2008 -- Oct 9 | Apr 27 | Mar 5 -- 2007 -- Dec 10 | Nov 20 | Nov 12 | Nov 3 | Oct 17 | Oct 3 | Sept 3 | Aug 11 | May 27 | Apr 29 | Apr 14 | Mar 11 | Feb 19 | Jan 27
2006 -- Dec 19 | Nov 26 | Nov 20 | Nov 11 | Nov 6 | Oct 30 | Oct 15 | Sept 23 | Sept 16 | Sept 4 | Aug 27 | Aug 20 | Aug 8 | Aug 1 | June 29 | June 21
Happy New Year!
I know that sounds a little strange coming on January 27th but hey, I haven't penned an update since 2006. A lot has happened since I last talked to all of you. My wife Michelle, my daughter Brooklyn as well as my mother-in-law Lucille went to Niger Africa to do some mission work for 18 days. They left on December 26th and returned on January 13th. It was an unbelievable eye-opener for them (as well as for us at home), reminding us how incredibly blessed we are to be living in Canada (Amen to that). If you'd like to find out more about their compelling journey there is a terrific blog on the internet written by my good buddy Marv Luther. Incidentally, he went on the trip as well. If you're wondering about the blog address, Marv is a huge NFL fan and a New Orleans Saints fanatic.
Okay, back to football. Two weeks ago we sat down with Tim Kroeker at Market Mall and talked with him about his life as an official. Tim went to Holy Cross and played football under Dave Hardy. He was also a very talented baseball player that played for team Canada. It was a nice change to interview an official especially one with Tim's qualifications. Last year alone, he officiated high school football games, junior football games, college football games and CFL games.
Last Saturday Chris and I drove to Regina to do some more interviews. You're probably asking yourself, who in the world are you interviewing now? Good question, we've been trying to nab down an interview with Roger Aldag since October. We finally sat down with him in his lovely home at Regina Beach. Typical of good rural people, he came outside to greet us and his wife Jo had coffee ready for us. Roger was a wonderful interview, funny and folksy. We headed into Regina after the interview and had lunch with a good friend of mine, Dave Gorrie. After lunch we drove to Ron and Brenda Atchison's place. It was a reminder to me that athletes from a bygone era lived very differently. Their home was a small bungalow, nicely decorated and inviting. Brenda showed us some of Ron's memorabilia in their basement including a painting of Atchison Lake, named after Atch as well as an old Hilltop helmet from the late 40's and the famous cast Ron wore to bludgeon his opponents.
Atch's interview was special. He stated matter-of-factly that he was just a farm kid who was lucky enough to play pro football, now that's humility. It reminds us how times have changed, thinking of some of the egomaniacs playing the game today. At one point during the interview he put on his old Hilltop helmet, and it fit! It's intriguing to hear stories from an era that seems a long, long time ago. After the interview we drove 65 kilometers down the road to meet with Jared Robinson in Moose Jaw. Jared is a musical genius who is going to be writing some score music for our documentary. I get excited just thinking that our documentary will have original music, I can hardly wait!
Our final interview last Saturday took place at Level 10, a fitness centre for elite athletes. Level 10 is owned and operated by Dan Farthing. Dan played high school football with Holy Cross, university football with the Huskies and pro football with the Riders. Back in the late 80's I was the announcer for high school football games at Gordie Howe Bowl. I watched many of Dan's games and he was a phenom. I told someone that it was like watching a man playing with boys. Dan was articulate and engaging. His enthusiasm for football and life was evident.
Yesterday, we sat down with Ned Powers in his living room and interviewed him for an hour, that's the longest interview we've done by 15 minutes! Ned is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge. He wrote the 60th anniversary book for the Hilltops. He calls the book "A labour of love". Ned is a natural storyteller much like Bob Hughes, another engaging personality. We've started editing and it will be a long arduous process. Chris has looked through every minute of the 90 hours of footage and he says there's more usable footage than he thought there'd be, yikes! It's a good problem to have. We'll keep you posted as we continue to edit. Take care and I hope 2007 is good to you.
Regards,
Tom Simes
Five Stones Films