1948 – 1949 was a big year for Marion and Doug.
First of all, it was their first year at Waterloo Lutheran
University as non-resident students. The University was not large nor distant
and featured an association with the University of Western Ontario in London,
Ontario from whom they would eventually get their degree. Many of their
university friends were graduates of the Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate (K.C.I.)
During the year, Doug enrolled in the Canadian Officer
Training Corps (C.O.T.C.). Requirements to join were not demanding and the
C.O.T.C. simply met once a week and provided summer employment at a military
camp. In the summer of 1949, Doug was posted to Valcartier Camp, the home of
the 22nd Regiment (Quebec) along with a number of other students
from the COTC. The camp was about 5 miles from the city of Quebec.
Meanwhile, for the summer, Marion joined a group of her
friends as they headed to Muskoka to wait on tables at the Wigwassin Lodge.
Well, there were a number of highlights that summer.
During our stay in Valcartier, we were given leave for a
long weekend. Dwight Engel and I, both of whom had “flames” at Wigwassin, decided we would hitchhike
to Kitchener and then Wigwassin. You can imagine the immense surprise by the
ladies when these two rough necks one summer Sunday showed up at the Inn to
display their undying affection. They stayed for most of the afternoon and then
headed back to Quebec City in time for falling in on the parade ground on Tuesday
morning.
During Doug’s stay at Valcartier, he was befriended by the
local priest to the point where Doug was asked to act as the priest’s assistant
on Sunday mornings as he celebrated communion in several small towns near by.
He was a very personal priest and each Sunday he invited Doug to his home to
enjoy his family (wife and two daughters) and to have lunch and/or dinner. I
recall that the family owned a shoe manufacturing business in Valcartier and
that some of our Sunday afternoons were spent listening to The Sound of Music which had just got to Broadway in New York.
Through this experience, Doug met the assistant organist at
Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral. It is located in the centre of Quebec and is the oldest Anglican Cathedral in Canada and
is accordingly fairly antique. Among other things, it has a massive pipe organ
with the many pipes located in the balcony at the back of the church.
Somehow, I met and befriended the young organist(can’t
remember his name) who invited me to his flat on several occasions for a drink
and cheese and crackers. Over conversation one day, he asked if I would play
the Cathedral organ on Sunday evenings for a month while he goes on vacation.
Can you imagine? Me as a cathedral organist! I have never
had a lesson on a pipe organ! The only thing
that saved me from complete catastrophe was the fact that there were only about
twenty people in the pews and they couldn’t see me trembling at the front.
LOST at the ORGAN!
