Joseph Edward Dafoe 1950-2020

      

  

Some people asked to know more about Joseph's life, so this is his story ... according to me, with a little help from some friends.  

70 years is a lot of years and I started out keeping it as short as I could, but it's grown and is now in three parts; 1950-1975, 1975-2012, 2012-2020.  

(apologies for random picture placement ... a new interface has defeated me!)

Part 1 ... 1950 - 1975

LIFE IN QUEBEC

    I originally wrote just a few sentences about Joseph’s family life before he was born; he didn’t know a lot about it and I certainly didn’t, but Tom sent along his recollections and they are included - in his own words. It’s a snippet of life during and right after the Great Depression and World War II, in a small town in the province of Quebec.

For the record; Joseph’s Father (John) b.1909-1984, his Mother (Kathleen Couture) b.1910 lived to be 100.75, she was 42 when Joseph was born and he is the baby of the family.

Before he was born, Joseph’s parents lived in different cities in Ontario.  Both the Dafoe and Couture families were from Trenton and after marrying, his parents moved to Timmins where his father managed to get work (it was the Great Depression) at the McIntyre Gold Mine. He took a correspondence course to become a draftsman and in 1942 they moved to Toronto and a better job. In 1946 he transferred to Loretteville in Quebec with the Dept. of Defence. 

Loretteville is 15kms west of Quebec City and very French.  It also has a HURON-WENDANT First Nation’s reserve (formerly Huron Village) in the middle of it.

These are Tom’s recollections of life in Loretteville:

“Our first apartment at Loretteville was in the country.  We had half of the second floor of a house.  It had two bedrooms.  Things were simple then - wood cook stove, that converted to coal in winter, for heating and cooking, ice box, and not much else in terms of infrastructure. At that time we didn't have a car.  We walked everywhere.  Dad went to work by bus that passed by the house.  It was provided by the establishment as most of the employees lived in Quebec City.  We walked to the village for groceries (smaller things) and sewing supplies but about once every two weeks, on a Saturday, Mom would take the bus to the city and buy groceries that would be delivered. …  In one event a big snow storm came up and Mom couldn't get home that day so she had to get a room in town and another snow storm was so severe that the road was closed for about 10 days while the clearing equipment struggled.  I remember walking a few kilometers with Dad over the snow drifts to find them way down the road.  The drifts were as high as the telephone lines.  Before the road opened fully Dad was transported to work by an early version of the tracked snow machine.  On another occasion, I guess when the usual bus broke down, he was transported by an old forces ambulance. … I remember summer walks to the village -all five of us with Patsy in the baby carriage. … Horses were still an important form of locomotion and transportation in, at, and around farms at the time.  The church parking lot was full of horse carriages and sleds on Sunday mornings.

I suppose these inconveniences and the appeal of a larger place with 220V were a big reason why we moved to the village.  Mom set her sights on a new build in Loretteville proper, that had three electrical wires going to it - that was major as it meant we could install an electric stove for cooking!  We likely moved into the new home in 1949 and perhaps even not knowing that the downstairs would be a funeral home.  That place was still heated with the old coal stove in the kitchen, the electric stove was still to come and the icebox stayed around for quite some years.”

            Joseph was born in July 1950, 

and they lived in that house above the funeral parlour, his parents, Tom, Marie and Patsy. 

 Neither of his parents spoke French and contact with the other English-speaking families was limited to church on Sundays. Joseph learned to speak French while playing in the neighbourhood and at four years old, went to half-day French kindergarten in a shed behind Madame Pepin's house.

            .  

 The rest of his schooling was at an English school in downtown Quebec City.  The bus to school left at 8.00 a.m. and was a 30 min ride to the bottom of a cliff, then another 30 mins to reach school; a walk through an industrial area, then a low-income complex where it wasn’t unusual to be accosted by other children, up a long-steep staircase followed by a climb up a pretty decent hill (tough going up, but a nice slide down in winter) all of this to arrive at school late - at 9.00 a.m.  The Dafoe clan were given special “late” dispensation because of their arduous journey.

                                                

Summer holidays the family drove to Trenton to visit relatives, or went camping.  Little Joe (his Aunt Gladys called him “Little Joe from the Ponderosa”) sat in the middle of the front seat, the others in the back with Marie in the middle and (from Marie) unable to see out and constantly carsick. They loved visiting family in Trenton, especially at the Lafferty’s Farm. It was an apple orchard with a pony (Tony), horses, cousins and lots of space to play - and no stairs.

                                    

Then there was camping  … an inexpensive vacation and everybody, except Marie, loved those camping trips! They were some of Joseph's best memories of his childhood and he continued to camp for the rest of his life.

