Pennington Chronology 30's & 40's

GARY PENNINGTON CHRONOLOGY

May 24, 1934. St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Birthdate of older sister, Beverley Anne Pennington (now Drury).

Mar. 16, 1936. St. Paul’s Hospital. Birth of Garfield Orbell Pennington, (aka Gary) second child to Charles Orbell Pennington and Norine Elizabeth Mulligan. Later, as a boy and young man, I avoided use of these formal names at all costs.

Aug. 15, 1939. Birth of brother, Cordell Charles.

Nov. 11, 1942. Birth of brother Roger Brion. All children “born out of wedlock”.

Sept. 1942. Lord Roberts Elementary School, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Entered grade one; taught by Miss Lewis.

1942 or 1943. Lord Roberts, ranked either third in grade two, or second in grade three. Teachers Miss McCauley and Miss Nye. Got the strap in grade two from Mr Rines (aka Frankenstein). I think it was for throwing stones. This may have been with my great friend, Jack Berg, when we were defending ourselves near his home at the “Capistrano” in the 1900 block Comox against the dreaded Mac Dougall boys. I have to add that I was always envious of Jack and his brother Ken because of the sleek 1949 Hudson that their dad used to drive. I was also envious in later years that they had a dad around at all.

Fall 1944. Lord Roberts, ranked 56th out of 56 in grade four class. Nice teacher, Miss Galbraith.

Late Fall 1944. Taken out of school for home rest, thought to be pre-tubercular by family doctor Pinkerton. When mother and father went to work for the day, I secretly went wandering in nearby Stanley Park many days.

Spring 1945. I appeared to be much healthier and ready to return to school; feigning of relapse so as not to go back.

1947. My vagabond father played catch with me with a tennis ball near the tennis courts at the entrance to Stanley Park and I remember him telling me that he was going away for a while and that I would understand one day. He was in the process of deserting my mom with four kids; I didn’t see him again for another 35 years. Within two or three years we had lost the family home at 1856 Barclay Street and moved to a flop house full of prostitutes, pimps, bootleggers, bookies and what we then called “queers” at 986 Howe Street. My mom was gypped out of the family home by friendly “Slim” who traded her the rooming house lease for our equity in the family home. Thereafter she tried to keep us together as a family by working as a dress-maker for rich patrons who didn’t pay her very much. At the age of 50 she lied about her age and took out an affidavit to say that she was 40 in order to take a job as a packing worker at Swift Canadian. This meant that she had to work to age 75 in order to get the company pension. All the time she was plagued with pleurisy and problems of alcoholism. Nonetheless, she brought up 4 kids the best she could. Much more to add here.

1948-49. Part of boy’s choir at St Paul’s Anglican Church with pastor and choir Master Godfrey P Gower, later to become Deacon or some other prominent position in the Vancouver diocese. Played basketball for the first time in the church gym. Also, went to Scout Camp on Bowen Island for a couple of years as an offshoot of activities at the church. “Gramps” was the old, handle-barred moustached cup leader. We used to marvel at him swimming with his old, huge body each morning. Also had first encounter with a paedophile, Virgil, our stammering Scout leader who I recall had what seemed to be huge muscles.

1949. Opportunity to accelerate studies to reunite with his regular grade; offer declined. Grade 7/8 teachers included Mr Bradley (nice); Mr Fanning (nice); Mr. Donovan (not nice); Miss Basham (nice); Mr Mclachlan (nice); Miss Fletcher (very fat & not nice) and Laurence Peter (nice) to become world famous for the “Peter Principle”. Got the strap from Donovan in grade 7, not fair this time. No respect for the man by our gang of young street kids. Grade 8 homeroom teacher was Miss Elliott, later to be an associate teacher with me at UBC. I can still remember what the buxom and very commanding Miss Elliott replied when a student suggested that perhaps Gary would like to be in the school play. Miss E said, “No, I don’t think he would; would you Gary”. I secretly would have loved to try to act. When I met her many years later I didn’t remind her of her callousness to a young boy.
Boxed at Eagletime Athletic Club on Seymour Street. Club was behind Eagletime Cabs which was actually a front for bootlegging, gambling and prostitution activities by local Mafia. Boxing record: 0 wins; 7 losses. Boxing coach, the late Val Roach, would be in big trouble these days for the way he helped me and other boys with our jock straps.
When we were living at 986 Howe Street, my mother rented space in our backyard – couldn’t really be called that – it was the gravel area out behind the old rooming house, off the back lane & across from the smoke shop that was a front for a bookie joint with a mirror on an angle to be able to see if any police were about to raid them from the back alley. But I digress. My mom rented the space to Herbert Emerson Wilson for his mobile home that was actually an old bus outfitted quite cleverly as his living quarters. Wilson was a kind, distinguished looking fellow, who was likely then in his sixties. He was always the gentleman and used to wear a velvet dinner jacket on occasion. Later he married or reconnected with an estranged wife and moved from our place. Anyway, Mr. Wilson was a man of many talents. I used to get severe back pains which I now attribute to terrible beds and mattresses of those days, a classic sway back condition (Lordosis for my pretentious, professional friends), and the sport that I was then engaging in for the first time without aid of proper training techniques. As an example of the latter, we were always told not to drink water during practice because it would bloat us and were sometimes given salt tablets! For the most part, we never got any advice other than about some pretty questionable technical aspects of the sport, well meaning though it was. I have digressed again, a privilege and curse of a university guy. Herb Wilson, knew of my back pain and helped me by giving me some treatments that I think were mainly massages to relax the muscles of my lower back. I always felt grateful to him for this. The sessions were in his bus/mobile home and were always done in a proper manner. Mr Wilson also heard of my artistic talents, no doubt from my mother, and asked me if I would paint the name of his home on the glass front at the top the bus where the old transport designation would have appeared. I dutifully painted the name, “Wilsonia” on the front of the bus for him. I believe that he was pleased. By the way, Herb Wilson claimed to have stolen $16 million as a safecracker and said that he and the infamous “Brother Twelve” of local BC history were blood brothers. I found this out many years later when I ran into him again when he called me in response to an article that I had written in the Vancouver Sun newspaper. By that time he would have been well into his 80’s. Jack Webster, the well known radio broadcaster, used to have Wilson on his show from time to time. Wilson’s papers are lodged in the Special Collections Division of the UBC Library. He authored a number of books and papers and published them himself. Quite a character. I wish that I had got to know him better.

Childhood Memories

This is a project that I have been working on for about 15 years. It involves adults recalling their childhood play experiences and writing them down using a form that we have developed for this purpose. Individuals who are interested in participating in the project are invited to contact me. Thank you.