Hockey Night in Canada Memories

Today after church I had the privilege of standing around with my Dad & Ellie K as they reminisced a bit about their memories of hockey night in Canada.  I wish I had a recorder actually – as I often do as I listen to these type of stories, but here’s a few highlights I remember.  I hope they don’t mind me publishing for the world to see!  If either one of them reads this – I beg their forgiveness for my grammar and writing skills, I’m sure there will be a few places they could make improvements, since they are hockey fans but also long time grammar/spelling/writing critics!

Ellie (and Eloise just happened to be there and toss in a few words which was great) was talking about gathering around the radio with his family when he was young – the radio was run by two “B” batteries and one “A” (I think that was it) – I forget what voltage he said.  It took a while for it to warm up.  The battery would run out every few weeks (again – I think it was weeks not months but not sure) so he and his brother Bordy would carry it into town to get it charged.  For the few weeks when it was getting charged there was no radio and no listening to Hockey!  The batteries would also run out in the spring usually, and new ones were not bought until the fall.  I’m not sure if that coincided with the hockey season, farmwork, or some other factor.

Imperial Oil was the sponsor for Hockey Night in Canada, and sold “3 Star” gasoline. Ellie figures this is where the Three Stars of the game came from (wikipedia says the same thing).  It sounded like the Three Stars were a lot bigger deal in years gone by than they are today.

Another significant fact was that the first period (and for a while the first and second) was broadcast from Toronto.  This was likely similar to the “TV blackouts” of today, or maybe because Imperial Oil only wanted to sponsor one period!

The broadcast was always from Toronto, the Leafs against one of the other five teams.  I did ask Ellie why he (and therefore many of his descendants) chose Toronto to cheer for.  It sounded like it was a bit because they were the default team, and the one they always heard about, and there was also a local connection as a number of Leaf players at the time came from SK.  One neat story from our family that my Grandma told once was that each of the boys, Grandpa and Grandma all picked a favorite team from the Original Six.  Grandma was always a Leafs fan, my Dad cheered for Detroit, Uncle Glen for the Bruins, Uncle John for the Canadiens – and I can’t remember who Grandpa and Uncle Dave chose.

One last thing – the hotstove started with a bunch of guys sitting around a hot stove discussing the league – and I got the impression they were a little more respected than the Hotstove of today.

Great stories – seems like the more history I hear from men or women like this, the more gaps in my story are filled in….  anyone else want to add some pieces to the puzzle?

Go Read this blog! Get a lawn!

The Close family is back blogging, it’s a good read.  Oh yeah, they started up a business, and they can help you with your eco-lawn as well.

Music by Northcote

Matt Goud has a new name and some new music here.  Great stuff.

A door for Jer

Since Jeremy was nice enough to post a Taylor Guitar link last week, I thought I’d return the favour, since he is one of the best Table Tennis players I know… here’s a door for you Jer – or maybe Wilf could install it somewhere at his house…

Summer

Last weekend celebrated the end of the school year up at Waskesiu with Barry at his hotel.  If you want a great holiday spot, phone up Barry and book a room.  It’s a great little town in the National Park and was fairly quiet last weekend for us which was nice.  It reminded me of Clear Lake(Wasagaming?) in Riding Mountain National Park, which has always been one of my favourite spots.  Did you know Grey Owl was really an Englishman?  Right – I didn’t know who Grey Owl was either until last weekend.

We are enjoying nice summer weather here, the garden has started to grow, flowers are blooming, and a couple of blades of new grass (out of a couple bags of seed) have even come up for me.   Tara and the boys are off to Red Deer this weekend for about a week.  A couple of weeks and we will head down to Regina to meet the McMillan missionaries as they arrive home from India.  We’re all looking forward to that.

Help him out.

Over at Pam’s blog she’s telling the story of Raja – a 10 year old friend of Andrew’s in India who needs surgery on his arm. 

Father’s salary = 1000 rupees/month (23.67$ Canadian)

Surgery = 25000 rupees (591.78$)

So all the guy has to do is pay his whole salary for the next 2 years and he’ll be out of debt…

My mom also sent out an email today, give me a shout if you’d like more info and could help this kid out.

 

Mr. Peterson

Mr. Peterson died yesterday.  He was a great man.  I mean that.  I could probably have called him Roger – but that didn’t seem quite right, he was one of those guys I wanted to call Mr. out of respect, cause he had earned mine.  He was my principal mainly I guess, by the time I got to WCC for high school he had been there for decades – he kept trying to retire and they kept convincing him to stay on for a bit longer.  I’m glad he did.  His grandson Blair has a great tribute to him here.   I’m sure his grandkids were most special to Mr. Peterson, but he made me believe he thought I was pretty special too.  He was a servant – I don’t remember him talking to much theology/religion type stuff – he probably did, but mostly I remember him serving, having a great sense of humour, loving and living well with his wife, and having time for me.  He also has a heck of a legacy through his family – so many who have been good friends and mentors to me, and who I’ll be thinking of this week as they grieve.

Weekend

This weekend we had a surpise from some of Elijah’s favorite people…

Brianne and Arlen.  Some of the Olson clan came by as well as an extra bonus. 

Mostly they were all here to watch Matt Friday night, which was a good show,

all of it made for a good weekend. 

A four day week for me at school this week, Friday off  – so that’s nice.

Happy Birthday Yesterday

Happy Birthday to our good friend Jeremy yesterday (and his mom Laura if Nic can be trusted).

Jer if I had a few extra $$$ kicking around this is what I would have bought you.  Unfortunately for you, the best I can offer is the breakfast special at Kelly’s Cafe sometime…

Vintage 1979 Yamaha MX100

Last fall Bernie S. was kind of enough to transport this old bike up north from Saskatchewan. This is my good friend Andy sitting on it tonight – I’m not sure what he’s drinking. This is the bike that I rode around my Grandparents farm when I was younger. Uncle Glen has been storing it for us for about 20 years, and every once in a while one of the familly members would take it for a spin when we were visiting Kennedy. I’m excited to have it here… Just need to get it tuned up and get the lights working, get my license and I can drive it to work… Oh yah… I also need a helmet. Found one. So let’s try that Andy Picture again.