provides There's no Tea But just a shot around But before you go I think around You wonder how many people And they have to be Recent immigrants Because they're all Many Asian people Who ask you to pose for a photograph And thank you Shake your hands That's different The way the Yanks treated their soldiers When they got home They booed them You can't have a feeling That you've done something worthwhile Sometimes No matter what your philosophy is If somebody is breaking into your house What do you do? Lie down and take his choice Or kick him in the bum That's what we did in Korea We kicked the brothers They had to think twice about it Or I kind of Tried to get a job As an officer, even as a national serviceman They had a system where If you wanted to try See the British officers Were really Selected because of their class And social background Unlike the Commonwealth officers That's why I had dealing with them And trained them back from Tokyo They were there because Of their confidence and the heads of the game Their strength Were there because they were Very good soldiers They all come from the back country Not These little suburbanites But Where has it gone with this? It started, you were saying You had the option as Even as a national serviceman Well, I did Literally, you see I made decisions which are Thoughtful decisions And it keeps them alive To be Okay To be an officer Second lieutenant is the lowest rank When The fighting stabilized in Korea And it became like The World War I Dugging on each side In front of you, trenches Patrols and lines It's your job to take the patrols out And take them through the mountain fields And so on I didn't fancy that And I avoided it I maybe would have become A second lieutenant But I did the Brainy job in the HQ In the auditorium Drawing the map for the wine fields Where I got a lot of prestige For that One night I was coming out Around the corner to where the HQ was And I had rolled the maps in my hands Like this People were With a snap of a second lieutenant Soldier, you didn't salute me I had dropped all the maps I had tweet and said Do you want me to draw the maps along tonight? If you've got to go and play I broke all the column Because I asked him which he shouldn't do But he could see the point I am about to draw the pathway To the minefield for you tonight I told him And I got away with it I'm going to end with Think about the Australian major Regiments To the spot That the Australians had had in the line The Australians had been fighting On Hill 355 for Three months And they've done extremely well And it was Later tonight, it's snowing like hell It's an awful situation And then Every, you break down The companies into platoons There's about 25, 30 men There was an officer in control And then a major In control of the Units And it's getting late There's our Australian major Standing over me And I'm typing the time I've actually got again To the line Where to stand up because it's about a mile away And so on With the directions for The King's Virgin Guides to get And this Australian major Says to me, you know, hurry up My William He said, my men Well, I had put an agenda Out of which I was given to the second-large towns You must Take a bandage And put the bandage around the swirl of your rifle So it doesn't clink In the night air Which is very still and Tense He said, if anybody Doesn't do the interval There's a lot of bandages around For obvious reasons And I was about to do the umpteenth Movement order In time now And this major says to me He didn't want to let my My men will make enough noise To drown it all They've been in the line for three months And they'll all be drunk And sure enough about some It's coming down The bloody trail It was a funny thing I'll never forget that And there's an old coming there And Oh god, oh my That was different again Two years They did offer me another six months Because I had everything running smoothly And Life goes on In funny ways It's almost Shakespearean If I had taken the extra six months Everything on the tour In Japan I would not have met my wife I would have missed the Meeting In that training college Because I wouldn't have gone in that year Had it been in the next year I wanted to occasionally talk about this I was telling her Christmas dinner And this Female said to me Well, how do you account for it I said Only Shakespeare in the audience And she said, what's that And she said, what I said, the stars are aligned Isn't there a good example of that You can come up with