Your favourite band sucks!

I'm always quite amused, and often annoyed when I hear people say, or read people's comments about how people's favourite musical acts suck. 

 

"You like Band X ??? Dude, they're awful...you have terrible taste in music!"

 

That's what always puzzles me.  In my estimation, someone's taste in music can't be judged as terrible, poor, good, great or by any other qualifying adjective. Their taste may be vastly different than yours, but that doesn't make your taste any better than theirs...just different. Since it's what they like,  for them, it IS great taste, so therefore, using my reasoning, everyone has great taste in music. To me it's like making fun of someone for the food they like...I don't like Brussels sprouts, but I know a lot of people do, and I certainly don't tell them they suck or are wrong for liking them. It's just their taste in food.  Don't get me wrong, there is music that I think, and have said many times is terrible, but that is me expressing my own taste, or distaste as it were, and I would never tell someone who likes that same music that they're wrong. I've even bought cd's (quite a few in fact) that years later thought to myself, "Why the $%&@ did I buy that crap?". No worries, I recently purged my cd collection by 60 or so by taking a quick trip to The Record Score in downtown Woodstock where they were glad to reimburse me (quite fairly for that crap, I might add) so they could add to their shelves and help fill out their quickly growing inventory. I'm sure someone with different musical taste than mine will be glad to give them a new home.

 

What got me thinking about this was a Facebook status a friend of mine recently posted about who sucked more, Nickleback or Great Big Sea. There were all kinds of comments that came in with all kinds of 'witty' remarks about how anyone could like either was beyond belief. Some were 'too cool for school' with their snide remarks, but the overwhelming sentiment was that it was all crap music. Being a fan of GBS for their more than 25 years in the business, I couldn't sit by and let it go without saying something. (Yes, that's right, I had something to say...) Here is what I wrote:

 

Not a fan of Nickleback by any stretch, but I actually really like GBS and would like to defend them a bit on this thread. I've seen them several times over the last 25 years (first time was a drunken blasteroo at The Lyric in KW with Dennis Frey) and they put on a really fun show, are super charismatic and are excellent musicians. I was raised on roots/bluegrass so their brand of traditional Celtic music has a lot of appeal to me. No, they are not changing the world with their political leanings and the new music they pump out rides on the surface, but it's not meant to be head scratching, chin wagging fodder...it's for toe-tappin', dancing around and having a good time, and it often delivers. They know their strengths, and play to them and have had a great time over the past 1/4 century 'doin it all', and very successfully to boot. I have a huge variety of music that I like, and love getting all deep and thoughtful at times, but sometimes it's good to appreciate lighter music played very well by excellent musicians and stellar vocalists. GBS will always be on my ipod in one form or another. But Nickleback? No, not Nickleback.

 

You see, this is a reflection of my taste. I don't like Nickleback, but I don't think that they suck...they're just not for me, but I sure would like to have even 1% of the cash they've made over the past couple of decades. For a band that so many people say suck, they sure have been successful. Someone has to be going to their concerts and buying their music...oh wait, it's all those people whose taste in music is terrible...I forgot.

 

I love all kinds of music from all kinds of genres: Dailey and Vincent (traditional bluegrass), AC/DC, KISS, Spirit of the West, Great Big Sea, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Beastie Boys, LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk, George Jones, Merle Haggard, The Beautiful South, Moxy Fruvous, The Tragically Hip, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Alison Krauss...and the list goes on, and in many, many different directions.

 

Music is art, and it shouldn't be judged, just enjoyed. 

 

Don't like it? Don't listen.

 

Taste is your own, and shouldn't be criticized.

 

That's just the way I see it...or hear it.

 

All for now,

 

G'Day.

 

 

Poker in the eyes.

I love head games. 

Not the kind that are foolishly played between two people in a relationship...no one ever wins those. Everyone just eventually loses, and I am speaking from experience as I have been an unwilling participant in a few of these in my past relationships. I loathe these kind. I'm far too competitive a person for these, which makes it almost impossible for me to give up playing once the game has begun. Toxic. Flabby.

