High School! My teen years part#3

As mention before I pass grade eight and move to yet another school to start my grade nine. Champlain High was not far from my grade eight school and we still had to bus everyday. Too get to the bus stop I would often pass a monastery where priest lived. This place occupied a whole block. In time I made friends with two other guys who were in my class. Jacque Laroque and Denis Durocher. Jacque was an interesting guy. He was very athletic and muscular before his time I would say. Denis was husky and reported to be a good fighter something I witness myself one day when he had to fight one of the school bus bully. Jacque on the other hand seems to get away without fighting probably because he looked to strong to challenge. It was during my morning bus wait with Jacque that I was yet again exposed to adult molesting children. Jacque and I would sit in the entrance of the monastery when it was to cold outside .That was innocent enough but one day this priest would come over and get Jacque and they would disappear for about half an hour. At the time I didn’t think much about it but later I herd rumors of Jacque getting gifts from this priest. It was only later in life that I put the puzzle together. Jacque had another problem that to this day puzzled me. Through out the year Jacque spoke about his older brother name Mike who was a black belt in Karate and real tuff. He was really proud of his older brother and I envied him having an older brother to protect me against bullies some thing I was now experiencing in high school. I wanted to meet him I was so impress! One day he invited me to his home to meet his brother and I was exited. I get there and I am standing outside when Denis shows up. “Hi Paul” he said what are you doing here? “Oh I came to meet Jacque’s older brother Mike who knows Karate. Since going to the movies I had become fascinated with Martial Arts. “Jacque doesn’t have an older brother” he said. “Sure he does “I said, “he’s a black belt in Karate” I finished. Just at that time a boy wandered into the driveway and Denis pointed him out and said “that’s Mike” Jacque’s brother. I was shock in disbelief so when Jacque showed up I asked him and he confirmed it! Then behaved as if nothing happen! That was my first experience in meeting a pathological liar and to this day I am very puzzle by what happened. He knew I was coming to meet his brother yet maintained his lie. Later in life I would meet one more person like Jacque and be still as confused on what thinking process they go through.

“Lets go to the movies” The Rialto /My teen years part#

If you haven’t herd the phrase “lets go to the movies “yet, you were not born in the 20th century. On one of my adventures exploring around Lyon Street I ended up on Bank Street. It wasn’t long before I came up to “The Rialto”. The Rialto was an old theater build in the 1950’s but the original owner had long passed on .The new owners that I actually met was a women .Her daughters worked at the food bar and sometime the ticket counter. The reason I bring them up is because of what comes next. The Rialto was worn down and to the locals it was branded "The Rat Hole “because it was rumored that it had once been closed down by the health board for rat infestation. From my prospective it was an awesome place! You got 3 movies for $0.75, hot dogs were $0.25 and so was a glass of coke! I would often go there on the weekend to spend some of my milk jug money! The fantasy world of a child is often disrupted by the reality world of adults! This place had a dark side! It was there that I became further aware of homosexual Pedophiles!I mention Homosexual in that phrase because according to the new age thinking "your born gay and there’s nothing you can do about it". By that reasoning since these pedophiles were attracted to young boys, it stands to reason they were gay long before they became pedophile. They would sneak up on an unsuspecting child; sit beside him and during the movie try to fondle him. The first time it happens to me I was terrified! He was an adult and very tall and big from a 13 year old’s perspective. The first few time this happen I moved seats but my seat wasn’t the only unsafe place. Every weekend the same pedophiles were there and maybe some new ones I didn’t know. I reported it to the manager but she would just tell me to move seat! At twenty five cents a pop I would definably have to go pee during intermission. This by itself was a challenge as well! Homosexuals would meet in the downstairs bathroom and have sex there. It was a very scary experience every time I went there. They would look you up and down as you walk by and the place smelled like male cum all the time .In her defense the owner would sometime come down and kick some out of the bathroom but she never kicked them out of the theater. That is sad! How many children have been molested because of there reluctance to protect them? I think I am the perfect example of a child’s ability to block out the bad and adjust to my environment because despite of the discusting memories associated with the Rialto it’s the good memories I cherish! It was there that I became a fan of Clint Eastwood, Lee van Clift, or Kung fu idols like Bruce Lee! Who can forget Vincent price who is still one of my favorite? The movies were a child like me’s dream. To this day, I love movies and it’s still my favorite way to escape when I am having a bad day.

