No party for this guy but we need to do something. I started hanging out with Ponch in what I could only describe as my “Party Days”. It was a time when life consisted of nothing but work and play. Go to work, play hockey, eat wings at Manhattans, drink, and hang with the boys. Sometimes girls too if we were lucky.
Ponch and Drew were the first to get to their own place and it quickly turned into a hangout for us too. They had this tiny little apartment in Osborne Village where the property was cheap. We used to “start there” before going out and usually ended up back there after, at least to some capacity. I have so many good memories from that place. Buzzing in at the door “Bernalap Schnip Schnap”, “Kegleeeeeeeeer”. Kent smashing the main door glass from banging on it and yelling “LET US IN” and then a trail of blood to the apartment door.
Back in 1996 I landed (2) tickets to the last ever Winnipeg Jets game in the Winnipeg Arena. Ponch is a huge Jets fan and I knew there was nobody who would appreciate that experience more than him and I have always been grateful to have shared that experience with him. It was a magical night in more ways than one because I also think that was night Ponch found Mel so the timing could not have been better.
From there came the Morley and Mulvey houses and again it must have been somewhat annoying how much we were there. A home away from home and the guys were always happy to see us, or at least it always felt as such. In fact Ponch was the first man in Winnipeg to get the internet so he would let us go on there and talk to men pretending to be girls and allow us to see dirty images that loaded one line at a time. I remember one night the Tragicaly Hip released Ahead By A Century and we clicked the download button, went to the bar, and came back home to listen to the track like magic. It was glorious times.
He’s a guy you want on your team and he makes a helluva onion dip. Happy 50th birthday my friend.