How I met Walter Carsen and the secret we shared

Walter Carson

The quirky anecdotes, the story behind the story, it's often more interesting than the story itself. Especially interesting to the people in the story years later who were unaware of these little gems. The sphere of influence, the circle of life; the founding principle of social media. In that regard, it is not just gossip, but an integral insight into the relationship. Briefly, the late Walter Carsen was one of the pillars of success in Canada, a self made man who crawled out of the depravity of WWII. Walter did exceeding well in life and he was a most generous man, donating most of his fortune to the arts, but more importantly personally assuring the well being of projects he donated to. Walter was one of the most driven men I ever met, with an unbelievable sense of personal style. He was an aristocrat, he was a simple man; he had the touch.

How I met Walter Carsen and the secret we shared

Back in those lazy hazy days of summer of 63, me and my friend Val, were chilling down by the Don River under the shade of a willow tree; smoking cigarettes, listening to CHUM 1050 am rock and roll on a transistor radio; those were the days. Enter Walter Carsen, an adult, and apparently we were on his property. It was my understanding the high water mark was the boundary, but it was the cigarettes likely, not the high water mark. Walter was just as surprised when he stumbled upon us, he was very pleasant, gave us a lecture about smoking and leaving campfire debris on his land. We went on our way, thinking to myself: so that's Walter Carsen. I knew this because his daughter  Johanni  and I attended Woodland Public School, I was in grade 8,  Johanni  was in grade 6.

The next time I saw Walter, I was driving up to the house at the top of the hill, just up from where we were caught smoking. At the time I was riding a 1949 500 cc single cylinder AJS, looking sort of like a biker at 17; leather vest, boots, long hair, etc. The motorcycle had no muffler or headlight, it was early and it was loud. Apparently I thought this was OK. I was there on the occasion to pick up his daughter for our first date. Walter and I looked at each other and immediately we both remembered the smoking incident years earlier, he smiled. I think Walter had greater concerns at this point, “like who is this punk ass”, in any case he just grinned politely and let it slide. I learned later in life, you don't mess with the romantic interests of your daughter, especially the first boyfriend.

Sculpture by Fritz Wotruba. I was commissioned by the late Walter Carsen of Thornhill to produce photographs for a catalogue of his private art collection for Expo 67.

Over the course of the summer, Walter gradually implemented upgrades to my act. Getting me used to riding his Honda 300 for starts, helping out with picking up stuff in his wife's 66 Mustang convertible. He didn't like my AJ. Over lunch and dinner and a few outings, Walter and I got to know each other beyond the constraints of my interest in his daughter. We found we had a common bond in the arts, he was well aware of my father's paintings and my father's work with the National Ballet of Canada. Walter was on the board of directors at the Ontario Society of Artists. He was surprised when he heard the cast of the Bolshoi showed up for an after hours party at our house in Thornhill; accompanied by a fully armed KGB escort to make sure nobody left the party unannounced.  As a young student my parents did their best to expose me to culture; it must have worked.  I was able to have some interesting discussions with Walter about the politics of the arts; especially painting and ballet.  Walter went on to become a generous patron for the National Ballet of Canada.

Briefly to that point, my father was trying for years to break into the politics of art in Ontario via his talent. He didn't realize it was mostly politics that determined what good art was. Over lunch one day Walter offered his influence to help my father's admittance into this elite society of artists. My father being the hard head he was flatly turned down Walters offer, holding to his principles, his work and talent should be the ticket. That's another story.

Back to Walter and me, our relationship took another turn; Walter had one of the most extensive private art collections in the country. It was just around EXPO 67 in Montreal and Walter was lending a few pieces to the art show, but first he needed pictures of his famous sculptures and paintings. I was the man, not because I was dating his daughter, but because I was proficient at art photography. I had access to my father's equipment, including the 4x5 Linhoff Tecknica studio camera. Walter was aware my dad photographed many famous works, including Picasso's, and other artists. I got the job.

My best friend at the time and I drove to Toronto every day to attend Thornton Hall, it was a pain, but it was worth it. Walters daughter attended Havergal, it was on the way. By this time  Johanni  and I had gone our separate ways as teenagers do. It was an awkward silence driving to school and back that winter, we all took turns, it was a very awkward time in our lives. So many conversations we didn't have. The last time I saw Jonnai was a few years later at a roadside gas station on 401.

