My Third Brush with Greatness.
From the moment I heard Rogers Hometown Hockey and Ron Maclean were coming to St.Catharines I knew I had to go. I love Hockey Night in Canada and Ron Maclean is the consummate Canadian broadcaster. So I booked the day off work weeks in advance and made plans to go downtown St.Catharines with the plan of meeting Ron Maclean and getting my baby blue jersey signed, which I had purchased many years before.
The big day arrives, December 14 2014 and I as per usual arrive way to early. The event did not even start until 1 o'clock and I was parked and walking around well before noon. I was walking around in my jersey and a hoodie and at first it wasn't that cold. I walked around, scoped everything out. McDonald’s was there giving away free coffee, there was a ball hockey rink, hardest shot competition, and numerous other vendors. So I walked around participated in some of these activities, got my photo taken with former Maple Leaf Darcy Tucker and by this time it was about 2 o'clock. So I stood around the broadcast trailer, just waiting and getting cold. I overheard some of the production team saying Mr Maclean wasn't due to arrive until about five. This made sense since the broadcast did not start until seven. Freezing, hungry, and about to burst I left the broadcast trailer shortly after 3 o'clock and made my way over to Tim Horton’s. I went to the restroom and was planning on sitting down, drinking a coffee and eating a bagel for an hour or so. I guess Tim Horton’s misjudged how busy they would be that day and ran out of bagels. So I walked out and went next door to Gord’s place. Gord’s was packed and would have been well over an hour until I could be seated and eat. So I manned up and decided to go back and just wait it out. I got a free McDonald’s coffee and sat in behind the broadcast trailer. Nobody was there because they were all participating in a Q&A with Shayne Corson and Darcy Tucker or participating in the other activities. I was sitting on a freezing cold concrete planter outside the courthouse reading the days complimentary magazine when I look up and see Ron Maclean walking towards me. Shock ensued. It was only 3:30 and he was already here walking towards me. I stand up and as he walks towards me he says that he saw my jersey and told his driver that he needed to sign that. I was near speechless. He however was not he stood there and talked to me for what must have been almost ten minutes. We talked about the tour, he asked about my jersey, and how he didn’t have one (I offered him mine), and then he told me about how the rest of his day would go. He thanked me for waiting for him and then he volunteered his driver to take our photo. He did and it was a fantastic moment in my life that I will never forget.
If the exact series of events did not transpire the way it did I would not have been there to get my face time with Ron Maclean. It was amazing.
Another Great Photo too! Anyway as usual I hope you find your time on this site to be time (and bandwidth) time well wasted.
