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B.R.A.T.S. Bowling and Other Activities on Base

May 19
3 min

B.R.A.T.S. Unlikely Heroes

Have you encountered heroes in your life? I hope you have. I recall one whose name I never learned. It seemed I was always waiting to be big enough or old enough to do things my older brothers were already doing. I was not the most patient of brats and I tried to find ways to at least live on the fringe of their activities. They were often my heroes, when they weren't using their heroic muscles to pound on me, One of the things I had to wait for was swimming. On the air base

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Terry Groves

Apr 21
3 min

B.R.A.T.S. Wisdom

This story meanders a bit but illustrates a couple of brat bits of wisdom. I left home at 17 after graduating high school. I went to London, Ontario to go to Fanshaw College for auto mechanics. While I waited for classes to begin, I worked at the Holiday Inn as a busboy, and then for a cleaning company at the White Oaks Mall running a big floor scrubbing machine. When it was time to begin studying, I decided I didn't want to go to college (big mistake- tell your kids to get t

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Terry Groves

Apr 7
4 min

B.R.A.T.S. Winter Adventures

I find it curious that what constitutes a weather disaster now, I viewed as an exceptional experience opportunity as a teen. I don't recall the exact year, but it was around 1973-74. We were stationed in Kingston, living on Lundy's Lane, right beside the Protestant Chapel, across from Batoche school. I think it was January of February. What I do remember is the ice storm we had. Everything was coated in ice. The trees, streets, sidewalks, parking lots, lawns, everything was

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Terry Groves

Mar 31
5 min

B.R.A.T.S. Benefits to Being a BRAT.

Living on a military base gave lots of opportunities for interesting places to explore. I won't go into them all, it would make a very lengthy blog entry, but you can expect more of them to come out in future musings. In the 60s, Clinton had two dumps. One was where they had deposited the remains of old roofing materials, piles of shingles and tar paper in a lot beside the mobile home park. It offered wonderful opportunities for building forts and such but stunk pretty bad of

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Terry Groves

Mar 17
4 min

B.R.A.T.S. The Night the Night Froze

Wolf Cubs and Boy Scouts were a constant theme throughout my youth. Through the activities and my never-ending quest to amass proficiency badges, my horizons were broadened and I gained new skills and knowledge. At the time, I didn't realize I was learning things, I was just having fun. From learning about nature, geography and gaining a love for reading, I also learned leadership and independence, growing to be quite proficient when I was away from the comforts of home. All

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Terry Groves

Feb 24
3 min

Follow the Recipe

Even when I was so young I was still mastering walking, we were encouraged to spend time outside. In the winter, the activities were varied and, because we were living in Winnipeg, often involved snow. . .lots of snow. Besides building snow forts and ice caves, we would build snowmen. My parents taught us, make a big snow ball, then another one, not quite as big, and then another one, a bit smaller yet. Pile them up with the smallest on top, add a hat, carrot and two briquett

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Terry Groves

Feb 20
4 min

B.R.A.T.S. Hair

Growing up in a military family, being one of six boys, finances were always tight. Mom and Dad did what they could to squeeze every nickel, ensuring we always had what we needed. One of the ways Dad saved a few dollars each month was to cut our hair himself. When I was very young, Mom tended to pile my hair up on top of my head and everyone thought it was cute. In those days I didn't care but those days didn't last. Eventually, I outgrew that and was glad to climb up onto Da

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Terry Groves

Feb 20
4 min

B.R.A.T.S. Up In Smoke

In about 1968, when I was ten or so, I had a bit of a fascination with fire. I wasn't running around lighting them, I just liked how a line of gasoline would flare from the end you lit to the other, a snake of flame. I knew a lot about fire safety from what I learned in my involvement with Wolf Cubs and Boy Scouts. Since we were always having camp fires, and because we often crafted creative ways to light them, fire safety was a high priority. I was also cutting a lot of lawn

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Terry Groves

Jun 20, 2020
3 min

B.R.A.T.S. Pets - Part of the Family

When we first moved to Clinton, we brought our cat, whom we had named Cotton because she was all white, with us from Winnipeg. Unfortunately, she did not survive our time at the farm. We found her dead, by the edge of the highway. There were no discernible injuries so we don't think she was struck by a car. We buried her in a stand of trees that bordered the farm's front lawn. After we moved into the base PMQs, my grandparents, Dad's parents, came for a visit. They brought a

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B.R.A.T.S. Building Memories and Knowledge

Terry Groves

Apr 8, 2020
3 min

B.R.A.T.S. Building Memories and Knowledge

Even when I was really young I had a passion for plastic models. For me, it was the assembly, fitting the parts together to make something, that held my fascination, more so than the final model. I recall watching my older brothers, Mark and Robin, assemble cars, planes, boats, tanks, and even monsters. This was before I had enough manual dexterity to manipulate the small parts myself. I watched as Dad showed them how to remove the parts from the frames that held them, trim o

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TERRY GROVES

B.R.A.T.S. Bowling and Other Activities on Base

B.R.A.T.S. Unlikely Heroes

B.R.A.T.S. Girl Things

B.R.A.T.S. Living on the Economy

B.R.A.T.S. Fork My Arm

B.R.A.T.S. Wisdom

B.R.A.T.S. Winter Adventures

B.R.A.T.S. Benefits to Being a BRAT.

B.R.A.T.S. The Night the Night Froze

B.R.A.T.S. Newspaper Route

Follow the Recipe

B.R.A.T.S. Hair

B.R.A.T.S. Up In Smoke

B.R.A.T.S. The Blue Bowl

B.R.A.T.S. Climbing Mount Everest

B.R.A.T.S. Non-Brat Friends

B.R.A.T.S. Pets - Part of the Family

B.R.A.T. Tomatoes

B.R.A.T.S. Building Memories and Knowledge

B.R.A.T.S. Fight, Fight, Fight