Surprise! I’m back. Seems there is just too much going on in the District to sit twiddling my thumbs and too many characters that deserve some attention. As I approach the 79th Anniversary of my trips around the sun I have joined a new club… The Egg Salad Sandwich Club. With the Covid Pandemic hopefully behind us, gathering for funerals and memorials is once again a socially acceptable…and legal…activity. Figured I’d better get back into the swing of things before I become the main attraction at my own party.
Saying farewell respectfully to a family member or friend is a sad occasion, but it is a time of fond remembrance for us as we tip our hat to one who has headed down a path we all must tread. Many a smile and a precious memory is shared over the coffee, dainties and of course those Egg Salad Sandwiches, a ubiquitous item at Memorial Celebrations.
Last week we bid a fond farewell to Roger Lougheed, a District character of note that was such a smooth excavator operator he could pluck the hat off your head without ruffling your hair or pick blueberries with the same machine without getting any leaves in the bucket. And like his contemporary,Gary “Did you hear the one about?” Judson, we lost earlier this fall, Roger always had a quick comment that was good for a belly laugh. Roger would comment on his generous sized ears that as a kid he was two years old before it was determined if he was going to walk or fly. Dumbo, proud of it and able to heartily laugh at his wing span.
My condolences to his wife Alice and his family. I was honoured to be considered his friend.
As I circulated amongst the crowd of hundreds that day at Emo I tried hard to remember all the faces from across the District… familiar, and friendly characters from Squirrel Pies past.
Big Pie and Sweet Charlotte from up Rat Portage way who had lectured his girls on the evils of drinking and driving and then re-enforced the lectures by phoning those same girls at 1:00 am and had them drive 50 miles to a remote bar to rescue him… Lessons learned.
And there was Raymond, brother to the late Ole, from down at Gullee. Ole lost most of his months supply of groceries that burnt up in his pickup, a victim of an errant cigarette butt flicked carelessly out the window on his way home. Lena was disgusted
Or Leon DeLogger of Fat Frantic who has never quite forgiven me for spilling the beans on his plan to set up a hog operation right next to a neighbour…the stories are legion.
I trust when my time comes there will be no shortage of Egg Salad Sandwiches and my guests will relate a tale or two of the follies I have been the main attraction at. It is only just that my late wife Norma, the Pearl of the Orient, gets a chance to deliver a little posthumous payback.