“Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German dramatist, novelist, poet and scientist

Freddie was what most people called a character – the comic relief of our small farming community. When you visited with Freddie, it seemed you mostly sat and laughed uproariously – at least that’s what my parents did. As a child, I never quite knew what was so funny unless it was Freddie’s appearance: short and bald with an expressive face that played host to a pair of bushy caterpillar eyebrows and a bulbous, Jimmy Durante nose. Freddie’s wife, Kathleen, would just shake her head and sigh at her husband’s antics. I don’t recall hearing Freddie swear nor do I remember his humour eve...

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