After three years at J-school, I was looking forward to living at home for the summer and pondering the next big step in my life.
I had an interview for a PR-type job at the local conservation authority and my dad, Colin, and I planned to get memberships at the municipal golf course in St. Thomas. We hoped to golf a lot that summer.
A few things happened in the spring of '98 that changed the course of my life. I was offered a job at a weekly paper that was just starting up in Blenheim. The pay was low and hours long, the owner told me, but I knew it was a starting point to my career. I would be foolish not to take it.
It meant moving again (my last semester before graduation was a co-op at the St. Thomas Times Journal, so I lived at home) and it meant I couldn't spend the summer - potentially - working at the local conservation authority and golfing with my dad.
Looking back, it was the right move to make, career wise.
A few months in Blenheim led to my sports writing gig in St. Thomas.
The T-J's former managing editor, Ross Porter, called me in Blenheim one day. There was an opening in sports and the pay was much better, so I sat down with Ross to discuss the job. I was working 60-hour weeks and living in a tiny apartment above the paper's office, a print shop owned by my former boss. I was thrilled for the offer.
In three weeks, the sports desk in St. T was mine.
If working full-time as a sports reporter seems like a dream job, well, it is and it isn't.
It afforded me the opportunity to meet some cool people.
In addition to PGA caddy Brennan Little, who I mentioned in an earlier post, I got to interview dozens of interesting people. One of them was hockey legend Bobby Orr.
I met Orr at the Joe Thornton and Friends game, an annual fundraiser hosted by the St. Thomas minor hockey product. Joe was just starting out in the NHL back then with the Boston Bruins but each year he was improving in leaps and bounds. The current San Jose Shark and NHL star was a dream interview and always, always, happy and thankful (much like Brennan) that I took the time to chat with him.
I met a lot of athletes over the years and still do who are so into themselves it makes you want to punch them in the head.
Joe was level-headed and down to earth.
He has a good family who put their heart and soul into supporting him. I went to school with his brothers, John and Alex.
Joe took a lot of heat during his first years in Beantown. There was an article in Sport Illustrated that described Joe as many knew him, laid back and fun loving. The magazine compared him to Jeff Spicoli, the curly-haired stoner from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I love SI, but felt they missed the point. Joe's numbers jumped every year and he left Boston for the left coast. Thornton has won the Hart trophy and Olympic gold with Canada. Early doubters have been proven wrong many times over.
The downside to sportswriting? Long hours and working evenings and weekends. You miss a lot of social stuff, but that's the job.
In my four years at the T-J I got to cover some golf.
By far the biggest story during my tenure involved the municipal golf course. The course was downtown and bordered an old factory that has since closed down. The nine-hole layout was lined with sturdy old trees and while it wasn't a gem, it was the starting point for hundreds of players to learn the game.
If you drive by that location today, there is no century-old golf course. The owners sold the land (they planned to open an another course soon after, they told me in an interview) and Wal-Mart moved in.
The busiest part of downtown St. Thomas, near The Beer Store, five-pin bowling alley and near the main intersection to fast food alley, got a whole lot busier when the U.S.-based mega store set up shop.
The magnet effect soon kicked in.
Canadian Tire and Zehrs left their locations to be close to the action. A gas station, restaurant, and other shops joined the party.
In Stratford, that type of land transaction would have people chaining themselves to the trees at the golf course. Wal-Mart is trying to move in to Stratford, but the city insists it set up on the west end, which is underdeveloped. The Ontario Municipal Board has backed up that idea, after Wal Mart tried to locate in an already busy area in the city's east end.
Makes you wonder. Maybe it's just me, but I thought city leaders in St. Thomas should have done everything they could to stop that from happening. It was private land so maybe the council's hands were tied.
My dad and I never got to live out our golfing plan, but generations of fathers and sons bonded on that course.
Not to mention the thousands of others who had a great time.
Now, when I drive by, I see commerce and traffic headaches.
All those trees, that grass, those memories gone forever.
Such a shame.
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