Page 32 Driller Doucet clearing path to early drill site By Kevin V incent Growing up in Espanola in the 1960 s and 70 s the small paper town just west of Sudbury we often heard stories of the handful of local men who worked in the Sudbury nickel mines It was rare for someone s fa ther from Espanola to work underground most men worked at the EB Eddy pulp and paper mill The min ers were always diferent than the other dads A little tougher Somewhat scrufer Always quieter As kids we attended either the English or French cath olic elementary school or Espanola Public which would later be renamed AB Ellis Elementary Includi ng kindergarten I spent 9 years at Sacred Heart W e knew every kid in the school In the fall and springtime we chose softball teams or played scrub before school at recess lunch hour afternoon recess and occasion ally after school as well In the winter months the routine was boot hockey played with a sponge puck two chunks of snow or ice to mark the goalposts and the same routine of choosing sides There were always kids who were picked last Some werent invited to play at all One of those kids was W ayne St Michel W ayne was the kind of kid everyon e liked to pick on Slightly taller than everyone else his age always packing 1020 pounds more than his nearest physical rival not much of it muscle W ayne was a gentle giant The bullies all picked on him testing their adolescent schoolyard cockiness They were relent less W ayne was a frequent almost daily target He was tripped He was punched in the gut And taunted relentlessly Every year classmates exchanged valentines Y our mother would buy a box of goofy paper notes with hearts and pink fowers and you were expected to give one to everyone in the class W ayne was often left out Another tradition was birthday parties Through grades one to six the boys would invite at least a dozen of their closest friends to a party at their home to celeb rate their big day In the later years the parties were mixed boys and girls Y ou never saw W ayne at one of those parties Y et every year when it was his turn to invite his classmates he would invite everyone I was the only kid who went I did it for years He and his parents lived in the south side of town near the railway tracks in an incredibly modest structure that today would not pass most health inspections W ayne s parents were always gracious and thankful that I showed up for his birthda y W ed have hot dogs and cake watch a bit of television and play board games with W ayne s younger brother Larry Fast forward a decade and of course all of us the kids we grew up with were scattered across the Ontario and Canadian landscape In 1984 my journalism career took me to T immins Ontario a gold mining com munity that I had a lot to learn about I was working in radio as the local morning news announcer for station CKGB On June 20 1984 shortly before noon a story came across the Broadcast News wire service that a massive cavein or rockburst had taken place 4200 feet underground at the 5 shaft at the Falconbridge Mine A deeply personal story Photo caption courtesy W orkplace Safety NorthST OPE 42025359 Bottom of the manway over the slusher towards where Sulo Korpela and W ayne St Michel were found Ontario Mine Rescue Essay Page 30