No, the head games I am writing about are actual 'games' in the traditional sense. Strategic, thoughtful, smart games that come in all shapes and sizes. 

Some board games barely touch on being 'thinkers' such as Monopoly, where you rely heavily on the luck of the dice. Your only real decisions are should I buy it or should I build on it? Not all that stimulating, and in my experience, about a 1/2 hour into the game, people are already starting to get bored with paying the lucky bastard who rolled snake eyes after landing on Park Place and now owns the best two properties and runs the game. Not much fun, really.

The next level up I suppose are games like Risk. I played quite a few games of this in my early high school days, where strategy was amped up a bit. You didn't want to attack too many countries and leave your armies depleted, but you needed to take over a few opponents each turn to get  those precious red cards that turn into new fighters. Again, some strategy, but a lot of luck needed in the dice and what cards you pulled. A bit better, but still, I don't remember playing a game where at least once the table was bumped and those little plastic Atari pieces scattered all over the board, and everyone had to try and remember how many  armies you had on each country. Then there was always someone accusing the rest of the players of ganging up on them. Better than Monopoly, but still...meh.

As far as more strategic board games go, Talisman (or "Taliflab" as we lovingly called it) Carcassone, Dominion...these are fun. Not too hard to learn, don't take hours to play a game, but you can play them for hours and not get bored. Lots of options to consider with each move, decisions with consequences...sure, the luck factor is there with all of these, but they are all good 'thinkers'.

My favourite head game by far, however, is not a board game at all. It's poker. Texas Hold'em to be more specific. To be even more specific, All-In Texas Hold'em.  

There were two things that really turned me on to this amazing, cerebral game. 

Firstly, it's massive popularity over the past ten years has created about 20 different poker tv shows (by my count) that have made names such as Daniel Negreanu, Phil Helmuth Jr. and Doyle Brunson common to a huge amount of people. You may not know anything about poker but I'll bet (no pun intended...) that you've heard some, or all of these names before.  In the forefront, the televised portions of week-long World Series of Poker Main Event from Las Vegas have always been my favourite. Poker's popularity really took off in 2003 when an accountant named Chris Moneymaker won the title, which came with a gold bracelet (poker's Stanley Cup) and a cheque for $2.5 million! The fee to enter this tournament is $10,000 per player, but he won his entry in a $39 satellite (qualifying) tournament. It showed the world that you didn't have to be a pro, or have a lot of money to play with, or even beat the big boys. It instantly became a 'sport' where anyone could actually win. That appealed to millions of people pretty quickly, including me. One of my dreams is to actually play in the main event some day and sit at the tables with the best in the world and see how I do. Hell, a guy from Woodstock (Evan Lamprea) not only tried, but in 2010 was the chip leader after 5 days of play. Of the seven thousand or so players who entered the tournament, he finished 46th for a payday of more than $168,000 (The winner received just over $8.9 million).  It shows that anyone can do well, you just have to be in the game.

In any game of poker, luck is part of it and that can not be denied, but, you can give yourself a massive advantage if you know what you're doing. 

Secondly is where the headiness (and the fun for me) comes in...

If you listen to any poker pro, they all agree that poker is a game that they learn something from every time they play. You can never know everything, which is one reason why it appeals to me. Just when you think you've got something figured out, the game changes again. I've read a couple of poker books on how to read tells (physical movements of your opponents or strategies that help you determine what the other person has) or what to do with certain hands, but these are only guidelines, and can't always be trusted. For example, I know, when looking at the eyes of an opponent as they look at their cards for the first time, what to look for when they look up. Do they look excited, defeated, neutral? It's not just about the look on their face, though, not by a long shot. What are their shoulders doing, what are their hands doing, are they looking at the chips in the pot, their own chips, my chips, or trying not to get caught looking at these things? You see...so much to look for. These 'tells' however, are usually VERY subtle. But sometimes, they're not. So now you have to determine if this 'not so subtle' move was on purpose to make you think one thing when you should be thinking the opposite, or are you playing against someone who legitimately over-reacts at the table and will soon be broke.  Even more mind games coming....does the person you're playing KNOW that you know what to look for and they are trying to make subtle moves to trap you? Ouch. So head-scratchingly good! 

