Living a fairy tale

When his army comrades partied and danced, Babe Mason ran. When they drank and smoked he punched an old bag. When opportunity came, he succeeded.
Mason competed in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia as a welterweight boxer.
He was the Canadian army's welterweight champion three years in a row and won the Canadian Championship in 1957.
A Grade 5 drop out who joined the army at 16, it was all a dream he never expected would be his.
"It was things you just never thought of," Mason says. "Now a kid can aspire to play in the NHL or compete in the Olympics because you see Colin White and those guys playing in the NHL. It wasn't like that back then when we were growing up.
As for the Olympics, what a strange concept that was? He didn't even have a chance to watch the games on TV.
"The Olympics was like a fairy tale," he said. "It something that people from Ontario or British Columbia went to. Around here you had nobody you could say, 'Well I want to be like him.'"
For Mason the road to the Olympics was one he walked alone. He had no coach and no personal trainer. For the most part his sparring partners were the people he traded punches with in actual fights.
"You had to really do it on your own," he said.
But that was nothing he ever shied away from.
"When most of them were drinking or partying because there was nothing else to do, I would go for a run and work out on my own."
Prior to joining the army Mason had next to nothing by way of boxing experience. He started really as something to do and surprised even himself when he won his camp championship in Wainwright, Alta. The next year he won the Armed Forces Commonwealth Championship in Korea as a welterweight.
When he returned he heard that there was going to be Olympic tryouts and by winning some fights in the army he could go to them.
"We had to go to Gagetown that summer," Mason says. "I took a heavy bag with me and my running shoes. Every night I'd be working out or out running."
He knew nothing of whom he'd have to fight at the matches and it wasn't until he arrived at Montreal to try out that he heard from a reporter that he was going to have to fight the reigning champ for the British Empire.
"He had his bags all packed to go to Australia, but he didn't know there was a young fellow down in Gagetown running all over the place," Mason said of the man.
He didn't get to fight him right off though.
"I had to fight the Ontario welterweight champion the first day. I had to fight the Canadian lightweight champion the second day and I had to fight the British Empire champion the third day and beat them all," Mason said.
While the British Empire Champion unpacked his bags, Mason packed his.
It would take two days to get to Australia. Mason remembers a midnight swim in Hawaii on the way.
He was so far from home and to this day he still wonders what was going through the minds of people back home as they waited to see if he'd bring Canada home the gold.
Friends and family and supporters from Pictou County each paid a quarter to have their name put on a telegram sent to encourage him. He still has it at home.
In the ring against the South African competitor, hometown dreams and Mason's fairy tale would come to an end.
"During the fight all you could think of was the people back home," he said. "I knew I was losing and there was nothing I could do. I just gave it everything I had, especially in the third round."
It was a close decision, but not the victory Mason wanted.
The disappointment was incredible he said. For the next couple weeks all he felt like doing was eating and sleeping.
But Mason proved he was still a fighter. He continued to box and won. He worked hard and succeeded at everything he did whether it was as a fitness instructor or as a car dealer back home.
But he also took time to help youth in whatever way he could accomplish their dreams in whatever sport.
If nothing else, they now have someone they can point to and say "I want to be like him."
They now have proof that fairy tales can be reality.