Jim Thompson

I remember being younger than my grade, shy and insecure and afraid I wasn't going to grow and/or get taller!!! It is amazing how much life and time changes you. I let my insecurities go a long time ago. Being busy, working on a career and raising a family helped to refocus me. I liked going to dances with my brothers and sister, driving around with Michael Dewit,Steve Vanden Borre and Don Johnson, listening to music with Pat Van Mil, Steve Just and Alex Bodden.

I am sorry I will not be attending.
It has been 33 years time flies when you are having fun!!!
After high school I attend Seneca College in North York. I was taking electronic engineering technology. After 2 years of a 3 year diploma I decided I was tired of going to school. I was going to get a job that paid money. Well I'm glad I ended up with low paying jobs because it made me go back to University in 1981. At the same time as I was attending university, I got married but that did not last. I call that my young and stunned period. But it helped to form who I am today. I graduated in 1987 and worked at Gay Lea Foods in Guelph as a labourer, just becuse you have degree doesn't mean you can get a job in your field. I eventually decided I had to try to find a job in geology. In 1988/89 gold mining and exploration was booming in Canad so I went travelling to northern Ontario and somehow managed to get a job in a gold mine near Lake Superior. Gold mining and geology is a very cyclical business so mines open and shut depending on the price of the commodity. I have worked all across Canada, South Africa and Scotland. This was ok when I was single but in 1996 I left Yellowknife to go to a small gold mine in South Africa where I met a woman who would become my 2nd wife. I married her in 1997 and took her 4 children as my own and we have made 4 more. This is getting long winded so I better wind this down.

My parents still live in Otterville same as my sister Jo Ann. My borther Phillip lives in Burgessville.

I haven't been around home since the spring of 2008. I work in northern Ontario but I commute back and forth to Nova Scotia via Rouyn Noranda PQ- Montreal- Halifax. Even though I work in Ontario I have no way of getting to southern Ontario.

Chief Geologist for Armistice Resources in Kirkland Lake Ontario. We own a gold mine located in Virgininiatown ON. Virginiatown is located almost at the Ontario/Quebec border. A large gold mine calle Kerr Addison existed in Virginiatown until 1996. In its history it produced 11 million ounces of gold. We just bought the claims and the property. I get paid to take apart what geological work was done before and put it back together. With this info I re-evaluate and decide where to drill more holes looking for gold ore that has not been discovered.

I graduated in 1987 from the University of Guelph with a BSc in Earth Science. I worked for a few years at a menial job so I could pay back my student loans and finally took a risk and went looking for a geology job in northern Ontario. And the rest is history. I have worked in mines in Wawa ON, Cassiar BC, Yellowknife NT, South Afirica, Scotland and Nova Scotia.

I don't know what I am doing tomorrow let alone next week, next year so I don't know what I haven't done yet until I do it. That sounds strange but I try not to look ahead or back or around at others but to live.

I have a 12 days at work, 9 days at home schedule. When I am at work I work on geological puzzles, think and read. When I am at home I enjoy being with my wife and children. I own a house and a 100 acres of scruffy trees and rocks in the middle of the woods of Nova Scotia so when I can, I clear trees on my land, (we are trying to establish a lowbush wild blueberries farm almost have 20 acres done) cut my firewood and relax. I lead a very "simple" life.

I know what it says on my birth certificate but I don't know how old I feel. Still having younger children I don't feel old but I know I am not young. Especially after cutting a lot of firewood but my excuse is I am not use to physical work.

Yes I have some but I would rather have some hair back not gone but thinning. Just vanity raising its ugly head. But as I have gotten older my attitude has become "who cares I am not an insecure 20 year old anymore and hair does not make me who I am!!!

Jungle Jim

Going from being a single man in 1996 to a father of 8. Never trade this life !!!!

Live life and be thankful for it. Never tease your father that his arms are getting too short to read the newspaper because it happens to you. Bifocals are fun!!!!

No one is a stranger just someone we haven't met yet. Scarey travelling to new places to work and I knew no one. I met a lot of strangers.

At certain times in my "life" but nothing bad ever happened!!! Makes you stronger

Love to go dancing but haven't been in a million years. My kids just laugh at me but dancing makes you feel happy and alive.