Pat Rowden - Fear Living in Fear An Informational Website

My name is Pat Rowden. Welcome to my website called: Living In Fear. net

This site is designed to be read like a book with 18 pages of information. I would recommend that you start at the home page and read to the bottom of the page to get an overview of what I have included on the site. I would then recommend that you reread the home page, and as come to information that you are interested in, or concerned about, click on the text link to bring you the page on the site that has additional information about that subject. Then bring up the list of pages on my site by clicking on the four horizontal bars at the top left hand corner of the page. Then click on the page you wish to visit.

It is my hope and belief that you will find the information contained on my site useful, particularly in these most stressful times.

I believe it is a shame that the wealth of knowledge that senior citizens accumulate over a lifetime goes to the grave with them. Therefore, I have decided to pass on my knowledge through this website rather than take it to my grave unknown.

This website is dedicated to my late wife of 57 years, Shirley, and my late wife Mary-Lynne. Shirley. "May they rest in peace."

I will be adding additional information regarding mental health, education, and senior care from time to time. Also check the Blog page to see what I have added lately.

Reaching out to Local Businesses

It is my hope that the information that I have placed on this website will be seen world-wide. To speed up the process I am offering the first 30 business owners of businesses located in, and around, Didsbury, Linden, Calgary, Red Deer, Olds, Crossfield, Acme, Three Hills, Drumheller, Torrington, Trochu, Aidrie, Innisfail, Bowden and Carbon, the opportunity to connect their website to the Didsbury and Area Services page of my website free of charge. If they do not have a website, and wish to have one build I can have a website built for them for $500, that will be found locally within a month, and hopefully world-wide shortly. You say "What is the catch?" There is none! Then why do I want the information I have placed on my website seen world-wide. The answer is simple. I believe I have gained a great deel of valuable information regarding mental health, senior care and the educational services being offed locally, and if my recommedations were implemented it would make a significant difference to the mental health, senior care and educational services offered thoughout Alberta, and possibly world-wide.

Pat Rowden - “Is There a Reason?”

I have worn many hats in my years of experience:

 by trade – I was a licensed motor mechanic

 by profession - I was a vocational education teacher

 by hobby – I am an inventor and a website builder

 as an entrepreneur – a business owner

I became the original business owner of a home based vintage auto and truck running board mat reproduction business in Didsbury, Alberta, serving customers worldwide. I loved the business, but I sold it to look after my ailing wife of 57 years, Shirley until she passed away from Alzheimer's in 2014.

I cover three main topics on the website drawn from my first-hand experience as a vocational teacher, a business owner, a senior, and a husband. These topics include the education system, the mental health system, and senior care.

Areas of Interest

As a Canadian, I am thankful we have universal health care, otherwise I would have been bankrupt years ago. Our physical health system was and still is good, but our mental health system has always been a disaster.

My first experience with our broken mental health system was in 1958 when our first child Nancy was born. Shirley had her first of four nervous breakdowns (major manic episodes) at the time. She had many health issues for the years following, both mental and physical, and she had seen psychiatrists for 56 years. Although she suffered severely from bipolar disorder (manic depression) and living in fear - yet, not once was there a mention of resources that could be helpful, or necessary for her to overcome her fear.

This site contains a free meditation tape by John moyer. I listen to this tape every night. Before I began using this tape I had to use sleeping pills to get to sleep, and stay asleep. I learned to be fearful from my wife, Shirley. If you have a learned behavior, such as fear as I did, psychiatrists will simply place their patients on a host of pills that, may or may not work, on the symptoms of fear, but will never stop the patient from being fearful. Why do psychiatrists not teach people how to overcome this learned behavior? The answer is simple. There is no money to be made in teaching a patient to overcome their fear, but there are millions of dollars to be made by the mental health system, from bottom to top, by feeding pills to individuals who suffer from fear, sometimes for a lifetime, as my wife Shirley did.


In my opinion, my career as a vocational education teacher ended when the Alberta government, in their wisdom or lack thereof, decided to shut down the vocational education program in senior high schools and the junior vocational education program in secondary vocational schools. This left me with a worthless four-year Bachelor of Education Degree in Vocational Education from the University of Alberta, after just 11 years of teaching


SENIOR HOUSING

My late wife Shirley and I lived in a senior lodge for six months.

To start with they took almost all of our income.

Living in the lodge turned out to be a nightmare for Shirley. To learn what is available as senior care facilities in Alberta go to the senior accomodations page of the website.

I hope to establish a foundation, in memory of my wife Shirley, which would provide funds to build a Sherbrooke style senior care facilities.


Because I had a worthless university degree, and I needed an income, I decided to restore a 1937 Fargo half-ton from the ground up. Below is a picture of the 1937 Fargo half ton.

This vehicle was bought in Didsbury, at what is now the Hi-Ho Service Station. It was a Chrysler dealership in 1937. Mr. Bob Eckel (now deceased) wanted me to rebuild it in memory of his dad, who bought it new in 1937.

Bob was hauling four barrels of gasoline in the truck box from Turner Valley, so he welded a ½ inch boilerplate onto the differential housing so it would not bend.


Bob also welded 2 inch wide straps on the inside and outside of the rear wheel rims so they would not collapse. This would throw them totally off balance and shake the truck off the road at over 20 miles an hour. I had to find new rims; otherwise, the truck could not be driven at highway speeds.

I spent two years rebuilding it, and it cost $30,000. I could have restored a Ford or Chevrolet for less than half the cost, but this vehicle was totally worn out, and it needed some TLC.


I could locate every item I needed to restore it to the original condition except the headlight switch knob – which is amazing - considering I have not seen another 37 Fargo before or since. The rear fenders and box were beyond repair. I had a new box pressed out at the cost of $1,000.00, and the rear fenders were formed with an English wheel, at $ 2,000.00 each.

Running Board Rubber Mat Business

Below is a picture of a milling machine that I designed and built. Located on the machine are a detail sander, a Dremel drill, and a hot knife that I also used to reproduce running board mats.

Above: 1940 Studebaker running board mat logo. This running board mat was one of the most complex and difficult to reproduce, but also the most elegant. Below: Buddy our quality control inspector inspecting a 1940 Studebaker running board mat for flaws.

Above is a picture of an original 1929 - 32 Dodge Plymouth and Chrysler running board mat. It has six grooves in a 1/4 inch width, with a 1/8 inch groove between for a distance of 5 feet.

This is the finest pattern I ever created with my milling machine. It required 20 exact set over readings for each board. One mistake in reading the tapes located at the end of the moving table meant throwing away the mat and starting over. If the moving table moved up or down a 1/16 inch, the pattern would be torn out, which also meant throwing away the mat and started over. Note that the floor mats and the trunk mats also had this same pattern.

To mill the pattern, I used six 1/32 inch mill cutters with the teeth narrowed in width to 1/64 inch and a paper shim between the six mill cutters - then several paper shims followed by a 1/8 inch cutter to get the pattern exactly right. I made this pattern between 4 am and 6 am - so that I would have no distractions.