Dave Hughes continues his story (which started HERE) of his association with future Canadian cultural icon Don Cullen and the Le Strip ‘burlesque’ club in Toronto in the 1980s and 1990s…
Dave Hughes – soldier
The armored car job plus the part time job I had working for a former police colleague in the alarm system business just wasn’t enough.
And so, I became the ‘relief’ cashier at Le Strip.
I was at a point in my life when I was looking for whatever it is we all look for at some stage of our development as human beings. My transition from a combat soldier in the war in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe to civilian was relatively uneventful but I admit, it was not without difficulties.
At a time when the Cold War was a real and tangible thing, I had begun to read the monthly magazine written and published by Herbert Armstrong known as The Plain Truth.
The Plain Truth was a mixture of fundamentalist Christianity sparkled with Armstrong’s modern interpretation of Biblical prophecy on the important issues of the day. In the mid 1980s, it had a monthly circulation of 8.2 million while Time magazine‘s monthly circulation was 5.9 million.
The Plain Truth magazines
Each time I worked the cashier’s position at Le Strip I would pick up the latest copy of The Plain Truth from one of the multitude of Yonge Street proselytizers (interspersed among the street performers and beggars) and I diligently read each copy while not engaged with customers.
I felt Armstrong had insight on the major issues of the day and provided an explanation for some of the questions I was looking to find an answer to.
In hindsight, I now realize I was heading down the rabbit hole of fundamentalist Christianity.
I can’t remember exactly what the date was – I know it was an afternoon shift and I was head down in the Plain Truth magazine – when Don walked in and said: “What are you reading there?”
I showed him the cover page and, without missing a beat or exhibiting scorn or condemnation, Don asked: “What is it you find interesting about that magazine?”
I mumbled some poor approximation of a rational answer and Don, without expression said, “OK” then went to his office.
About a week later… same time – same place – different day… Don walked in and plopped down on the cashier’s table a well-worn copy of a softcover paperback.
Robert Audrey: African Genesis
It was Robert Ardrey’s African Genesis, first published in 1961.
Ardrey was an American naturalist who graduated from the University of Chicago in 1930. While a student he had begun to explore writing and. after graduation, had branched out into the field of playwriting where he became a very well known and successful playwright.
Towards the end of his career he began to long for his original passion and went off on several expeditions to the four corners of the earth where he interviewed and shared in the work of naturalists.
African Genesis summed up what the field had been doing in the 30+ years while Ardrey had been a playwright.
Much of the material was considered controversial at the time of publication but now is considered mainstream within the community.
When Don handed the book to me he said simply: “I think you might like this. Ardrey was an interesting guy… You should read it.”
And so I took the book home and began to read it and… I was hooked!
I put down the The Plain Truth and never picked it up again.
African Genesis opened my eyes to a new world of possibilities about some of the questions I had longed for an answer to:
– Why are human beings violent towards one another?
– Why do Societies make war on each other?
– Why do we engage in competitive behavior?
– What was at the root of our proclivity to wield weapons?
After engaging the “enemy” as a soldier on the Rhodesian battlefield, these were questions I needed to answer in order to better understand myself and my behavior(s).
Ardrey’s observations about our murderous ancestors on the African Savanna seemed to provide a rational answer and didn’t require allegiance to any particular religion to understand.
It was an epiphany for me!
After I had devoured the first book, Don gave me Ardrey’s subsequent works The Territorial Imperative and The Social Contract. In double quick time I plowed through those and, as my relationship with Don developed, I found myself in deep discussions with him about contemporary issues of the day.
Dim sum at the Pink Pearl on Dundas Street and the roots of fundamentalist Christianity were the order on the menu.
Skeptical Enquirer magazine
Don had a fabulous library in his Toronto home… hundreds of books lining the walls covering a wide array of topics. He showered me with titles such as Elaine Pagels‘ The Gnostic Gospels and copies of the Skeptical Inquirer magazine… which I soon subscribed to.
Don introduced me to the Skeptics and Humanist communities…both of which he was deeply involved with in Canada and the USA. We made a trip together in June 1996 to attend the 20th anniversary of CSICOP (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) at The State University of New York in Amherst, NY.
Listening to such great minds as Paul Kurtz, Stephen Jay Gould and other leaders in the scientific and skeptical community was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for which I am eternally grateful to Don for providing.
Later in our relationship, Don brought me to the Humanist Association of Toronto gatherings where I began to understand what the founder of modern humanism, Prof. Paul Kurtz, termed ‘Eupraxsophy’, meaning “living a good life” (with an emphasis on one’s conduct towards our fellow human beings) by using science and reason to discover and answer questions about the real world around us without resorting to religion.
I found Prof. Kurtz and his message very appealing. Perhaps it was because, as a young 17 year old, he joined the US Army during WW2, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, saw the horrendous suffering at two of the notorious Nazi death camps, had his naive belief in Communism rattled when he encountered freed Russian prisoners who had been working as Nazi slave labor refuse to go back to the Soviet Union when given their freedom and instead preferring to stay in the newly liberated Germany.
These were circumstances I could easily relate to after my recent experience in the Rhodesian Bush War.
(BIZARRE ASIDE BY JOHN FLEMING: Rob Buckman was coincidentally, years ago, my GP in the UK.)
It was fascinating for me, a layman, to listen to the likes of Dr Robert Buckman and then have him sit down beside me and answer questions about the lecture he had just given as if he had known me all my life.
What a tragic loss it was for everyone to learn of his sudden passing (due to heart failure) while a passenger on an airplane from Britain bound for Canada at the very young age of 63 in October 2011.
There were also the free Sunday lectures provided by the Royal Society of Canada at the University of Toronto that Don and I would look forward to eagerly and attend on a regular basis.
Don was raised in a very strict religious family and had “strayed from the flock” during his lifetime… much to his family’s chagrin.
At times, it seemed to me that these sessions, held in the ornate but somber architecture of the University of Toronto’s magnificent stone buildings were Don’s ‘church’… a place where he found understanding, meaning and enlightenment, all the while enjoying the company of his fellow travelers.
(… CONCLUDED HERE, WITH BEHIND-THE-SCENES TALES AT LE STRIP… )
Don Cullen in 2008
SO IT GOES - John Fleming's blog 