Published In The Great North Arrow, March 2021: Quote - Unquote

- jim Young

“Like your body, your mind also gets tired. So refresh it with wise sayings.”  - Hazrat Ali

You’ve probably noticed that I like to use quotes to open most of my articles. I began collecting quotes a very long time ago when I was in high school.

The small, red, 6-ring binder that I saved them in went with me everywhere. In it I had amassed the thoughts of authors, politicians, comedians, songwriters, actors, philosophers, poets - just about anyone that had something to say that intrigued me on some level. Most were celebrities but many were my peers, my family and my friends.

I often turned to my red binder in times of loneliness when I sought comfort, wisdom, inspiration or sometimes just entertainment.

Many times I would read them aloud to my friends and we would discuss their wisdom - or their folly.

Resources like the internet of course were not available so I gathered my quotes from sources such as magazine and newspaper articles, television, movies and the radio.

We did have one computer at our school. However, in order to retrieve information from it, we had to first input the information we wanted to retrieve via key punch cards and then wait for our allotted 1 hour per day to sign in and connect online with the mainframe in Toronto. It seemed simpler for me to just jot the quotes down in my little red binder and have easy access to them at all times.

Eventually I became aware of a resource book in the Eastview School Library that contained quotes for just about every occasion. But it would have been much too large and heavy for me to carry around even if it had been available to sign out of the library.

As a teenager, my bedroom at home became a favourite hangout for many of my friends and me. I taped an old poster to the back of my bedroom door with the blank side facing out on which I wrote a few of my favourite quotes. A pen hung on a string beside it, and all who visited were invited to add to it. It could be a favourite quote of theirs by another author or an original piece of work. They all found their way into my little red binder.

One evening my father noticed my poster of quotes and asked about it. I explained its purpose as he read some of my friends’ many quotes.

“I’d like to add something to that,” my father asked meekly. 

I was surprised. This was out of character for my father.

And I was excited. “Of course,” I replied as I handed my father the pen. “That’s what it’s there for.” I was thrilled my father wanted to participate in what was almost a 60s kind of “Happening”. 

“My Family is my Life”. My father signed it with his full signature - George Edward Young.

My father’s message was poetic in its simplicity. It was from the heart. His signature, a direct contrast to his message, was bold, strong, formal and proud. His signature added an implied footnote, “Don’t mess with my family.”

It became my favourite quote on my poster. Not simply because of the sentiment, but because my father had unknowingly created such a masterpiece. It was in contrast to his normal, every day demeanor.

Today I can access hundreds of thousands of quotes on any given subject on a moment’s notice with just the click of a button. However, there are still moments when I will pause a movie we are watching to jot down what an actor has just said. Favourite lines from a song on the radio continue to find their way into my collection.

And of course I still have that little red binder with its dirty cover falling off and pages falling out sitting on a shelf beside my computer for quick reference when needed.

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