Oscar won't give me a helicopter ride

Pat Cox in the centre along with Cathy Cox, Mac Cox, Pearl Cox and me having a jam

Who remembers Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom?

Deb Riley posted a link to this on facebook and it brought back a flood of memories. I remember seeing this episode while watching TV with my dad on Willow Road so I must have been 11 or 12 at the time. These crazy conservation officers were tagging moose from the pontoon of a "Copter" and Merlin Perkins' crew was on hand to film the whole process.

The helicopter was owned by George Armstrong construction of Fort Frances. My dad worked for George and was one of the main men operating his satellite office in Atikokan. My dad got to know Oscar Sedine who is the pilot in the Ontario segment of the film below so when this episode came on it got my dad to telling stories. He said Oscar was the best "Copter" pilot there ever was and looking at this video, one cannot deny his skill.

Shortly after I was born and a few years after this was filmed, Oscar flew into Atikokan and took my parents for a ride in this very same helicopter. I was too young to be left behind so I was brought along and brother Pat who would be almost exactly 2 had to stay behind and watch us fly off into the wild blue sky. It was traumatizing for poor little Pat. He made up his first song (he has written many more since) called "Oscar won't give me a helicopter ride". Pat and I shared a bedroom growing up and I still remember him rocking himself to sleep every night on the bottom bunk singing his song over and over until he fell asleep... so he sang it for years.

I never did meet Oscar again, he was quite old in this video so I never knew him and I am not sure if Pat ever forgave him, but perhaps Pat owes his musical creativity to Oscar. I may be mistaken, but I think that that is the only helicopter ride I have ever had.

Please watch at least the first 10 minutes of the video, it is quite something.

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