Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Hi All.
Like all who knew Bennie I am so sorry to hear of his passing, but he didn't leave us without lots of fond memories. I first met Ben in 1961 at HSHS when he and and Terry were in Grade 9D with me. We all got along famously and had lots of laugh, accompanied by generally poor marks. We were all jokers, Bennie often leading the pack. Still, we all got through--more or less. Ben was a great inventor even back then. In Science Club he made an electronic device about the size and shape of a deck of cards which delivered a big shock when it was picked up to be moved. Of course Ben put it on our Math/Science teacher's desk and when Mr. Sylvestervich picked it up to move it, he yelped to the delight of the class. Hats off to Mr. S. as well he took it all in good humour. Bennie and I both joined the Ontario Regiment Cadets and later the Student Militia in Oshawa. We learned about guns, tanks, first aid and map reading, etc. Generally it was a night out of a week to get out of homework and learn a few things. As you know Whitby was a small place in the 60's and we invented a lot of our own fun. This involved swimming at the lake, Friday night arena dances, driving to the A&Dub, the Dairy Queen or a draft beer or two and a game of shuffleboard at the Spruce. Bennie as we all know was unbelievably mechanically inclined and rebuilt the engines at his house on Annes Street of all of the cars he owned. Many is the time I drove around with Bennie in one of his constantly rebuilt cars whether it was his blue Vauxhall, his bug-eyed Sprite or his fabulously fast red Healey. Over our driving years we went to dances at the Get and the Jube Oshawa, over to Grand Bend for the May 24th Weekend, and up to Greenhurst to listen to Little Caesar and the Consuls. Did I say dances? Well yes that and drinking cases of beer-often more beer than dancing. For all of his fun loving and joking he was really polite and got on with all of our parents, perhaps proving that you can fool some of tbe people all of the time. A year or two after high school, our group all kind of drifted apart-university, married, family, moving away from Whitby and so on, but we always kept in touch, albeit sporadically. After moving out to BC I saw Ben once at an HSHS reunion, once later in Bowmanville and the last time about 11 years ago at his St. Mary's house. He was a really good guy, an interesting, fun and talented guy and a solid reliable friend. I have tried to put down my thoughts dragged up from my longterm memory banks and give a sense of who Bennie was, but it really is an impossible task and I know what I have written must fall short. Still, I know he will be well rememberedwitj fondness and affection by all his family and friends, especially by Ruth and her son and her family.
