Famous Firsts

First Job: Had a paper route when I was 13. Delivered 100 papers a day and I loved it the worse the weather got. Kept repeating that postman’s creed in my head.

 

First Real Job: Working as an instructor and NCO at Cadet Camp Penhold. Taught basic training, drill, sports and photography.

First Car: 1977 Volkswagen Beetle - White - got for my 17th Birthday. White with black stripe down the front. 13 dollars of gas a month.



First Record/CD: Always had them around but first I bought for myself was Trooper - Hot Shots.



First Sport Played: Hockey like every good Canadian boy.



First Concert: Trooper at the Kinsmen Center Brandon Manitoba 1977.



First Foreign Country Visited: West Germany - 1972 - Lived in Lahr for 5 years.

First Favourite TV Show: Friendly Giant. I loved the way he arranged the little chairs for you by the imaginary fire. Nothing cooler than Jerome, Rusky and those two Jazz Kitties who never spoke. The Friendly Giant made playing the recorder cool.



First Favourite Actor: Birdman - the cartoon character - Didn’t distinguish between real and animated back then and Birdman was the most exciting job I could imaging doing. Living in a volcano, able to fire bolts of sunlight and your best buddy is a giant trained eagle name Avenger.

First Favourite Actress: Kim Richards of the 'Escape to Witch Mountain' movie. She was just adorable and always seemed to be on TV at the time. It's sad to see what a trainwreck she has become if the Real Housewives are to be believed.



Then of course Caroline Munroe took over my fantasies once I reached my teen years.

 

First Girlfriend/Boyfriend: Tara Crandall. Was suppose to tell her that my friend Danny Dugan wanted to break up with her but spent the whole night trying to figure out how to go from the chair I was in to the couch she was sitting on. First girl I kissed. It was during the showing of the movie Killdozer. Best romantic experience was walking in the snow with her.

First Encounter with a Famous Person: I met Prince Charles at the 1977 World Scout Jamboree in P.E.I. He was visiting a few Canadian scout troops and all the foreign ones. We came from West Germany so he thought we were foreign. We were laughing about burning our Jiffy Pop popcorn and he just was there talking and laughing with us. We tried to speak German so that he wouldn’t feel bad about his mistake but he caught on pretty quick. Then he bought us lobster and showed us how to cook and eat them and joined us for dinner he was so taken with us.



First Brush With Death: Jumped the train to travel from Shilo to Winnipeg on a boxcar when I was 14. It was a great adventure that was totally spur of the moment. Didn't feel like we faced death but we could have easily fallen off the moving train. Many years later I was also shot at - an incident which blinded a friend of mine. We were in a bar parking lot and mistaken for someone who had gotten into a fight with a bar patron. I still have shot in my head from that incident and was lucky to get out alive.



First Film Seen: 'Aristocats' in the theatre and 'Diamonds are Forever' at the drive-in.



First Favorite Recording Artist: Queen



First Favorite Radio Station: Base radio in Lahr. Played everything and did a great rock show after school each day. At Christmas they did a show where they read kids letters to Santa that was so well done that you actually believed that it was coming from the North Pole.

First Book I Remember Reading: How the Grinch Stole Christmas




First Comic Book - Batman 274 - ‘How Many Ways Can A Robin Die?’




First Action Figure - Marx - Johnny West Figure.