May 7
nite-Robert Rea and Brad Porter [from Grade 7] phoned, drunk.
May 10
I was talking about the new Stones album [Sticky Fingers] and Dyre [the teacher] was standing behind me [I was saying there was to be a red balloon behind the zipper].
May 15
saw the movie 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' at the Seville downtown.
May 20
Richard Edwards signed my coat with 'Richard Anthony deBarg Edwards' and 'Sex is Good wow!' [In 1995 I was told by Dave Essiambre that Richard had been with the same guy for 20 years...and on February 25, 1996 Dave told me Richard (by now a coke addict) had died of AIDS in October, 1995...]
May 29
my sister Karen broke her arm [falling off her bike].
[At this time, I first remember hearing 'Lucky Man' by Emerson, Lake and Palmer (from their first album released in December 1970. I also seem to remember some having their album 'Tarkus' in my science class). It sounded oh so futuristic. In a way though, ELP were prophetic, they accurately predicted how music would not sound in the future...]
June 1971
June 2 Wednesday
Lunch-met Robert Rea-went to the YMCA, then the street by the water tower. Math-got let out again, went to the grass median on St John's. Geography-Richard E had a tape recorder.
June 11 Friday
Science-sat in the library with Steve and Janice, and later Cathy, Laurie, Lynda, Cyndy F and C, Linda and Cherryl.
June 14 Monday
Photographed at school.
June 18 Friday
Went to Montreal [on a Geography field trip]. Drove on a bus to the east end, went to a park there and sat by the river. Then up to the lookout on Mt Royal, ran up a hill in a chain holding hands, then [still on Mt Royal] saw a police dog and horse show. On the way back we all sat in a tangle at the back, singing. [this is one of the few pleasant memories I have of this period].
June 21 Monday
Lunch-Read got thrown in the fountain [the fountain (pictured at right) was to commemorate some early aviation achievement (1). Every spring as the weather got warmer, it was a ritual to throw your friends in. I was never thrown in, though the attempt was made. On the audio tape of June 1970 the ritual can be heard, and a film survives of Andy taking the plunge in May 1974]. Math-Dawn, Diana and I told sick jokes. French-Ken and Steve were hanging out the window smoking.
From the Pointe-Claire website (2004):
The First International Air Meeting took place in Lakeside from June 24 to July 2, 1910. Farmland north of the Terra Cotta Works was rented for the occasion. The event was subsidized by a local group of ardent automobile lovers known as the "Automobile and Aero Club". This project was fairly lavish for the period, and over 10,000 people attended the event. A large grandstand was erected on the site (1,100 feet long by 40 feet high), as well as a platform at Lakeside station. The size of the crowd and the daredevil nature of the event required, for safety, the presence of 50 Montreal policemen and a squadron of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, including 15 officers, 60 men and 50 horses.
Among the highlights of the event were dirigible flights, parachute jumps, air-attack simulations and, the pièce de résistance, the participation of European and American flight pioneers. Early in the evening of July 2, Count de Lesseps, in his Blériot monoplane (called "Le Scarabée" – The Scarab), undertook the first flight from Lakeside, along the river, towards Montreal. To the amazed gazes of those below, he glided over the Montreal city center and around the mountain before returning to his point of departure. He covered a distance of 35 miles in 49 minutes, a speed of 40 miles per hour. Walter Brookins, of the Wright Brothers group, then went on to set a Canadian altitude record.
In 1967, a monument commemorating the event was erected beside the public library on Douglas Shand and inaugurated by the Pointe-Claire Chamber of Commerce. Subsequently dismantled, the municipality plans to re-install it.