Life Lesson #6

Life Lesson #6 – trust your first instincts. This is a lesson I learned in my very first first-year English class, taught by Professor Fred MacRae. On the first day we met him, he was making a point about symbolism as I recall (it IS 43 years ago)… and he drew on the blackboard a three-sided figure with a triangle in the middle. What does that represent, he asked? Great puzzlement among the freshmen. Finally one student suggested – a shamrock, something Celic? Another suggested the trinity? No to both, said Prof. MacRae. There were a few other stabs. And then I knew what it was, or was pretty sure. But I thought it can’t be. But nobody else was coming up with it and I thought, what the hell. So I said (tentative voice) – looks to me like the logo for the Cities Service Gas Stations which I had often seen in the bordering states of North Dakota and Minnesota. Don’t exist anymore, but they were pretty popular when I was younger. I think the Citgo company is what Cities Service became. Anyway – I was right. Kind of obscure and derived from the world of advertising, which I wouldn’t have expected from the stern Calvinist aura of Prof MacRae. Ever since, I’ve gone with my gut – although the results haven’t always been 100%, that’s for sure…

Mr. Eric Friesen (BA 1967)

Life Lesson #6

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