Pigs Made Famous

One spring Diane Kroeker made the pigs of Deerbank Farm famous by getting their picture onto ABC’s Good Morning America show. She was operating the Manitoba Farm Vacation Association’s “Meet the People” tours at the time. During a tour of New York City in the fall of 1982, she had a meeting with her NYC […]

Odd Jobs

I have done a number of odd things between serious jobs, some of them close to home, others in distant lands. I got fired from three of them, but here are a few I left by my own choice: One summer I cut grass at the United Nations in Switzerland. Security was tight. We emptied […]

Pizza Cook

I financed my way through college working as a pizza cook at Del Monico’s in San Jose, California. The restaurant was popular with students from San Jose City College, who came for pizza and beer Friday nights. Entertainment extraordinaire was provided. The restaurant was a long room with an open prep area in front where […]

Brandon Sun

Being a reporter for the Brandon Sun was my first real newspaper job. I had been a night police reporter at the Winnipeg Tribune, but it was sort of mickey mouse work. This was real. I started off covering the School Board and then moved to City Hall when Steve Magnacca was Mayor. The Canadian […]

Rupert’s Land News

On the job I rubbed shoulders with smart clergymen. I have often mused that evangelical preachers find satisfaction in giving people their distinct way to God. On the other hand, Anglican priests get their jollies by helping people find their own way to God. The biggest story I handled was the discovery of, in the […]

Music Festival

I’m a better writer than musician, but I got the job as Executive Director of the Winnipeg Music Festival. The president called me as I was on my way to China for a tour with 30 passengers in tow. I was elated! The festival is a huge springtime event in Winnipeg at the end of […]

Whiteshell Echo

I was editor of The Whiteshell Echo four years. During that time I had the privilege of driving often through the PreCambrian Shield, enjoying nature and meeting great people. I called it work. Favourite places were the Alf Hole Goose Sanctuary and Betula Lake. The president who hired me had a cottage at Betula, which […]

Farm Vacations

I was visiting my friend Marguerite Manning in her Assiniboine Avenue office. She was telling me about a good time on one of Manitoba’s vacation farms during an inspection as Executive Director of the Manitoba Farm Vacations Association “I wish I could be doing what you are doing,” I said. (I was between jobs.) Her […]

Nebraskaland

Nebraskaland Magazine was published by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. I was appointed its editor after working for several years on the Leader-Post in Regina, Saskatchewan. Between the two jobs, I took my family om a tour of western states and provinces, promoting “Saskatchewan Homecoming ‘71” with an invitation for former Saskatchewan residents to […]

Manitoba Moods

My singularly favourite professional project that I am most proud of is Manitoba Moods Magazine. It was published for three years under Ed Schreyer’s NDP Administration in the early 1970s. The idea of doing such a thing had been perking in the back of my mind for several years already while living in Lincoln, Nebraska […]