Upon the occasion of his death at 100 years of age, The Toronto Star printed the story of Walters struggle with his past, fleeing Nazi Germany, joining the RAF, and never speaking of it until his kids were adults. Walter was Jewish, he was so traumatized by what happened to him during the war he never told his kids until they were adults. It broke my heart to hear this, to know I spent time with his kids growing up in Thornhill. In hindsight, I subsequently understood why Walter did this to protect his kids. Antisemitism was alive and well in Thornhill at the time; you heard it everywhere, not only antisemitism, but overt discrimination against virtually every minority that came along.  I barely made the cut, being a poor Christian immigrant of European heritage; apparently connecting consonants made no difference in Thornhill if you were a good hockey player. We had one black student at Thornhill at the time, my pal Ray. But that's another story

After 60 years of the most wonderful life on God's green earth here in Canada who would have thought that I would also become a target of hate and discrimination, apparently I am not white enough for some folks up here. Ah, the two connecting consonants, it will do it every time. I'll put my genes up against theirs any day. To be clear, I am not a victim, I am not really concerned about the opinions of certain backwater hillbillies, but I think Walter would be happy that I am taking them on, one at a time. Game on.  I was lucky to have known him. That catalogue I did for the Expo 67 show, opened a lot of doors in the years to come.

The Walter Carsen Center in Toronto

I just knew him as Walter

The Secrets of The Hunt: Dr. Tony Bubenik

I was 18, I left my schoolbooks on a snowmobile crate in Thornhill one day and took up racing. Years later at a snowmobile race I saw my first real live giant hot air balloon: next thing you know I was flying giant hot air balloons. That's when Dr. Tony Bubenik (the antler man) came knocking on our door, he want to film the moose rut from a platform high up in a giant hot air balloon. We never got around to doing that, but we did exchange a few “up north stories” over a few well aged concoctions. These stories remained with me all my life. I finally learned the secret of the hunt and I shared some important observations about dog/wolf communications that he was unaware of.

Briefly, Tony was a scientist for the MNR in Ontario, specializing in moose and considerable knowledge about Mr. Wolf. “Tony’s specialities in Biology were with ungulates( animals with antlers like deer and Moose) Tony was a world reknown expert and was well thought of in the wildlife section of the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Province of Ontario “

We invited Tony and his lovely wife Mary to our home in North York for dinner, a night to remember. I started to research his credentials before we met, started was the operative word. Dr. Bubenik received worldwide recognition for his work with ungluates, and special acclaim for solving the mystery of the cave paintings in the Pyrenees mountains; the one's with the men with antlers on their heads. 

To show you how far backward we have come since the time of the Neanderthal, it was only when Tony donned the antlers in front of a really big red stag in a theatrical gesture, that he discovered what the cave paintings were all about; hunting instructions. Man puts on antlers, walks into herd; whacks the animal with a frying pan; dinner. After a few beers, he just about paid with his life when the stag charged him. His wife Mary captured the incident on Super8 film; life before cell phones.

The prevailing theory at the time to explain the cave paintings, scholars and scientists alike thought it was some sort of tribal ritual. In fact it was the modern Neanderthals guide to hunting, but it took a further 10,000 years until we got it right. Tory’s wife Mary recorded the clowning episode while working in Czechoslovakia, further down the range was a red stag that came out into the opening. Tony and the stag fixed gazes on each other; both were amazed. The stag was clearly not afraid of the human with antler's, and the human with antlers failed to make the appropriate recessive gesture, as Tony had the smaller set of horns. The stag charged Dr. Bubenik at full gallop; freaked out of his ever loving mind, Tony drops the antlers, the stag stops dead in its tracks. They look at each other in total disbelief, like it has seen a ghost. The stag runs off into the bush. Lesson learned; don't drink and challenge a giant buck. Tony put 2 and 2 together and immediately connected to the Lasceux cave paintings.

This was the eureka moment after the secret was lost for thousands of years: an instruction book for survival. Tony went on to use this technique in his famous hunting treks deep into the Alaskan bush, disguised with only antlers and a big knife, he would slay the beast, quarter it and carry it back on his back; repeating the 20 mile return trip until he had the whole moose. This guy was the real deal.

Tony built and tested many such ungulate costumes for research and of course hunting.

The conversation got around to the aerial platform for filming the moose rut; that set me off into anecdotal balloon stories, one in particular; dog barking. My old friends from the Balloon Days know all about the an unplanned flight, equipment malfunctions etc. This flight was special, I was flying 200 ft above the ground north of Pickering, without power, waiting to hit the ground or something, I observed something really amazing, something only a few humans would have experienced. All other forms of flying machines involve the noise factor.

Tony's favourite dog was the Norwegian Elkhound; it preferred to stay out all winter. Tony learned and practiced chemical communication with dogs and wolves. Biting their lip is the way to establish dominance, as in a real wolf pack. For those a little more squeamish, clamping the dog's lip with your fingers will work in a pinch.

