Jim MacMillan's Classification

Jim introduced Jacob who played a little mood music throughout the talk and joined him on a couple of songs at the end.

Jim said he was born in 1956 and the opportunity to review the last 6 decades has been a trip.  James Clarence MacMillan came back from Vimy to become Jim's grandfather though they never knew each other - he died at 41 after marrying Hazel Norton and becoming a captain on the boats.  Jim's father Doug is 88 now but was only 15 when his father died and he shipped out as an engineer for 10 years until he married and came ashore.  Barbara Jean McLung was from Saskatchewan but inherited a cottage at Go Home Lake from her uncle and, according to Jim, 'they've been going there since 1951' - for 5 years in vitro, I guess.

His parents started a house on Victoria but for the first while managed only the basement and Jim bathed in a big tub (pictured) sometimes and sometimes in a smaller one.  Ergo the pre fine.

He had lots of pictures - working on boats, with his pet squirrel, as a pouty teenager, smoking and drinking at the same time.  Skiing became a big thing - at one time Midland was the ski jumping centre of Eastern Ontario with three jumps and Jim feels the experiences on the hills were invaluable.  And motorcycles.

Rotary played a role in the family's life early on - his dad bought a lottery ticket for $1.75 and won motor boat which made trips to the cottage a lot easier, no begging for rides.  It was a big deal for a blue collar family.

A teacher introduced him to music which was a terrific experience and he played some festivals but when he went to Guelph to take Human Physiology and Kinetics it took a back seat.  He managed to quit smoking at University and he's glad to say all his family have since quit too.  He pursued skiing, taking up ski racing and becoming nationally ranked for a while and coaching the woman's team.  He always came back to Midland for summer jobs and learned how to deal with groups, how to speak to groups and lead while at Historical Parks and it was there he met Joan Christine Powell.

They married and went to Queen's for teacher's degrees and then took positions 600 miles north of Thunder Bay where Joan taught gr. 3 and he taught music to all grades and wrote music and made his first album.  Expecting a baby the next year they didn't go back but they bought a house and he entered the music business which he describes as 20% playing and 80% business.  On the advice of Robbert Hartog he incorporated a company that still exists and got into organization being the founding President of Ontario Council of Folk Festivals and a founding Director of Festivals Ontario.  At a Contact conference he managed to book 2.5 years worth of work as a young persons' entertainer which took him 500,000 kms to every Board and Library around.  He played the Roy Thomson Hall, the Calgary Olympics and at Osaka as a rep of Ontario.

Through the 90's arts funding dried up and he took a job at Regent teaching music and coaching and then moved to Elmvale HS to assist the students who were struggling.

Time was running out so he ran through the remaining pictures and then he and Jacob played a couple of tunes for us.