During the summer months, softball or slo-pitch are my participation sports of choice. For years and years I've played in at least two leagues, averaging about three games a week these days. I'd guesstimate I've played over 250 games this decade, but one game six years ago has provided me
The BBC had a 13-year old swap his iPod for a Sony Walkman. It's a pretty fun read as the kid compares the two portable music devices. I loved my Walkman. I took it everywhere and spent a great deal of time making perfect mix tapes. Here I am gushing
YouTube user Retrontario frequently uploads fantastic retro-Toronto-centric gems. These clips never fail to bring back a ton of memories for me, so I feature them from time to time. This retro ad is for my brother Steve. Steve consumes vast quantities of Heinz ketchup. Chime in if I'm off base
YouTube user Retrontario frequently uploads fantastic retro-Toronto-centric gems. These clips never fail to bring back a ton of memories for me, so I feature them from time to time. A couple of years ago I wrote about Polka Dot Door. In the comments of that entry, someone asked about The
YouTube user Retrontario frequently uploads fantastic retro-Toronto-centric gems. These clips never fail to bring back a ton of memories for me, so I feature them from time to time. I recently shared an Ontario Health public service announcement (PSA) from 1984 that I remember like it was yesterday. Today, I'm
I got my first baseball glove when I was six or seven years old. I played with that plastic Canadian Tire brand glove for years until I received a Black Diamond glove made by Cooper. That Black Diamond glove was used every day of every summer for years until I
YouTube user Retrontario frequently uploads fantastic retro-Toronto-centric gems. These clips never fail to bring back a ton of memories for me, so I feature them from time to time. This Ontario Health public service announcement from 1984 really struck a chord with me. Maybe it's because I was 10 years
In addition to finding floppies, I stumbled upon my old Andre the Giant glass beer mug this past weekend. Back in 1985, when I was a big fan of the WWF and Andre the Giant in particular, somebody bought this for me and I've had it ever since. The funny
I spent 7 straight hours today cleaning out the basement. I purged a lot of stuff collecting dust down there, including some old relics from years past. For example, I found a bunch of old 3 1/2 inch floppy disks. Back in the day, I backed up all my
GeoCities is closing later this year. If you were on the web in the late 90s, you knew GeoCities. I cut my web page teeth on GeoCities, signing up for a free account over ten years. I remember when my GeoCities page got tied to my Yahoo! member name, shortly
I live in Toronto. Not the GTA, but Toronto proper. My area code is 416. I love my little 3-bedroom house and I love my neighbourhood. I work with lots of people who live outside the city, in Mississauga, Brampton, Milton, Oakville, Georgetown or Burlington. When it comes to square
Years ago, I wrote about the worst team I ever played for. I was a forward with the CN Towers in the Swansea Hockey Association. We played at Rennie Park and went 0-15 one season. I was just going through some old photos when I found a shot of Sam's
I saw an xkcd web comic today that reminded me of a recurring nightmare that pops up now and then. I actually wrote about this dream about four years ago. I too suffer from the popular "I have an exam I completely forgot about and I'm in big trouble" dream.
In the mid-80s, my parents made sure we kids each got to at least one Leafs game a year at Maple Leaf Gardens. A teacher my mom worked with had season's tickets and he would sell a few pairs to us each year. They were seats 11 and 12 of
YouTube user Retrontario frequently uploads fantastic retro-Toronto-centric gems. These clips never fail to bring back a ton of memories for me, so I feature them from time to time. Brian Linehan passed away almost five years ago. He hosted City Lights, a show I would watch because I found Linehan's
The following comment was left by Bugsy Brown on my recent It's Patrick, He Got Life Insurance entry. Does anyone remember the Oil of Olay commercial... on a ski mountain.Guy spots a lady and says.. "Emerson High, 1975. You were in my class.""I was your teacher.""Miss Fitzhenry?
The last hockey game was played at Maple Leaf Gardens ten years ago yesterday. I have a lot of great MLG memories, having seen a number of games there during the 80s and 90s. I kept most of my ticket stubs, and here are some of the older style tickets
More than any other header tagline in the history of this site, "It's Patrick, He Got Life Insurance" has elicited the greatest response. I actually wasn't sure whether it was "It's Patrick, He Bought Life Insurance" or "It's Patrick, He Got Life Insurance," but I remember well the ad the
In the pre-blog era, we had scrapbooks. Off and on throughout my life, I'd keep a scrapbook to document significant events, usually sports-related. Here is one such scrapbook in which I covered everything from the deaths of John Kordic and Kurt Cobain to the retirement of Larry Bird and the
I suppose if you're going to write almost 10,000 entries, you're bound to cover a lot of bases. A couple of years ago, I wrote about the day I fractured my left foot and named the school mate who put me in a cast for six weeks. I was
YouTube user Retrontario frequently uploads fantastic retro-Toronto-centric gems. These clips never fail to bring back a ton of memories for me, so I feature them from time to time. This ad is from Stitches for Toronto T's and it aired back in 1985. I remember Toronto T's, City-TV promotional garments
With Ricardo Montalban's passing yesterday, I was reminded of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. My father took me to see Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan at the old Runnymede Theatre back in 1982. Quick math tells me I was either 7 or 8 years old, depending upon how
The Legend of Zelda was a big deal when I was a kid. We had the old 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System and The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link were a couple of games that received primo play time. I mean, we took these games seriously.
Last night I enjoyed a calm, relaxing New Year's Eve. I prefer it that way. Five years ago, my New Year's Eve was anything but calm and relaxing. Five years ago, we had one child. James was one and Michelle was on the way, arriving in July. James also had
My buddy and slo-pitch teammate Kic put up a Facebook profile pic that took me back to the moment before it all changed. It's a moment we Toronto sports fans are still stuck in, a moment of collective elation that will likely never be topped. Before I continue, here's the
