When we were kids, and lived in Montreal, my dad — who was both a sports reporter with the Montreal Star, and the sports director of CJAD Radio at various times — was able to score tickets fairly often to games and shows at the Forum. On more than one occasion, we were fortunate enough to see the Harlem Globetrotters come to town. My 6-to-8-year-old recollection is that it was a smashingly great time. Twiggy Sanders, Sweet Lou Dunbar, Meadowlark Lemon, and Curly Neal are all names that will be burned into my memory forever.

Because my dad was able to score not just tickets, but courtside tickets, both my brother and I wound up being part of the show on at least a few occasions. One of my strongest memories of the Globetrotters was being hauled up by Curly Neal, and then having him take an entire tray of ice cream treats from an aisle-walking hawker, and giving them to me — which I promptly shared with all the folks around me at the game.

On one occasion, apparently my dad got the tickets from Red Fisher, a very talented writer from Montreal (as an aside, who knew there was an International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame?). We also apparently went with Dick Irvin, another revered Montreal sports journalist. My dad sent this to me a few weeks ago, after he dug it out of some old paperwork. It sounds ghost-written, but I think it’s still a fairly accurate representation of the evening:

(By the way, fark you, Wordpress and your stupid-ass permissions issues. Now I have to manually upload this pic.)

Last weekend, we spent three days in Kenora, finishing out the tournament season for Gareth’s Atom hockey team. They played well, finishing in second place on the B-side — about seventh overall. I videotaped the first game Saturday morning, which they lost 1-0, but totally outclassed their opponents (Ignace Phantoms), who have pasted them several times this season.

I edited an intro to the DVD for our parents which turned out pretty well. I’m offering it up for your viewing pleasure:

Video of a young fella from Naomi’s hockey tournament this weekend who just started hockey. I remember well when both Gareth and Naomi were of the same skating ability, so I’m not making fun of him, but I just couldn’t resist posting this:

….and there’s my house!
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