An article today in our local newspaper about ex NHL tough guy Forbes Kennedy brought back memories of  a special day during my high school days in Montreal.......Forbie was playing his first season in the NHL with the Chicago Black Hawks.......They were in town for one of the final games of the season against the Canadians......So a friend of mine and i went down to the Mt Royal hotel to see him.....I and my family had moved to Montreal from Charlottetown where Forbie had helped coach me in pee wee baseball.....What a thrill i got when he even remembered my name when we met him at the hotel.He took us to the practice at the Forum and after told us to join he and some other Hawks at a nearby  tavern.......So here i was at 16 sitting with Elmer Vasko, Nick Mickowski, Pierre Pilote, Ed Litzenberger ,Eric Nesterenko and Forbie breaking the law by underage drinking .......In those days in Montreal you could get into a Tavern at 16 but you  couldn,t go  to a Movie.....Anyway , i remember that Mickowski had a counter and said he was keeping track of how many beers he could drink during the season......Also this old drunk came over pointed at me and asked "Who,s the rookie?" They, of course made up a name for me .........From the Tavern we went to a pool hall  and Forbie offered to line me up with a date for the night.......I told him i had skipped school and had to get home for supper........So that was my memorable moment with Forbie....He went on to play 11 years in the NHL was one of the best skaters and checkers in the game and regarded as one of the toughest and most colorful players in hockey.....earned 988 min in penalties and was a good guy to a couple of kids from PEI...

Posted by: parsenault at 20:47 | link | comments

                                               A shopping lesson

What a great store we have in Charlottetown......I,m referring to The Old Navy store and my recent shopping experience there with "Marsha" .....She decided to return a pair of  Capri,s that didn,t fit properly so i got to come along for the laughs........She was a little embarrassed so she selected a vest to exchange ........However when she got to the counter she decided that she didn,t want the vest......Anyway they accepted the pants and gave her $20.00 rebate.......Very good you say..??? Not quite!!! So we leave the store and just outside she decides that she really liked those pants and can fix them to fit......Now .i,ve gotta see this....."..Really you're not  serious?".....Yes.....She heads back to the counter ......Asks for those pants back which are reduced to $10.00 ......She gets the pants for 1/2 price and they give her a gift certificate for $10.00......Now thats what i call ???????Hard to say!!! But don,t look for OLD NAVY to be around too long if they see her often.....And i see where Ken Dryden didn,t receive many votes in Quebec for the Liberal leadership.......I recall that one of the reasons he retired from Hockey was because of the negative vibes he got from the fans at the Forum in Montreal........Should i say that if he had been French he would have played for a few more years......Sorry to say i believe it,s so!!!!!When Ken first came to Montreal he came to my place for Chinese takeout.......He said it was the first time he,d had Chinese......I,m still waiting for my return invitation!!!!Had lunch last week with  "Larry, Curly, and Moe" couldn,t make it to coffee because i was playing golf every day!!!!!Too Tall Eddy was upset at a local sports shop because they wouldn,t replace a stick blade his son broke during the first warmup .......I agree and next time we,ll get Marsha to take that stick back.........Ex Pres Jim was stressed  because now that he,s bilingual he can,t concentrate at meetings in english........Homer is just happy to have his "deep fried"chicken wings and don,t even suggest anything about healthy eating!!!!!!

Posted by: parsenault at 16:14 | link | comments