It's this dynamic of the game that makes me love playing in tournaments. At any given time, your table could consist of a few beginners to the game who just like the social aspect, a couple of life-long students of poker who think they know all the in's and out's, and a few of us who land somewhere in between.  Each hand plays out differently as you need to adjust your style based on who is left in the pot. The beginners usually think their mediocre hands are better than they actually are and the 'experts' think THEY are better than they actually are, which is particularly satisfying when you put one of these jerks out. Especially if they are one of these jokers who wear the PokerStars jersey and sunglasses at the table The rush of adrenaline you feel when you knock someone out and live to see the next hand is exhilarating.  It's all thinking, all the time, and you just hope the poker gods smile down on you once in a while and give you a good hand to play.

I am lucky enough to have a semi-regular monthly game at my house (with mostly the same guys), have played in tournaments at Casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Windsor, and I'm currently playing in a once-a-month, 6 month long tournament here in town. LOVE IT! The really good news is that it's all very low-stakes tournaments that anyone can afford.  I may never get rich playing at these low stakes, but I'll never go broke and it's almost always an amazing time. After all this poker playing, I still consider myself a very average player with tonnes to learn, and that's exciting to me. Maybe someday I'll end up cashing in at a major tournament, or maybe not, but as long as I can find a game, I'll be happy.

Shuffle up and deal!

All for now.

G'day.

I don't hate The Montreal Canadiens...does that make me a bad Leafs fan?

For those of you who know me well, you know that I have pretty much always been a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.  From my personalized license plate (Leaf logo with FAN4FR), to my dark blue painted recroom that is full of Leaf paraphernalia, I just LOVE my Leafs. I can't remember exactly when the cruel, painful fandom began, but I assume it was as a small child, being around my mother's side of the family. My grandparents, and especially my grandmother, Christena, were HUGE fans of The Buds, as were all of my uncles on that side. If there was ever a Leafs' game on during a big family gathering in Sylvan, ON, you knew that, a) it would be on for the duration of the game, and, b) you didn't walk in front of the tv, make too much noise, or cheer for the other team if you wanted to remain in the good graces of the family.  When Toronto was doing well, it was a wonderful place to be. Everyone would be in a good mood, lots of laughter, raised voices, table pounding, and very little swearing.  If on the other hand, they were losing...well...let's just say it wasn't as nice.  The good news is, win or lose, when the game ended, it was over, and everyone moved on. At this point, my dad and uncles would usually end up starting a marathon euchre game in the kitchen where the laughter, raised voices, table pounding and a decidedly greater amount of expletives (as Grandma wasn't present, now) would begin again and continue well into the wee hours. It was great, and I loved being there.  So yeah...this was the beginning of my love for The Leafs.

 

When asked who my favourite all-time player was, I can, without hesitation say Wayne Gretzky. Not Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Doug Gilmour...all good candidates, all Toronto Maple Leafs, but no, it was #99.  Watching him play was incredible. He looked as though he belonged in a different, better league, except, that league didn't exist. He would have been the only player had they wanted to start such a thing.  All I ever hoped, though, was that he would wear the blue and white. If he only would have played for Toronto...who knows, maybe I would have seen them hoist the Cup in my lifetime by now.  Actually, In 1996, right after his one year run with The St.Louis Blues ended, The Leafs were on the verge of signing Gretzky who really wanted to play in Toronto, it was his dream to finish his career there, and he was ready to sign for around two or three million. He’d even passed on an eight million dollar offer from Vancouver because he was so eager to play for the Leafs. Gretzky told Cliff Fletcher (Toronto's GM) he’d do whatever it took to get it done, but the big bosses decided they wanted to cut back on payroll and use any extra money toward the building of the Air Canada Centre.  So Gretzky signed with the Rangers instead*.  Nice play, suits.  Just another example of the historically bad decision making that 'my' team is famous for.

