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Was it up in Hornepayne?
 I
wasn't even really into Gordon Lightfoot way back in 1979. I knew about
the Edmund Fitzgerald, but that was about it. I was only 17, a young punk,
hanging out in the streets of Hornepayne, a small town in Northern Ontario.
Little did I know, Gordon Lightfoot commonly made fishing trips into Ontario's
north - and apparently knew some people in this small town. So it was
a big event, but I didn't even know he was in town.
A friend and I were just "hanging out"
and we heard he was in town and where he was. Well I can be pretty brash
and I simply called up the household where we heard he was at. The owner
of the home answered, and I simply said, "Can I speak to Gordon Lightfoot?"
The man responded, 'hold on a sec'. Hold on a sec? I couldn't believe
it.
Another voice came on the line, and sure enough
it was that of Gordon Lightfoot. I asked him if my and a friend could
come over. What did he say? Simply, "Don't bring a crowd". Woah!
My friend and I headed over, and as soon as I rang the bell, my friend
took off like a bat out of hell. I still to this day do not know why.
I went in, saw some familiar faces,
was offered a beer, and took up a spot in the corner of the living room.
Gordon was there, some friends I knew, and the owners of the house and
some of their friends. I just took it all in.
 Various
people strummed guitars and all was great. Everyone kept goading Gordon
to play a tune, but he kept refusing. After maybe an hour, he relented
and played 'On the High Seas' (see lyrics at left) and a couple
of other tunes. He never did play The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
(see photo).
At one point during the evening I managed to actually
sit next to him and have a conversation. I don't remember how that came
to be. I don't remember a lot about the conversation either, but I told
him I was a drummer. I didn't actually start writing songs on guitar until
about two or three years later.
The one thing I do remember quite vividly were
the callouses (I don't recall if they were only on one hand or both -
likely both). But they were so substantial that I couldn't believe it
- they were like tumours on his fingers.
As the gathering wound down, he offered everyone
tickets to his annual Massey Hall show. I refused, I guess because I couldn't
see how I could actually make it down there. Looking back I should have
accepted and asked my parents if they wanted to take a little trip.
 The
humourous part of this story involves me telling my friends the next day
what had happened. They didn't believe me! We were hanging around in the
lobby of the motel where he was staying. What happened next is straight
out of a fantasy novel - Gordon and his lady came through a door into
the lobby to pay their bill!
At first he did not take notice of us, and all
my friends were nodding their heads, meaning, "Ya, right!" Seconds
later, he turned and looked in our direction, noticed me, and said, "Hey,
how's it going?" Oh, there was my crowning moment. My friends realized
immediately that my story was true.
I don't know how long Gordon was actually in Hornepayne
at that time, but he apparently got around. Over the next couple of days,
I heard stories from many people who met him. My dad even met him briefly
as Gordon was given a tour of the Canadian National Railway operations,
namely the roundhouse. They are not used anymore as far as I know.
A roundhouse is a railway repair facility. It incorporates
the use of revolving platform that can direct the train unit to a specific
repair bay. Think of it as a lazy susan. The repair bays formed a half
circle on one side of the revolving platform, but there may only be two
or three tracks leading to the lazy susan. But once the unit is on the
susan, it revolves so that the unit can then be driven into one of the
numerous repair bays.
I can remember walking around remains of a roundhouse
in Parry Sound. All that remained were crumbling walls: no roof, no floor,
just portions of walls slowly being enveloped by Mother Nature: the bush.
Horneypayne High School.
It was quite a change from Monklands High School in Montreal.
Hornepayne looks beautiful in this postcard,
showing a middle-of-the-winter, minus 40-degree night.
This has got to be the worst scan job ever. The original
is much better. But it's Gord's autograph from the night I met him in
1979.
It says, "To ken Best Wishes Gordon Lightfoot".
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