Friday 13 December 2013

JANIE: THE SWEET TALKER

                                                                       
           
  Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 8:22 PM

  Hello, Peter!!

  Fascinating story about that tradition.  You were right
  about the effect.  I remember how the class became a
  bit more quiet, when you strode in without saying a
  word.  You looked stern, but, of course, we soon found
  out that you were anything but - your open, 
  approachable personality quickly became evident.
  [I suspect that the stern  look, was simply a byproduct
  of an early morning class, after a whole summer of
  waking up - whenever!]
  ____________________________________________

  Charlton Heston.  That was my first impression, when I
  saw your profile, as you waited for the class to become
  silent.  A resemblance which came to mind, since
  MIDWAY had been in movie theatres just 6 years before.

  Jane Carton...besides RB, my favorite character in your
  book.  She was a bit of a flirt, but I sense that beneath
  this casual demeanour was a sensitive, intuitive woman.
  I'm sure that RB enjoyed her letters, BUT - I noticed
  that you did not include any of his responses!  [I hope
  they did not end up among the trees near UNB!]

  I heard her voice...on the internet...Jane Carton's.  I
  wanted to learn more about this very charming woman,
  so I went looking.  Maybe you know that her kids spent
  the war years in Ottawa.

  Just google the following, using quotation marks:

  "60 Going On 16:  Polly Carton's Garland"

Tuesday 19 November 2013

FIRST MINUTES, OF THE FIRST DAY...



  Dr. Waite always wore what appeared to be a long,
  black cape over his suit.  So, on that very first day
  of class, noisy, excited students became a little
  less noisy as their attention was drawn to the rather
  distinguished looking professor who stood before 
  them.  At first, he did not make eye contact.  He just
  seemed to be a bit preoccupied.
  ___________________________________________

  Dear Dan,

  My black gown was an MA gown, but worn commonly
  by older professors when I came to Dal in 1951.  It
  was already starting to go out of fashion, but I ignored
  the trend, believing that students from high school,
  seeing it, would grasp immediately that university
  was a different world, and they would therefore 
  realize that really independent work was now expected
  of them.  When I was in an English school 1933-1934,
  roughly our Grade 8 but with French and Latin, all
  the masters but one wore the same black gown as we
  did later on at Dalhousie.

 The style is positively ancient, at least mediaeval.

                            Sincerely
                                 Peter
  

Tuesday 5 November 2013

REASONS...

                                                                               
                                                                             
                                                                             

    On Halloween night, I was glad to find a treat in my
  inbox:  Details from Dr. Waite, pertaining to his 
  decision to change universities [as a student] in 1947.
  __________________________________________

  Fundamentally, it was the narrow focus of history at
  U. of T.  I'd read an article in Maclean's about 
  Larry Mackenzie, UBC's recently appointed (1944)
  President, a Nova Scotian, and I quite liked the cut
  of his jib. (We later met and still later I published his
  biography, "Lord of Point Grey".  He offered me free
  use of his papers, a huge run in the UBC Archives.)

  I found U of T History too narrowly political:  I wanted
  history to comprehend wars, politics of course, but
  literature, architecture, art, religion, 
  economics - everything.  I didn't quite find it at UBC
  but it was better than U of T.  The real answer was
  the Ph.D. programme back at U of T and still more
  George Wilson under whose auspices I came to 
  Dalhousie in 1951.  He took in everything; his mind
  was massive and his memory equal to it.  I thought
  he was marvellous.  I still do.

               Sincerely,
                      Peter 

  

Monday 28 October 2013

GEORGE WILSON [ AND BOTTICELLI...]

                                                                               

    Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 8:25 PM

  Hello, Dr. Waite.  Hope you're feeling well, today.  Last
  night, I managed to acquire a photocopy of the article
  by Christopher Moore.
  ____________________________________________

  I see that he already asked you about your 1947 self,
  and your recollections about R.B.'s passing.  I find it
  intriguing that your path to academia was not as direct
  as I thought.:)

 ______________

 "He turned to university.  Dissatisfied at the University
 of Toronto, he switched to the University of
 British Columbia ('Well, I knew a girl out West')..."

 Ah yes...thank goodness for girls out West.  :)
_______________

GEORGE WILSON.  How did he know that "summers 
walking in Europe" would be so nourishing for mind &
spirit?  The advice reminds me of something you said
to us students, so long ago.

