Party like it's 1945

Bingo battles and a shot of Bailey's in Verdun

by PHILIP PREVILLE

It's Sunday, and the wood-panelled basement hall at Royal Canadian Legion branch #4 in Verdun is packed. In keeping with tradition, the Verdun Legion holds its Remembrance Day ceremonies on the Sunday before November 11, so that its members can also participate in the downtown ceremonies on the day itself. Things don't get started until 2 p.m., but people have been arriving since noon. Highly decorated veterans are chatting, playing pool and enjoying an early drink. I'm welcomed with a complimentary "parade" coffee, with a dose of Bailey's to keep marchers warm.

Graydon Fyckes is there, and he's reknowned at the Legion for two reasons. The first is that he despises Wayne Gretzky. He's the biggest Boston Bruins fan in Montreal, and he's been pissed ever since the Oilers kicked the Bruins' ass for the Stanley Cup in 1988. "Don't talk to me about Gretzky," he says with a smile. "I have no comment on that." Fyckes is a lifetime member of the Verdun branch (there are only three others) and an honourary member of the Monday night "bullshit table" at the Legion, but if talk turns to hockey he's not always welcome.

The second reason is that Fyckes has served as Parade Marshal for Verdun's Remembrance Day ceremonies 45 years in a row. It's a good job: he runs the show, announces the dignitaries, and gets a fistful of drink tickets to hand out as he sees fit. But he's also watched the parade slowly decline from hundreds of marchers to a few dozen. "Back in the '50s we marched across town, we had tanks and armoured cars," says the Korean War veteran.

The parade's dwindling numbers mirror those of Verdun's Legion branch as a whole. Verdun occupies an important place in Canada's war history: on a per-capita basis, Verdun sent more men to fight in both World Wars than any other city in Canada. In World War I the Verdun regiment was sent to battle at Ypres. Many died, and the Legion holds a second celebration every April to commemorate that battle.

With over 400 members, the Verdun branch remains the largest in Quebec and one of the largest in Canada. But it's a far cry from the 1,500 members they once boasted. Peacetime has been cruel to the Legion: old servicemen are dying off, and the military's declining importance means there's little in the way of new blood coming up the ranks. In 1998 Legions across Canada loosened their membership rules so that anyone can join, but the new policy has yet to bear fruit.

To make matters worse, the Verdun Legion's key charity-fundraising activity, Tuesday night bingo, has been threatened by the new "bingo-dome" a few blocks away. "We lost at least 50 players to the bingo-dome," says branch president Brian Turner. "Last year we gave $7,000 to Christmas hampers. This year we'll have nothing to give."

Last Thursday Turner got good news: the licensing board ordered the bingo-dome to shut down on Tuesday nights. "I jumped four feet in the air when I heard that," he says. "It means more money staying in our community, and it means more people visiting the Legion."

But those worries are for another day. After the ceremonies and the march, the show moves back inside. Graydon Fyckes is being magnanimous with the drink tickets. At the Legion, Remembrance Day is less a funeral than an Irish wake: they celebrate their fallen comrades in style, just like they celebrated the war's end.

Main: Legion hopping

Sidebar: Bingo battles and a shot of Bailey's in Verdun

Sidebar #2: The secret lives of Legionnaires

Sidebar #3: An encounter with Popeye, the downtown Legion Man

Sidebar #4: Looking for new blood at Legion #106 in NDG

Sidebar #5: I love a girl in uniform