High Crime Area - Not !

I was interested in reading the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and the article Rural Resurgence stating that small towns were seeing growth that hasn't happened for many years.

Our small town is no exception as there is very few (if any) lots for sale in the town at this point in time. There may be some lots coming on the market down the road, but for now it is fairly slim pickings.

Along with the influx of people to the towns, there is a note in the above story about the 'quality of life' that is present in small towns and alludes to whether this may stay the same in the future as more and more people move into the towns. This will be interesting to watch develop.

For my own part, I find the crime rate in the small town that I live to be almost nil. There is some crime for sure, but nothing like you get in the cities. A case in point was the Monday before Christmas I was delivering my newspapers at about 6:00 a.m. I got to one of the last streets in town which actually leads out of town and as I walked up the street, I just had to chuckle to myself. Now the house that was causing my mirth is a corner house and luck would have it, there is a street lamp on this corner. The owners of the house had turned on their outside porch lite to illuminate the front step. Same step is about 25 steps (my strides) from the street.

Now sitting right smack down in the middle of the step is a 26 oz bottle of Lamb's White Rum with some Christmas ribbon around the bottle's neck. This was a 'Thank You' gift from the owners of the residence to their local paper person, ie ME. A person would have to be darn right blind if they couldn't see this bottle of rum sitting on the step.

Now what struck me as so funny, is that this gift sat out on the step in full view of the street all night long. Most folks in the town usually are in their beds between 10 and 11 pm, so the bottle was sitting out there in full view for 7 to 8 hours with people walking by and cars/trucks driving by. As I thought about the idea of leaving a gift out like was done, I was not really surprised that in small town Saskatchewan you could/would do such a thing. I just know you would never do such a fool hardy stunt and try and do such a thing in any of the cities of our province and actually expect the gift to be there when the intended recipient came by.

As the StarPhoenix article alluded to, I just wonder if in a few years the small towns are going to be able to keep the 'safe communities' that we have now. I for one sure hope so. It was just for this reason why we picked a small town to retire too rather than the hustle and bustle (and crime) of the 'big' city.

For now I can log this in as a 'treasure' to my time in living in small town Saskatchewan.

Feelings Rush Back In

The other day I received an email from a long lost friend who I worked with in North Battleford at 'Telecomns' when I first joined the RCMP in 1975. I worked along side Scott for a couple of years when he decided that he wanted to become a Regular Member. A few months later he was off to the 'Swinging Arm Ranch' in Regina, Saskatchewan for his training.

After training, Scott was posted to a small Detachment in central Alberta. Then after a few more years and a few more transfers he resigned and went to work up in the Fort McMurray area. Long and short of it, he was doing a search for some of his co-workers from his North Battleford days and found my name and sent along an e-mail.

Of course he wanted to know what had transpired in the ensuing almost 30 years. I filled him in to the best of my knowledge of where the 'old crew' was living and what they were doing now. Scott was originally from the Prince Albert district, so of course he asked if I knew where some of the people from the Telecomns in PA ended up as well. Once again I wrote back with what I knew of the happenings to some of the operators from up XJA-91 country.

As I was thinking of the previous PA folks, I of course remembered Butch who made the transfer to Regina with the rest of us in 1996. He had been the Supervisor in PA and on his move to Regina eventually became the DOCC supervisor in Regina. His job certainly was not an enjoyable one in that he was trying to integrate 6 previous Telecomns centers and their staff along with a bunch of rookie operators into one amalgamated center. Some of his directions and thoughts were not well liked by the membership of C/Ms. Then some of his directives were not really liked by the R/Ms out in the field either. So in essence Butch was sitting out in the middle between the field units and the working staff in the OCC.

Butch felt that I had some excellent working traits and sort of took me under his wing in an attempt to guide me along as an upcoming supervisor. I would dare say he was my main mentor in where I was going and where I eventually ended up. That is not to say I agreed with everything he said or did. However, one difference from myself and a few of the other folks in the newly amalgamated center was I at least would tell Butch face to face on what I didn't agree with and how I felt we could achieve the same result in another way. Let me tell you there was a heap of 'back stabbing' that went on during those early years in the DOCC.

Butch guided us through some fairly hard times, and it appeared we were starting to get 'our act together' as a Unit. Sadly, Butch was still out on his own. Not really one of the C/Ms and not recognized as a Commander of a 50+ unit membership of the RCMP. I'm sure that weighed heavily on him and a bit later we all found out how much so.

I can still remember working day shift one weekend. We had a full staff complement along with about a dozen cadets in for their 'Orientation' into an OCC. This was where the cadets sat in and listened in with the Complaint Takers and then with the Dispatcher as they handled the traffic from the public and field units. Along about 2:00 pm I saw the Sgt from Regina Detachment entering the office. I remembered thinking it was strange to see the Sgt from the Detachment in the office on the day. He worked a Monday to Friday shift and it just seemed strange that he was in the office at the time. I checked with the Dispatch zone for Regina to see if anything was happening and found nothing out of the ordinary. Then the Sgt asked me to follow him to his office as he wanted to speak with me. Now I was really perplexed, but away I went.

The Sgt didn't beat around the bush at all. He point blank told me that Butch had taken his own life just shortly before and he was deceased. WHAT! was my first thought. I had handled and talked to many suicide subjects throughout my career as most OCC operators have. I'm happy to say that most subjects ended up getting help prior to their committing the final act. I do remember one fellow that talked to me for quite awhile (while I was getting help to his location) and then he just abruptly said goodbye. I next heard a loud gun shot in the phone. Sadly this young fellow just couldn't see his way through to get more help and committed the ultimate act.

