Keep in touch, p.5
Keep in Touch, page 5
David Silcox, northern Ontario’s representative of Canada’s Queen’s Boy Scouts at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, 1953.Follow for Extended Description
In a journal, David recorded his memories of the royal procession to Westminster Abbey: “And then, the great Coronation Procession began, with royalty and heads of state from around the world rolling past us. The variety of uniforms and dress was staggering — regiments from India, New Zealand, Australia, Nigeria, South Africa, and other Commonwealth countries, from all parts of the globe and all parts of the Empire. Carriages with brilliant livery, polished harnesses, and exotic celebrities. We caught glimpses of Winston Churchill following the enormous Queen of Tonga. And then the spectacular golden Coronation coach came into view, drawn by eight white horses …”36 Several days of sightseeing followed — to Edinburgh on the Royal Scotsman and an obligatory search for Nessie in Loch Ness. Then it was home to Canada.
In a later reminiscence, David’s comments on his Coronation interlude prove insightful: “It was the first time I’d seen so many smart people.” Was it an opening of a young lad’s eyes to the power of making connections? Or, to the wider world itself?
Chapter Thirteen Roughing It in the Blueberry Patch
Returning to Canada in late June, David rejoined his family in Burwash. The readjustment to life in the bush after close to a year in suburban Toronto and a month in the celebration capital of the world was, no doubt, a burden. Still, there was no cause for the teenager to chafe about how he’d spend his time over the coming weeks. For the cosmopolitan Dave Silcox, the summer of 1953 would be coloured deep blue.
His Scouting adventure of a lifetime had come with costs. Each Queen’s Boy Scout had forwarded to Scouting Canada a tidy sum: transportation on the Cunard line between New York and Southampton, England ($315); rail travel within Britain ($10); room and board in London and other locations ($100); and spending money (estimated at $1 per day). Phil Silcox had picked up David’s tab on the promise that his son would at least partially make up the expenses after his return to Canada.
With a two-month summer vacation ahead, David worked hard to fulfill his financial obligation by picking blueberries, more blueberries, and still more blueberries. Eager friends and relatives in the Toronto area were salivating at the thoughts of succulent blueberry pie, so he had a ready market to sell the goods. Brother Louis, then age six, recalls the details of the blueberry blitz: “David was the chief harvester, but Graham and Ken were helpers to some extent. Once they were picked and transported to our house, the berries were cleaned and went into 11-quart and 6-quart baskets. Then Dad would drive them to the train station in Burwash, where they’d head south to friends and relatives in the city.”37
After blueberry season had finished, David continued to repay his debt through manual labour. He’d been hired as a flagman to join the road crew completing the final stretch of Highway 69 between Britt and Sudbury. (It was not until 1955 that the final gap in Highway 69, between the French River and Burwash, was opened to traffic.) Given the lad’s tendency for mishaps, it is no surprise that the work assignment led to bodily injury. Father Phil duly reported, “Left foot deeply bruised by falling mass of rock … was on Workman’s Compensation until end of November.”
David would spend the rest of the summer recuperating at home in Burwash before returning to Earl Haig to begin his grade 13 year. But not for long. Big changes were afoot for the entire Silcox family.
Chapter Fourteen Out of the Bush
The summer of 1953 saw Phil Silcox, United Church pastor, war hero, and MBE, now Assistant Superintendent of the Burwash Industrial Farm, change jobs. He’d accepted a position with the Department of the Attorney General of Ontario in Toronto and was appointed to the Probation Services division of the department. It was a milestone, making Albert Phillips Silcox Ontario’s first Probation Officer. His years of in situ experience at Burwash had surely made him a prize find for the department.
With Phil’s new job, the family relocated once again — this time to the bedroom community of Lorne Park, in the Port Credit area, west of Toronto. There, Phil and Marjorie had purchased their first family home. The house had a Tudor-style design and was set back from the main thoroughfare, surrounded by mature maples. Both Phil and Marjorie were avid gardeners and were delighted by the large garden, apple trees, and grape vines to the rear of the property. The move took place at the end of October 1953. School matters had, no doubt, also been a factor in the move south. David’s experience in Sudbury had been unnerving on a number of fronts, and these parents did not want a repeat with their younger sons. As such, Graham, Ken, and Louis would continue their studies at the Burwash Continuation School until the move.
David, entering grade 13 in September, returned to Earl Haig Collegiate for the first school semester. Then, he transferred to Port Credit Secondary School to complete his year. Smaller than Earl Haig, Port Credit had approximately 675 students, supervised by 23 teachers. Two student-friendly innovations had been made in the school timetable by the time David Silcox arrived for his final year of high school. Lunch hour was expanded to fifty minutes from thirty minutes, and, in a move that surely sent shock waves across the academic body, female and male students were now permitted to eat at the same table in the school lunchroom!