 

With every good team, there is a good rivalry, and it can be argued that the Toronto Maple Leafs - Montreal Canadiens rivalry is second to none, in any sport, ever.  So by default, as a Leafs' fan, I am supposed to hate the rival Habitants, right?  But I don't hate them. Don't get me wrong...I am not anywhere close to being a fan of theirs, but I'd be lying if I said I have never cheered for them. My standpoint has always been to cheer for The Leafs first and always, but then, basically hope for any other Canadian team to also do well. I guess I'm nationalistic when it comes to cheering on sports teams.  The Canucks, however, make it pretty tough for me to keep my philosophy intact due to the 'Vancouligans' that come out, win or lose and trash the city, but still, when they are up against most other teams, they have my support.

 

Maybe I'm just not a true fan if I don't hate the other teams. After all, the term 'fan' comes from the word 'fanatic', and I would think that any fanatic of one team should despise any, and all other teams, right?

 

I don't know.

 

What I do know is this...as I write this blog entry, the Leafs' are currently sitting in 6th place and could potentially make the playoffs this year for the first time in far too many years, and, in order to have any chance of winning the The Stanley Cup, you must first make it to the playoffs.  I suspect whether they make it to the playoffs or not, I'll be yelling the all too familiar battle-cry for all of us Leaf's fans out there:

 

"Maybe next year!"

 

All for now,

 

G'night.

 

 

 

* Info about Gretzky not signing with Toronto comes from the Damien Cox/Gord Stellick book – ’67 The Maple Leafs, Their Sensational Victory, and the End of an Empire.

I Was Tragically Unhip, or, How Not To Meet A Canadian Rock Icon.

After writing my last post about meeting Stompin' Tom, it reminded me that I have met quite a few recording stars in my life, either on purpose after a show, or merely by chance.  I think this number is pretty respectable considering I'm not, nor have ever been in the 'music' business.

This is one of those chance meeting stories, which I know a lot of you have already heard, but for those who haven't, here's my humiliating story of meeting Gord Downie, the lead singer of 'The Tragically Hip'.

I was introduced to 'The Hip' in the early nineties while attending Sheridan College for the advertising program. It was the band's 1991 album, 'Road Apples' that really tweaked something in me.   Yes, I knew about them before this album as they had some big hits from their previous cd, 'Up To Here' such as '38 Years Old', 'Blow at High Dough' and 'New Orleans is Sinking', but as a complete, song for song cd, I give the edge to 'Road Apples'. 'Long Time Running', 'Little Bones', 'Twist My Arm', 'Fiddlers Green', 'Last of The Unplucked Gems'...so many songs that are so good. Anyhow, I had become an official fan.  So much so that  for one of their future cd releases ('Trouble At The Henhouse', I think...), I was one of the ones waiting outside our local record store here in Woodstock for the special midnight opening when it went on sale.  They were a HUGE band here in Canada in the early/mid nineties and I had totally bought into them. 

So, if I remember correctly, it was May of 2002 when I got the opportunity to go to a Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Ottawa Senators playoff game. I jumped at the opportunity to go watch my Buds continue their dominance over The Sens when it came to the playoffs. By the way, this was the third straight year they met in the playoffs, and the third straight year that Toronto would end up putting them out. (I smiled the entire time I wrote that last sentence).  We drove down to the game and decided we would wait until we got to the Air Canada Centre to get a bite to eat, which ended up being a quick burger from the McDonald's kiosk under Union Station. I finished my dinner and was standing waiting for the others to finish and watching people walk by. Most were walking in the direction of the ACC and were decked out in their jerseys, blue and white face paint ('Gotta support the team" - David Puddy), home-made signs, banners and big, foam fingers in hand ready to cheer on the boys. 

