Elee and I began our latest Adventures in Social Writing event not with Breton's illot-mollot but with a fill-in-the-blanks exercise using a text ("The Good Old Days") by former Province sports reporter and Bowen Island resident Jim Kearney.

What you see below is what we handed out to the audience. Below that, Kearney in full.

"The Good Old Days"*

Some of the _______________ were whooping it up – not in Robert Service’s Malemute Saloon – but in the Bowen Island house belonging to Hughie Watson’s _______________. She wasn’t there, of course, but _______________was – leading, as it happened, a rather bibulous _________________________.

The subject, long before _______________’s latest_____________, was the feasibility of going over _______________ in a _______________ and living to tell about it. Watson was leading the _______________ for the _______________ and getting nowhere when the group suggested an empirical solution:

There was a _______________ at one corner of the house. How about wrestling it into the _______________, stuffing _______________ inside and _______________ it off? “__________ idea,” or something to that effect, said Watson, and the experiment was_________________.

"The Good Old Days"

Some of the boys were whooping it up – not in Robert Service’s Malemute Saloon – but in the Bowen Island house belonging to Hughie Watson’s grandmother. She wasn’t there, of course, but Hughie was – leading, as it happened, a rather bibulous discussion group.

The subject, long before Pierre Berton’s latest book, was the feasibility of going over Niagara Falls in a barrel and living to tell about it. Watson was leading the argument for the affirmative and getting nowhere when the group suggested an empirical solution:

There was a rain barrel at one corner of the house. How about wrestling it into the roof, stuffing Hughie inside and rolling it off? “Splendid idea,” or something to that effect, said Watson, and the experiment was on.


*Jim Kearney, "The Good Old Days," Howe Sounds: Fact, fiction and fantasy from the writers of Bowen Island (A Bowen Island Anthology), Richard Littlemore, ed. (Bowen Island Arts Council: Bowen Island), p. 145