Yesterday I talked about my old buddy Ron Clarke bringing me a 1965-66 Canadiens Forum calendar when we met in Orillia recently – My New/Old Calendar, but I held back on the full story so I could stretch it over two days. Sometimes it’s good to stretch things. Especially nowadays when NHL rinks sit quiet. [...]

For just $600,000, you can be the proud owner of the Orillia arena. Of course, you have to keep in mind that it’s condemned and has to be torn down (for about $400,000), but at least you’ll own prime property in the core of Orillia where you can put in a miniature golf course or [...]

As far as I can remember, the only American Hockey League game I ever went to was an exhibition contest in Barrie, Ont. in the early sixties between the Rochester Americans and Buffalo Bisons. Ron Clarke and I hitchhiked down from Orillia, got there early, and somehow managed to meet the Buffalo trainer, who let [...]

I don’t want to brag or anything, but there was a time when I was as proficient with a spoon as with a baseball bat. Yes indeed. It says so right here. And I don’t want to brag or anything, but my grade 8 girlfriend was one of the top two or three hottest chicks in my [...]

Last year when I was in Orillia, I spent a sensational day with some of my old buddies, and we did what old buddies do – we talked about the old days. And it confirmed just what I’ve suspected – that I’ve misplaced my memory and I can’t remember where I put it. One of [...]

Word has come down that the Orillia Community Centre, after 61 years as home to skaters and shooters and wrestlers and fall fairs, will be flattened and I don’t mind saying, I’m quite upset about this. It’s not that old, is it? The Orillia Arena, in the heart of the city, is where I learned to skate. It’s [...]

The other day the phone rang and it was my old friend Ron Clarke, and although he lives in the Kitchener/Waterloo area, he was in Vancouver visiting his 34 year old daughter who has terminal lung cancer. Ron and I go back further than any other of my other friends as we were childhood buddies and [...]