Description
Mr. Quick describes getting in trouble for a kind-hearted gesture, but being vindicated by his commanding officer.
Norman Quick
Mr. Quick was born in Toronto, Ontario on April 22, 1921. His father, a cinematographer, moved the family to Ottawa when he was very young and he remembers in particular, playing a lot of hockey wearing homemade equipment. Mr. Quick enlisted in the Medical Corps, but quickly transferred to the Film and Photo Corps once it was formed in England. His active service took him to Italy, where he filmed such notable actions as Ortona and Monte Cassino. Interestingly, he and his crew adopted a teenage boy named Ilio, who accompanied the Canadian film crew until its tour in Italy ended. Mr. Quick was then deployed to NW Europe, where he served in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. He remained in the Canadian Army as a cinematographer, but left after Paul Hellyer amalgamated Canada’s Armed Forces. Mr. Quick currently resides in Ottawa, Ontario.
Transcript
The first trouble I got into though was about three weeks after I was there. We were in a place ... a little place called Rocca. There was an old school house we’d taken over and a big fence around it and the orders were, “No fraternization.” So I’m out the back one day there. I had just finished having lunch or ... yeah I think it was lunch ... and I’m throwing what I hadn’t eaten into the buckets right near the fence. And all along the fence there must have been 10 kids — four or five years old — six years old — you know and they’re all looking. And I said to myself, “Why aren’t we feeding these kids? ” So I went back in and I went to Johnny Harper who was the cook. I said, “Johnny how many empty cans have you got? ” And he said, “I got lots of them.” I said, “Gimme them.” He said, “What for? ” I said, “I’m gonna ...” I said, “Don’t throw the ... don’t throw the... What food you got here that you were going to dump? ” He said, “This here and that there.” I said, “Give it to me.” So I took it out and I started feeding these kids. This officer came out, 2nd lieutenant and he says, “What do you think you’re doing sergeant? ” I said, “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m feeding these kids.” He says, “That’s fraternizing.” I said, “Fraternizing? They’re four, five, six years old, what can they fraternize? ” He says, “I’m going to report you.” and I says, “Go ahead I don’t give a ...” I didn’t like this guy anyway. So he goes in and he sees Bud Nigh — Bud Nigh was the major then. The CO asks this guy, his name was Barry Gilroy ... this lieutenant ... and he says, “What’s your problem Barry? ” “Well,” he says, “Norm Quick’s out there fraternizing.” He said, “What’s he doing? ” He said, “He’s feeding those little kids out there through the fence.” He said, “My advice to you Barry Gilroy is never question Normie Quick what he’s doing from now on. He know’s what he’s doing and he doesn’t care what you have to say.” That was it. Never any trouble after that. He says, “I’m not going to work with him.” And Bud Nigh says, “Good Normie will be glad to hear that.”