Monday Morning News… Again… April 15, 2019

“It’s not alright, talking in circles ’round my dreams, tonight…”

What kind of a life would it be if we didn’t have dreams, something to aspire to?

My first dream was to be a goalie in the NHL… I loved watching Jacques Plante when he came to play for the Leafs near the end of his career in the early 70s; the turtleneck, the mask, the way he’d leave the net to handle the puck to help his defence on shoot-ins, the economy of his movements in goal… I took it all in eagerly… but that dream started to fade after high school, and I drifted for a bit, not really sure who I was or what I wanted to do… until I dropped out of Western, moved home with Mom & Dad and started working as a car jockey for $3/hour at Parkwood Central Chev-Olds Cadillac on Yonge street, just north of Eglinton… in the evenings I’d wander over from the apartment to the Hotel Isabella to listen to the Cameo Blues Band or the Grottybeats… and then I discovered the Cabana Room and The HiFis, The Bopcats & L’Etranger and I was hooked… I wanted to be in a band… no, I needed to be in a band… it was my dream… and now it’s 40 years later and I’m still following my dream, trying to write the perfect song, sing in my own voice and be open to new ideas and ways of doing things… to try to say yes instead of no…