This feature aims to renew some acquaintances with those who once called Carman and area home. I’ve randomly selected people to answer questions about their past and present, so readers can be brought up to speed on their lives.
Q. Firstly, let’s get familiar with you again. When did you live in Carman?
I was born in Carman and lived there until Grade 5. Then we moved to Switzerland for two years and returned to Carman, where I stayed until graduating from Grade 12.
Q. What did you do for jobs as a student?
I believe I discovered entrepreneurship as a child in Carman. When S&K Strawberries paid me a couple of dollars per hour to pick strawberries, I realized I could sell them for more in the neighbourhood!
Later, I worked for Cliff Holliston at the pool concession around Grade 10. The following summer, I came back and he told me I should run it myself. He supported me by doing the ordering and purchasing. After that Grade 11 year, I crunched the numbers: working for him, I made $5 an hour; working for myself, I averaged $22 an hour. I grew it from there. I owe a great debt to the Strachans, the Kennedys and Cliff Holliston for those lessons.
Q. What activities did you participate in as a student?
I played hockey and baseball like everyone else, but I was pretty good at volleyball. I was a very average soccer player and also ran track and field. I absolutely loved my time in senior high drama — it helped me fall in love with the guitar.
Q. Did your family live here? Who and what did they do for a living?
Barb and Bob Leslie were teachers. I’ve told people all over the world how the four of us would drive to school together. The hardest part about having parents as teachers was that I couldn’t get away with anything. The best part was that all my teachers were close friends with my parents — so it felt like I could get away with anything.
Q. What got you to leave Carman, and where did you go?
I left Carman after Grade 12 to play my second year of Junior A hockey for the Portage Terriers.
Q. What was your chosen career after school?
I was lucky to spend almost a decade as a professional hockey player. The last 20 years have been a wild ride — I’ve worked as a teacher, spent 20 years in sport development, and I’m now a certified executive coach working with leaders around the world. www.nateleslie.ca
Q. Did you move around a lot in your career or life?
Since leaving, I’ve had almost 100 roommates and lived in 40 homes across Victoria, Portage, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Texas, New York City, Baltimore — and, since 2009, Vancouver.
Q. Did you meet your spouse here or elsewhere?
When I moved to Vancouver, I needed a short-term rental. I answered a Craigslist ad from a young woman who needed to sublet her apartment while she spent a semester in the Caribbean working on her master’s degree. While I moved out for a few months, I ended up marrying that woman a year and a half later.
Q. Did you raise any children here or elsewhere? Names, where now and doing what?
Tara and I have a son Ty and a daughter Aiden. They are 11 and 10 years old, and we’re raising them just a few blocks from Stanley Park and English Bay Beach.
Q. Do you have extended family living in Carman?
No. My brother Boe lives in Washington, D.C., and my parents split their time between their cabin at Clear Lake, Man., and Vancouver.
Q. What passes your leisure time?
We’re raising a family, so there’s not much leisure time — lol. But we do have a cabin about three hours north of Vancouver on the Sunshine Coast, where we love to spend time.
Q. Have you travelled, and where?
My life has taken me to about 40 countries around the world. I speak German, Swiss German, French and a little bit of Spanish.
Q. Any future plans? Do you have a to-do list?
My wife and I are really committed to living our values and putting our family first. This January, we’ll be taking the kids out of school for three months and travelling to India, Malaysia, Borneo and the Philippines. My parents gave me a similar gift when I was in Grade 6 in Switzerland, and I’m looking forward to doing the same for my kids.
Q. Do you ever return to Carman?
I had a very nostalgic moment a couple of summers ago when our baseball team was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I rented a car and headed straight to Syl’s. It was like the last 30 years never happened.
Q. What are some of your fondest memories of your Carman days?
The quality of the people. My parents always said that if your kids are hanging out with other good kids, they’ll turn out just fine — and that helped create some of the best memories I could ever hope for.
High school musicals, the Cougar Hockey Tournament with full stands… I’m not sure I’ve ever again reached the emotional high of winning the Zone 4 championship.
I hope people in Carman know the only thing standing in the way of a great town is people unwilling to make it one.
