The Sandlot meets Stand By Me-Manotick style, circa 1970. The passing of the romantic age.

Jon Fee, pictured above, was one of the best young athletes in Manotick history. A short story reprinted from six years ago, shortly after his passing.

The passing of the romantic age

As we reach certain destinations in our life age wise, the wistful nostalgic memories of our youth tug at us like a puppy does to a toy. The memories…oh the memories! And interwoven through those chards of thought are people. Many indelibly etched, their words, their actions, more importantly their interactions with us and those memories are the foundation of our youth, our adolescence, and our early adult life and if we’re fortunate, perhaps beyond as we roll through the decades together.

The 613-the phone exchange known as Ottawa and more specifically the 692-that which is attributed to the Manotick area has like many other areas of our city, the rurals, the valley, and the province and beyond, we’ve lost a few good souls recently. Notably Mrs. Rita Kelly, the matriarch of maybe the largest and most well-known Kelly clan from the River road; Mrs. Betty McDonald, wife of Ian, mother to Mickey and Cindy; a kind and gentle soul who lived a great life in our community. And the latest one, only a few short days ago that shook me to my core not because he was a close friend or even someone who I’ve seen recently but because of our own fleeting interaction on a ball diamond 44 years ago.

There have been several movies where the lead actor has a chance to go back in time and change his destiny. I think of one in particular, ‘All over again’ where the lead actor, Jim Belushi, hits the home run in his youth as opposed to striking out and how things changed…I watched that movie and thought of my own parallel and it still resonates with me today. Although I was a bit younger than the youth character in the movie I had a similar scenario only in my story, I was fortunate and didn’t strike out. It had zero impact on my life as a whole which ultimately means it would never even had made the cutting room floor as a movie but given how that day played out and with the recent news of the passing of one of the main players, I found myself back on the diamond at the Manotick Public school once more.

Come back with me in time, to the early summer of 1970 in a small village south of Ottawa called Manotick. I was a student at St. Leonard’s elementary. We were the Catholic elementary school; the public version was aptly named Manotick Public and was a mere 1.5k away in other words…close. There was the odd flair up between the schools in my day. Typically it was reserved for the local outdoor rink on the weekends or for one school year when the hierarchy of the schools thought it a good idea to have our bus pick up Manotick Public students on our route and after we would disembark at St. Leonard’s they would be taken to Manotick Public. Seemed simple enough and this was done to alleviate some of their bussing concerns at that time…ummm, disaster. It was brawl city within days and that ill-fated decision didn’t make it until Christmas. It highlighted the natural rivalry we had for our neighbours so when our teacher Mrs. O’Brien said we were going to play an exhibition fast ball game against Manotick Public at their school in the tail end of our grade five year, late May of 1970, it was a really, really….really big deal.

Elementary schools in those days went up to grade eight…Most of them anyway. Ours did and so did Manotick Public. Even at that early age there were two students, one from each school that had made a name for themselves in the area for athletics; Paul Rushleau from St. Leonard’s and Jon Fee from Manotick Public. I have to assume with this all-important game being played at Manotick Public that it was their teachers who suggested the contest. At any rate as it was told to us in our grade five class only a select number of grade fives would accompany our best from grade six to play the Manotick Public school combo of grade 5/6. When I think of it now, although I didn’t know them then but Rick Bracken, Greg Stark, Dave Graham, probably Johnny Mott, they likely were all in this game or certainly a number of them. All of them later became great friends; all of them are friends still to this day but on that beautiful early summer day in May of 1970 making friends was the last thought on my mind. Myself, Paul Rushleau, David MacDonald, Mark Martin, Billy O’Brien, Ronnie Demmers and Phil Byrne had been selected to join our grade six’s for this contest.

     After lunch, both grades were assembled, boys, girls and teachers and out we went to walk the short distance to Manotick Public, some 60+ St. Leonard students. There was nothing around St. Leonard’s in those days. No houses, no church, no stop signs into the village, just a quiet little road out toward the north end of the Island with a school and a farm up at the top of the hill, that’s all there was. We made the short walk and I remember punching my glove, trying to make the pocket even bigger as we walked, I remember the stillness of the day, not a hint of breeze. I made sure to stick real close to Paul Rushleau because not knowing what the future held my only certainty in life at that time was no matter what I figured I would survive if I’m with Paul because to me he was the toughest man on the planet earth so given we were heading into enemy territory that seemed like a good career move.