As I'm watching this sea of blue people quickly go by, I turned my head to the left and I spotted someone who I instantly recognized. He had long, black, poker-straight hair that went down to his waist, a black mustache and beard..it was..it was..the lead guitarist from The Hip!!! I had no clue what his name was (apparently I wasn't THAT big of a fan), but damned if it wasn't him! But wait...who's that walking right beside him, head shaved looking straight at the ground, coming right toward me? It was Gord Downie, the lead singer of 'The Tragically Hip'.  Now his name I knew. I excitedly looked around to see if the rest of the guys I was with were seeing this happen, but they weren't. They were still chomping away, or throwing out their trash, or whatever. Actually, based on who I was with, I doubt any of them, except maybe Ricky Love, would have recognized or appreciated this as much as I did. I was a huge fan!

As he was quickly walking by where I was standing (I could have literally reached out and slapped him), I had to say something... get his attention and let him know how big a fan I truly was...say something...I had to...but what...umm...

You have to understand that the entire time span of when I first saw them walking towards me, recognized who it was, and spoke to them took place over about 5 seconds.

He was right in front of me.  I said the only thing I could think of.

"Gord!"

He stopped dead in his tracks, turned to me and looked me straight in the eye.

"Yes?" he said.

I froze. I was star-struck. I had never experienced this before. It was the first time I couldn't think of anything to say, but I had to say something. After all, he had actually stopped walking past me just to hear what I had to say...so what could I say? Hmmm....

And then it happened.  I spoke the only words that would come out...

"You rule."

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is what I said. That was the reason he had to stop. That was the important information I needed to tell him. Not, "I've been a really big fan of you guys for a long time."  Nope. Not even, "Hey, you guys are great!" Nope.  

You. Rule.

I don't say "you rule" to people...that's not how I talk, so what in the hell was I thinking?!?  You Rule?!?   FUCK!!!

Just hearing myself utter these ridiculous words to him made my ears start to ring...now what do I do?

Gord smiled at me, reached up with his right hand and patted me on the shoulder and said, "Thanks, man.", and they turned and walked away.

It was so weird. I was feeling excited, humiliated, happy, angry, all at the same time.  Then I felt bad that I didn't tell the guitar player (Rob Baker) that he also ruled. I mean, that wasn't fair at all. 

The rest of the night, which should have been amazing, was just fine. The game was incredible, close the entire night, the Leafs won in overtime, the place was going crazy, but I just couldn't stop hearing myself say those two stupid words, over and over. You rule.

So there it is. My truly humbling story of an unexpected meeting and an even more unexpected case of 'Starstruckitis'.

This reminds me, I still need to get their newest album, 'Now For Plan A', I hear it's good.

All for now.

G'day.

Bloggin' Tom Connors - The day I met The Legend.

About 15 (or more) years ago, I had the great pleasure of seeing Stompin' Tom Connors play live, and then meeting him after the show. There was a group of about 6 or 8 of us who made the trek to Hamilton Place to see the show. When you're going to see a Canadian legend sing his songs (pretty much every damn one) about Canada, it only seems appropriate that you have some pre-road trip, road trip, and pre-show beverages to get the party started. So we did. We're now all in our seats with about 10 minutes to go before show time, and two of our group (not naming names, Cully and Fully) decide that 10 minutes is plenty of time to get out of the auditorium, across the street and duck into a bar for one more pre-show beer. I warned that they'd never make it, but they countered with, "We've got loads of time for one beer, and worst case scenario, we miss a bit of the opening act." So away they went.

Ten minutes later, exactly on time, the house announcer says, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Stompin' Tom Connors!"

No opening act, and no sign of the thirsty travelers.