 Tom remembers …  

“… the vehicle we vacationed in was piled high with camping equipment - six sleeping bags, two tents, and I don't know what else on top, and a trunk stuffed with everything else for a family of six….  In 1955 the family went on vacation to Trenton but also continued on to Niagara on the Lake where there was an International Boy Scout Jamboree.  On the way home we stopped in Toronto where we went to the "Army Navy War Surplus" store and got equipped for camping - two tents, six sleeping bags, camp stove, lantern, and numerous other items.  This was used a few times but the inadequacies became apparent.  So Dad sought to improve the situation.  The first thing I remember is the purchase of steel water piping at a scrap yard to make sure the sides were taught.  To hold the pipes together at the corners he fashioned aluminum fittings.  These pieces he made at work "on his lunch hour".  They were rather brilliant and did the job brilliantly.  The war was over and there was a large surplus of stuff around.  So Dad was able to obtain permission to take some of that home.  There were several square yards of heavy army green canvas that formed a shelter between the two tents.  This project was a joint project with Mom and Dad and the overworked sewing machine.  The result was quite an achievement and solicited many commendations by fellow campers as there was nothing quite like it.  Another item that appeared about this time were a number of hand crafted aluminum tent pegs - also made during lunch hour.  The wooden ones didn't hold up to the pounding.  More canvas appeared (it weighed a ton) that was sewn onto a large canopy.  However it was held up with superb collapsible wooded poles about 8 feet long with brass fittings - these items originally had been used to clean out the muzzles of large guns (like the ones on tanks).  I guess there wasn't too much use for them any moire.  There were a number of other smaller pieces of "scrap" that appeared and Dad would fashion into a stand for the camp stove, nylon mesh fabric that formed the seats of collapsible camp chairs, and many other things that he could dream up to make the camping more comfortable.

ONTO ONTARIO

In 1962, when Joseph was twelve the family moved to Ottawa and he made friends with Les Macdonald, who was two years older and lived over the back fence.  Joseph went to St. Joseph’s Catholic High School, Les went to Woodroffe.  Les had a train set in his basement and he and his neighbour Brian had started a science club.  To join the club, Joseph had to learn the Arabic names of the main stars in several constellations. Mr. Dafoe had an astronomical telescope but it was such agony to use  - by the time you lined up whatever you wanted to see it would be gone the next time you looked.  Still, that August, his dad mentioned there was a meteor shower that night and Joseph told the science club. 

It’s pretty crazy what they did and I’m pretty sure nobody else has a similar story, but with way too many names of Clubs, Societies, Drs,. scientists, observatories, coffins, meteor showers, record keeping., for me to remember, I asked that back-yard friend (of 58 years) Les, to write about it.

“…The three boys put sleeping bags on a tarp on Les’ back lawn and spent the entire night

shouting in excitement as meteors appeared unexpectedly and streaked among the stars. At breakfast the next day, Les’ sister complained about the shouting outside her window, but the boys were hooked on meteor observing. Another venture of the science club was to visit the Dominion Observatory on Carling Avenue during their Saturday night public events, including the opportunity to look through the 15-inch telescope, and to watch films on astronomy and geology.

It was at these visits that Joseph met Dan Brunton, who was an enthusiastic birdwatcher (he seemed to be enthusiastic about everything) as well as an amateur astronomer, and was active in the local Observers’ Group of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC). Joseph and Les were in awe at the knowledge of the people at the Observers’ Group meetings, many of whom they addressed as “Dr. So-and-so”, as they had doctorates in various sciences, but astronomy was their common obsession. They had a “coordinator” for each branch of astronomy, and the Meteor and Comet Coordinator, Stan Mott, told them about an astronomer at the National Research Council (NRC), Dr. Peter Millman, who directed an international scientific program to analyze visual meteor observations collected from volunteer observers all over the world. This project was one of Canada’s contributions to what was called the Continuation of the International Geophysical Year, and it contributed toward knowledge of the density of cometary and asteroidal material along the earth’s orbit, the better (so we understood) to assess the risks of manned space flight. 

Dr. Millman invited the boys to observe a meteor shower with his group at NRC’s Springhill Meteor Observatory south of Ottawa, where they recorded meteors using powerful radar antennae, cameras equipped to record meteor spectra, and heated “meteor coffins” to keep observers warm and comfortable on the coldest nights. Wanting to be a part of that larger adventure, Joseph, Brian and Les quickly built their own wooden meteor coffins at home and invited their new-found Observers’ Group friends to join them for “star parties” in Les’ back yard, where they sat in their coffins, recording the brightness and time of appearance of meteors, as prescribed by Dr. Millman’s methodology. 

