Wrestling with memories and laughter
It never ceases to amaze me – the things I’ve hung onto over time.
It makes for amusing finds when you’re decluttering your house, which is a kick I’ve been on lately.
A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a Laurie Barron hockey card from probably 15 or so years ago. It made me laugh. Not because of the picture and how youthful Laurie looked, but just because it was something I wasn’t expecting to pull out of a box in our storage room.
When I see Laurie now it’s usually as head coach on the Yarmouth Jr. A Mariners bench. Not at the bottom of a box alongside rogue Christmas decorations and a pair of mismatched socks.
A few days later I was in our garage and pulled out some posters from a trip I had made to Halifax in 2009 with my sons Jacob and Justin, and their friend Jean-Guy. The four of us had driven to Halifax to watch WWE Raw at the Metro Centre.
Wrestling wasn’t my cup of tea, but those signs brought back memories.
I remember that once we arrived in the city we couldn’t go to the Metro Centre – as it was called then – without first making signs. I got roped into doing most of the drawing and colouring. We had crude supplies: Bristol board, some markers and a highlighter. That was it.
One of my kids asked about the DX sign I was making. “Can you make the letters look like they’re dripping with paint?” My response was a cross between an eye roll and a dose of reality for him that my artistic ability was as good as it was going to get.
We walked across the street from our hotel. The sidewalk was packed with people. “Cool signs,” I heard someone say to us. I thought so too until I saw this other kid with his DX sign. And his letters were dripping with paint. Possibly real paint.
Okay, his sign was waaayyyyy better.
As the wrestling matches got underway, my son Jacob kept saying to me, “Mom, pay attention!” I remember there was a woman sitting behind me who kept asking her son, “Which one am I supposed to be cheering for?”
I looked at her, shrugged and said, “I know what you mean. I’m just the driver.”
As my attention was split between the ring and the crowd, Jacob kept saying to me, “Why’d you even come if you’re not going to watch?”
“Ummm…I was the driver,” I reminded him.
I do have to admit I was impressed with some of the flips happening in the ring. When I was in the gymnastics club in junior high I couldn’t even do a dive roll.
I had promised Jacob I’d buy him a t-shirt. Justin wanted an autographed John Cena photo. So during the intermission me and the boys, and a crush of about 150 people, descended on the concession stand.
Great, more wrestling.
Before I got anywhere near the counter the boys had ditched me and gone back to their seats.
I discovered the specific tshirt Jacob wanted was only available in a men’s extra, extra large. He was 11. In the frenzy I pointed to other t-shirts, finally settling on one and telling the guy selling them, “Just give me the smallest size you have!”
I wrestled my way out of the crowd and got back to the boys. I proudly handed Justin his autographed John Cena photograph. He looked at me and said, “Where’s my sign?”
He was referring to the John Cena sign he and I had coloured at the hotel. I was dumbfounded. It was in my hand at the t-shirt stand. Now all I was holding were two John Cena pictures and a t-shirt that may fit Jacob in about eight years.
I went back and saw the sign on the floor with three people standing on top of it. After pushing my way through the crowd and being unsuccessful in trying to slide the sign out with my feet I tapped some big guy on the shoulder and he pulled it out from under the other people.
I went back to my seat and sat down, just as a vendor passed two feet away shouting, “Get your John Cena autographed pictures!”
Are you kidding me? I could have done all of that from the comfort of my own seat?
I recently came across the tshirt that I bought for Jacob. It’s been 11 years and to be honest I still don’t think it would fit him.
As for the autographed John Cena photograph, I have no idea where that is. But I do know how to hook up my boys with an autographed Laurie Barron hockey card.