In late 1915, as WW1 continued, our community began to recruit for the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force.

Military paperwork dated September 6th, 1915 confirms a young fellow, William Charles Morgan, born July 28th, 1895 enrolled and was examined at Carling Heights [Wolseley Barracks]. The medical records for this young fellow from Berlin, Ontario confirm he measured 5’-4” and he had a scar on a finger of his left hand.

Military paperwork dated February 14th, 1917 confirms a young fellow, William Charles Morgan enrolled at Kitchener, joining the Canadian army. The medical records confirm this young fellow measured 5’-8” and he had been vaccinated twice on his left arm. He had a tattoo of a maple leaf, above a scroll containing “Canada 118”. There were a few other tattoos…”Gwen”, “Emma”, “Beckie”, and a serpent on the right forearm. And, he had a one-inch scar one inch below the left angle of his mouth.

That’s what we found when we looked up my grandfather’s World War 1 records.

You may wonder, back during World War 1, were there 2 William Charles Morgans in our community?

No…the same man enrolled twice…he applied for overseas service twice…he was accepted twice.

Then - why would a young man enrol for the army twice?

What’s the story behind the growth in height?

And, what about the facial scar and all those tattoos?

The war records confirmed the stories my Mom told me about her Dad.

In 1915, my Granddad was too young to join the army. So, he lied about his age. In 1915, the army accepted my Granddad Morgan’s application and he became a bugle boy in the 118th Battalion.

Then in 1917, when he was of legal age he enrolled a second time.

My Grandfather served in the trenches of Belgium. He was exposed to chemical warfare…he was gassed. As a result, he had half his stomach removed and he was a sickly man for the rest of his life. This did not stop him from serving in World War 2…but it did preclude him serving overseas. In WW2, my Granddad was a Captain of the Army Signal Corps, serving in London, Ontario. Apparently, my Granddad could draw maps with both hands at the same time.

My Granddad Morgan died in his early 60’s, in 1963, when I was a child. I shall always  remember laughing together while I sat on his knee. I shall think about the blurred tattoo on his arm…the tattoos were something I had forgotten all about until I read his WW1 records…and childhood memories came to me.

I shall think of my Granddad Morgan today…

…I shall think of a brave, patriotic, adventurous, courageous, naive, restless, young fellow leaving Canadian soil, crammed on a ship with his mates…

…and, today, I shall think of that young fellow aging quickly, living each day as fully as he could while he shared the shock and awe of WW1 trench warfare with his mates…

…and I shall think of that young fellow, still a teenager…but with 3 years of hardened army service on his record…coming home to Canada…a man…a changed man.

…and, today, I shall think of my Granddad Baker who refused to talk about the 7 years he spent in the army, overseas, in World War 2.

…and I shall think of my Dad, who enrolled in the Canadian Navy as soon as he turned 18, serving in Halifax during 1944 and 1945.

…and, today, I shall think of my 2 sons who, thankfully, have not faced the weapons of enemies.

This is the 13^th and final Thought Post in a 'Baker's Dozen series', with Dirk Schlimm's wisdom being the main ingredient.

Here's the 13^th quote taken from Dirk's book, 'Influencing Powerful People':

“Be ready to discuss issues when the situation is favorable and postpone when the time is not right.”

Intelligent people: 

• anticipate situations,
• prepare options for their responses to those anticipated situations, and
• when the anticipated situations become reality, implement prepared and favourable responses.

Probably, most people should not work for powerful people. When I use the words powerful people, I mean people who:

• hold positions of power over us, 
• are driven to meet their goals [not ours], and 
• put lots of pressure on us as we try to do work for them.

In his book, 'Influencing Powerful People', Dirk Schlimm provides 16 major strategies and dozens of suggestions on how we can improve our ability to work with powerful people. 

He also advises, “Deciding not to work for or with a powerful person is not a sign of weakness but of wisdom.” 

That piece of advice triggered a memory - I once heard an educational guru speak words like, "People can behave in offensive ways, however, you do not have to be offended." The point was, some people behave in ways that others consider offensive. That's a choice they make. You have the ability to either be offended or not be offended by their behaviour. That's a choice you make.

I get that message and acknowledge it is accurate thinking and good advice. Here's an article I wrote on this topic a few years ago. 

While the advice is good, often, in real-life situations people cannot control their emotions and as a result they become offended when others behave offensively. Most people become offended when their powerful bosses behave offensively. The state of our emotions and our skills at self-control determine the outcome.

So, if we find ourselves getting anxious and stressed out because our bosses behave in ways that trigger our fears and bad emotional responses, we should remember Dirk's advice. 

“Deciding not to work for or with a powerful person is not a sign of weakness but of wisdom.” 

We can choose to not work for that boss.

This gives us at least 3 options:

1. Choose to learn Dirk's strategies and tactics for changing how we behave so we do better when dealing with powerful people.
2. Choose to follow Dirk's advice as captured in the above quote and stop working for the powerful boss.
3. Choose to carry on as is and continue to have miserable work experiences.

Clearly, that last option is the poorest of the 3.