OK, so You’ve got a guy nicknamed “Skid” who has just transferred from the Catholic boys’ High School, at De La Salle Oaklands in Toronto, to York Mills Collegiate in North York. His goal: to study science, which wasn’t taught in Grade Thirteen at his former school.

Enter a guy nicknamed “Fritz” who arrives from the USA with his Dad. He happens to settle, with his Collie Rex, in North York’s first dog friendly apartment towers at the York Mills and Sheppard area of North York. Skid, with his Border Collie Chips, and his family  have just sold their home in North York and happen to move into the same Carluke Crescent apartments.

They meet dog walking, and then at school, and then discover they are much wanted fresh faces at the York Mills C.I. social scene. Needless to say, Skid’s exemplary top of class marks from De La Salle plummeted in the face of so much mixed school female attention. Likewise, Fritz, under so much demand for his exotic American background and basic good looks, suffered a similar loss of academic success.

Sports were fine – football and skiing and wrestling teams and drama clubs – we won championships and standing ovations! The downside was that I had to repeat Grade Thirteen and Fritz was given a choice –  pick up your marks or enlist. In a supreme act of teenage rebellion, he enlisted to join the Paratroopers training at Fort Bragg before heading off to Vietnam.

I fast forward – he survives the darkest and most deadly times of the Vietnam wars, marries, has children, establishes a chiropractic practice in California, his wife passes, and we continue to be the best of friends. I have only visited him once in California and he has only visited me once in Ontario, but he is in my heart and soul forever. We took our Dad’s golfing once on the St. Andrew’s golf course attached to our apartment complex. Then we went as a family to Dad’s fishing haven at Deep Bay on Lake Huron.

We made a famous spoof teen age movie together, “Whatever Shape Your Agent’s In” to celebrate our love of Sean Connery as 007. We had every “”Bond Girl” at York Mills auditioning for a role in the movie. A lot of bath bubbles went into the mix.. Fritz later dubbed the 007 theme music into the sound track. Steven Spielberg, eat your Super Seven heart out!

My best friend is now relaxing in California, celebrating with his longtime American hiking friends at his outpost on a river that flows into the Pacific. I will be there in spirit!

Yours outdoors,
Skid