Brian Gander

My name is Brian Gander and I am 58 years old.I have spent 40 years of my life as a working man,24 years of it in the auto factories of southern Ontario.With the changes in the industry and the greed that eminated from every corner I was forced to search my sole and deside were my life would go from here.I knew that I had done my job and provided a stable and comfortable life for my children to the best of my ability but as the years went by and the kids grew into men with kids of there own I begain to question(as many people at this point in there lives surely do) weather I had done the best for me so I walked into the office's of the TRW plant were I had spent the last 21 years of my life and declared I had had enough and this would be my last day.It's not that it wasn't a good job in fact it was in the top 5 manufacturing jobs in the Niagara area.Being a singer song writer in the area for many years I had a passion for discriptive story telling dating back to my earliest memories were in school writing had been my best and most desireable subject(if only I could spell).Until the age of  24 I had lived a colourful life from a very young age with 2 trans Atlantic crossing on the big ocean liners,one being the SS United States and running throw a gontlet of adventures from riding with an outlaw motorcycle club to bouncing in bars to playing music and singing.When I was young I was James Camerons best(some would tell you I was his only)friend and you can just imagine the kind of things a guy like him could get into with a guy like me and after hearing some of the things I have read about Jim and such things as the oragins of the Terminator story I felt compeled to set the record strait and tell the tale of a true child prodigue and why he is reluctant to talk about his life in Chippawa Ontario.So with pen in had I set out to put the whole thing in print starting with my move to Chippawa in the spring of 1963 and ending in 1971 just before Jim moved to LA.The story deals not only with my time with Jim but also parts of my life includinga trip I made when at the age of 19 I hitch hiked and hoped freight trains from Niagara to the British Columbia interior and back in 6 weeks recording some seven thousand miles with only $1.50 to my name.I found it discomforting and a little bit boaring to write about myself so I have writen it as the third party.The book is called "The Life and Times of Conner Reese A James Cameron Story"with our hero being one Conner Reese(a referance to Kyle Reese and his son John Conner from Terminator).The bulk of the book takes a carefree often funny look into the lives of two young adventurous kids(one from a stricked family and destin for greatness,the other from an abusive family and cursed with the heart of a rebel)coming of age in the turbulant 60s.This is not a story I felt I realy wanted to tell but for history sake must be told and can only be told by me who knew young Jim Cameron better then most.