We are born into this world with no set expiration date. No one knows how long each visit will last which is probably a good thing.
Some will last longer than others and this past week I had the pleasure, no make that a privilege, of spending time with two old friends and old is the operative word here.
First off, I had lunch with Art Davis, a long-time retired hotel owner in the Calgary area who at one time had what I would consider the dream situation. He owned enough hotels to be considered the server of more than 50 per cent of the draft beer in a city with a population of 100,000. That might give away his age in part but I’ll get to that. Art was a three-sport man winning Alberta tennis titles not to mention Alberta golf crowns while making a buck or two playing goal for professional hockey teams in Calgary and Chicago (yes the Blackhawks).
He retired a long, long time ago but continued golfing and playing tennis long past the unwritten rules of age to be doing so. A few years back Art suffered a setback when he fell after a meeting at the Calgary Flames office, crushing his skull and damaging both knees. He told me that some medical people thought at his age he would never recover. Well I’m here to assure you that he has and in a big way. After we lunched at his exclusive private golf club he went to his locker and picked up a set of clubs that he planned on practicing with until the weather broke and then planned to get back on a course he couldn’t play for those few years. He looks ready to go to be sure.
When they next bring a birthday cake in for Art Davis it will be adorned with 94 candles. The man amazed me as a youth but he’s even more amazing in his later years.
And then there is George Stephenson the comic laureate of Southern Alberta. George spent the majority of his life in the oil patch in southern Alberta after coming to the area to work for the now defunct Calgary Brewing and Malting Company. Some might remember him from his Friday afternoon horse races without horses in the tavern of the Alexandra or St. Louis Hotels in downtown Calgary. He’d reel off four races with such imaginary excitement he’d have a hundred or so customers screaming in support of an animal they couldn’t see but George had that horse charging to the finish line with seven others giving chase. Along with the races he would regale the troops with about 100 jokes, mostly one-liners, some of which I’ve stolen and still use today.
Today he gets around with the use of a wheelchair but just the same on his 91st birthday he was at the keyboard singing up a storm with joke after joke breaking up a crowd of about 100 between songs.
He now lives at the Colonel Belcher senior’s home in Calgary but I’m told that when his son can’t get around to giving dad a look at the outside world Stephenson continues his comedy routines on fellow seniors and even cracks up some of the staff.
At 91 and 94 a lot of people might suggest that George and Art are lucky enough to have sent their game into overtime. Personally I think they believe they’re only in the third quarter with another session still to come and then they hope for overtime.
Today’s joke is about Publisher Jack in the long, long ago. At a small Manitoba school the secretary answered the phone in the office. She heard a deep voice say “I’m sorry but Jack can’t come to school today because he is not feeling well.” The secretary asked who was speaking and the voice at the other end said: “My father.”
