Being called a Shilo brat is a badge of honour for Ken Jenkins.

Kay Mowbray (nee Schrot) takes pride in the moniker of being a military brat who grew up at Camp Shilo.

Same goes for army brat Denise van Rooyen, who called 32 Frontenac home from ’55 to ’64. There’s a tree on the front yard that has grown considerably compared to when it was initially planted, and she would water it.

Jenkins, on this Base from ’55 to ’69 when his father was an artillery instructor, is retired and calls Vancouver Island home. From his Courtenay-based computer he looks after the Shilo Brats website and Facebook page along with web team members Faye Helgason and Edith Walker-Mullen.

“There’s been lots of changes here since we called Shilo home,” offered 72-year-old Jenkins while enjoying lunch at the Junior Ranks. “I miss the days of playing organized sports like Little League, or when swimming was big here with the Goldeyes swim team. Air Force Day was always fun, when we’d get to experience the jump tower after a trip to Rivers.”

Why were Jenkins, Schrot and van Rooyen visiting their old haunts? As part of a three-day major Shilo Brats reunion which was organized the past six months, the trio bussed west from Winnipeg to spend an afternoon with about 30 fellow brats.

“Our first reunion was in ’83, when we had only planned that one event,” recalled Jenkins. “But there were classmates from Prince Elizabeth High School who felt left out when they did not attend, so we had another in ’88.

“This was just going to be a one-time thing, but after the ’88 reunion there were a lot of regional reunions. Or a lot of spontaneous events where someone would come for a visit, and next thing you know a group of eight to 10 Shilo brats were meeting for lunch or dinner.”

In the past, the planned reunions were held at PEHS, but where it was torn down, there was no venue left to bring former staff and classmates together. So, talk of reunions “fizzled out” until the advent of the Internet.

“With the Internet, we were able to reach out to a lot more brats,” explained Jenkins, who noted the page features 25 years of PEHS yearbooks, and pages that focus on sports, entertainment, landmarks, Shilo history and much more.

Sisters Sandi (60-66) and Sheila (60-65) Love used the reunion as a means to get together as siblings, and to hangout with former classmates. Sheila has four reunions to her credit, while the ’18 reunion is Sandi’s first.

“I live in Richmond [BC] and did not really follow it until I learned about the Shilo Brats website,” said Sandi Love. “Having the website helped me reconnect, so why not come back to Shilo?”

The Shilo brats even have a mascot, the Northern Prairie skink. Visit the site at www.shilobrats.com — it was created by the late Dave Mulligan on Jan. 18, 2002. He died on May 12, 2012.

Jenkins might live on the west coast, but he’s still attached to the prairies thanks to his connection to Shilo. Probed with questions from a curious Stag editor, he goes back in time and recalls events or situations that come to him as though it happened a day ago.

“I miss those bus trips to Brandon every Saturday,” he recalled. “Playing sports was always fun. Or going to the movie when it only cost us a quarter. The movie was a dime. A drink was a dime, and our popcorn cost a nickel.”

He recalled using his BB gun to shoot nuisance gophers on the Base, or him and friends would snare them. They took the tails to an office on the Base and were paid six cents per tail.

“I don’t miss the smell that came from the nearby pig farm. That was smelly for us until the barn burned down in ’64 I believe.”

Summer vacation for most Shilo brats meant a few weeks away at Clear Lake or a trip to Minnedosa.

“We also had summer jobs on the Base,” he said. “I’d work in the kitchen, or cleaned out army buses. When I got a little older we’d be hired to work at the summer militia camp.”

For the reunion in Winnipeg, former Guess Who singer Greg Lewkiw performed for his fellow Shilo brats. He replaced Randy Bachman when he left the Winnipeg-based group. Former teacher, and later principal, Mary T. Sheehan was honoured. The 90-something educator still has a quick wit and way with her former Baby Boomer students.

“She still wears her hair the same,” said van Rooyen, who perused a photo taken with a reunion goers iPhone.