The sight of a giant hot air balloon flying over the country farms started off the usual barrage of dogs barking, I thought nothing at first until I noticed a peculiar pattern. One dog would bark, the dog in the next farm would bark, and then the next and the next: in a straight line. Moments later the bark pattern would return straight back down the same line. Holy *...... I thought to myself out loud; could it be? Then I watched and listened with amazement for the next 15 minutes, they were relaying messages back and forth along symetrical lines just like humans used signal fires; dogs barked.

Eventually I came down, hit a tree as I had no control over the balloon; system malfunction. I went flying out of the gondola, through the tree, and fell to the ground.  The balloon soared up to 10,000 without a pilot, we followed it for 20 miles, it eventually came down in the middle of a big field.  We packed it up and drove home.

I didn't realize it was such a big deal until Tony and I were exchanging stories. Tony told me he suspected this was going on, but had no confirmation. Turns out regular old dogs have a very sophisticated communications network that is suspected to range in the hundreds of miles sending messages back and forth between dogs. Next time your dog barks on the porch, you never know who it's talking to or where. No one has ever continued the research; stuff Tony and I always knew was happening. You have be flying at low level in a giant hot air balloon without firing off the burner to observe this phenomenon. We kept in touch with Dr. Bubenik and Mary for a few years until he retired, he was 80 at the time, fit as a bull moose.

He was more than a rough and tough woodsman, Tony was a true Renascence man, he loved the ballet opera, poetry and especially orchids. When we visited Tony and Mary in their home in Thornhill, his entire house was lined with orchids. Every square inch of wall space around the ceiling with special lighting and nutrient supply. He observed the battle between species, one orchid could kill another orchid at the other end of the house by releasing pheromones. We polished off a few well aged concoctions and headed off in different directions. When confronted with a really big set of antlers, always make sure you display the appropriate recessive gesture.

Tons of great links on the web about this extraordinary man.

What Happens in Vegas Doesn't Always Stay In Vegas

Integrated sales manager ISM, the program I developed for my own personal use when I joined Ariel Computer Graphics in Toronto. At the time Ariel was the top computer graphics company in North America. NASA built a giant mainframe computer so they can process high resolution images from the Mars mission. My buddy Tom Graham, former bandleader of the the Big Town Boys, had to have one; 1 million bucks back then was expensive. That was the start of high-quality computer graphics in Canada. I have been about high resolution images all my life; I really had to have access to one. 8000 lines of resolution.

I left the AVX project at Globestock to join Ariel as a senior sales executive, I brought some of my top accounts over to Ariel, a few banks and ad agencies i.e., McCann Erickson. This was going to be fun but it had a down side, there was this old school bean counter office manager. I guess you could say ISM was one hundred percent his fault. 

All the account reps were required to generate paper reports weekly, I hated it. I looked into some of the contact management/time management packages; klutzy. I was still associating with Hagen K back at Globestock, possibly the best programer ever to come out of Canada. For the record Globestock had some pretty fancy programmers at the time. Avi Moshi ran the Cray at U of T, Tyler Ivanco ran the Centre of Excellence in Computer Studies at York. Bob Soper was one of the best out of Guelph. Bob created AVX animation software, much more elegant than the package used to make Jurassic Park. Then there was Hagen K, in a league of his own, none of those guys even came close.

  After the Globestock project went south everybody went in different directions. Hagen K needed a job. I asked him to create an app so I can get off the Cardex system and go digital. The commercially available programs that were available were a bunch of clunkers. Back to the software ISM, I need something slick and fast. I designed the menu system and how it integrated with all the modules. Hagan agreed, walked across Yonge St and bought the manual for “C” ; machine language. He read the two inch thick manual that night and punched out his first code for ISM.

Richard Ruiz, IT guy for Robin Hood Multifoods and our partner from California Justin Kim came down to Vegas for the show. Richard stayed up a bit late at the tables and missed the first day of the show. There we were the big time. 

Both of us had no idea what we had just done. it just worked; some pretty slick programming. Later that week I was visiting my buddy at Hewlett-Packard, I showed him my new application, he told me he knew a lot about contact management software, and this personal app was the best thing he had ever seen. No way. To make a long story short we compared it to all the other products and my app blew the doors off everything out there.  

It was a really big show, ISM was on every laptop at the show; all the manufactures used it to showcase their hardware to first time users. We had it made.

Back to my friend the office manager for a moment, he walked up to me minutes before the deadline for handing in the monthly reports, smiling, thinking he had me. He asked: “are your reports ready?” I said no, not yet, then I pressed enter and a two inch stack of the most beautiful reports you have ever seen came out of the printer; much to the astonishment of my friend. Ariel implemented the package for use in the rest of the company and paid for development for the next year. I left shortly after to make my fortune in software development. I was pretty good at it by now.

