Hi everyone,
Thanks for thinking of this Pat! I'm not familiar with the blog scene, but as John used to say, "When in Rome, do as the Romanians do!", so here's one:
As many of you know, John liked to go for a beer and kibbutz with his pals at his local pub. He was known and well loved by a vast range of people - people from the theatre world, people from work, people from the neighbourhood, people from the pub, people from the past.
I shared a lot of things with John, one being a love of good conversation over a beer or two at the end of the day. I have always enjoyed getting together with John and his entourage at his local pub, most recently, The Bourbon in Gastown. This setting provided the perfect forum for John to tell tales, reminisce about the past or comment on current events.
In the last couple of years, as his health deteriorated, John became something he had never been before - a driver! John was reluctant to get a motorized scooter but finally had to give in to this necessity when he found himself unable to make it across the street under his own steam to get to the seniors centre where he went for breakfast every day after he retired. Initially a little tentative in his fancy red scooter, John soon became the scourge of the sidewalks of East Van, blazing at higher-than-recommended speeds, listening to music through headphones, whizzing by the slow walkers and barking out to his former fellow pedestrians in his deepest, snarliest John-voice to "get out of the way!". And people did.
Defending this rude behaviour, John would say, "who's going to hit an old guy in a scooter?". "Lots of people!" was my answer. Fortunately, John did manage to get away unscathed with his unique brand of "sidewalk rage", but that's not to say there were no casualties from his driving exploits.
One day last summer, John and I agreed to meet at the Bourbon in the late afternoon. John arrived and announced guiltily that he had accidentally "run over the heels of a couple of Chinese ladies in Chinatown" and there was a guy that was pretty pissed off and John had to make a speedy getaway from the scene of the crime. He explained to us that it wasn't really his fault, that the ladies were actually behind him when he ran over their heels. John's good friend Robert McNeely and I pointed out to John that his version of events didn't make any sense, that unless he was travelling in reverse, he couldn't possibly run over the feet of people who were behind him.
John made another brief, feeble attempt to explain how this could have happened. We were unimpressed.
Seeing the skeptical looks on our faces, John sat back, smiled philosophically and said, "Oh, well - time wounds all heels".
Fred
Thanks for thinking of this Pat! I'm not familiar with the blog scene, but as John used to say, "When in Rome, do as the Romanians do!", so here's one:
As many of you know, John liked to go for a beer and kibbutz with his pals at his local pub. He was known and well loved by a vast range of people - people from the theatre world, people from work, people from the neighbourhood, people from the pub, people from the past.
I shared a lot of things with John, one being a love of good conversation over a beer or two at the end of the day. I have always enjoyed getting together with John and his entourage at his local pub, most recently, The Bourbon in Gastown. This setting provided the perfect forum for John to tell tales, reminisce about the past or comment on current events.
In the last couple of years, as his health deteriorated, John became something he had never been before - a driver! John was reluctant to get a motorized scooter but finally had to give in to this necessity when he found himself unable to make it across the street under his own steam to get to the seniors centre where he went for breakfast every day after he retired. Initially a little tentative in his fancy red scooter, John soon became the scourge of the sidewalks of East Van, blazing at higher-than-recommended speeds, listening to music through headphones, whizzing by the slow walkers and barking out to his former fellow pedestrians in his deepest, snarliest John-voice to "get out of the way!". And people did.
Defending this rude behaviour, John would say, "who's going to hit an old guy in a scooter?". "Lots of people!" was my answer. Fortunately, John did manage to get away unscathed with his unique brand of "sidewalk rage", but that's not to say there were no casualties from his driving exploits.
One day last summer, John and I agreed to meet at the Bourbon in the late afternoon. John arrived and announced guiltily that he had accidentally "run over the heels of a couple of Chinese ladies in Chinatown" and there was a guy that was pretty pissed off and John had to make a speedy getaway from the scene of the crime. He explained to us that it wasn't really his fault, that the ladies were actually behind him when he ran over their heels. John's good friend Robert McNeely and I pointed out to John that his version of events didn't make any sense, that unless he was travelling in reverse, he couldn't possibly run over the feet of people who were behind him.
John made another brief, feeble attempt to explain how this could have happened. We were unimpressed.
Seeing the skeptical looks on our faces, John sat back, smiled philosophically and said, "Oh, well - time wounds all heels".
Fred
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