I remember the time Jim Hunter built a loom for Charlotte von Bezold. This was when we were living at 132 University Ave. Jim was one of the smartest people I'd ever met but he also did some of the stupidest things too. Anyway, he decided he was going to make this loom even though he'd never done it before and didn't have any instructions, not even a book to go by . . . just his own head. Before long he's built a frame for it and has started to insert the wires that would keep the threads in place. Now 132 was not exactly set up as a wood-working workshop so Jim built it right there in the front room. One day he was sitting there with this contraption on his lap. He was threading the wires through these narrow holes that he'd drilled in one of the wood cross-pieces. He would push a wire into the bottom of the hole and when it came up out the other side he would grab it with a pair of needle-nose pliers and pull it through the rest of the way. Only one of the wires was giving him trouble going through the hole so he grabs it with the pliers, and reefs on it real hard, pulling it up towards him. Except the wire suddenly slips through the hole and he can't stop the momentum of the pliers which end up coming right toward his face. In fact, there's about a half inch of wire sticking out the side of the pliers facing him and he actually pokes himself in the eye with it. Ouch!
Well, he did go on to finish the loom and it worked just fine. I was always amazed that he could make something like that without any drawings or plans. I don't know whatever happened to that loom. I just know what happened to Charlotte.
Rosco: i remember when the front room at 132 was used for motorcyle repairs so building a loom in the "living" room seems like a perfectly sane idea.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering what happened to Jimmy Hunter...
ReplyDeleteAs far as i know he is still living with his lady Jane Graham in the wilds of Burritt's Rapids . He was the area building inspector at one time. John Monkman is still his neighbour and cohort.
ReplyDeleteNot sure that I'm doing this right...
ReplyDeleteA long time ago I had friends in and around that house on University Ave. in Waterloo: Jim Hunter, Andy Poldaas, Janice Upton, Corley, Charlotte von Bezold. I met Roscoe Bell there once or twice. In the summer of 1970 Charlie and I went to California in my old VW Beetle - a trip I remember fondly.
I had previously been to the Yukon for a summer job and late in '70 I went back to earn more money, not realizing I was going to stay there. I came back to Ontario from time to time and saw some of the Waterloo people occasionally but eventually lost touch.
Al Foster, an Ontario acquaintance from that period, wound up in the Yukon and we sometimes discuss old times - he has been better at staying in touch with his Waterloo friends. It was from him I learned, ten or more years ago, that Charlie had died quite young. Waterloo came up again the other day and I came home and Googled Charlie's name. I was delighted to find out that there are a few mentions of her out there: librarian at Rochdale; contributor to the U of W student newspaper; and, shortly before her death, a published playwright in P.E.I.
I also ran across Roscoe Bell's story 'Trouble Looming', and I remember Corley telling me about it back '70. It was amazing Jim didn't lose an eye. The last words of Roscoe's story are "I just know what happened to Charlotte", and if this somehow passes before Roscoe's eyes and he cares to get in touch I would love to hear whatever he knows.
Gord Bradshaw