I look at the three years that we spent in Shearwater as my most formative years. It was there that I changed from a kid into a teenager, and where I started many of the habits and pursuits that I still continue today.
I was 11 when we moved to Barracuda Drive in 1979, and we left when I was still 14. I kept a diary and wrote frequently in it. It was very private and very embarrassing to read, but it’s a record of who I was at the time – a young boy, too young, struggling to find his way with girls and with the world in general. I don’t think I have it any more. That might be for the best.
Grade School
Grades 8 and 9 were at Hampton Gray Memorial School – now a Federal Heritage building – and grade 10 was at Dartmouth High School.
I liked the first two years well enough. The teachers were at least moderately competent and I didn’t have issues with any of them. Shop class was probably my worst, since I wasn’t competent at all with tools, and the insistence on precise lines in the drafting lessons drove me crazy.
We lived close to Hampton Gray, so I would walk back and forth. Usually I would walk from Barracuda Drive across Harvard Avenue, cross the main road, then walk along the CN tracks to the school. See the red line in the map below.
That’s right, I walked along active railway tracks. I was a dumb kid, apparently. I remember seeing trains a few times, and at least one time the train was stopped there, blocking my way. I knew enough to not climb on/through it but a few of my friends did.
At the time, I didn’t care about trains so it wasn’t really noted in my diary. One thing I do remember is the switch where the line that used to go to Musquodoboit diverged from the line to the Autoport. It was definitely still there in 1982 but it was removed years ago. I think in 1982 that track only went to the Ultramar tank farm just past the Autoport.
High School
After grade 9, we all switched to Dartmouth High School. This meant a bus ride every morning and afternoon, and a completely new – and larger – school. I hated it. I was miserable.
I think the main reasons why I hated it were the teachers – not great – and the fact that I had very few classes in common with my friends. I felt very isolated and alone. It sucked.
The bright spots of grade 10 were the school library (I read so much science fiction), chess club, typing class (most useful class I took in high school), and the computer lab across from my locker. I wasn’t even taking a computer class but the lab was open to everyone, so I wandered in and started playing with the Commodore PETs in there.
When I first started using the computers, it was like the heavens opened up, the hand of God pointed at me, and a voice boomed forth, “do this! This is your destiny!”
I never considered a different career after that.
Music
My friend, Steve Roy, introduced me to good music. Before that all I really listened to was whatever like parents were playing or maybe ABBA or the Bee Gees, not that they were bad. I remember basement sessions of listening to groups like Trooper and April Wine and Billy Joel’s Glass Houses album. He introduced me to a lot of bands that I still like today.
Steve was a good friend. I’m grateful for the friendship that we had.
Today I can’t hear “Here For a Good Time” without thinking of the two of us in my basement, singing at the top of our lungs.
Girls
Don’t worry, I’m not going into any details here.
For whatever reason, there were a number of school dances held at Hampton Gray during the year. I went to most if not all of them, because there wasn’t much else to do and because I got to dance with girls!
Beyond the dances, I was a super awkward nerd. Somehow I managed to befriend a couple of girls, and ruined it by asking one of them out. sigh
Perhaps the most significant event of my time in Shearwater took place on July 1, 1982. It was the last Dominion Day – renamed to Canada Day later that year. Two friends and I went out in the evening to watch the fireworks, met up with two female friends, and fireworks ensued. It really hurt to move away eight days later.
Biking
I biked everywhere while I was in Shearwater. It was my independence – get on my bike and go roam for a couple of hours. I’d bike all over the public parts of Shearwater, occasionally meeting up with friends, but mostly just by myself. I enjoyed that.
Later on in my time at Shearwater, I would bike into Halifax. Looking back, I can’t believe my parents were OK with that.
I’d bike the 7 km from Shearwater to the ferry terminal in downtown Dartmouth, take the ferry across to Halifax, then bike another few kilometres to a gaming store like Odyssey 2000 downtown or Strange Adventures up at the corner of Robie and Cunard… then bike back. All in the days before cell phones.
Biking was freedom.
Ships and Planes
Since Halifax is the home of Canada’s Atlantic Fleet, I saw a lot of navy ships. Back in the early 1980s we still had some Restigouche-class destroyer escorts kicking around, the old Oberon-class subs were sneaking in and out of the harbour, and CFB Shearwater was buzzing with activity.
Beyond the Sea Kings that buzzed to and fro, Canada’s fleet of Tracker anti-submarine aircraft was still flying. They would fly over my house frequently and I grew quite used to their raucous sound.
Many NATO ships would visit Halifax. Usually they would tie up in Halifax itself, but the American ships and submarines would tie up almost right in front of my house. Halifax had a policy preventing ships bearing nuclear weapons from docking in the city, and the US wouldn’t disclose whether their vessels were carrying nukes, so they docked at the concrete jetty “below” my house.
I could step out onto my front porch and see a Spruance-class destroyer or an attack submarine docked there. My dad arranged for tours on the ships – they were not open to the public, but being in the military he could make a request – and he and I would be taken around the ships and subs.
I remember being in the bridge of a submarine, and the officer in charge asking if I’d like to use the periscope. I looked through it and I could see into our living room and practically read the book titles on the coffee table. Spooky.
All Good Things Come to an End
On July 9, 1982 we left our house in Shearwater and moved into a hotel off the Mic Mac Rotary. I’m not sure why we didn’t go immediately to our house in New Brunswick – either my dad’s work wasn’t complete and we had to vacate the house for the next family, or the people renting our house in New Brunswick hadn’t finished moving out – but we spent a week or so in the hotel before we actually moved to New Brunswick.
I was really, really sad to leave.
It was years before I went back to Shearwater. Eventually I was in Halifax for another reason and took an hour to drive around the old neighbourhood and remember.
I’ve been back several times since then. It has changed over the years. Our old house is there at 3 Barracuda Drive, but it has been refurbished. The school closed and is used for other purposes; for example, the CANEX has moved into it. The base has changed a lot, the Trackers and Sea Kings are gone, but the Cyclones are there now.
Things change. Time softens the hard edges of memories. Shearwater was pretty good to me.
Just One More Thing
I was in Shearwater briefly in October 2024, railfanning. That’s for another post, soon, but here’s a teaser…
