July 21, 2023 – Millarville, Alberta
The young man with his hands on his hips in this photo built a Time Machine at his grandparents’ farm, in about 1968.
The machine worked! Guy Cowan disappeared for almost 55 years, he re-emerged at our place today!
You wouldn’t think that somebody could build a working Time Machine from a cardboard refrigerator box and a few bits of wire and tractor gauges, but Guy did. He designed and crafted the contraption in his grandparents’ pump house on the farm across the road from where I grew up.
When he finished it, Guy invited my brother and me to try it out.
Brad and I entered the Time Machine through a flap of cardboard and sat on wooden blocks, or an overturned pail (depending on who was Captain and who were First Mates). There were holes cut at various levels in the box, which filtered sunlight onto dials, knobs, and wires displayed on the interior surface. With just the right twisting of widgets, and burbling sounds from three juvenile mouths, the contraption would lift off and take us to any past or future time period we could imagine.
Guy came to visit his grandparents at their farm across the road from ours every summer. His parents would drop him off and our adventures would begin. Brad and I spent weeks every summer immersed in Guy’s creative world.
Guy had the greatest imagination of anybody I ever met. He used a part of his brain most of us don’t have the capacity to find. Artistry, curiosity, and creativity all flowed freely in Guy’s head, and Brad and I would happily participate in every hijinks he could concoct.
The summers the three of us spent together were during that precious interval “after-dependency-but-before-girls”. It is a magical time of life.
Brad and Guy on bicycles decorated for the Arcola parade.
The last time I saw Guy we were about 14 years old. We went into the Time Machine and emerged in the past. We fought a WWII battle together, throwing burning Molotov Cocktails into enemy bunkers, which blew up in spectacular fashion.
And then Guy was gone. I never saw him again until today.
Physical distance, life, love, family, vocation, and other realities intervened. I lost touch with Guy, but I never forgot the time we spent together on planet Summer-in-Saskatchewan.
Guy and I reconnected through the magic of Facebook and family connections a while ago. We tried to get together once, but one of the aforementioned realities intervened again and it didn’t happen.
Today, the old cardboard Time Machine pulled through. Guy drove out to our place, and we spent a wonderful few hours reminiscing.
Guy emerged from the ravages of time without any loss of creative imagination. He still thinks (and paints) like a wizard.
Ghost Herd in the Sky – Guy Cowan
Guy and I agreed that we must get together again soon. This time we will set the dials a little closer on the …
…Time Machine.
There is some dispute about which of us dreamt up the idea of making Molotov Cocktails with Coke bottles, rags, and gasoline. I know we both lit them and threw them into an abandoned basement foundation (with outstanding results), but who’s idea it was can’t be proven.
Guy brought his mom with him today. Eileen is an amazing lady, with a healthy crop of well-earned grey hair.
Leave a Reply