"If you ever get the chance to learn a traditional craft,
from an old barrel maker, or old anything...don't pass
it up - you won't be sorry."



                                  Daniel:)
____________________________________________

Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 8:40 PM

Dear Dan,
In re walking in Europe:  Wilson would spend those long
Dalhousie summers, in effect from 30 April to 25 Sept.
walking Europe with his colleague Adshead
Professor of Mathematics.  He would say you cannot 
understand mediaeval Europe without having seen it, or
least what's left of it.  Mutatis mutandis, Greek, Roman
history.  So walking the Roman wall in the north of
England matters; you have to see, and feel, the 
Parthenon in Athens; you have to be knocked off your
feet when you enter the 13th century Cathedral of
Chartres; you have to feel like tears in front of 
Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" or Michelangelos'  "David".
Trudge the battlefield of Waterloo, of Culloden; see
where the Turks broke the walls of Constantinople in
May 1453; or here in North America, Gettysburg,
Quebec, Louisburg.  seeing Tolstoy's grave at 
Yasnaya Polyana, or his proof sheets for 
"War and Peace"; history was alive once.  So Wilson
said in effect, "Forget for the moment publishing your
PhD thesis, however publishable your professors at
Toronto may think it is.  It can doubtless stand some
maturing."

So off I went for 4 summers 1954-1957, and again for 
another two 1959-60.
That's enough of a lecture!
          Best wishes,
                  Peter Waite



    

Tuesday 22 October 2013

ROOM FOR ADVANCEMENT...

                                                                             
                                                                                

  Each of these posts will showcase Peter Waite's reply
  to an e-mail from me.  At this time, I only plan to 
  include one of my e-mails.  Most posts will include an
  intro of some sort.
  ___________________________________________

  I especially remember one anecdote Dr. Waite told
  our class.  Sometime during the war, he received a
  promotion.  One day, aboard the corvette [ I think
  he was sweeping], when the captain joined the
  crew and said, "Boys, we have an officer among us!"
  It took a moment for Peter to realize that the
  captain was talking about him. :)
 ____________________

  Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 8:04 PM

  Dear Dan,

  In the corvette mess deck -- I was an A.B.
 (Able Seaman) before becoming an officer - I was
  indeed called "professor", the reason being that I
  had a curiosity about Ancient Greek and brought a
  grammar aboard to study it.  However, I can say I
  would have known what "emeritus" meant having
  had 3 years of Latin in Saint John High School,
  1934-1937.

  As for the Ottawa of today, can I quote Cicero
 (I think), "O tempora, O mores!"
                "Oh the times, oh the manners!"


  


Friday 18 October 2013

THE WRITING...

                                                                                

    Peter Waite's most recent book, In Search Of
  R. B. BENNETT, is the focus of this blog.  However, I
  did get to ask him a few questions that, I'm sure, many
  of his students must have wondered about.:)
  ____________________________________________

  But first, let's get right to the heart of the matter.  
  Let's sample some of the writing from his book.  It has
  occurred to me that P.B. Waite writes the way that
  Bobby Orr used to play hockey:

  Into this bunkhouse world came of course radicals of
  various types, older, wily, experienced, disciplined,
  some of them communist sympathizers.  They set up
  committees for this, committees for that, and in
  British Columbia worked up a strong union, the 
  Worker's Unity League.  It was communist affiliated,
  its organizer Arthur "Slim" Evans (1890-1944).  Born
  in Toronto, tall, tough, brooding, looking a little like
  Boris Karloff, Evans was an agitator born and bred
  who seemed to think of nothing else but the class
  struggle.  He was often up to the edge of the law and
  sometimes over it.  In the camps, there was, perhaps
  inevitably, a fair bit of tepid tea and some hot Marx.
  [p. 213]

Wednesday 9 October 2013

2013...1982...1941

                                                                             


    Peter Waite is Professor Emeritus of History, at
  Dalhousie University.  Thirty-one years ago, he was
  the professor who walked quietly, yet dramatically,
  in to my 1st year, History Of Canada class.  And, over
  seventy years ago, he was a member of the Royal
  Canadian Navy, aboard a corvette - part of the daring
  effort to safely escort ships across the deep, dark
  North Atlantic...