I Am Back!

What was a nice break from writing for a while!

From the May Reunion through until this morning, I have been catching up with my business, Zen/Yoga/Swimming practice and summer!

For most of the past year, I have been busy trying to lure as many of you to the Reunion as I could. I hope those who did attend, had as good a time as I.

Well, it seems we succeeded for the most part. Between Richard Rankin, John Saunders, Linda Young Chapleau, Colleen Hillock and myself, we had been aiming for about 80 people to show up, figuring the worst case scenario would be 22 people. But you all blew us away! 182 people attended.

What kills me, is that on the Friday night (arrival night) I had thought that by 11:30 PM I finally managed to get all the musicians - Mark Stafford, Roddy McManus, Jimmy Williams along with friends Barry Jones, Jack Kennedy and many others out of the hospitality suite so I could go home, sleep and get up again next morning at 6:00AM to prepare for the Kick-Off in the Moshure Auditorium for 10:00AM.

I forgot ... I gave Richard a pass key... Oh well... so the Party continued 'till 5:00a.m. -so what! Am I pissed that I missed it? No! (There was to be another -to sun-up the next day as well! So what if I was sleeping at the time!)

On the way home to Chateauguay from Dorval Hilton at around 12:15 am (Fri/Sat), I stopped by the Alibi Pub to see who might be partying there. Outside the establishment, in the cool of the evening (spooky) as well as inside, were faces I had not seen in 35 years or longer.

I also saw people who, clearly had come out of the Chateauguay 'wood-work', with no intention of paying the $100 bucks, but partying anyway with all the attendees from out of town. Imagine! about 75% of the attendees were from outside of Quebec.

Next morning I got up on stage and began my chat with the audience. Thank God for Jacquie Ross's son! He had the stage lights up and going, along with the sound and a mic for me. The kid is going places. I'm glad he had a chance to meet John Saunders and others.

Christine McCallum was kind enough to sneak back stage and give me something I thought I would never see -let alone be caught dead in, again - the old school sweater!

I may bring up some stories about that evening later on this-or next week - about who's looking good besides...do I name names?



Since then I have been to Cape Cod -body surfing and lazing on the beach, BBQs at Bob Houston's here in Chateauguay, in Toronto with Barry Jones, his family and dog named Edward, also in Toronto visiting Sharon (Storer) Shearer and her husband Greg at a back yard Pool party. That was great, as it included a Jam- session (with Tom Lauder).

As you saw in the previous entry, I have been out biking with Rick as well. I understand that there was a gathering at Graham Worth and his wife Susan Davis' place out west of Toronto. It has been a busy summer. I have been doing some business in Toronto and will be back there soon - but more on personal basis to visit friends near Whitby.

Below we see Bob Houston and his daughter Kimberly's boyfriend. Above left- Barry Jones and his dog, Edward . Edward takes Barry for a walk every morning and evening.

For a great collection of reunion photos, I encourage you all to get on to Facebook and drop by Sue Davis' site. Just incredible!

I have been trying to get thevideos of songs by the band up on this site. It will be a while , but it will happen. Ricky Rice, Roddy McManus, David Glass, Mark Stafford, Dave Poirier, Rick McCallum, -even Hopeton D'Aguilar and Boyd Pellow were just fantatic! Hey- did you see Miss Reid dancing? Wow!