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Funny stories on the menu as Jack Robinson marks 80 years

Jack Robinson has a lot of stories to tell and many of them end with a punchline.

Jack Robinson has a lot of stories to tell and many of them end with a punchline.

He had the opportunity to deliver a few zingers to family and friends at the Ma-Mow-We-Tak Friendship Centre during a surprise 80th birthday party April 17 and to be the butt of a few jokes as well.

More than a few of those stories focused on being out in the bush, as Robinson loves hunting and has had his share of mishaps in pursuit of his prey.

“One time I was out, I got into an accident with my four-wheeler,” Robinson told those in attendance, recalling how his partner Maryann Denechezhe had helped him out. “I was going to back it off the truck and I fell back and it fell on me. She was there to take me to the hospital emergency but when I was laying there – I got knocked out – I was laying there and she was beside me holding my head and I opened my eyes and I said, ‘That’s it. I’m going. I see the angels coming for me.’ She says, ‘Those are a flock of snow geese.’”

As his daughter Gina Spence put it, Robinson first came to what has become his home “when Thompson was just becoming Thompson,” arriving with a group of workers surveying the area when he was 16, and many of the friends who spoke at his birthday celebration have known him for 30 years or more.

Lane Boles recalled one time when he dropped in to say hi to Robinson when he was living in a cabin south of town after returning to Thompson around 1998.

“I sat inside the cabin for a minute and on the table were two bowls,” he recounted. “There was a bowl with about seven or eight chocolate-covered almonds and in the other bowl was probably about 30 just regular almonds. I was a little hungry, hadn’t eaten. I knew Jack wouldn’t mind. I didn’t want to eat the special ones that were chocolate so I started picking up the regular almonds. Jack walks in, he sees me helping myself and I said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I was just so hungry, Jack.’ Jack says, ‘No, you help yourself, Lane. You’re sort of helping me.’ He says, ‘All I can do is lick the chocolate off.’”

Although he was an accomplished hunter, Robinson didn’t always get his moose, said Bobbi Montean, noting that for many years Robinson was the one responsible for hunting food for Ma-Mow-We-Tak’s elders’ feast.

“Jack and I were attending a luncheon, I think, at the homeless shelter and he calls me aside and says I’ve got to tell you something and you have to tell [his brother] Eric. OK, I automatically thought someone had passed away or something. He says, ‘Yeah, we went out hunting. I saw a really good moose down by Snow Lake.’ He said, ‘We were driving by and we decided to stop and we’re looking at it,’ and he said, ‘It looked at us so I got out and shot it but it didn’t go down. Then I shot it again but it still didn’t go down and I think that’s when the sirens and the lights come up behind me.’ He had shot a decoy moose.”

Apparently Robinson got so much ribbing over the years about that from John Donovan that he had to drop by the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM) one day.

“I’m at a meeting, I think it was a meeting with the staff at AFM, and there’s a knock at the door and the secretary goes, ‘Jack’s here and he wants to talk to you.’ I said we’re having a meeting. She says, No, right now.’ Is it that important? He says it’s really important. I said OK so I stopped the meeting and I go outside and Jack’s out there and he said, ‘Come look at this,’ and I go out and there’s a moose in the back of his truck. He shot a moose, he’s got the head mounted on a bale of hay or whatever the hell it is and it’s sitting in the back of his truck and I said, ‘Well, good for you. You got a moose.’ He says, ‘Go touch it.’ I said, ‘What do you want me to touch it for?’ ‘Touch it,’ he says. ‘It’s not styrofoam.’

Robinson received birthday greetings from Mayor Dennis Fenske on behalf of the City of Thompson delivered by Coun. Blake Ellis, one of two councillors in attendance along with Coun. Penny Byer.

“Your contribution to the community and Northern Manitoba throughout the years has been greatly appreciated,” said Fenske’s letter. “It is people like you that shape Thompson to be a great place to work, live and raise a family.”

He also received greetings from Premier Brian Pallister delivered by Thompson MLA Kelly Bindle, who also presented a gift of a beadwork necklace he had bought for himself.

“I wore it a couple of times, Bindle said. “I ran into people and they’re asking me questions like, ‘So you’re a thunderbird?’ and I didn’t quite understand what all that meant. But when I attended Jack’s [cultural awareness] seminar I found out each of the symbols has a meaning and I also found out Jack was a member of the thunderbird clan so I thought this is perfect to give this to Jack.”

Former MLA Steve Ashton was also there to extend good wishes from hiimself and on behalf of his daughter, Churchill-Keewatinook Aski MP Niki Ashton, saying one thing that distinguished Robinson was his sense of humour and zest for life.

“Jack you’re a real inspiration to us and when I grow up I want to be like you,” said Ashton.

Robinson’s first grandchild Valerie Schweder, who lives in Churchill and is an outdoorsperson like her grandfather, having won the Queen Trapper title in the Hudson Bay port town five times, said she appreciated seeing the love and admiration expressed for Robinson.

“I just want to say thank you,” she said. “It’s nice to see everybody come together for him. I don’t really get to hang around with my grandpa too much so just seeing how he’s impacted everybody’s life makes me love him even more. So happy birthday, grandpa.”

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