Life on Lyon street/ my teen years part#1

When we moved to the city on Lyon Street I brought with me my innocence. Even though my childhood was not without trauma it did not prepare me for life in the city. My father continued his drinking to excess on the weekends and I returned to wandering away from home. We lived in what would be called today a duplex. The owners had the duplex next door to us. The next house over was a rooming house filled with drunks and drug addicts. Often late at night you could see drunks fighting in front of that place. I actually remember the landlords name it was Bob Saunders and if you can believe it one of the never sober tenant Ivan. If I climbed on the roof through the bedroom window I would often find needles because our roofs were joined by a walk board. My sister’s first boyfriend lived there but he wasn’t an addict. His name was Denis Cloutier and my sister was attracted to him because he looked like young Elvis Presley. He milked that right to the end. He would often come over play his guitar and sing Presley songs but my dad didn’t like him. Actually my Dad didn’t like Eugene (aka Paul Dubreuil) the guy Francine dumped Denis for .My sister was a virgin and Denis wasn’t getting pass first base with her which drove him crazy .Night time in the city has always seen strange to me . It always seemed to me then and right up to today that people behave differently at night .I rarely went out at night pass nine pm. When I wasn’t in school I would explore my nieborhood and go pick bottles. It was through this bottle picking hobby of mine that I was introduce to adults who’s behavior was very bizarre to me. First I met Bob who invited me into the building he managed to donate bottles to me he had in his basement. Bob was a probation officer who in his spare time had parties in his basement with many of his delinquent offenders. He once told me they would have orgies at these parties. I barely knew what that was but I knew enough to know orgies without girls was weird. Bob was a homosexual or queer was the term I later learned. Bob befriended me for motives not the same as my own. He had access to a building swimming pool he would let me use. Although he openly told me he liked men which were something very strange to me he never tried anything on me. He was the one who help me find my first bicycle I bought for $20.00. Apparently Bob was bisexual because he often talked about his girlfriend. During my bottle picking I had a few other encounters with homosexuals some would be define pedophiles today. I stop picking bottles after a while because of the strange people I was meeting and because I discovered in my exploration a dairy factory who discarded the plastic jugs once a week. I would sneak over and jump in the bin to salvage from this gold mine. The dairy would crush the plastic bottles but I would reinflate them with hot water and cash them in at the corner store for Oh Henries chocolate bars, liquorish, and other junk foods. You would think my father would be proud of me for making money and even paying for my first bike but instead he would cal me selfish for not sharing with my sisters my chocolate bars.When I was young he would often tell me i'm crazy but now I had graduated to being "heartless" and "selfish"

My new school / teen years

To get to my new school I had to walk about half a mile to the pickup spot. MY first year in grade 7 went well. I made friends with Jimmy law, Marcel Farley, and Mike. They accepted me quickly and we became good friends. Marcel was Jimmy’s friend before me and I often felt he resented having to share his friend .I remember one time Jimmy and me teamed up on teasing Marcel and he was very mad . I felt bad I had offended him and never did that again. Jimmy came from a good background and both he and Marcel exelled in school. You could say they were nerds but I like them. I remember going to his house one and he showed me this kayak he was making . His parents seem so nice ! I was still a very inocent young farm boy and all I wanted was to have friends to have fun with . I'll admit I did lie in my story telling once in a while but that was just to be exepted .I always seem to hit it of with children who were well off. Grade 7, I was popular and things went without to much incidence. It was about then that I came into my puberty and started growing hair in places where there wasn’t any. I had no sex education and I thought I was the only one who was experiencing this so I was always ashamed to shower after gym class. I had this one male teacher that was the cool teacher so to speak with the kids. I thought he liked me until one day he sent me to the principle to talk about me to the class. That’s when Jimmy and Marcel were told that they shouldn’t hang around with me and that I was a bad influence. That really hurt me! I din't understand why he would do that . What could I possibly have done to deserve that ?I think that’s when I really started to feel there was something wrong with me. As in my childhood when I felt alone in the world I reverted to my fantasy world of adventures. I was starting to skip school to wander along the river adventuring.I would go on an island half way between this long bridge that led to Quebec.I would look for duck eggs or rabit holes. My grades fell but for some reason I passed and was graduated to grade 8. I never saw Jimmy once I went to high school .I often wonder how his life turned out . I imagine he did well ! Years later though I ran into Mike and he was strung out on drugs . He came from a poor family like me. By that time I had also experimented with drugs . I will talk about that later.

