Megan MacKenzie - A Canadian Tragedy

About the Book

This novel compares how various aboriginal groups - i.e. Inuit and First Nations - have long traditions involving treatment of their elderly and disabled citizens as compared with how our supposedly sophisticated societies deal with the same problem.

We justify the expansion of our full care nursing homes on the basis that they provide more efficient utilisation of professional services and resources to achieve a higher standard in quality of care but we tend to neglect the even more important objective of quality of life.

This book is based upon the author's many years spent in his hometown of Fredericton, New Brunswick. There are dozens of references to current and historical sites in the province.

About the Author

Fred Allen was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and raised in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He attended several Fredericton public schools but, by his own admission, just didn't make it through Grade VII at Charlotte Street Public despite the dedicated efforts of his favorite teacher, Emma Betts, a strict disciplinarian but very fair in her treatment of all students in a school where favoritism tended to be rife with students being drawn from both "sides of the tracks". He also has fond memories of his principal at Charlotte Street School, Rolfe Nevers, whose extremely fair-minded approach to all his students was not always practiced by his teachers.

When Fred reached Grade VII his academic problems were suddenly solved when he was hired as a bellboy at the Barker House Hotel in Fredericton, a job for which there was no salary - just tips - but his duties included dusting of the famous Coleman Stuffed Frog which occupied a large display case in the hotel lobby. The Coleman Frog now occupies a place of honor in the York-Sunbury Museum in Fredericton. As custodian of the huge frog Fred was sworn to secrecy on the authenticity of the frog and this secret he will take to his grave. The front of the hotel lobby was a huge plate glass window looking out on Fredericton's main street - Queen Street - with a row of leather upholstered chairs usually occupied by travelling salesmen watching the girls walk by. Each chair had its own spitoon used extensively by the cigar-smoking tobacco-chewing travelling men. Another of Fred's chores was the daily cleaning of those spitoons.

While Fred's salary consisted for the most part of tips he did establish a profitable relationship with the always elegantly-dressed attendant of the very fancy downstairs men's washroom who was also a leading local bootlegger. Fred undertook the delivery of the bootlegger's wares for between ten cents a package and a quarter depending upon the value of the merchandise. While Fred found these duties more rewarding than his duties as a bellboy his greatest reward came when he discovered the number of his former teachers who were regular customers of the bootlegger.

Fred was saved from a career of cleaning spitoons, dusting the huge frog - of questionable authenticity - and the definite threat of imprisonment for his extra-curricular activities when he was hired in the same capacity - bellboy - by the Queen Hotel, Fredericton's leading hostelry. There was still no salary but he did receive his meals and, what was even more important, he was provided with a uniform. Uniforms were "hot stuff" with the girls in the late 1930s so there were certain fringe benefits.

Fred was then saved from a life of answering bells by the outbreak of World War II and the mobilization of the 104th Battery, the militia unit he had joined at age fifteen. He spent five-and-a-half years overseas with service in the UK and Northwest Europe. On demobilization he was accepted as a mature student at the University of New Brunswick. He found university much more to his liking than public school and he was a gold medalist and triple prize winner in his junior year. On his graduation he was awarded a Beaverbrook Overseas Scholarship but was obliged to withdraw because of a prior military commitment.

He served in the Royal Canadian Artillery and the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery until 1968 with a second tour of duty in Northwest Europe, exchange postings in the US and one year with the ICC peacekeeping mission in Viet Nam. He also served with the 79th Field Regiment, 1st and 3rd Regiments, RCHA, and as an IG (Instructor in Gunnery) at the Royal Canadian School of Artillery in Shilo, Manitoba. His final posting was as Resident Staff Officer for the University of Western Ontario, University of Windsor and Waterloo Lutheran University. At all three universities he had the designation of Assistant Professor of Military Studies but the true indication of his status in the academic hierarchy was that he had a parking spot in the "Red" lots.

On his retirement from the Armed Forces Fred joined the staff of Sir James Dunn C&VS in Sault Ste. Marie as a teacher of Mathematics. He became well known to teachers throughout Ontario for his efforts to improve teachers' pensions and served for seven years as the elected representative of the Ontario Secondary Teachers (OSSTF) on the Teachers' Superannuation Commission - now the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board. On his retirement he was awarded an honorary life membership in OSSTF for his service to education in Ontario. Of even greater importance, the Principal of Sir James Dunn, Frank Donnelly, conferred upon Fred an Honorary Secondary High School Graduation diploma leaving a public school graduation certificate as the only gap in his academic record.

In 2001 the Principal of a public school in Richmond Hill, Ontario, invited Fred to his school's graduation ceremonies and his name was called along with the graduates and the Principal completed Fred's academic record by presenting him with his Public School Graduation Certificate. It certainly helped that the Public School Principal just happened to be Fred's nephew, Danny Boyne, also a native of Fredericton.

During the 1980s and 1990s Fred planned, conducted and participated in dozens of seminars on retirement planning for teachers throughout Ontario. For eight years he was publisher of Teachers' Money Matters, a monthly newspaper designed to inform teachers on all matters relating to financial security.

Fred has resided in Thornhill, Ontario, for twenty years with his wife of nearly 57 years, Nell. They have three sons and a daughter, six grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

This is his fourth novel. If time permits, at age 81, there will be a fifth literary effort consisting of a collection of essays relating to several interesting careers and under the title ....... From Among My Souvenirs which will also include reminiscences from those wonderful years growing up in Fredericton.

Fred Allen's novel The First Snow of Winter is also available through Trafford Publishing.