CASAULT, NORMAND (126 ENGLISH -- 125 fran)
Normand - son of Ulric Casault + Jane Lizotte
- b. 1937-07-09 McLennan, AB
- m. Rovena Wheatley
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Normand is the youngest of four children, two others, older, had died at birth. Normand was born deaf and mute, but with no other handicaps. While he was very young, his father died.
Mr. Honoré Maisonneuve, Donnelly’s first mayor, an unpaid mayor, had said, “This year we’ll have an open air skating rink for anyone who wants to skate. I’ll take on all expenses.” There was a vacant lot belonging to the village, and again he said, “I have the machines to level the land. Then my men working at the planer for the sawmill could help build the boards, three feet high around the rink, then a shelter or cabin with a stove for when the skaters need to warm up, and when winter begins, we’ll be ready to spray the area to make ice.”
This new skating rink was a real attraction for the people of Donnelly. The village had about 325 people. Young mothers with their babies and toddlers would go there during the day... After school around four o’clock the students arrived, then in the evening, the youth of the village came. The Casault house was very close to the skating rink, and Normand was fascinated by all this activity. Now he often missed school!
One day Mr. Maisonneuve passed by the skating rink just to see how much the rink was used by the people of the village. He noticed Normand Casault around the boards and Normand looked fascinated to see how one could slide across the ice on skates. Therefore Mr. Maisonneuve stopped his car to speak to him. “Would you like to have skates?” he asked and Normand with a bright smile said, “Yes, Oh, yes.” So Mr. Maisonneuve brought him to the local store and bought him a pair of skates.
From the moment Normand put on these skates, he had only one thing in mind…the skating rink, and from morning until night he went around and around that rink; by now, he rarely went to school! When the school superintendent heard this, he went to see Normand’s mother to explain that there was a good school in Regina for cases such as her son was. Normand was an easy, pleasant character and he said he was ready to go to Regina as long as he could bring his skates.
When school began in September, Normand received tickets to go to Regina so he left with the little amount of clothes he had, but his skates were in his baggage! Once in Regina, to Normand’s great joy, there was an arena where he could skate nearly all year. Also there was a physical education teacher who noticed Normand’s skill on skates and asked him if he’d accept to have a coach. Normand barely answered but seemed very satisfied. Things went along so well that in 1956, there was a national speed skating competition for different classes according to age levels. That year, 1956, the competition was in Edmonton, Alberta.
The teacher registered Normand in the intermediary class for the quarter mile race, the half mile race, and the three-quarter mile race. Normand won all three.
Two years later, he competed for the North American championship, and there again, Normand won first place in all three categories: the quarter of a mile race; the half mile race and the three-quarter of a mile race.
He, who had not put on a pair of skates before the age of 14, became the North American champion in his category.
When a reporter came to interview him, his first words were to thank Mr. Maisonneuve, and he said it in a way which everyone could understand, “Thank you, Mr. Maisonneuve, for having bought me my first skates.”
Later, Normand took a course and became a barber in order to have a livelihood
Ancestral line of Normand CASAULT:
1 - CASAULT, Barnabé + Françoise Pestour de St-Pierre-Langers, diocèse des
Avranches, en Normandie, FRANCE.
2 - CASAULT, Jean-Baptiste + Rosalie Michon m. 1767-11-09 Montmagny, QC
3 - CASAULT, Jean-Joseph + M-Anne Boucher m. 1799-01-09 Islet, QC
4 - CASAULT, Edouard + Emérence Boulet m.1828-01-15 St-Thomas Montmagny, QC
5 - CASAULT, Thomas + Emélie Blais m. 1855-09-17 St-Thomas Montmagny, QC
6 - CASAULT, François-X + Marie Casault m.1892-12-01 St-Thomas Monmagny, QC
7- CASAULT, Ulric + Rose-Alma Casavant m. QC
7- CASAULT, Ulric + Jane Lizotte m. 1928-05-03 McLennan, AB (2ième mariage)
8- CASAULT, Normand .....
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