About twenty minutes into Tom's set,  there is some minor commotion at the end of my row, and it's the boys, returning from their one (or three) bottles that they had plenty of time for.  Now twenty minutes doesn't sound like a long time, but in the world of Stompin' Tom's music, they'd missed about 6 or 7 songs. If you're not familiar with his music, you need to know that Tom's songs usually clock in at about 2 1/2 minutes long. There is rarely a bridge or guitar solo to be found, and definitely no 10 minute long Gord Downey-like ramblings of obscurity.  It's usually verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse chorus, clap, next.

So after the boys get seated, Cully waits until the current song ends and the clapping stops to lean back in his seat, cup his hands to his mouth (for extra volume) and yells, "PLAY TILLSONBURG!"  Again, for the uninitiated, "Tillsonburg" is one of Tom's many iconic hits. It's about the toils of tobacco picking in a small SW Ontario town not far from our homes in Woodstock.  What a great suggestion...yes..we'd all like to hear that...again.  You see, Tom had just played that song just before the boys had returned from their drinks.  Needless to say, he got shot a few odd, and annoyed looks.  I leaned over and whispered Cully the bad news. He didn't request any more songs that day.

After the show, Fully was insistent that we stick around and see if he was coming out to meet his fans and maybe sign a few things, and I'm glad we did. About 15 minutes after the show, he came out to a small table that was set up near his merchandise, sat down and began meeting and signing.  When it was my turn, I handed him the free program that I received when I entered the hall and said, "It's an honour to meet you Mr. Connors. I've been listening to your music my entire life, my Dad had of some of your albums in our house"  He looked up at me after signing his photo on the front of the program, started shaking my hand and said, "Mr. Connors was my Dad's name, you can call me Tom." It was a simple, yet amazing moment for me. I had heard that old chestnut of "Mr. ____ was my Dad's name..."  many times before and since, but when he said it to me, it felt like he was the man that coined it.  When our exchange ended, I stepped aside and it was Fully's turn. He didn't have his program, he may have left it at the bar across the street, but he needed to get something signed.  He reached into his wallet, pulled out his fishing license and put it down in front of Tom.  Tom looked up smiling at Fully and said, "In all these years, this is the first time I've signed someone's fishing license!"  Strangely, I was surprised by that.

It was a great day, he was a great man, and an even Greater Canadian.

R.I.P, and thanks again for everything, Tom. 

There'll never be another one like you.

All for now.

G'day.

 

More crankiness, or, My ongoing list of things that should stop.

   Since starting this blog back up, I've realized that a lot of things bug me, and that putting them down here makes me feel a bit better by getting them off my chest, so I apologize in advance if you think I'm too critical of far too many things in life, but hey, if you think that, YOU just made the list!

 

    I'm calling today's installment "Audible Annoyances" and is an ongoing list that falls under the "Things I am tired of hearing" category.

 

   In light of today's openings of 3 Target stores in Fergus, Guelph and Milton, I've heard on the radio (CFRB AM1010) no less than 5 times today, someone calling it, "TAR-JAY" (with a soft "J" to make the word sound French). As my wife and I have friends who live in the U.S., we know that they've been calling it "Tarjay" for years, so it's hardly a new, or original idea. The very first time I heard the "joke", I got it, I may have even forced a smile as I had been to one of the stores and I get that saying it that way is a jokey attempt to 'class up the joint'. That being said...the joke is old. Very old. I've been hearing it for years now and it's no longer (or really was never) funny, clever, original, etc.  Now with the retail behemoth beginning it's Canadian onslaught today, I'm sure the joke will reach thousands of new ears for the first time, cause thousands of new half-smiles, but worst of all, cause thousands more to start saying, 'Tarjay', so they can be one of the fun bunch!  Yuck. The name of this American company about to wipe out even more small, independently owned and operated Canadian stores is Target, as in, "Fire one of your many, many guns at the target."  Oh wait, that last sentence just brought up two more HUGE blog topics for another day, so I digress, and will get beck to these topics at a later date.

 

All for now.

 

G'night.

 

 

 

Steak boards and clocks spin round and round...

