20 November
There were 20 men absent without leave at the morning muster!
That might be a record. Somehow I doubt that they were busy shopping for tea.
Years ago, when I lived in Dollarton, B.C. (a neighbourhood in the District of North Vancouver: 49.308543 -122.951128) there were two small grocery stores near by. Mr. Stirrat had one, and Mr. Gillis had the other. Mr. Gillis's store was about 100 metres farther away, but you could mail a letter there, and he was nicer to kids than Mr. Stirrat, so we always went to his store. In 1969, when I was visiting home, my mom wanted me to get something from Stirrat's. Mr. Gillis's store had long closed by then. Anyway, when I was in his store, Mr. Stirrat and I were talking about another landing on the moon. At this point, Mr. Stirrat must have been close to 90 years old. He said that it was so amazing to him to have seen such changes in his life.
When he was a young man, he was the Port Inspector in Colombo. He remembers how excited they were when they got an undersea cable to London and they could telegraph there directly. He also started the last clipper ship race from Colombo to London, which was held each year. The ships raced to be the first on to take the first tea of the season to Great Britain. Just imagine, going from clipper ships to men on the moon, and from telegraph lines to computers in one lifetime.
