Dennis

This isn't so much about Dennis as about what the whole Dixon family meant to me, when they blew into town in 1963. A person doesn't see it at the time but looking back after fifty some years, the turning points in one's life are a little easier to see.

Dennis showed up for football practice when school started in 1963, along with another American kid Paul Condos. The Dixons had moved into a house off Mundy Road in Coquitlam about a mile from where I lived so it was easy to spend a lot of time together. The generosity that marked all the Dixons started there and I probably spent more time hanging out there than I did at home. I was almost 18 and had wheels and Dennis had turned 16 so we cruised all over.

Among us boys, Dennis was never known as Dennis. He was just Dixon as I was Korpisto, or at least some approximation of that. So when Dixon joined us, high school picked up a bit as he was very funny and quick. We had a good football team so life was good and the school year whizzed by. 

In the summer of '64 Dixon and I were looking for work and went to see the chief clerk at Great Northern Railway freight depot in Vancouver, where Don Dixon was station agent. Harold MacDonald was the chief clerk at that time and he had a magnificent belly. He had played professional football in his time but now the muscle had continued to grow until it entered the room before Harold did. "Sorry boys", Harold said, "I don't have any jobs open right now but tell me what you can do".  I looked around the office and saw men at desks typing and just as an afterthought as we were being escorted to the door, I said that we could type. "Well why didn't you say so right off, you can start on Monday to cover off for holidays".

Dixon and I started off in the freight office and that's where I stayed and Dennis moved on to working with the switch crews making up trains. This was great for two high school kids. We were expected to do a man's job in a man's world and had all the responsibility that it meant. I made $2.00 an hour at a time when two bucks would fill your gas tank, 150 bucks would buy you a good used car and a new Chevy was two grand.

For the school year in 1964, Jim Fulton and Ron Warner transferred in and we became an awesome group. This was our final high school year, we all played football, cruised Vancouver and generally had a good time without a lot of booze and no drugs, in those days.

In the fall of 1965, Dixon, Warner, and I started at SFU on the first canadian university team to give athletic scholarships. Fulton went to work for a year but remained one of the group. At SFU, Doug Williams joined us and in 1967 or '68, Dennis, Doug and Jim decided to rent an apartment together and I think I guilted them into including me. 

Den and I travelled a bit. We spent a few days with Barb and her room mate in West Seattle. This visit was defined by Simon & Garfunkel whose Bridge Over Troubled Waters album had just come out. In 1968, Dennis worked for the GN back in St. Paul where the Dixon family had relocated. When Dixon was ready to return to SFU, I went east on the Empire Builder and we came back together.

And so it went. We met girlfriends at university, started to work in different places, started to move around the country, went to different schools but were still in touch. Doug got married and moved out. I was best man at Dixon's wedding as he was at mine. I moved to the Okanagan in 1971 and over time we all lost touch. Jim Fulton was the constant. He was working now for the Department of Highways and travelled around, stopping in whenever he was in the neighbourhood. 

It wasn't until Jim passed away in 2002 that we reconnected and Dennis reappeared with a family. Yowzer! 

What started as a memorial to Jim became the Old Boys' yearly cruise with Dennis and Doug on the beautiful Altano.

Goodbye old friend.