Things That I Miss - Episode 1

Now that I'm about to turn 42, I find that I've hit an age where I'm reminiscing a lot about days gone by. In my life time, I've seen some incredibly significant changes in the world. I'm sure our parents would say their lives saw some huge changes as well, but I might argue that my generation has experienced more drastic changes in the way people live their lives, at least in a one generation time period.  I'm not necessarily talking specifically when things were invented, but more when they became popular, accessible or affordable enough that more people had these things than didn't.

Example 1: Home Computers. These started when I was in grade school. They made life slightly easier...you could type things and see them pop up instantly on your monochromatic monitor. Do your household books, play a few crappy games, do school reports and look like a real keener with your dot-matrix printed assignments. You had to be careful, though, ripping off the sides of those pages. But this was like having a sports car on a tiny, deserted island covered in soft sand...not too damn useful, but then...

Example 2: The internet. All of the information in the world (accurate or not) instantly within reach by the simple act of a typing your query into a search engine bar. Any book, newspaper, magazine, album, song, movie, tv show, all accessible without leaving your home. That is huge. I love it, but I also hate it.  It's made life too easy. You no longer have to go anywhere to get virtually anything, picking up the phone is a dying art (I'm looking at you text-a-holics), and the casual "pop by" someone's house for a visit has all but disappeared. (Yes I understand the irony that without the internet, this blog would not exist, but if you look back two sentences, I did say that I also loved it.)

The world has changed too drastically for my liking and things have gotten far too convenient.

I like going places to see things, get things, do things.

This preamble has obviously been for a reason, and that is to introduce what may become an ongoing list of Things That I Miss, which may have nothing directly to do with what I was just on about, but they harken back to a simpler time when people were doing things and going places because there was no other option.

So without further ado, here is the first thing (and in no particular order) that I will say that I truly miss: Gas-Station Give-Aways.

 

Remember when every fill-up meant you got a prize?!?!  That, friends, was living.  We lived a block away from a Beaver Gas station and they loved give-aways. Glassware was a very common incentive used to get you to choose their fuel over the competition's. Highball glasses, juice glasses, beer glasses doled out one at a time with every fill up. We just had to get the complete sets, which wasn't too hard back then as my parents drove gas-guzzling station wagons and pick-up trucks, and dammit, we DROVE places to get stuff, and to SEE things, and DO things. That took gas, that emptied tanks, that earned us free stuff!

 

One summer they gave away round, wooden steak boards with an accompanying steak knife. Yes, it was a gentler time back then when a gas station attendant had no trouble handing a knife to a customer even before they had paid. I'll bet we ended up with a dozen of those food frisbees. We used the knives, but we never actually used the boards for the purpose that they had been designed for. They just sat in Dad's basement workshop in their individual plastic bags. Then one day, years after 'earning' them, Len (my father) had a "Eureka!" moment. My Dad used to love to tinker around in his workshop, especially after he had retired, making things out of wood (rocking horses, walking canes, banana hooks, etc.) But this idea was truly inspired. He'd turn those 12" diameter steak boards into Lazy Susan's for people's kitchen/dining room tables! He went to the hardware store and bought the little mechanism to attach to the bottom of the boards that, when set down on the table could then spin around and around. He then cut some rounded wooden guard rails he attached on top of bits of dowel all around the top side so that anything taking the ride wouldn't slide off.  No more pesky reaching across the table for the salt and pepper for our family! Just give it a little spin, et voila! When he showed me the first one he had finished, all I could think about was the opening scene in "Temple of Doom" with the diamond and the antidote. I could now recreate that moment in my very own dining room!  It was great.

 

Anyhow, I miss gas station giveaways...and I really miss my Dad.

 

All for now,

 

G'night.

 

(P.S. Please feel free to comment below on stuff you miss, or anything else...I've changed the comments section settings so that anyone can type a comment without having to be a member, so it's wide open and ready to go.)

 

Ron.