Five Toques
The Adventurist: My Life in Dangerous Places by Robert Young Pelton is a fascinating, highly recommended read for any St. John’s boy, even if all you do is skip and read the good parts about the school.
Mr. Pelton built an industry – he put a whole genre of tourism on the map. It helps to be Canadian. Were he just another Yank, he might have been filleted by some obscure rebel group in Africa, Borneo, South America, or at the Lord Selkirk, even, like some oily, primeval Lake Winnipeg pike. But he isn’t.
“I remember large, sixty-foot whirlpools that would open up and close like something from a horror film. Most rapids went by in a blur – you just paddled for your life.”
— Robert Young Pelton, The Adventurist
The book
Mr. Pelton’s book, The Adventurist: My Life in Dangerous Places, came out over 20 years ago, in 2001. I procured a bona fide, first edition copy from my local library as I am wont to do as a library commissioner. Of course, Amazon is very happy to sell you a copy.
He gives some credit to the St. John’s experience with pretty much getting him ready for everything and anything – how to get into, survive, and get out of hostile environments, somewhat intact.
What is really meant by “intact?” Travel, going from here to there and back again changes you. Changes may be subtle or not very visible, but they are changes.
The book is a series of vignettes, short snippets of life happening all over the place. St. John’s is the focus in at least eleven segments, as I counted. The reasons for attending, lessons learned, all of the things we as attendees know and remember. Laundry numbers
If you haven’t already, meet Robert Young Pelton, creator of the Come Back Alive and the World’s Most Dangerous Places franchises, prolific writer and producer, Canadian, American, and St. John’s boy.
“Hardtack, peanut butter, porridge, and Spam.”
— Robert Young Pelton, The Adventurist
Laundry numbers
Of the 5,000 boys issued laundry numbers at one of the three St. John’s schools, many left their mark on the world. Granted, some marks may have been skid marks on the Trans-Canadian. Not so with Mr. Pelton.
Mr. Pelton, started as a 10-year-old in 1965 and attended for three years. Mr. Pelton (as I will call him) or RYP (as he has branded himself to his followers worldwide) was a student when Richard de Candole attended. He likely had the pleasure of Mr. Byfield (or some other agent of chaos) writing “REDO” on his English papers.
After the Adventurist
Check out his Wikipedia page and biography on his website. Mr. Pelton has created an amazing persona who influenced tourism and journalism worldwide. His story really just begins in 2001.
In 2001, right after September 11th (or really during), he was in Afghanistan and bore witness to some of the first events of that long war. He’s been everywhere you should never go – Chechnya, the Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Borneo, Colombia, Pakistan, Libya, among other locales.
Reading the book, I got the impression that Mr. Pelton thinks St. John’s in Selkirk qualified as a dangerous place. I defer to his opinion. And why not? Many boys pursued careers in the Canadian Forces or RCMP. After a few canoe trips and long snowshoe races under your belt, you understand what it takes to finish something. While you are not immortal, you can pretty much survive almost any physical or mental endurance test, and throughout his career, Mr. Pelton has survived.
It’s as if Walter Mitty was real. It’s no shit, absolute heroin (literally). I’ve done some crazy shit in my life but nothing like this. Not even close.
This book, or really this life, is unfinished, and we must be due another autobiography soon.
