We North End kids would feel the civic holiday was special enough that we'd always do a hike to one of the waterfalls on the border of the city. Webster's Falls was our favourite, but Chedoke was great, too.

We'd pack a lunch or take something to cook so we'd have a reason to build a fire.

Something about sitting around a smoky fire together for a time made us more than just a North-End gang -- we were a band of brothers.

We are saddened periodically by the death of Canadian soldiers who are in a faraway country to help protect members of international relief organizations as they provide food and shelter for unfortunate citizens of a country.

In a book titled Wise And Witty Sayings, Will Rogers, the lasso swinging cowboy, writes: "I have a scheme for stopping war. It's this: No nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one."

He continues: "If we can just let other people alone and do their own fighting we would be in good shape. When you get into trouble 5,000 miles away from home you've got to have been looking for it."

That witty saying by Rogers, who lived from 1879 to 1935, is true today.

Ted Wilcox is a lifetime Hamiltonian with a passion for sports, community and, most of all, family.