But back to my story . . .

With a few more details, I was heading back to the DOCC to break it to my staff. Some of the people working on my Watch that day had worked with Butch for close to 20+ years, so I knew this wasn't going to be an easy task. On my arrival back I made a few calls to some of the other Supervisors to appraise them of what transpired and to come in and help. Then I advised all the Cadets that their training was over for the day and if they would kindly depart.

All the staff wondered what the hell was going on and figured something major was happening. When the cadets departed I explained the fact that our boss had committed suicide in the most delicate way I could. Remember these people are used to sudden deaths due to the nature of their occupations and many had handled suicides in their past, but this was hitting very close to home for them. There definitely were some tears and some hugs in the next few minutes.

The worst part was that there were no reliefs to come in and take over for these people. The only other people that could stand in for relief were also going to be grief stricken. The end result was that for the next 5 hours (give or take), the great operators of DOCC Saskatchewan went back to their work positions and answered the incoming 911 calls and other sundry calls from the general public and also answered the incoming radio calls from the members in the field with a professionalism that was second to none. The incoming Watch at 6:30 pm were briefed prior to their actual turnover and were faced with the same fate though they had 12 hours to sit and grieve before their shift was over.

Let me tell you, the suicide of our 'Boss' caused all of us to look at our lives a little closer and to also treat our fellow workers with a bit more humility and respect for the next while. We were acting like a cohesive unit finally. Everyone was trying to help the other and get our jobs done to the best of our abilities. Butch would have been pleased.

Sadly, after not quite a month, the back stabbing and other crap that was the norm prior to the death was back. In actuality it was probably worse because the incoming 'In Charge' was not quite the strong person that Butch was and allowed some of it to get out of hand in my estimation.

Anyhow, as I was recalling this information and relaying some of it to my long lost friend and former co-worker Scott, all the suppressed feelings came rushing back. Feelings that I thought I had gotten over many years ago sure floated to the forefront once again. Definitely not feelings I like to have during the Christmas season.

As I walk my paper route in the mornings I run scenarios through my mind and try to make some sense of it all. Sadly, just as when the suicide happened, I don't have any great insight in why or how come or what we (I) could have done to help our co-worker and friend get through his troubled times.

I guess I'll just have to remember my friend and what was and get on with life just like all in DOCC did when we lost our 'Leader' those few short years ago.

Rest in Peace Butch

I Saw The Lights

After my previous post I decided to check out exactly how many houses actually had lights on or motion lights when I did my morning deliveries. With a couple days of testing it looks like there are normally 14 to 16 lights when I deliver the papers in the morning. Seeing as I have only 37 papers to deliver that is just a bit under 50% which isn't that bad. There are a few houses that have street lamps right near the house and they do supply some light for me to see from as well. They are not the same as as an actual light on the house, but they certainly are better than nothing.

I sure do appreciate any of the folks that actually leave their lights on for me or even better for both of us is if they have a motion light. With the motion light, the home owner doesn't have their light on all night long yet supplies the needed light when I (or anyone else) decides to visit their house.

Thinking back a few weeks to when I first started delivering the papers, I remember when I sure wanted a bit more light. This would probably happened in about mid October. It was a very dark morning and I was out a bit earlier than normal. As I was walking down the street I could smell a very, very strong odour of a skunk(s) in the area. This was very strong so I knew the varmints were in the area or recently had been there. The problem was it was so dark I couldn't see a darn thing. I was walking along the sidewalk with hedges along the walk way so I decided I'd move out into the middle of the road. I figured I would have a better chance seeing the skunk if I was out in the open. Let me tell you my head was just swivelling back and forth from side to side looking for the 'smelly guys'. I meanwhile kept walking and delivering the papers, but had no luck spotting any skunks. Eventually I walked out of the smelly area and continued on my merry way.

Once I got out to the far side of town, where I heard the skunks liked to hang out, I got extra vigilant again. No smell was detected, but let me tell you I was walking very carefully and trying to see everything.

As I was walking up to one of the houses I detected something sitting on the door step of the house. The item certainly looked like a small skunk to me. It was black and had white markings. At this stage I still could not detect any odours. Mind you I was just entering the yard so was probably 30 feet away from the step. I normally carry a flashlight with me, but at this time it was in the back side of my paper bag. So I was frantically trying to swivel the bag around without choking myself with the bag. Meanwhile I continued to walk forward, however, at a bit slower rate. The darn thing on the steps wasn't moving, but it was now looking more and more like a skunk.

I was tempted to turn the other way and drop the paper off on my return trip hoping that the 'skunk' was gone by the time I returned. I then took another step and at this time I was probably 10 feet away from the step and the motion light came on. It illuminated the item on the step and yup it was a skunk. What really puzzled me was the the darn thing wasn't moving at all. Now I know that normally wild animals will take off much sooner than this so I was intrigued a bit. Still no smell at this time either...

I continued on walking to the step and got right up to the animal and could see it in better detail. This definitely was a skunk, but it was a skunk that was made into a boot scraper and it had bristles along the back to wipe your boots off. I had one of those nervous chuckles and then continued on my way. Every day when I walked up to this particular house I was startled to see the 'skunk' again, but then I did get used to the darn thing. It was when I came to this house every morning that I really, really appreciated lights or motion lights to help me seeing what I was walking into.

Then after the snow came, the 'skunk' disappeared from the door step. It would appear the home owner wanted to be able to shovel the step off and the boot cleaner would be in the way. I miss the little critter and will be looking for it being put back out next spring.

However, I still hope the home owner continues to have his motion light in working order next spring when he puts the 'skunk' back outside for the summer. :)