An Outlandish Journey

Heart of Stone   In the summer of 1963 I experience a steep drop into deep depression. If I recall, it only lasted a couple of days and then I put it behind me. I didn't feel I had any right to be depressed- there was no room for it in my life at age 12. I had two much to do, and my parents were starting to depend on me in ways that were hard to explain but I felt like their torch bearer. I vaguely sensed hopes had been pinned on me, and although my mission was nebulous, I was ready to go the distance for them. The last thing I wanted was to let them down. Nevertheless that summer was when my inner life took a darker turn, probably for all sorts of reasons that came together all at once during our two month vacation mostly spent on the Ottawa River. As I look back with hindsight, though, it seems incredible that I was not more depressed or that my period of gloom lasted days not weeks or months. In fact, i could reproach myself for not having a total breakdown under the weight of e...

     June 7 1963  SO THERE I WAS IN SWINGING LONDON  I had just flown in on a plane In the cargo compartment where I did most of my jetsetting. I was 12 years old very tall and skinny. I had been abducted the day before from a track and field event I was attending with my grade 6 class on the grounds of a reform school in the mountains north of Montreal. I woke up in my dirty track clothes on a mattress in a dirty apartment  I needed a bath and shampoo but there seemed to be nowhere to bathe let alone do laundry. In the other room two young men were quickly getting dressed and going out the door. I made my way to the kitchen where dirty dishes were stacked high in the sink and all over the greasy counter space. It was building up to be a very hot day for June in London.  A young man with sunglasses appears at my side and offers to take me shopping. We clatter downstairs and into the street, turning left up Edith Grove to the Kings Road. I am sweating ...