To The Border and Beyond

Stream of Consciousness Saturday – November 22, 2025

In 1969, I celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in October. As the similar holiday in the States approached, I prepared for a road trip back to Boston. It was memorable in many ways.

I had been living on Lyons Street in Ottawa for about six months, but needed to return to the States. I made the trip with my backpack and guitar—the usual for me on the road. In addition, I had a ferocious gray kitten housed in a wicker hamper. The hamper had once served as the picnic hamper for my neighbors, the Washingtons. To insulate the hamper against the cold, we had improvised a lining made of Canadian duffle material – almost enough to make a large blanket. We equipped it with viewing holes so my kitten, Clancy J Bumps, could look out. It was a cozy traveling case.

Off to Quebec

The trip started out auspiciously with friends wishing us both well and a ride to the train station. The train trip was peaceful for me, but Clancy and a dog in baggage got into a hissing and barking match over who was going to wipe the floor with the other. Just let me outta this damn case!! The baggage clerk said he’d never run into such a small cat with such a foul manner of expressing himself. Just full of piss and vinegar!

After the train trip, it was a slog by thumb through rural Quebec. It was punctuated with Quebecois dairy farmers who acknowledged no English when I asked for directions, but immediately offered a short ride when Clancy let out a piteous cry. So it went until we were about a few miles from the border. A couple of sailors stopped to pick us up who were driving through to meet their ship. In conversation it turned out that their ship and squadron aboard was the one I had served for a while when I was in the Navy. The conversation focused on who we knew, what was old and what was new. And, yes the infamout PO1 John O’Toole, had finally made Chief Petty Officer and still ran the bootleg hooch monopoly.

Customs

Soon we reached the border. And separately went through Canadian Customs. They did a cursory inspection of my guitar, asking what strings I preferred, and deferred to take a closer look at my dirty laundry. The inspector cooed at Clancy in his wicker hamper and told me that I had a fine specimen of Canadian Cathood.

Just a hundred yards down the way, an irate United States customs inspector pawed through the backpack full of dirty laundry and almost ripped the strings from my guitar in an effort to see into the body of the guitar. He then attempted to invade Clancy’s hamper with a hand. Clancy took violent exception to the invasion, and a bloody hand was soon withdrawn. The inspector loudly started screaming for me to get the fuck outta there. I needed no repeat requests and scrambled for freedom. Outside, just departing were my Navy pals. They hurriedly stopped, and I jumped in with a pack guitar and cat, we peeled rubber getting away. I hope the inspector enjoyed his series of rabies injections.

A word about the outstanding men of Helicopter Squadron 11 ( the Dragonslayers), then about to join the USS Wasp ( CVS18). It’s true, Shipmates do stick together. And by the time they dropped me off in Saratoga Springs, New York, Clancy was an honorary Dragonslayer and shipmate.

Mouser Extraordinaire!

That night I spent in a motel, but dinner was in a diner across the highway. I wandered in with Clancy in the hamper and ordered. The owner approached and I thought he was going to tell us to leave, but instead he asked if Clancy might like to help resolve a minor mouse problem in the storeroom, and Oh, by the way, dinner is on the house. Clancy emptied the storeroom in quick order.

About an hour or two later, Clancy made himself popular at the counter, walking up and down, getting familiar with patrons, and getting fat on treats.

The next day, we left to finish our trip to Boston. Not too long after that, we were on Beacon Hill with old friends at 32 Grove Street for an American Thanksgiving.

Memories

I think about this exceptional road trip every year just before Thanksgiving. I had longer ones, and I’ve had more enjoyable ones. But this one stands out.