Ken met lifelong friend Ted Jamieson harvesting crops during war
I met Ken during the summer of 1943 while I was working as a Burlington farm hand under the auspices of the Ontario Farm Service Force, an organization devoted to placing high school students on vegetable farms to replace workers who had enlisted. The reward to joyful students was an early departure from high school and a waiving of final exams. This enthusiasm was dampened a bit the first day we worked in the fields during a teeming all-day rain. (Above, Ted Jamieson, third from right, is best man at Ken and Babs' wedding Aug. 18, 1951) Ken and I became fast friends as our small Ottawa group became integrated with the Burlington high school students, initiating a friendship that lasted some 75 years. It included visits to Ottawa and Port Hope which continued until age made the highway much longer and the body much weaker. One such visit saw Ken and I participate in the creation of the NDP at the Ottawa auditorium. Ken, as you know, went on to become an active and ef...