Quote Originally Posted by robb_k View Post
My father always owned a store[[In Winnipeg, Chicago, and L.A.). He had to work long hours 6-7 days a week. I worked together with him in all those stores. But we also had time off. He used to take me and my cousins fishing. He and my uncle, who owned the house next door to us, took out the backyard fence between, and built us an almost regulation-sized backyard ice rink. We'd lay the ice down in October, and play hockey till the end of April, or sometimes, the first week of May. All the neighbourhood kids played there. My Dad and uncle got us real metal goals. We didn't have a Zamboni, but we had a big ice-groomer[[scraper) that we pushed along the ice, using two strong skaters on each side. I used to play or practise every day. My Dad and uncle coached some Peewee, at times. And they both gave us kids a lot of pointers. My Dad told me to "keep my stick on the ice" a long time before Steve Smith's[[Red Green's) dad told him to do that. He always took off work to see my important school or league games. He also introduced me to Jazz, Blues and R&B music, playing his 1930s and 1940s 78s. He also introduced me to the outside World. We used to sit and look at the Globe, and I'd ask about the different countries, and what they are like. That got me iinterested in seeing The World, and led me to working for The UN in Africa and Asia for 20 years.

He's been gone 3 years now, and I miss him a lot [[he lived to 94, and was still in great shape, active, and had his full mind till he passed on. I can't even say I;ve got my full mind now, in my early '70s.
My Pops and I share a love for music. He had a large album collection and that's probably what led to me purchasing records with every check from ages 16 through 28 [[getting married changes your purchase habits). Dad introduced me to R&B and I introduced him to Reggae and African pop. He always had some good jazz but it was my buddy Don who turned me onto jazz. I think Dad and I both found blues music separate of each other.

For no good reason, I hated jazz. The art room in high school had a receiver and two large speakers and the black kids and white kids fought over what station the radio should play. We wanted the R&B station, they wanted the rock station. Finally, it was decided that every other day it would switch. Well, Don, to the dismay of many, got the teacher to sub one of the R&B days for a jazz day.

I'll never forget being over his house until early morning hours and him subjecting me to Bob James and Grover and Dave Sanborn and Earl Klugh and Dave Grusin and Pat Matheny and Weather Report. One Saturday on one of my record hunts, I heard a Bob James record that sounded really good playing in the background and I bought one of his records and a Grover album. I've never looked back.

Then, I was listening to my dad's jazz and we had something else in common. We separate when it comes to country, hip hop and other forms of dance music. I fell in love with a lot of music in the '80s. And for as diverse as my listening tastes are, it's surprising that I'm such a snob that I now can't stand 90% of what is being produced today. The only music that I have that's been produced in the last ten years is gospel records.

The beautiful thing about living in 2018 is technology. My parents traveled to North Carolina for a family reunion this summer and I gave them a '50s/'60s mp3 and a gospel mp3, each of which contained enough music to get them all the way down and back. That's a far cry from when we listened to the same three or four 8-tracks all the way down and back when we were kids. And I've put Windows Media Player playlists on their computer that they can listen to like their own personal radio station all day when they need background music. Man, I love my folks.