Birthday Boy

I’ve known Simon for almost all my life. We first met at the old Victoria hospital in Fredericton on November 21st, 1974. Interestingly enough, I was three weeks late coming into the world and Simon was two weeks early. Had we been ones to conform to the status quo, I guess we wouldn’t have met till 1983 on the dodge ball court at St. Dunstan’s Elementary School. So I guess, whether I’m one day older than him or five weeks older, Simon has looked up to me all his life.

I have many stories I could tell about Si but since blog sites are relatively open to everyone on the planet, I will keep them to a minimum. The first one that comes to mind is Simon’s obsession with sticking his head into buckets of icy water. One night, in a dive hotel in Montreal he stuck his head into a bucket of ice for ten minutes. Why? I’m not sure. Though it was halfway impressive, I think a guy named Gabe won the contest.

Another one of my favourite’s is Simon in London. As we all know, Simon is an international athlete and a minor celebrity on the Fredericton athletic scene. He is without a doubt the Guy Lafleur of Maritime rugby. One time he was on the national team playing in Cardiff. Luckily, I was in Edinburgh, Scotland at the time, so I went down to check out his game. The story, however, takes place in London. We were out at a bar with a friend named Duncan and it was getting late and we had had too much to drink. So I bolted, as I do sometimes, without saying goodbye. Halfway to the hotel (was I even walking in the right direction?), I get a call from Duncan telling me to come back and get Si. Being the good friend I am, I go back and find Si passed out at a bus stop. I manage to get him into a cab and we take off. As we get to our destination in King’s Cross, Si throws up all over the back bumper of the cab in front of a crowd of junkies and prostitutes. We all had a good laugh.

Besides swimming, the thing that brings all of our good friends together is road trips. I forget which trip it was but we were crossing the border from Quebec into Vermont one summer day. As we were getting searched (it is the most difficult border to cross in the world), I remember looking over at Simon emptying out his pockets for the border guard. As he put the little pile on the counter, I see that the entire contents of Simon’s pockets consist of a bit of change (under fifty cents, mostly brown coins), two beer caps, and a condom. The border guard just looks at him strangely and tells him to go back outside.

It is always entertaining being around you, Si. Happy birthday, buddy. Sorry about the late greeting but I was three weeks late coming into the world and it still takes me a while to get things done.