All night long during meteor showers, whether a weekend or school night, the boys would sit … outside Les’ sister’s bedroom window, shouting “Time!” at the appearance of each meteor. And just to be sure they had it exactly right, Dan contributed his father’s old electronic tube shortwave radio to broadcast Dominion Observatory time signals to the observers: “Beeb, beep, beep”, every second, all night long. It gradually became clear that Les’ family didn’t appreciate the vital importance of this collective scientific effort. When the group started observing meteors, there were no streetlights in the neighbourhood, so you could see even faint stars and meteors, unless a neighbor close by had forgotten our request to turn their porch light out, in which case, Joseph, being younger and willing, was sent around to throw touques or sleeping bag covers over the offending porch lights, later uncovering them in the morning twilight. Joseph became

exceptional in this furtive role and was affectionately nicknamed, “The Midnight Skulker”, a character in the “B.C.” comic strip by Johnny Hart. As the number of observers increased, more and more meteor sightings per hour had to be recorded, with each observer’s data kept distinct. This required the “Timer”, an astronomical traffic cop, to ensure that this avalanche of information was organized in order to be correctly set down on the NRC’s tailor-made forms. The timer needed to have an excellent knowledge of the constellations, a good short-term memory and authoritative organizational skills to determine which of the many shouts of “Time!” referred to the same meteor. When one of the boys melted down under the pressure of a surge in meteor sightings, Joseph grabbed the forms and pencil and quickly got everything back under control. Everyone understood that Joseph had outgrown his “Midnight Skulker” role and became the group’s preferred Timer.

With increasing glare from streetlights, and glares from Les’ family, the Queensway Terrace meteor observers began to look outside Ottawa for darker pastures. Eventually, a group of scientists at the government’s Defence Research Board at Shirley’s Bay, west of Ottawa, invited the Observers’ Group to share their observatory site, called “The Quiet Site”, being relatively isolated from local radio noise, and incidentally, also quite remote from artificial light pollution. This included a 6- inch telescope in a dome, a 10-foot radio telescope, an equipment building with a washroom (vital!), and a small van in which the meteor observers could keep their own equipment and even sleep, if they found time for that. One of their number, Peter MacKinnon, had a summer job in a government magnetic lab with a well-equipped workshop, at which they cut the parts for an 8-person meteor coffin -- a 14-foot hexagonal wooden “daisy”, “petals” slanted at 45 degrees for each observer - then hauled them to the Quiet Site and assembled them on an unused “mound” in a wide clearing. Their electronics wizard, Doug O’Brien, installed subdued lighting in the coffins to read star maps, and also microphone cabling to a tape recorder (and Dan’s shortwave radio) in the nearby equipment van. Thus began the Golden Age of the Quiet Site Meteor Observatory. … Ken Hewitt-White, later a prominent astronomy educator,…remembers Joseph as one of the more “senior” members, directing the outdoor spaghetti kitchen during Ken’s first Perseid experience. The Coleman stove flamed up at one point, causing excited exclamations from the coffins about the Perseid fireball low in the North-East.

Among the unexpected rewards from Joseph’s meteor observing career: one of his first meteor observing friends, Dan Brunton, introduced him to birding.

So he would watch meteors all night, do his paper round and then cycle out to Brittannia Woods to birdwatch and that pretty much kept little Joe out of trouble. He was the youngest of Les and friends and the youngest in his class at high school (thanks to school in Quebec), and it meant he was also very young when he left for university - just two months after turning 17. 

UNIVERSITY & A JOB

Queen’s University is a three-hour drive from Ottawa, in Kingston, at the start of the Great Lakes, right near where the St. Lawrence River empties into Lake Ontario. He boarded for the first year and then into residence. It didn’t take long for him to realise he wasn’t clever enough for Physics, so switched to Geology, and each summer he would work at Geology camps in northern Ontario - in the bush with nature and mosquitoes and blackflies.  The first year, he was the camp cook!  A 17 year-old camp cook who knew nothing about cooking, and at the expense of those poor hungry geologists he learned how to make bread, cook freeze-dried steaks etc., all with the help of recipe cards his mother had typed up for him.  

The next two summers he worked with the geologists learning how to map and not cooking.

    

At university he would run into Ken Ross a birder from Ottawa, and in 1973, after Joseph graduated and Ken was back from N.S. with his masters, they shared a house with Tom in Ottawa, right across from the Brittania Woods!  Joseph never did work in Geology but went to work at the Canadian Nature Federation (CNF), a non-profit, environmental and conversation organisation. Like almost every other birder in Ottawa he started out packing books for their mail-order book store, and eventually Joseph became the manager.

