This is a bit of a history lesson, and as crazy as it sounds every word is true TRUE.
What is U of Milo ?
The U of Milo is the worlds first humorous Internet correspondence school operated from none other than an International Tractor in the town of Milo, Alberta Canada. Yes the tractor really is our International HQ. And someday soon our website will include a Tractor-Cam that you can observe our office in action. We are still working on a way to feed the cows without the tractor.
What is U of Milo All about ?
A good laugh, you know, one of those that starts with a chuckle and builds into a side-splitting, knee weakening, gotta hold on to your bladder kind of experience. Good, clean, fun. A humorous outlook at life and what it has put up in front of us. An opportunity to let your imagination run wild and actually be appreciated for sharing that crazy spin on things. A chance to either follow along as many of these type of people share their hilarious outlooks and have the perfect venue to do so. Or a chance to jump right in and be one of those crazy people.
At U of Milo we hold no prejudice, we pick on anyone & anything that strikes us as funny. We intend to offend no-one and certainly do not expect people to take our tongue in cheek comments seriously. So if we have said anything that offends you, lighten up !
OUR SITE IS FAMILY RATED, We feel it is not necessary to be vulgar to entertain, and why shouldn't kids be able to join in the fun. We invite everyone to participate. One of our most brilliant professors started with us when he was 14 years old. Hey in our school it is possible to have a University Degree before you graduate form High School.
All you have to do is take a quick look at one of our application forms to enroll in our correspondence courses, our some of the news and views in THE BULLSHEET and you will get a pretty good indication of what we are all about. We are tired of people taking things too seriously, so we just twist everything around and make it fun.
Our courses really do exist, we have hundreds of pages of humorous lessons for you to study and enjoy. We have real social events, and yes our HQ is an International Farm Tractor.
When did this start & how ?
The idea came to Professor Gregoire while driving a tractor on the family farm at Milo Alberta in 1982. Gregoire had recently attended some University functions where he had opportunity to meet University students from several different Universities ( sort of like a convention ). When asked what University he attended he simply replied " U of M " . Some people would then comment " Oh U of Michigan ? or U of Manitoba " Gregoire would answer " Nope, U of Milo, I am working on my B.S. Degree there ". And one thing just led to another.
Next thing he decided to have a grand opening and invite some people and cut a ribbon and stuff. When he sent out the invitations, much to his surprise, several people said they would attend. The Grand Opening took place June 11, 1982. He got his dad to cook up a big BEEF roast and he threw a bit of a party ( about 30 people showed up ). When every one was leaving, after fun had been had by all Gregoire handed out some pretty humorous application forms. So that people could enroll in his B.S. School of correspondence. This is the same application that is now used as our on-line application for our B.S. Degree. And one thing just led to another.
Before he knew it people were filling out the applications and sending them back to him. He started to realize that the answers were just as funny as the questions. So he bought a little miniature tape recorder and while plowing the fields on the farm he would dictate lesson plans and crazy questions into the tape recorder. Then he would go back to the farmhouse and in the evening he would pick away at the typewriter he actually persuaded his younger sister to do some of the typing for him. Sometimes he would type until all hours of the morning. Laughing the whole time. As the applications were coming back, he would mail out lessons for the students to continue their B.S. education. People started Photo-copying the application forms and handing them out to friends for a laugh. And one thing led to another. In a very short period of time U of Milo had an enrollment of over 300 people from at least 7 different countries. Hell, the population of the town of Milo was only 105.
Gregoire was having a riot reading all the creative stuff sent in and it just inspired him and now several co-writers to create more crazy lessons and articles.
Next thing you know U of Milo was being invited to participate in sporting competitions with other Universities ( Real ones ). Well, we were real, just not in the same sense. So we needed to get some uniforms done up. The Pie-Rats was the first team, others followed. Soon there were ski-trips and a Ski-Team captain Electro Ellis was the first. Others followed ( Our first ski-trip was along with Scoular & the Weyburn Ski-club ). Before you knew it Gregoire teamed up with JVR and they bought a bus for road trips. The Milo bus as it was affectionately referred to. Gregoire & JVR also teamed up to write & illustrate the U of Milo dictionary. Which will be available in paperback as soon as some smart publisher spots the opportunity and has their people call our people.
Before you knew it U of Milo T-shirts were being sold in the Milo Grocery store, Ski Trips were numbering over 100 participants and there was a full catalog of clothing items available.
Now Gregoire & JVR owned a tour company, Gregoire and his brother-in-law owned a Promotional Products business ( That started out printing T-shirts in the basement of the farmhouse and in hotel rooms on road trips ). And Gregoire was also starting to do some entertaining speeches on the speaking circuit. And one thing led to another.
Gregoire went to Vulcan ( the town not the planet ) and convinced them to start a star Trek theme. Oh that was fun for a while, but other opportunities called.
We all grew up and decided that our businesses and jobs needed to take priority. Now that's not all bad, but we kind of went our own ways and lost a bit of that spark that made everything so much fun. The real world consumed our lives and that crazy creativity got put on the shelf for a while.
As the years past everyone still remembered Gregoire and the U of Milo days. Then along comes something called the Internet. Gregoire thinks maybe there's a chance to revive U of Milo and have a few laughs again, because people still do like to laugh.
In the farming community and small business world times are tough, maybe if we use the Tractor as an office, we can still sit in that creative seat and watch the clouds roll by while we operate our website. Why not, be the worlds first ? It can't be any riskier than farming these days. And now that they have removed the railroad tracks from town, we'd sure hate to see that Grain Elevator be pushed in like hundreds of others across the prairies. It makes a perfect tower for our space program, not only that but we could learn to make ethanol fuel out of the grain and fuel both our rockets and our scientists. If this sounds too crazy to be true, give your head a shake, it's too crazy not to be true. Maybe it could soon be a new Reality TV show or the story to base a Hollywood Movie upon. Why not, their people can call our people we'll talk. But if we don't think it's funny we won't do it. End of Story, or is it only the beginning, stay tuned and enjoy, we will. And if you dare, become a part of it.
