29 Nov 50
This interval indicates that studying for exams has started in earnest… It is quite a bit colder now and we have snow on the ground…parades in the morning are indoors and they are putting storm windows on the Frigate now. The recruit boxing finals were held today and 1 squadron recruits showed up well, being in three out of four bouts. Rolfe defeated Engman, Picton defeated Bobinski, Cumyn defeated Mothersill and Tremain lost to Thompson. I was squadron duty cadet today—the only duties are orderly room parade and tattoo at 2210 hours.
3 Dec 50
Yesterday our team played Queen’s intermediates (basketball) and lost an exceptionally close game 44-43. Their team won the championship last year after having won all their games, so they expected to walk all over us. The Marker came out again and once more is quite good. The controversy over pill-boxes is still raging. Today Major Goforth preached another flawless sermon on our indebtedness to others for today’s institutions and privileges. I lost out in the third round of the badminton tournament to Roger Gravelle. This evening we heard a lecture by Mr. Riddell, Canada’s permanent representative to the United Nations. His address was particularly interesting in view of the recent crisis in Korea over the Chinese Communist attacks. Somebody has gone and swiped my bugle; for the past few weeks my mouthpiece has been hidden, but I finally found it and was able to practice a bit. Now however the whole bugle is gone! Tonight there was a big gang around the coca-cola machine…there were ten full bottles before an empty one arrives…Chant got it.
4 Dec 50
Today has been surprisingly mild—like a summer’s day. …I was charged at noon for not turning out for a parade which I believe had been cancelled…what a foul note that was…anyway I got 100…in the gym tonight Sgt. Major Coggins showed me some Judo holds and he almost succeeded in breaking these fingers I’m writing with which accounts for the shaky writing. Coggins is truly quite an amazing person…He was also showing Ted Mills some drills with 2 swords, done just the same as with Indian clubs.
5 Dec 50
The axe finally fell on the hell-raisers in economics class; Jones charged 26 guys for being absent from lecture. That should straighten out discipline in some of the lectures which have been rather rowdy lately. …After supper tonight, Capt Malone put on a demonstration of Arctic clothing with Sgt. Farley as a model. Afterwards he told us about some of his experiences on “Exercise Sweetbriar” last winter and they were very interesting and in instances very amusing. We need more of his type around here.
For a brief description of “Exercise Sweetbriar” click here