Suzanne's dad (my partner) Richard and Justin at our display in the Dell booth; we were everywhere.

Back then there was not a lot of RAM in our computers, everything was running off the hard drive; slow as molasses. In short if you wanted to query 2000 files and drill down with a couple of filters on it, it could take you 15 minutes. ISM took seven seconds to complete the task. Everybody was wondering what the hell was going on. A bunch of other companies saw the the program and wanted in. Reallocating RAM on the fly is how it was done.

My HP pal called up Anthony DeChriostofaro, Manager for NEC Canada. Next thing you know we are at Comdex in Las Vegas. ISM ended up on every laptop computer at the show. By some strange coincidence the computer industry got ahead of itself with new hardware, but no software for first time users. The millions of folks in sales were just getting into laptop computers. It was our big break. Our little program ended up getting written up by PC and Byte magazines, definitely in the top 10 in contact management software and possibly one of the best ones ever for a brief period of time

 I talked to thousands of people at Comdex over the next 3 years.

ISM was the fastest slickest thing on the market for about 3 years, until they bumped up RAM. Nobody was able to crack our code, IBM boasted they would figure it out but they never did. 

We were going to make a phenomenal amount of money; so what happened? What always happens when you've got humanoids involved. Like their egos take over and sense of entitlement kicks in. Somebody wanted blue pencils and somebody else wanted red pencils, yada yada yada and it was all over before you know it. One of the partners wanted to charge $500 for the package, I wanted to charge $39.95.  If they listened to me, they would have sold millions; $500 not so much for first time user's.

Suzanne's parents retired down to Rancho Santa Fe in California leaving her as President of Aselco. Associated Electronic Component Ltd. I had to commute down there to deal with her dad as he was one of the partners. Frode fancied himself as a high-tech guru having 27 Canadian distributorships for all kinds of a sophisticated electronic equipment from Europe and Korea. It got a bit cumbersome back and forth. If all the ego's didn't get in the way we stood to make a lot of doe ray me. 

The city of Las Vegas hated the Comdex convention, the teckies did not gamble. I did.  I alloted myself a $10 roll of quarters every night, I came home with about 8 grand on the slots.  My pals were not so lucky, one of them lost big.  I never went past losing $10 a night; free drinks.

More to this story later.

Down On The Farm

Tottenham Ontario

Lawnmower

Farm girl graduates Honours Psychology York U

Tara went on to get a degree in Forestry in BC

My favorite truck of all time. Ford half ton; straight six with chains.  I would hook up an 6000 trailer with wood plus a cord on the truck; it would go where few other trucks would dare. When Ernie gave me the truck, the back springs were broken, only one brake on the front wheel, and the gas tank was ripped off first time I took it through the woods.  I tied a couple of blocks of wood between the axle and the chassis, put on a gravity fed gas tank and it ran perfect for the next 10 years; no repairs necessary. I hauled about 300 cords out of the bush with it. They don't build them like that anymore.

Not afraid of heights, Suzanne was cutting a vent in the roof.

Our hothouse; mostly hot peppers

Shane and Brenda Forsyth live right across the street from us, at the end of the rainbow. Two of the hardest working and nicest people folks I have ever met.

Tara learning how to drive on the back 40

Shane Forsyth loading up an order us. Shane has cleared the snow from our lane for 20 years, plowed up the garden and supplied us with farm fresh organic food.  I have the highest respect for the farmers I have known.

100 year old farmhouse, Aurora, I made the commute everyday to downtown Toronto.

Mom and the boys

A little jug band music

The Sutherland family farm, Ed Sutherland was our first friend in Grey County. Alex worked for Ed & Ted on the weekends and summer holidays. More to this story later.

Andrew tilling the garden

Our Massey tractor with skid winch on the back, I did a little logging back in the day.

That's one big tree for a 14 inch chainsaw.

Our parents were horrified when Suzanne and I announced we were moving out to the country to be farmers.  It was the best move we ever made.  Suzanne was being groomed at the time to take over her parents business when they retired. Three daughters, no sons, I was not interested in electronic. We brought our giant hot air balloon with us and flew it around for fun.

 I liked life in the fast lane in the city, but I like the country better, especially for raising a family. It is important kids make an early connection to nature, so they respect it for the rest of their lives.

 Our winter hide-a-way,in Rosemount.  We would pack up the family and spent winter weekends out in the boonies.

 Alex starting school in Aurora

Looking out front today in Georgian Bluffs

Lefroy Ontario

Tottenham