Few details of David’s academic life at Port Credit Secondary School remain, but given his past history, the still-young lad (age sixteen) surely fit well into his new environment. Making friends was easy for the handsome, outgoing, and social teenager. His yearbook photo reveals his sense of humour, too. Claiming that his nickname is “Nails” (it has been suggested that the moniker came from a favourite leather jacket adorned with metal studs), David notes that his preferred pastime is “smoking cigars.” And with tongue surely in cheek, David indicates that he will be entering an engineering program at the University of Toronto in the fall!
In a late-in-life (and fanciful) written memory of that year, David also referred to his first car: “I remember it was a 1930 Model A Ford, always ready to lunge into action and had a good look and good structure.” Baby brother Louis also recalls the ancient, rough-and-ready vehicle: “It had a rumble seat. You opened the trunk and crawled in it to get to the back seat.”38
Academic records for David’s first term of his grade 13 year at Earl Haig Collegiate and his second term at Port Credit Secondary School have been lost. Or, perhaps, destroyed by the student himself, as he continued socializing, making connections, and getting mediocre grades. Yet Phil Silcox’s meticulous medical records shed some light on the academic landscape: “Christmas Vacation 1953. Was overtired with late parties etc. Had bad breath and a coated tongue. One morning he reported he had bit his tongue during sleep — it was sore, in such a manner as to suggest possible convulsion. But no other sign of convulsion or slaver. Lorne Park doctor not called.”39
When the school year of 1953–54 ended, David Silcox did not stand among the graduating class at Port Credit Secondary School. He had failed his grade 13 English and had to repeat the entire year. Few comments on this embarrassment survive, save his own admission, written many years later: “I was a jackass!” David would return to Port Credit in September 1954 to finish the task he’d begun.
Chapter Fifteen “Just Deserts” (for Goofing Off)
Returning for his second go at grade 13, David “buckled down” — at least enough to earn himself a graduation certificate. Despite his relaxed relationship with academics, this seventeen-year-old had little doubt that he would carry on to university. His sights were set on Victoria College, at the University of Toronto, which his father, paternal grandfather, and great uncles had attended. But this was well before the years of government student loans, and Phil and Marjorie Silcox’s eldest son would first need to earn some income to pay his way. Rich the family might be in family history, but financial wealth had not followed suit.
The family’s move from Burwash to Lorne Park had come with the significant cost of fifteen thousand dollars for the gracious home. Phil and Marjorie had been able to save a healthy down payment during Phil’s years at the Burwash Industrial Farm but surely had little to spare. Louis Silcox believes that his parents had borrowed money from his grandmother, Grace Silcox, to assist in the relocation.
The younger Silcox brothers (Graham, now fifteen; Ken, fourteen; and Louis, six) were also making their way through the school system with costs to bear: clothing, books, and school extracurricular fees. Graham and Ken were enrolled in grade 10 and grade 9, respectively, at T.L. Kennedy Secondary School in Cooksville. Louis, who had completed kindergarten and begun grade 1 in Burwash, would now attend Lorne Park Public School, close to the family home. Three active boys who were newcomers in the community would also benefit from out-of-school activities — sports and piano — and they’d surely follow their father and oldest brother into Cubs and Scouts.
Well before the bounty of government student loans, students and their families in Ontario covered their own costs of tuition and residence. Tuition at the University of Toronto ranged from $380 yearly for arts programs to $600 for specialized science programs, such as medicine. Residence costs, including meals, ran between $350 and $400. Rooming houses were less expensive. For those living outside the city and commuting, train schedules from the suburbs were accommodating.
But the social needs of young Dave Silcox were strong — commuting or rooming house living could not fulfill them — and university residence was a priority for the social gadabout. He’d pinned his hopes on living at the Victoria College male residence, Burwash Hall, and was willing to put off university for a year to gather the funds to achieve this goal. A year in the workforce would surely help.
Phil Silcox’s records over the 1954–55 academic years place his eldest son in a factory position at Consolidated Engines and Machines of Toronto, but not for long. David complained of back pain on the assembly line and soon left the job. Part-time employment as a food truck operator followed. Mid-1950s Toronto had seen booming growth, with a construction frenzy across the city and its suburbs. With the expansion came travelling food trucks.
David had secured a food truck route, selling beverages and light snacks across west Toronto, and while pay was minimal, the ready supply of coffee and junk food appealed to the young entrepreneur. Ride-alongs were welcome, too. It seems that one day, heading into the city to begin his shift, David had invited his young brother Louis along to see the sights and smell the smells. The youngster got far more than he bargained for. Louis recalls, “We got to the site and David headed to the back of the truck to open the door and boom! There was an explosion from the propane container that knocked him backwards and onto his back. He was stunned for a few seconds but then got up as a crowd of people moved toward him to help. David said he was okay but he told me that he couldn’t see properly.”40
Alert enough to realize that he needed to be examined medically, David headed the truck toward assistance. “What I remember most,” recalls his little brother, “was having to help him drive: ‘turn left here; there’s a stopped car ahead …’” Another head injury for young David Silcox. Home and patched up, he set out for the job the next day. “Who thought back then that anybody but football players got concussions?” Louis says.
