Memories from the weekend;

It was our best turnout in years, but 25% attendees were part time. Another first. Let the record show the following participants: Guy, Floyd, Beaups, Leo, Darryl, Mowbs, John (Friday), Rob (Friday night), Scott McCallum, Scott Cruiser (Saturday night), Harps, and our organizer Cookie (Friday night, Saturday night, most of Sunday)

After some golf on Friday - only available to the wealthy and retirees – that night saw everyone dribbling into the party room at the Radisson. The “No Smoking” rule was followed for all of 5 minutes before the window screen was removed and butts came out in full force.

After the usual opening ceremonies of wine, liquor, more smokes, herbal magic and a crass note to the newest father among us, it was off to dinner across the street. It was memorable for a mammery of reasons. Thanks you Laurin for the 6 inch cleavage. And yes the chicken wings were perky good too.

Then it was back to the party room for the third round of drinking. In the red corner were the usual heavyweights. In the blue corner were the challengers, and Rob who was among them, showed why he is not ready to join the heavyweights. At 3:30 am, his talking indecipherable, barely conscious, with one eye open, he was poured into the cab by the long standing heavy weight champion of “booee” and scotch. Vote material that surely was.

Saturday morning rain put a damper on the canoe ride plans, so after our ironman diet of eggs, bacon and coffee, we took stock of the possible alternatives, as well as the 40 year old photos that Johnny, with great relief, retrieved from Floyd. Following which, we jumped in the cars for what was to be a trip down memory lane, starting with more food in Wellesley at the Nith River chop house for burgers and beer.

Next stop: a quick visit to Cruiser at the car dealership, his new place of employment where he can deploy his people skills to the benefit of Nissan shareholders

From there, it was off to Bluevale for a photo opt, which got more interesting when we met teacher in the parking lot, who offered an inside tour. We heartily jumped at the chance. While his intentions were good, he spent a little too much talking about himself and showing off new parts of the school, when in fact most of us were more interested in visiting old parts of the school where perhaps we got our first hand job, or maybe copped a feel, got a good look at “Jaws” (Cruiser to explain), etc

Having worked up a thirst, it was off to Roxxanne’s to join the local lonely lads for a few pitchers of beer and a chance to gaze at some pole dancers. While the talent was pretty good, the general sentiment was “Any tits are good tits” as someone said, surely a sign of our advancing age and diminished standards. Once all that started getting a bit old, it was time to get cleaned up and prepare for the evening meal.

Mr. Cook, continuing with the theme of reliving our hometown youth, arranged to have an authentic German meal, which was preceded by some local hometown brew, courtesy of Alfred and his team of guys and lovelies who set up the beer keg. Leo and Steve had the ceremonial job of hammering in the spigot. A rather healthy bash from Steve caused some serious beer blow back, which added to the festive spirit of the night, although Alfred seemed to shed a tear to see such a loss of perfectly good suds.

After filling up on many forms of German meat, attention was turned to fight nite - the UFC’s limited appeal to men over 50 became clear as sleeping bodies lay all over the living floor, although Johnny Bones Jones win over the big Swede, Gustovsan, was a very entertaining match for the few of us who still appreciate our inner caveman.

Sunday morning it was time for another mandatory part of AOTW: the golf. After Mowbs, Beaups, Gary and Dino took the honours, it was back to Steve’s for lunch and the voting. While earlier side discussions had pegged Nob as the most deserving choice for next year, some last minute phone conversations revealed that he would not be in a position to fulfill said duties, and so voting intentions became unhinged, almost resulting in Mr. Cook being handed the tiller once again. However, yours truly had made some overtures throughout the weekend, which after Round II saw the votes migrate in my direction, and so AOTW 2014 is safe and secure.

Thanks again to Cookie for a well planned weekend, which was nicely themed and branded. Better weather might have supplied different circumstances and a different outcome (whenever boats are involved, shit does seem to happen). But alas, it all worked out, and so we bumped fists and bellies and said our goodbyes.

Postscipt: Friday nite’s dismissal of smoking bylaws meant that a $250 room cleaning charge was applied to Mr. Cook’s credit card. Mowbs manned up and paid most of that, while yours truly will remember the 2 most expensive cigarettes I’ve ever had.

Attendees:

Cruiser, Cookie, Harps, Boomer, Deano, Dinesy, Beaups, Daryl, Freud, Guy, Mowbs, Nob, John,

everyone but Rod and Mel

Video Of the weekend