Ric Hall’s Quiet Time For Fishing

Many Veterans have submitted, to Veteran Ric Hall, photographs of their downtime and free time in the Force.  According to Ric “it seems casting the fish line in the water as part of ones duties has been a tradition over the years.”

As outlined by Ric, “for those of you wondering what detachment work was like “back in the day”, here is a prime example. Remind you of the Andy Griffith show?? Fred Stark, former North Van. Det. colleague, kindly sent this old photo of Dave Green and I fishing at Alta Lake. This would be back in the early 60’s when life was much simpler.”

“Another hard day on detachment life circa 1964, young Constables Dave Green and Keith Leishman take a break from their gruelling duties and throw the old fishing line into Alice Lake. According to Veteran Fred Stark who took the picture “it was just one of our excursions into new territory. Dave Green was quite an avid fisherman. He and I took the train to Anderson Lake once and stayed at the lodge there for a couple of days. That was before there was a road to Whistler. As to fatigues, I think that is just what we wore. Considering the wages at the time, we probably could not afford to by a pair of jeans, and issue fatigues were free, after all. I don’t have a photo of myself from that trip, so I don’t know if I wore fatigues as well; but I probably did. That is all I can come up with for now.”

Photograph of Constables Dave Green and Keith Leishman in RCMP fatigues enjoying the peaceful lakeside (Source of photo – Fred Stark).

Fred was obviously the “bon vivant” of the group because he did find another photo of himself on their fishing expedition…..no poor man’s….aka constables…fatigues for Fred!

Veteran Keith Leishman commented on the above photo – “I am hoping that Fred Stark has a better memory than me. I can’t recall why we were in fatigues. I am sure it wasn’t a fatigue day or training day. Probably we just didn’t want to risk tearing our jeans – remember we weren’t paid much in those days.”

Veteran Fred Stark added “As to Alice Lake, it was just one of our excursions into new territory. Dave Green was quite an avid fisherman. He and I took the train to Anderson Lake once and stayed at the lodge there for a couple of days. That was before there was a road to Whistler. As to fatigues, I think that is just what we wore. Considering the wages at the time, we probably could not afford to by a pair of jeans, and issue fatigues were free, after all. I don’t have a photo of myself from that trip, so I don’t know if I wore fatigues as well; but I probably did. That is all I can come up with for now. More photos are sure to come before long. Also, as I write my life story, there is a funny one of Dave and I taking a huge mental patient, in straight jacket, to Essendale. I will send the little excerpt when it is done. I am not incorporating much about police work into my story, only a few comical incidents.”

According to Ric, “I love the picture….early 1960s, hippies were starting to flourish and the Beatles were on the rise! No overtime for members and brown fatigues!”

Veteran Dave Green passed away On November 9, 2014 in Langley, BC.

Photograph of Constable Fred Stark (Source of photo – Fred Stark).

Ric has included below other photographs of members experiencing the benefits of being stationed in an isolated posts somewhere in northern Canada.

Photograph of Constable Peter Bird at Atlin Lake Detachment with his big fish catch (Source of photo – Ric Hall’s Photo Collection).

If you have old Force photographs that Ric can use in a forthcoming photo webpage, please email Ric at rshall69@shaw.ca.