Medical misfortune was still not done its mischief with the footloose Dave Silcox. An early spring hunting trip to the Bancroft area with high school friends saw the lads (most likely Port Credit Secondary School classmates) sleeping in an unheated cabin. Medical reporter Phil Silcox continues the drama: “At 9 a.m., he was observed by pal, Pete Drumbo, to have had a convulsion. There was some bleeding from biting his tongue. When he returned home later that day, he had headache and neck pains. No doctor consulted.”41
With their eldest son’s spotty medical history, especially regarding head injuries, Phil and Marjorie Silcox must have looked to David’s relocation to university with some trepidation.
Part Three Of Higher Education … and Fun
(1956–1962)
Chapter Sixteen Choosing Fun
In the fall of 1956, David packed his bags for university life. He’d been accepted at Victoria College, University of Toronto, into the three-year General English Literature program. A year toiling in factories and selling coffee from a truck had also given him funds to live in residence. He’d be sharing a double room with another freshman at Victoria College’s historic Burwash Hall residence. Another Burwash! Who’d have thought?
The third generation of his family to attend Victoria, David was fully aware of the family legacy. And the need not to fumble the ball! He was proud to be part of the history of one of Canada’s oldest seats of higher learning.
One speculates as to young David Silcox’s choice of academic stream — a three-year general degree in English literature. Why not a more prestigious four-year honours degree? And why English literature, the bane of his first attempt at grade 13 at Port Credit Secondary School? Did his grades from his revisiting of his senior secondary year preclude him entry into the more select four-year stream? Had David Silcox’s “like a rolling stone” residency at three high schools over three academic years in various regions of the province set him back academically? Or were finances an issue for the Silcox family? Phil Silcox had just begun a new job with the Ontario government, and the family had just purchased a home in the expensive Toronto area. One might also speculate that David, at age nineteen, was uncertain of his academic path. Curiously, David “Nails” Silcox’s graduation photo and commentary from Port Credit Secondary School indicates that his educational path was “Engineering at the University of Toronto.”
Victoria College
Founded by the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Cobourg, Upper Canada, Victoria College opened its doors to students in 1836. Offering a number of liberal arts subjects, the school also functioned as a Methodist seminary, and in 1841 it received a charter from the Upper Canada Legislature to grant degrees. Victoria’s first President was the Reverend Egerton Ryerson, newspaper editor and founder of Ontario’s present educational system. In 1884, with the merger of Victoria College and Albert College in Belleville, the institution federated with the University of Toronto. It relocated in 1892 to the Queen’s Park campus of the university, and construction of its academic buildings began. Architecturally designed in the imposing Romanesque style, Victoria College left no doubt of its self-assuredness in the Canadian academic landscape.
Not until 1903 did Annesley Hall open, the college’s first “lower house” or dormitory residence and its first lodging for women. The imposing neo-Gothic Burwash Hall, a men’s residence, followed in 1913. Consisting of the four Upper Houses — North House, Middle House, Gate House, and South House — as well as a large adjoining dining room seating 250 students, Burwash Hall was the largest such structure at the University of Toronto. Future luminaries, such as the Hon. Vincent Massey, Governor General of Canada; Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson; and actors Donald Sutherland and Don Harron lived and dined in Burwash Hall during their Victoria College days.
In 1925, the wealthy Wood family of Toronto gifted their gracious Gothic estate, Wymilwood, to Victoria College. Initially, it functioned as a residence and social centre for women. In 1952, renovations created common, reading, and music rooms on the second floor. On the ground floor, the Wymilwood Café invited students to take a break from the Burwash dining room fare.
Whatever the circumstances, “Nails” would spend the academic year of 1956–57 studying English literature, French, history, psychology, religion, and philosophy, among other academic subjects. And if he kept his grades respectable, he would be allowed to continue into the program’s second and third years. But extracurricular activities would, as was the case for many students, find their way into David’s day-to-day scholarly life. University of Toronto records indicate that during his first year at Vic, he played football and participated in the music club.
Outgoing, social, and with a well-developed sense of humour, David fit in well with his Burwash Hall residence mates. His taste for adventure had been nurtured in the bush at Burwash Industrial Farm, and he willingly played his part in the hijinks that historically form part of residence life in universities and colleges across North America.
Decades later, David’s cousin Bruce Thompson, sharing a memory from his own time at Burwash Hall, gave hints as to his elder’s rowdy days in the same residence: “David had given me a lift from my home in Ottawa to U. of T. and offered to help me carry some of my luggage up to my second-floor room, in the Middle House dormitory. As we passed by room 19, Cousin Dave admitted that he was familiar with that room. It seems that during his own Burwash residence days, he’d been a willing participant in the yearly (and unsanctioned) ‘Middle House hop.’ This event saw all forty second-floor, beery, Burwash Middle House residents congregating in room 19 and engaging in wild dancing on beds, chairs, and any other corner they could cram into.”1
David himself, in a later-years retrospection, alluded to a dark side of university life. In an unpublished essay titled “Bill Taylor Remembered,” he recalls the fate of an exuberant Victoria College friend:
