THE LIGHTER SIDE

We must state at the outset: this Chapter will not be exhaustive, or it would run to several thousand pages! However, it does seem appropriate to mention a few of the lighter moments that have helped to weld the Society so effectively together. It we have missed some of the better ones, that's too bad. At least, we deliberately left out the worst!

In its earlier days the Society was rather staid. It enjoyed its banquets and a number of interesting excursions without (on the face of it, at least) committing any indiscretions. This situation changed abruptly in 1963 when the Society met at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. Dr. E.R. Waygood, Chairman of the Local Committee, conceived the happy idea of an evening excursion on the Red River aboard the S.S. Kenora in lieu of the usual banquet. The evening was magnificent, the scenery was beautiful, the bar was inexhaustible, and not every plant physiologist was aware when the excursion was finally over. The story is told of one eminent plant physiologist doing his best to undermine the sobriety of one of his colleagues; who deftly poured her drinks down a ventilator shaft whenever her assiduous host was not looking. It is reported that one member initially misunderstood the point of the excursion and tried to start a discussion about intermediary metabolism. His misapprehension was soon clarified (if that is the right word…)

Another memorable aquatic evening occurred some years later when the Society met in Vancouver in 1975. On this occasion the entire membership of the Society boarded the Princess of Vancouver and set sail for Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. On the way over we had our Annual Banquet, and during the return voyage Dr. G.H.N. Towers gave his Gold Medal Address in the ship's lounge. His talk was illustrated, as all good scientific lectures are, by slides of data. It happens that Dr. Towers has many interests beside science, and on a recent trip to India he had photographed a number of unusual temple carvings. In some unaccountable way his slides of these very interesting (!) scenes got mixed up with his data slides, much to the approval of his audience. This history does not record the subject of that evening’s lecture, but the slides were terrific! It is also to be recorded (with approval) that the Local Committee kindly arranged for next morning’s sessions to be delayed an hour in view of the fact that the boat did not return until 2:30 a.m., and many of the plant physiologists did not get back until much later than that.

Perhaps the most memorable meeting, and the one carried out with the greatest panache, was the 1973 meeting at Calgary. The CSPP was hosting the ASPP at our first joint meeting, and everything was superbly organized, including the weather. The highlight of the affair was a Western-style barbecue at a foothills ranch in the Rockies. Whole oxes were roasted, and much excellent food and wine was consumed by the many plant physiologists who attended. However, the ranch site was several thousand feet above sea level, and this caused the first problem: alcohol is surprisingly more effective at high than at low altitude. In truth, most of us did not consider this to be a serious problem.

The second problem was a consequence of latitude rather than altitude. After the barbecue and a suitable number of speeches by the presidents and other members of both societies, Dr. A.A. Benson was expected to delivery the ASPP’s prestigious Stephen Hales address. For this purpose he had brought a slide projector and many beautiful photographs of the algae he was planning to talk about. Unfortunately, the barbecue site had no buildings – only a tent. The weather was perfect – so perfect that the sunlight lingered and lingered in the clear air of this northern, June night. Finally it got dark enough to show slides in the tent, and we were about to plug in the slide projector when we discovered to our consternation that there were no plugs. There was no electricity at the barbecue site; the nearest outlet was six miles away!

Finally, a 300-watt generator used by the band for its audio system was pressed into service. The projector had a 300-watt bulb which the generator handled perfectly, but it was an up-to-date machine and had an automatic slide advancer. The extra load this put on the generator was too much for it, and its fuse blew every time a slide was changed. Eventually, with a new fuse and manual operation, the show went on. It is a matter of record that Dr. Benson was most relaxed and understanding about these little difficulties.

Joint meetings always present their problems. At a recent one with the ASPP in Ste-Foy, Quebec, Dr. Martin Gibbs hosted (as always) a banquet for the Editors and Associate Editors of the ASPP Journal, Plant Physiology. He felt it necessary to explain to his fellow countrymen that things are done differently in Canada, and they should expect the unusual. For example, the salad would be served after the meat instead of before, and coffee would not appear until after the meal was over. But there would be compensations: brandy would be served with the coffee! Perhaps there's a message here...