The lighter side of G.I. Smith

Like a lot of other visitors to the Colchester Historical Museum on Young Street in Truro I was very impressed with the present exhibit.
The Life and Times of George Isaac (G.I.) Smith, born 100 years ago in 1909, is truly a celebration of the huge contributions made by the Stewiacke, Colchester County native.
A soldier, lawyer, politician and family man, Ike Smith helped shape the county, the province and Canada as well.
"I appreciate some of the other aspects of Isaac's life," Maud Smith, G.I.'s sister-in-law, told me recently. "You can get into a whole lot of junk and just talk politics but if you don't mind my opinion you'll look at the lighter side of Isaac's life. No one wants to read on and on about his political journey and a long list of his accomplishments. That would be boring,.there are many other interesting things."
Maud is a former school teacher who attended the Provincial Normal College in Truro. After graduation, the Pictou County native's teaching career took her to Stewiacke during the late 1940s. It was there that she married Ike's younger brother Harold, a farmer, in 1961.
"The first time that I saw Isaac was before that when I was teaching at the Brookfield Rural High School in 1956," Maud recalled. "Of course, after marrying Harold, we would get together for years over smelts and biscuits.
"I'll always remember how much Isaac enjoyed getting around the stove and taking part with the cooking. One Christmas we would go to Truro to Isaac and Sally's and the next Christmas they would come out to the farm in Stewiacke. The way that I would describe my brother-in-law, he was always good to us, he was very kind."
Touching briefly on politics she told me how the Smith family had voted Liberal before the First World War.
"But when conscription became an issue, when you became a certain age the government could make you join the army, the Smith family became Conservatives," she said.
We discussed G.I. Smith serving as a Progressive Conservative MLA for Colchester County from 1949 to 1974 and his becoming premier of Nova Scotia in 1967. He lost to Gerry Regan in 1970.
Maud was all smiles, too, as she shared a memory regarding Ike becoming a Senator in 1975 under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
"At the time the Smith family and friends had quite a celebration at St. Andrews River," she said. "A red carpet was prepared for G.I. Smith to walk across. It was actually old white bed sheets laid on the ground. One of the family found a large piece of birch bark and we added writing to congratulate Ike. He thought that it was great - that birch bark plaque, keepsake or whatever.
Maud also recalled hearing older people talk about her brother-in-law playing hockey for a number of Stewiacke teams.
"Isaac was apparently a pretty good hockey player for Stewiacke and they say that he was a good country ball player too," she said.
Win Langille, a former star athlete who played both senior hockey and senior baseball for the Truro Bearcats, also spoke about G.I Smith's interest in athletics.
"Ike coached our Colchester County Academy hockey team during the 1930s," Langille said. "He knew his hockey. As a hockey player he was a little ahead of me but I recall that he was a good ballplayer, a second baseman. Ike knew what he was doing in anything he tried. Ike was a good guy."
Retired Deputy Sheriff Peter Fleck also had a story to tell.
"I was coaching Bentley's in a Little League play-off baseball game during the late 1960s," Fleck recounted.
"G.I. Smith was premier at the time and one of his sons, George, was playing for our team. A couple of the players were fooling around and one chased the other around the corner of the dugout in an attempt to throw a dipper of water on him. The young player threw the water without looking and who do you think got the water right in the face?
"I went right to the player and told him to apologize to Premier Smith. I'll always remember G.I. (Smith) saying, 'that's alright Peter, the lads are a little excited, they were just having fun.' That's the kind of man I remember when someone mentions G.I Smith."
The Life and Times of G.I. Smith exhibit will remain on display until April 15.

Lyle Carter is a freelance columnist who lives in Brookfield