As I was growing up in the 1960s (I was born in 1960), my parents ran a small business making aluminum windows in the Junction near Dundas and Runnymede in Toronto. It was called Alumacraft. By that time business was pretty good and both my… Read More
Here’s Count Basie with Little Jimmy Rushing (Mr. 5X5!) on vocals. Sent for you yesterday and here you come today. This tune rocks. Basie and Rushing were both favourites of my father’s. He’d say, “Listen to Basie’s piano, son, just listen”. He used to play… Read More
I was out walking the Rangers this evening – we were walking down the middle of the road because it was a little easier there than along the mostly un-cleared sidewalks. We were ambling along at a good pace until Memphis figured out I had… Read More
It was going to be a full flight. Almost all the seats at the gate were taken. The West Jet representative made an announcement – we were going to be flying in one of their newer aircraft, one that hasn’t been retrofitted with tv screens… Read More
A friend of mine asked me if these Storytime segments were true stories, and it called to mind a conversation I had with my father many years ago, one I’ll never forget. “Dad, is wrestling real?” “Of course it’s real, son. The guy who’s supposed… Read More
I left town on a road-trip just to get away, see the country, figure things out and I came back when the money ran out. I had an idea that I wanted to devote my energy to making paintings. I was starting from scratch, finding… Read More
It’s hard to know what to believe. His stories were incredibly fluid over the years, shifting and changing. Just imagine – a regular poker game in a back room of a funeral parlour, in the room where they stored the coffins. Chairs gathered around a… Read More
We got back to my place with a sack of perch we caught through the ice on Simcoe. As ice fishing goes, it was a good day. The plan was to fillet them up and package them for the freezer but mom wouldn’t let us… Read More
Famous Waters I made the long drive to a very famous stretch of a very famous river. You might call it a pilgrimage. Following my handy guidebook, I pulled off the road, suited up, and waded over to a nice looking run. It was beautiful… Read More
When I was a kid, nobody would catch a trout then release it. It just didn’t happen. We had albums of photos featuring various family members positioned beside a mess of dead fish. Believe me when I say our family killed a lot of fish.… Read More
27th Street 