“I still remember when my Grade 7 teacher, Mr. Hilton, when he attended a reunion in his 90s,” said Jenkins. “A lot of our teachers are no longer with us, but if they are around they often attend.”

What about the students from the 70s, 80s and 90s? Jenkins said reunion can be generational, so his peers from those eras tend to do their own thing.

Mike Pace of Chatham, Ont., was the exception. On the Base from ’70 to ’75 when his father, MWO Ed Pace, was with Base food services, he had a reason why he came back to the Manitoba prairies.

“I wanted to show my wife where I went to school, where I played hockey [at Gunner Arena], where I lived when my father was posted here,” he said while enjoying a burger and a cold beverage. “It’s always nice to come back where you spent your time growing up, and going to school.”

While most of his fellow Shilo brats spent many years on one Base because their fathers were artillery, MWO Pace had a trade that saw him take the family to Bases in Montreal, Halifax, Picton, Goose Bay, Winnipeg and Gagetown.

“Yeah, we moved around a lot when my dad was in the military,” he said, acknowledging that posting season allowed him to see a lot of Canada growing up in a military family.

He took his wife to the PMQ he called home at 13 Stonehenge, where photos were taken, prior to exploring the rest of the Base.

Did you know Shilo brats attending the high school had a dress code? And this did not mean students wore uniforms as you would attending a Catholic school.

“The Base Commander at the time did not like how his son dressed, so he directed that there be a dress code for the school,” said Jenkins. “Remember, this was before the Beetles. While a lot of the boys started growing their hair long, it had to be kept neat. The boys going to school in Brandon could not have long hair.

“So, we went to school with buttoned shirts, slacks, no jeans, and wore a tie and laced shows, no sneakers. If you looked at our photos in our yearbooks you’d think we all dressed up for the photos. It was because of the dress code.”

“We could we pants to school,” added van Rooyen, “but once we got there, we had to take them off and wear our dresses. In the winter, we could wear leotards.”

Schrot and van Rooyen spent a lot of time hanging out as teenagers, often double-dating. Officer cadets made great boyfriends, then agreed.

“They had money, and cars,” recalled van Rooyen laughing. “A lot of families on the Base did not have cars, or even telephones [landlines].”

Waggle spring was a favoured hangout of the teenagers, whether to party or going parking.

“There was a tank on the Base we’d play soldier on,” recalled van Rooyen. “We’d ride out bikes to it, make sure we hid them well to avoid the MPs. We figured out how to climb up inside where we’d play cards, or when a little older it was a great place to makeout with a boyfriend.”

Schrot called 15 Quebec home, but that PMQ has long been demolished. She did visit the home where her grandfather lived, saying the front porch was a favourite gathering spot for the grandchildren.

Jenkins lived at 28 Esquimalt, a home that was warmed in the winter by a coal furnace.

“It was my job to keep the coal in the furnace,” he recalled. “Once they replaced the coal, then we would store vegetables in the room where I would get my coal.”

With no CANEX at the time — this year marks the 50th anniversary of the military store — reunion goers all recalled the days when the milkman or baker would show up on your PMQ porch with a delivery. Empty bottles left out on the porch would be replaced by full bottles of homogenized milk.

“Those were the days,” Jenkins said smiling. “And they would deliver groceries to your house, too.”

During this most recent major reunion, Jenkins gave out PEHS keepsakes from the defunct high school. Sections of the stage flooring was cut up, and PEHS branded on the floor surface, prior to the school walls coming down.

On the “to do” list for the web team is the acquisition of the school’s trophies, boxed up from the trophy case prior to demolition, and moved to the RCA Museum.

“We’ve talked to museum director Andrew Oakden and he’s agreeable that we want to do something with those trophies because there’s a lot history behind them,” said Jenkins. “We’ like to find a place for them, once they find them in the museum, and photograph and catalogue what’s on each of them. We’d put this on the Shilo Brats website, but it would be nice to have them on display rather than stuck in a box collecting dust somewhere.”