Just like the cook who didn’t know about cooking, Joseph didn’t know about retailing, so he and Tom took a basic business course at Algonquin College. That course, along with his math-brain, his apparent talent for retailing that no-one knew he possessed, and some help from Alexander Bridge, the new Business Manager at the CNF, sales increased. I asked Alexander, (still friends after all these years) about his memories from those days …”My background was in marketing and I quickly realised when I joined the organisation that the bookstore was under producing, given it’s location in downtown Ottawa and it’s many members across Canada.  I raised these issues with the Federation’s Board and saw Joseph as they key player in expanding the store’s commerce.  Joseph was keen to help make it happen and together we developed the Federation’s first colour catalogue. (Before the catalogue, mimeographed copies of a typed list of books were mailed to members across Canada.) Joseph asked his friend Les to photograph every book, calendar and box of note cards that was for sale, and somebody typed up descriptions of all of the books.  He “cut and pasted” the photos and descriptions and LetraSet the headings and out went copies to the members all over Canada, and sales doubled.

The CNF was in a beautiful old building on Confederation Square, around the corner from the Parliament Buildings and across from the National War Memorial - right in the middle of downtown Ottawa.  The bookstore was up on the fourth floor, open to the public but not many visited. So Joseph turned the store completely around … he built bookcases to display the books and redesigned the layout to be more buyer friendly. He learned so much from his time at the CNF, especially from Alexander, and was getting ready to introduce more nature and birding items; binoculars, bird feeders etc. It was obviously the precursor to our own store, but that was 1975 and who knew.

TRAVELLING

Joseph was friends with Monty Brigham, a well-known birder about town. He loved birding with Monty, mostly because Monty had a car and his mother made the most delicious sandwiches.  They worked at the CNF together and decided to go on a trip to the Amazon that summer of 1973.  Joseph’s brother Tom was driving his Peugeot from Ottawa down to the tip of South America (and back) so they arranged to meet him and take a boat down the Amazon, from the mouth to Leticia in Columbia.  Tom could speak Spanish and was familiar with how things worked and Joseph and Monty weren’t. Joseph and Monty were birders -  Tom was not.  It was also a chance for Joseph to spend time with Tom, who was eight years older than him and I know Monty was in awe of Tom’s ability to solve any problem that came along. Sadly Monty died in 2017 so back to Tom to see what he could remember of that pretty amazing/crazy trip… 

“The first time I remember meeting Monty was when he and Joe got off the airplane from Cayenne, French Guiana, in Belem after being delayed a day for some reason.  Monty was fully equipped with his Nagra recorder (about the size of a small tablet), his parabolic microphone (very large) that caught the attention of the customs officer (and led to days of chasing him around and extortion to get it back), bird books, binoculars, gear for capturing beetles, formaldehyde for preserving them, and who knows what else. (Monty planned to record bird sounds.)  I could speak Spanish (more or less) but more importantly by that time I had a working vocabulary of essential Portuguese.  That was particularly useful for our interactions with the customs officer (Señor Leal) and getting to the harbour for discussions with the Admiralty in finding a boat to head up the Amazon , the ultimate destination of Leticia, Colombia.  Actually the last port in Brasil is Tabatinga which is just across the river (through Peru) - another adventure. We needed their permission but it wasn't an issue. We spent a number of days around Belem doing business (getting money), dueling with the customs guy, finding a long term place to stash my car, and went for a trip to the mouth of the Amazon to a place called Salinapolis where we saw some exciting birds (skimmers).  Things settled down (we got the parabolic mic back, the boat arranged), parked the car, bought hammocks, bought some foodstuffs (oatmeal and a huge bushel bag oranges, etc.) and got on the boat. 

  BOAT #1

This boat, the "Perla do Raimunda" was rather good with bunks in cabins, meals, and good company (other passengers) and crew, with a destination of Manaus.  The scenery up the river was unique with random stops, for whatever reason, where we could wander to see some birds, be amazed at the size of the river, and, with research that Joe had done, he was able to keep us informed on the physical features along the way - mostly floodplain from my perspective with floating homes, cattle on rafts, and locals getting around in canoes with pointy paddles.  Once night along the way, there was a great rocking of the boat with branches breaking on the deck, but the boat was still floating.  When we got up in the morning we found out that the boat had got caught up in a very strong back current and had crashed into the shore which resulted in the rudder being broken but not totally inoperable.  The crew were able to fashion two very long and strong planks that were onboard and lashed to each side of the boat.  These planks kept the boat on a relatively straight course, with alterations being made with what was left of the rudder.  That was all good enough to get us to Manaus.  

