Welcome to 1997.
Let's see here. The apartment was getting ever smaller. I continued walking to work and openly ridiculing people who drove back and forth.
The brand-new Superstore opened up at the bottom of the hill from where I was living. All the years prior to that, I had had to walk up the hill to the Sobeys. Until HRM amalgamation in 1996, stores had to close on Monday and Tuesday and Saturday night at 6. There was very little Sunday shopping. The ritual was to rush to your store on the Halifax side right after work in the hope of getting your food or other purchases before the stores had to close. Or, you could wait until some night when the stores were open. Or, and lots of people did this, you could drive your car over to Dartmouth or to Lower Sackville or some place other than Halifax city proper and get what you had to get. It all seems so quaint now, store shopping hours prior to amalgamation.
Anyway, the Superstore was a great addition to the part of the city where I was living. I switched over to them almost totally, almost immediately. I continue to shop at Sobeys, any Sobeys, very infrequently. I think it's due to the Superstore that opened in my neck of the woods in 1997.
I "saved" a woman's life in 1997. I was returning to my apartment one Winter's day. A woman in my building named Helen was trying to get into the building as well, but got stuck on a sheet of ice and was in danger of losing her balance. I told her to grab my hand. She did, and I hauled her over to me so quickly that she didn't have time to take a tumble. She never forgot that and always talked to me after that. She worked for an insurance company in the Roy Building downtown, which was pretty near to my work.
Helen had a boyfriend. She was so in love with him that she referred to him as "Sweetie". When I finally met him, it was all I could do not to say, "And, you must be Sweetie!" Wouldn't have gone over very well.
I was listening to the radio a lot back then, as I do now. Some things never change. 920 CJCH had shifted to a News/Talk format in 1995, and my friend John Biggs was hosting the morning show with Kelli Rickard. They did that for 2 hours. Then, at 8, Brian Phillips took over for 2 hours of The Hotline. The Hotline had been an hour long, from 9-10, from 1995 until the Fall of 1996. From The Fall of 1995 until a year later, The Hotline was simulcast on ASN television. I recorded a bunch of those shows and still have them. Sometimes I would watch it; sometimes, I would listen to it on the radio.
Anyway.
Come May of 1997, John Biggs was let go from the station, after many years of service, first at C100 and then, from 1993 until 1997, at CJCH. I remember being very disappointed by this dismissal. Brian and Kelli did the Hotline show together for the full 4 hours until she was let go in 1998. I will talk about the Metro Radio Group merger on '98 tomorrow if you want me to. You probably don't.
My car was a year older in 1997. I consoled myself in the fact that it was paid for. I would drive it for several more years. You will hear lots more about it.
Sunday suppers at Patricia's became a highlight for both of us. She has always enjoyed having a full, sit down meal on Sundays. She would go all out. Salmon. Steak. Other seafood. Some exotic creation. I have to say that I was never disappointed by one of her meals.
No, really.
I have to say that I was never disappointed by one of her meals.
What else? More trips to Pictou County. More time at the cottage. No trespassers, yet. Began to hear whispers of the American cottage neighbours. Wouldn't meet them for years yet. Eventually interviewed one for the blog.
I got Patricia interested in Wolfville around this time. She has come to love that little berg nearly as much as I do.
The numb-nutted so-and-so at my work became my supervisor again in 1997. He skulked around liked he owned the place. When someone left our work, we had a farewell lunch for him. This guy wouldn't walk down with us, preferring instead to slither down the hill with the management folks and sit with them during the meal. He wouldn't walk back with us, either.
I had an operation in 1997. When I was 9 or so, I was playing soccer with my chums. I was the goalie. I was pretty good at it, and used my face to stop the soccer ball. It hit me in the face, and I think that's what caused a deviated septum in my nose. It wasn't fixed until 1997, when I was 33. I was off work for a week or so and returned to work with the bandage still on my nose.
1997 was a transitional year for me. I had some good times. I had some not so good times. I had a crappy boss for a while.
The year ended on a sour note for me. I had applied for another job within my work area and didn't get it. I was sorely disappointed. Things happen for a reason, though. Not getting that job helped me a make a decision, one that would change my life in fundamental ways.
Ah, but that's a tale for 1998!
See you tomorrow.
Bevboy
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