NELSON HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1954

Doug SKILTON

Family:

Wife: Virginia, for whose wifeship I am truly blessed.

Children: (eldest to youngest, 41 years to 28 years): Shannon, Ian, Matthew, Angus, Shelley, and Morgan.  We are an extended family with Shannon, Matthew and Shelley being issue for which I am responsible, while Ian, Angus and Morgan are Virginia’s three boys, well ... young men really.  Ian and Shelley are both married (not to each other) and the others, with the exception of Angus, are partnered.  All live close by and we visit frequently.

Grandchildren: So far we have two grandsons, Zachary and Mackenzie, 11 and 9 years old respectively, for whom we have Shelley to thank.  We’d like to see some more product in this regard but I guess we simply have to sit by quietly and see what may transpire, hopefully sometime before we become stale-dated or expire.

Present Activities:

Virginia and I spend as much time outdoors as time will allow.  We get out most weekends to hike or cross country ski, depending on weather conditions.  Much of our outdoor activity occurs in the Cascade and Coast Mountains, generally in Garibaldi and Manning Park areas and south to Mt. Baker in Washington, with occasional excursions to Mt. Adams, and Mt. Rainier in Washington or Mt. Hood in Oregon.  We relish being high, surrounded by strongly tilted landscape.  We have visited the Rockies often and summer vacations frequently find us exploring various and remote parts of our home province, towing our trailer with an SUV to enable off-road pursuits as the need arises.  Being members of the Native Plant Society of B.C., a great deal of our spring, summer and fall outdoor time is used to photograph and study native plants and their habitats, particularly in alpine environments.  Virginia is an avid gardener and does botanical illustration artwork in watercolors.  We are members of a local community choir, “The White Rock Singers,” and enjoy that association very much.  Last year we did something that I swore I wound never do and that was to go on a cruise ship.  We took an Alaska cruise, the last of the year, in early September.  It was unexpectedly a terrific experience.

Work:

I am not as yet retired but working as a structural engineering consultant and still enjoying it, most of the time.  I’m looking forward to getting there though and perhaps when it happens I’ll have discovered what and/or where I want to be when I grow up.  Virginia would like to know as well.

Some Favourite Memories of Nelson:

• Walking to Central School on fall days, ankle deep in fallen big leaf maple and horse chestnut leaves, searching for the perfect chestnut.
• Riding the streetcar to Lakeside Park on hot summer days for a swim.  Frequently there would be a small aircraft beached there, such as a Grumman Widgeon amphibian or a DH Beaver on floats, fire spotting aircraft I guess.  The roar of the Beaver on take off was ear-splitting and very impressive to me at that time.
• Participation in various music festivals which took place alternately in Nelson and Trail, usually in May.
• Attending hockey games at the Civic Centre Arena to watch the Nelson Maple Leafs vs the Trail Smoke Eaters or Spokane Flyers or Penticton Vees.
• Chemistry labs with Clair Loomer were stimulating as I recall and sometimes with unanticipated outcomes, such as the time my partner, Ron Graham I think it was, and I, while investigating the temperature of boiling water in a glass flask, with thermometer inserted at reduced atmospheric pressure, succeeded in imploding the flask.  It was a definite attention-getting and rather embarrassing moment.  There were no injuries fortunately except that what had been serviceable lab apparatus was instantly converted to a sink full of useless debris.  Mr. Loomer, to his credit, remained pretty cool.  He made some terse and quiet comment about scientific pursuits, uncontrolled enthusiasm and disaster or something like that.
• On the other hand, Physics labs with Earl Jorgenson were sometime physically demanding.  On one occasion I remember class members being invited to test their horsepower rating by submitting to a weigh-in and a timed rapid-as-possible ascent of the school fire escape, to a measured height above the starting position.  All of us, including the fire escape, got a good work out that day and an understanding of the effort needed to generate significant power.
• One last memory relates to winter time in senior matric year.  For some reason or other, just prior to the start of a class, a snowball fight arose spontaneously outside the high school annex where we spent much of our class time.  It quickly took on unexpected proportions as evermore individuals began taking part.  Then as people tried to disengage and enter the annex they became soft targets with snowballs being directed at them even though inside.  At one point both front and back doors of the annex were open simultaneously and since they were aligned, snowballs were being hurled through one door and out the other and vice versa, with most ending up inside.  I think the mess eventually got quickly cleaned up before any authority figures happened on the scene and those of us interested in science may have noted a fine illustration of entropy at work.