Were moving to the city

After about 13 years on the farm it was decided that it was time to move to the city .That would be the official story! UN officially we had been evicted from our farm. First there was the health service who tested our well water and despite there expectation found our water to be the best in the county. Then came the city inspectors who mandated my parents to get rid of all the cars my dad’s friends had dump on our land or they would charge my Dad with operating a salvage yard without a license .My dad found a buyer but we had to burn them before he would take them. It seems they were worth more that way. With the car burning came a 100 acre field fire which brought the fire department. I remember coming home that day seeing the fields were black as coal! Not long after social service came calling once again. It wasn’t there first time but this time they came to inspect our home or to be more specific our living environment. As described earlier our house had no bathroom just and out house , there were rats in the basement, we only had a wood and charcoal heat , no running hot water and an old barn now fully stripped to the foundation and full of years of garbage. My parents never told us but I think that was “case close” for social service. Not long after it was announced that we were moving .I for one was ecstatic that we were moving .It was a new adventure and I liked adventures! I remember the ride to our new home I felt so impatient! We arrived at a house that was higher then our farm house. I remember me and Carole running up the stairs to one level and finding a stair that led to another level where there were two bedrooms, one was larger then the other and my sisters Francine and Danielle got that one. I got the one next to it with a window that would lead onto the roof of the first bedroom level. I often climbed out on that roof for an adventure. There were 3 bedrooms on the first bedroom level. One my parents took, the other was for Carole and Jocelyn and the next for Alain. Boys got there own room for obvious reasons.The bonus was a bathroom with flushing toilets and a large tub with water taps on it! Down stairs was a living room as you walked into the front door to the left which led to a dinning room? As you pass through the dinning room and through a two way door led to a kitchen which led to a small back yard. We even had a basement with an old furnace and no rats! After we were al moved in I spend hours exploring my new neiborhood. Marking out certain buildings as landmarks to find my way back home.

The farm next to ours

The farm next door to our farm comes with many memories. Some good and some not so good. Our farms were separated by a long road that if you followed it would lead to a place where people would dump there trash .I often went up that road because at certain part of the year I would pick prunes. I don’t know why there was a prune tree there but at the end of the road there was also a sweet crab apple tree that I would visit in the fall .In the winter we used to take our toboggan and walk al the way to there north field where a hill was. We would spend hours sliding down then walking back up to do it again .We also skated on a creak at the bottom .At one point my cousins lived in that farm next door . They would come over and visit once in a while but they didn’t stay there long. Not long after a family we didn’t know moved in. Well we didn’t know them but I was left of a memory of that time that is with me until this day .What happen is my brother Rehal came home that day with a story of having found $20.00 in the re field and the father took it . That night after a day of drinking and a despite everyone trying to stop him decided he should go collect this $20.00. Not long after he left my uncle who had been called by my Mom went and got him. I remember him sitting in our kitchen bleeding from his nose and the thought that crossed my mind was that he wasn’t as invincible as a child might want to believe his Dad is. Another vivid memory is some time after the house had been abandoned. My sister Carole and I went exploring inside the house. This was during the FLQ crisis. The house was empty and we could hear your echo as we walked. I also heard a radio or voice coming from up stairs. I creped up the stairs slowly leaving Carole behind. I came to a room with a radio on and a chair set at a table. On that table was a riffle and this scared me so much we ran all the way home. I think we told our Mom but she just told us to stay away from there. Some time after the house was torn down and it became the new dumping ground for people’s garbage. Carole and I would rummage through the garbage looking for discarded goods. That’s where I first found pictures of nude women. I think it was a playboy. So many memories! Some bad but a lot of good days. It seems our best days were when we were away from home.