We arrived at the school and I got my first look at Jon Fee. He was a bit taller than me, slender but looked very fit. He had a quiet confidence, you could see it oozing from him yet he didn’t give off an air of arrogance he just looked like he was ready to play. So, it was game on. We batted first. Mr. Yates, our gym teacher had accompanied our classes to this match of the century and he made our line ups. I was not in the starting lineup. We batted first and took a 1-0 lead. That emboldened us and despite a collection of players who had no chemistry, same as them, we fashioned a few good plays and held that lead though the first two innings of an agreed upon seven inning game. Then came the bottom of the third.

I can remember bits and pieces of their at-bats and some of their fielding moments but I can tell you discernably every at-bat Jon Fee had. He hit a line drive to our short stop in his first at bat. He came around for the second time in the bottom of the third, an error filled calamity for us and with the bases loaded, and still trailing 1-0 he hit a ball from our pitcher Vince Thompson that may still be travelling somewhere today. BTW for you Manotick enthusiasts, if you’re familiar with the school, the ball diamond at that time was in the northwest corner of their school yard. Jon Fee hit that homer almost to Bridge Street. Plain and simple that’s just sick. 4-1. After we made the third out I was inserted into the lineup. My spot was batting third.

With one out and one on in the top of the fourth I hit a line drive, should have been no more than a single but, these were 11, 12 year old boys and the Public lads booted that ball around like a soccer ball. Two wild throws later I had scooted around the bases for an inside the park home run. 4-3. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven…didn’t really care what happened after that. Paul Rushleau came up next with nobody on he hit his own smoke show. He hit it so far he jogged around the bases even though you could chase it down and try and get it back in play. The only fence was the one just before the road, Bridge Street and even as I type this now, as I’ve done countless times, I try and think in my mind, did he hit it as far as Jon?....I dunno…I really don’t….

The game progressed and as you would expect a steady stream of errors on both sides ruled the day. I was thrown out my next at bat. Jon Fee was doing all he could to champion his team that day but we had a bit more good fortune. He hit another towering shot in his third at bat which was caught for an out and a line drive single that he came around to score on for his fourth but here we were at the top of the seventh, up 9-6 and I was up again with two on. I caught a fast ball on the meat of the bat and it exploded up into the blue Manotick sky. It was nowhere near the depth charges Jon and Paul hit but it was over the outfielders heads who were playing in on the skinny little blond haired lad at the plate which was the right call, I just got lucky but it soared and I ran and seconds later I touched home for my second home run, a 12-6 lead and that’s how the game ended after we got them out in the bottom of the seventh. We lined up and shook hands and as we went through, I came to Jon in the line and I’ll never forget this and I related this story to him the few times I saw him later in life, he shook my hand and said ‘good game Liam, nice home run.’ The fact he knew my name made me feel ten feet tall. The fact he acknowledged my hit, well, I can’t even truly describe that moment.

 Because of the win the teachers allowed us to cross the road to Mc-Mac’s confectionary, since burned down, and the players all got a pop. Paul and I asked for RC Cola’s. We walked back to St. Leonard’s, kings of the world, drinking from our bottles and after regaling ourselves with our own exploits we both kind of looked at each other and said,’ geesuz can Jon Fee hit and run or what?’ Six years after that game was played John and several others from Manotick helped South Carleton to the Ontario High School hockey championships. The guy was the natural years before Robert Redford even thought of making the movie.

Post Script; Jon Fee passed away four days ago, as I write this. I received the news from a mutual friend, Tim Garland, who messaged me on Facebook with the obituary. It was incredible to read. He accomplished so much in his life. He taught, he travelled the world, he was married, he had children, he played the guitar, he liked to sing, you literally could feel the love in every line of that obituary and I don’t know if anybody from his family past or present will ever see this but if they do, I’d like them to know that for what was a fleeting moment in his incredible life many years ago, he gave us a window into not only his athleticism but a level of class that belied his young age.

As I understand it Jon and his wife bicycled through more than 25 countries. Clearly it was a passion. This is a song sung by the late Liam Clancy, yes I know, great first name- lol-,it’s about the passing of a romantic period in Ireland a century ago and although it’s not fully applicable here, when I read Tim’s message and subsequently read the obituary, I closed my eyes and pictured that summer day in May of 1970, to me, it too was a passing of a romantic age. Rest in peace, John.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xT59cIZdhk