Gordon's sense of humour

Jokes and fun were an important ingredient in the lives of Gordon and Lois. "We had a lot of good laughs" is an expression Lois uses frequently in describing an evening of playing cards or other forms of socializing. Roberta Dundas recently related a joke which she and her friend Gladys Campbell, as little girls played on their teacher Mr. McEwan. One lunch hour Roberta and Gladys decided to exchange clothes and to become the other person for the afternoon. When the bell rang to end the lunch hour, the two girls went and sat in each other's desk. The teacher recognized the joke, and for the whole afternoon he called each girl by the other's name. Of course they loved the idea that they were fooling their teacher. I am sure that there were lots of exchanges of giggles between the girls that afternoon, and I am sure that the teacher also enjoyed the joke. On occasion, however, Gordon's sense of humour could get him in trouble. The annual Christmas concert at the school was an important event for the whole community with not only the parents of the children, but also the extended family and the neighbours attending. At one of these concerts at SS# 9 Downie, Gordon told a joke involving two of the school trustees: Freddy Fulcher and Joe Killoran. The joke went like this: One day Freddy met Joe on the road. Freddy stopped Joe and said "look at your nose and tell me what time it is". To which Joe replied "Look at your own, mine ain't running!". Thinking this was a wonderful joke, Earl Richardson a neighbour of both Freddy and Joe, laughed loudly and long. Unfortunately, Fred Fulcher did not see the humour in the story. Thinking that Earl and the teacher had planned this together to make him look foolish, Freddy was deeply insulted. By the next day, the teacher as well as the whole community had heard how Freddy reacted to the joke. There was nothing to be done but Gordon had to pay a visit to the Fulcher home and to humbly apologize and assure Freddy that the joke had not been pre-arranged with Earl Richardson. Here is a picture of #9 school, the site of the infamous "running nose" joke.