Roustabout Garry Dunham

GARY DUNHAM HASN’T BEEN ON SOCIAL MEDIA & WALKED HAMILTON LIKE IT’S 1989
40 years. That’s how long it’s been since I’d seen Gary Dunham — aka Husky Boots — in person.
Gary and I went to the same all-boys vocational school in Hamilton, Ontario. The school has since been bulldozed, which is probably for the best. The teachers were characters who seemed impossible to fire. One kept a mickey in his desk drawer. We made grappling hooks in welding class. It was exactly the kind of education you’d expect us to have.
For this episode of ROUSTABOUT, Gary and I walk through Hamilton and down Barton Street, revisiting the neighbourhoods, schools and landmarks we knew when we were teenage academic rejects.
We get into Gary’s life after school and prison, the Hamilton drug scene, encampments, needle drop boxes, graffiti, COVID lockdowns, my move to London on an ancestry visa, and what happened to the city we remember.
Gary has basically lived like a ghost — no social media, no online bullshit — and somehow 40 years later we’re back walking Hamilton together like it’s 1989.
This is what ROUSTABOUT is really for.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 — Walking Hamilton, Ontario
04:00 — All-Boys Vocational School & Criminal Teachers
10:00 — Making Grappling Hooks in Welding Class
18:00 — Gary Dunham: Prison & Life After School
26:00 — Barton Street & Hamilton’s Drug Scene
34:00 — Jason Rouse: Ancestry Visa & Moving to London
42:00 — COVID Lockdown & Incarceration Stories
50:00 — Hamilton Encampments, Needle Parks & Graffiti
57:00 — Texas vs. Hamilton
1:01:00 — Gary Dunham: The Ghost With No Social Media
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