  BOAT #2

Our first job on arriving in Manaus, was to find a boat going further up-river, hopefully all the way to Tabatinga.  Within minutes (well perhaps a couple of hours) we found a boat, gave it the once over and decided it would be great.  So we put our stuff on board, paid our money, and went for a tour of Manaus where we saw the Opera House which then, was unfortunately in very poor repair and all we could do was walk around the outside and see the many pigeons nesting in the nooks and crevices of this architectural and historical marvel.   

Boat number two was named "Castro Alvez II".  Our initial euphoria over our find rapidly evaporated as the two decks filled up with freight leaving only a small space for passengers which by departure time had numbered twenty-two.  From the rafters were strung hammocks that overlapped each other (I got peed on one night by a young girl sleeping above me).  Luckily there was a small "poop deck" behind the sleeping area where Monty, Joe and I would take refuge and eat our oranges as well as make up some of the porridge with the stove I had brought along.  Conditions on this boat were abominable.  The latrine was as bad as any of had ever experienced.  Food was rather disgusting often featuring bony fish caught from the boat. (Joseph is deathly allergic to fish.) The preparation was carried out on the floor just outside the latrine!  Despite the conditions we were slowly making our way upstream with the effort of a 3-cylinder Yanmar diesel engine without any noise suppression.  This went on for a number of days till the prop fell off!  It turns out that the boat captains plying the waters of the Amazon support each other and eventually another boat came along that was able to tow our derelict craft to the community at the mouth of the Putomayo river.

  BOAT #3

Here at the mouth of the Putomayo we saw ourselves as stranded, particularly as our captain could not provide an estimate of when we might get underway again.  At this point we weren't in a very good mood but were lucky enough to find another conveyance upstream to our destination.  It was a larger boat with a barge tied to each side and loaded with freight and local goods.  A Land Rover and very large balls of natural rubber were two of the items that struck me.  If this boat had a name it has long been forgotten.  However it provided space to move around and try to avoid the engine noise and vibration.  There was no real passenger space.  One night Joe and I while looking for a place to spend the night fell on the idea of sleeping on the upper roof (likely with the dream of watching the stars).  We settled down in our sleeping gear and soon realized that it would be impossible to sleep due to the vibration of the ship - it was bearable except for the residual bit at the tip of our noses.  That little bit drove us to distraction and led us to abandon our idyllic location and find a place to curl up around the rubber balls.  But we did arrive at Tabatinga!

They arrived home a week late and a few pounds lighter!  Then the following summer Joseph drove his Peugeot 204 across Canada by himself - stopping to camp and bird when/where he wanted. He visited relatives in BC, fell in love with the west coast and then turned around and drove back again. Back in time for Monty’s wedding to Jane in October.  

On that trip to the Amazon, Monty’s girlfriend Jane Lafontaine was in London. Joseph didn’t know Monty had a girlfriend and he for sure didn’t know that while the boys were vibrating down the Amazon, Monty's secret girlfriend was meeting Joseph's future wife!  So, on October 5th, 1974, Joseph was in Jane and Monty's wedding and I appeared out of thin air and we liked each other and eventually went out and I went home and came back to live with him until we were married July 1975.  If you want to read more about how I met Jane and ended up at their wedding and then ended up marrying Joseph you can read about it in a blog post from June 2020.

Somehow, Joseph and Monty were signed up to lead a birding tour of Alaska; no tour-leading experience, no qualifications at all other than being birders and certainly not based on their experience in the Amazon. Mostly it was an opportunity to bird in Alaska by leading some poor unsuspecting birders (young and old, rich and … mostly rich Americans) around Gnome and to the Pribilof Islands (a group of four volcanic islands off the coast of mainland Alaska) the ultimate birding spot - Russia just an arm’s length away!  Roger was also a leader but he was a manic birdwatcher so Monty and Joseph muddled along. 

Whatever Joseph did, a few of those birders remembered him and, a professor from Florida and his wife, came to visit us in Adelaide, and we visited Will Russell in Maine.  Will went on to form his own tour company WINGS and I’m guessing, based solely on his experience in Alaska, he included the following hints on his web page: 

 “Tour Leaders  ... The leader is the single most important element of a birding tour. He or she is responsible for every element of the tour once it’s underway, including bird finding, identification, and interpretation; tour logistics; and sensitive, patient attention to the needs of the group. It’s a remarkably challenging task. A brilliantly designed tour with a terrible leader will never be a great one, but a logistically challenged tour with a brilliant leader sometimes can.”

While Joseph and Monty were away in Alaska, I was back home in Ottawa, adjusting our wedding date, so Joseph arrived to find out he was getting married in two weeks!!