There's no better place to spend a long weekend than Keji National Park. Even nicer is it when you have a chance to meet up with old friends under the dark skies, stars, to the glow of a lantern. I ran into James Colbeck in Yarmouth during Seafest. He and his wife Lori, were back for the annual celebration. We talked about getting together for lunch on their visit, but when we discovered we'd both be at Keji for the long weekend, we planned to do our visit up there instead. (They had a lot of friends to visit in Yarmouth, so this worked better for them.)
James was the art teacher at Maple Grove Education Centre, the other junior high school in Yarmouth for many years. As a townie, I always remember thinking how awesome it was for the students at Maple Grove to have a choice in their arts program. In town, we could only take music; which wasn't a big concern for me since I LOVED music class, but I was always saddened for my friends who clearly did not enjoy music class as much as I did and were pretty miserable to the teacher as a result. In my mind, I was jealous that our school didn't have Jim so that all of my miserable, non-musical classmates couldn't do something they loved as much as I loved music. Jim was a hero in our eyes, for being there and giving them a choice we never had.
I was blessed with the chance to get to James a little bit through our mutual connection to Holy Trinity Church. As far as I remember, he and his wife ran the sunday school class plays that we'd do at different seasons. They were always rather elaborate and entertaining. I didn't realize that drama was his background (both in Stratford, Ontario and Antigonish, Nova Scotia) at the time, but later on, I was able to see many of his productions at the local Theatre, the Y'ARC. He has an excellent sense of humour, is an incredibly talented artist, loves people and new experiences and values entertaining very much.
On our visit at the camp, Jim told us many wonderful stories of time gone by. I think he is a fabulous story teller, since he is able to speak the same way that he sees the world, with brightness, life, and in rich descriptions that make you feel like you were there. He's quite a character. Enjoy the pictures!
Theme Song for today: Oh Oh Song by Led Zepplin
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