A local jokester has spent his life overseas and in the sea, choosing two years ago to make the move to Collingwood to be closer to family.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we sat down with Mike Hodgson, 80, a Navy veteran and local volunteer.
Q: Where are you from?
A: I’m originally from England. I came to Canada in 1951 when I was 13. I went to Mimico High School, graduated at 15 and two years later I joined the (Royal Canadian) Navy.
Forty-two-and-a-half years later, I retired from the Navy.
Q: What made you want to serve in the Navy?
A: The adventure of the sea.
Q: Do you have any stories of adventures you’d like to share?
A: There’s quite a few.
I was on the commissioning crew of the world’s fastest war ship (the HMCS Bras d'Or) in 1968.
We could do 70 knots, which is close to 80 miles per hour.
It’s now a museum piece in Matane, Que.
Q: What was it like being in the Royal Canadian Navy in the 1960s?
A: Pretty exciting.
Mostly NATO in those days.
You might remember the October Crisis, which was in 1962.
I was a gunner on a frigate. Our admiral put us on war footing and sent the entire fleet to sea.
We worked for the Americans. A lot of people don’t know that. Canada protected the northern flank.
In those days, we had an aircraft carrier, 21 destroyers, 10 frigates and six minesweepers on the East coast alone.
Today, we don’t have that.
Q: When did you retire?
I retired in 1998. When I retired, I got a new job as a Justice of the Peace in the province of Nova Scotia.
I was also a provincial returning officer, so I ran elections. If you do one election, guess what? You get to do a federal and municipal too.
I was also a clerk here during the last provincial election. I still do it.
I also did showbiz.
Q: What did you do in showbiz?
A: The armed forces had a thing called the Tattoo in 1967. It was a road show that told the 400-year history of the Canadian military. It was the biggest road show ever.
For the stadium version, I was a stage manager. I had 1,900 performers under me.
I always loved that, so when I was in Halifax I became a producer for the Gilbert and Sullivan Society and that got me a career in showbiz.
I was on Black Harbour, which was a CBC production, 10 episodes. I was also in a movie with Kelsey Grammer. I was one of the extras.
I’m a bit of a rascal, as you can tell.
Q: Have you ever been married?
A: Yes.
I lost my good lady almost five years ago.
We were married for almost 54 years.
She put up with a lot. With my years in the Navy, I spent almost 33 of them at sea.
Q: How did you meet?
A: We met skating in the Dalhousie University skating rink in Halifax.
Q: What brought you to Collingwood?
A: My oldest son lives on Minnesota Street. My granddaughter lives on Fourth Street. My two grandsons live in Toronto.
I was sitting in Dartmouth, N.S. in 2,100 square feet of house all on my own, rattling around. If there were a problem, it was going to take them four hours to get to me.
When I found out I could come here and bring my dog (Prince), it didn’t take much. So I dropped everything I was doing in Nova Scotia, came here and started to rebuild.
That was two years ago.
Q: What do you think of Collingwood? What are your impressions?
A: I like Collingwood. I’ve been up here every summer and Christmas for years.
Q: You also do a lot of volunteering in the area. Where do you volunteer?
I volunteer here, at Raglan Village. I also volunteer for the Alzheimer’s Society.
Q: What made you want to choose that cause to volunteer your time with?
A: Basically, because I nursed my good lady for seven years.
She had dementia.
I lend that experience back to those who are going through that journey.
I’m the co-ordinator of the caregivers support group. The meetings are at Raglan Village. Normally it’s about 12 to 16 people. We offer them help, advice, or whatever they need.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every Saturday. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
