What’s your drink of choice? Mine’s coffee. In my spare time, I like to indulge in filtered water.
My suspicion is many of you responded with something alcoholic. In my heyday, I indulged myself with whiskey quite often, but whatever had an alcoholic percentage in a bottle, I was willing to consume.
Read more: Column: Learning Lloyd
In the last five years or so, I’ve cut back entirely on anything alcoholic. I made the decision to have the last alcoholic beverage of my life at my wedding, not that I really ever indulged at that point anyway, but I figured it was a fitting last drink.
Some don’t make the decision to cut alcohol out that early in their life, like the subject of today’s column, Walter Andrew (Slim) Thorpe.
Thorpe was born in Minnesota on June 21, 1894. Where was he born, I hear you asking this newspaper. Well, I’ve read a few different accounts of him being born in either Pelan, Minn., or Kennedy, Minn. I’ve seen more sources cite him being born in Pelan.
He completed Grade 9 in the U.S. and was an avid baseball player. Thorpe was an excellent ball player and even had a tryout with the Chicago Cubs. Unfortunately, he cut tendons in his leg and never ended up playing professionally.
The family moved to Saskatchewan in 1911, eventually moving to Alberta to farm.
It seems that Thorpe worked quite a few odd jobs in Canada, working as a butcher, grain buyer and a horse dealer. Throughout his life he was a partner in Thorpe and Hamilton auctioneers, and in the ‘60s took over Universal Industries. He also became involved with Thorpe-McNaughton Chrysler before retiring in 1975.
Notably, Thorpe wouldn’t fight in the First World War due to physical issues. In 1919, he married his first wife, Rita. Thorpe would adopt two boys, Ted and Norman.
His life in Canada was interesting, working plenty of jobs, getting married shortly after coming here, but there was always one thing that kept pulling him back in, baseball. Although he couldn’t play, he would coach strong junior teams and even took up umpiring. Thorpe was part of a committee aimed at bringing high-level baseball to Lloyd. He eventually took up the helm of the Lloydminster Meridians, steering the semi-pro team out of a bad situation and back into success.
Thorpe’s first wife passed away in 1941 and eventually he would remarry in 1972, tying the knot with Eleanor McNaughton.
Today, if you know anything of the Thorpe name, it’s likely the association with the recovery centre. The man behind the name was a lifelong alcoholic.
He was described as seldom drawing a sober breath and being an alcoholic since he was 18.
“I was an alcoholic with the first drink I took,” he said.
It wasn’t until he was 56 when Thorpe met a doctor in Lashburn who took him to his first Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting in Edmonton. Apparently before Thorpe went, his drinking buddies threw him a big party and the last drink he consumed was half a glass of rum, whiskey and Gin.
AA was a success for Thorpe; he never craved a drink again. He even went a step farther and wanted to bring AA to Lloydminster.
Thorpe even opened a two-bed detox centre, clearly drawing the eye of the provincial governments as they bought in and funded the soon-to-be Thorpe Recovery Centre.
Thorpe passed away in 1984, but his widow Eleanor would be there to break the ground in 1987 for the new Thorpe Recovery Centre.
His life could be described as a life well lived. He had many jobs and made an unbelievable impact for recovery in Alberta that can still be seen in the Thorpe Recovery Centre.
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