I joined the Royal Canadian Legion before I left the regulars. I was in rural Manitoba where it made sense socially. I transferred to the reserve and returned to my native Ottawa to resume my education. The most convenient branch of the RCL was that where my father had been a member some 40 years earlier. Some of the same people were still there. I was one of the few still serving, albeit part-time, among the membership. As I got to know them I discovered why my father had left that branch: some of the people who were asses then were still asses, and there was a crop of bigots and other varieties of ignoramuses who were accretions on the membership. This was when the Legion was still making itself look bad over the issue of turbans for Sikh members of the CF and RCMP. Not only wouldn't they get it, getting it was beyond them. I could tell they were unlikely to change and abandoned them as had my father.