Summer at Thirteen
When I was 13, summer was crazy. I would wake up, wash, brush my teeth, get my white shorts and t-shirt on, slip downstairs for my white tennis shoes, grab a banana and head out. Dad would have already been up and gone to work at CN.

I would get on my bike and go - two or three miles off to the Heights from Seigniory Park to take my tennis lessons. Herbie Hart and Blair Watson were the teachers. Man, were they sleek in their style and grace.

I would compete with Tommy Gilbert. We were fairly even , but I knew inside he had more control, discipline and was somehow more able to hide his frustration and anger at his own mistakes. Tennis seems for the most part to be about one's own mistakes, similar to golf. While you play and compete against someone else, the real opponant is yourself.

I was older than Tommy by a couple of years; infact probably just a little shy of his sister's age. She played organ and piano at our church. She was pretty hot back then with her nubile presence, strawberry blond hair and that smile which curled just in time to highlight the twinkle in her eye. Their parents were pretty cool too. They played in the Sunshine Singers or somesuch band with Mrs. Kemp.

Two days a week I would spend late afternoons at Mrs. Kemp's house in the Terrace learning guitar..."3/4 beat, Down In The Valley , ...the vally so low, hang your head over, hear the wind blow.." C- G7- C-G7-C..." She was a lovely lady and wore her soul on her sleeve as many did in that church, Mr.Longley and others. Church...hmmm...never seemed much to do with transcendance. Ah well the music was nice.

Do you remember Gordie Kemp? That was her son. She had some daughters too (Karen & Brenda?). My sister Gaye hung out with one of them. Poor Mrs. Kemp. She died a year or so later.

That summer people from our highschool also died at the dam.
Death.
Life can be one long death or you go suddenly. People and things change.

But summer for a thirteen year old boy back then was crazy.
I discovered a girl who loved to laugh at 'the club', (The Seigniory Park Country Club) - where after tennis every day, I would consign myself to the sun, sparkling water and diving boards. We'd watch the antics of the older teenagers, Blake and Barry Jennings, Linda Perry, Anne Farmer, Sandie Mustill, Heather Bedard or the life guards. Leslie and Lynne Butler were always interesting to behold. But everyone had to watch out for the frolics of Chuck Baronovski. One just never knew what he was up to until it was too late, but impishly funny.

Of course there'd be can-opener competitions off the high board by the likes of Norman Larue, his brother Michel, Barry Kaye, Dave Poirier, Robin Hewitt and others, many of whom chose early morning race team training with Cameron Grout rather than doing the tennis thing. Ah yes- afternoons of Red, Green or striped Speedos and tans. To see Blake Jennings doing the butterfly pulsating through the lengths of the olympic pool was a treat. 'Like Young' TV show on Saturday was broadcast live over the TV back then. Jimmy Tapp of TV 12 could be found with his wife tending their child in the baby pool. The club was just where it was all happening that summer - Heather Bedard and David Cooney doing the shimmie! Wow! Things were just becoming HIP! The Haunted even played live 1-2-5, Jurgen Peters and gang.

I think my mind in the mornings at tennis was beginning to wander prematurely into afternoon delight...watching all those tanned bikini bodies striding by. No wonder Tommy had more discipline. His mind was on the game. I think my mind was drifting into another game. I would be humming a song called the 'Sugar Shack', thinking about how this girl minus her sister might like to join me in my tree house down Maple, in the Heights, in the field beside the Sumacs which divided the old farmer's field from the cemetary. She had such an infectious laugh which brimmed into a giggle, just fulll of character and life. I think she owns a fishing boat now. Out Rupert way? I wonder if she still has that giggle? Love is more attraction at 13. Love is more being captured by another's light. She had light. Such is memory.

Summer was crazy when I was 13.