Nice to see old faces
Picture brought back lots of memories
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CLASS ACT ... Bret Hart's Grade 4 picture -- the Hitmen is on the left wearing a Batman shirt -- brought back a flood of mmories.
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By BRET "The Hitman" HART -- For The Calgary Sun
Greetings from England.
I'm here to do various promotional work and it turns out I landed right in
the middle of the biggest petrol strike in the history of this country. People
don't even have gas to get to work. Most of my appearances were cancelled
because neither I nor the fans can get to them.
The organizers have been very apologetic.
Everyone over here is angry and I'm sorry it's causing people problems, but
I have to admit that, for me, I'm secretly loving every minute of my lighter
schedule.
As you're reading this on Saturday, I'll hopefully be doing an autograph
session in Manchester. Last weekend, it was great to meet all of you who
turned out when I signed autographs in Calgary. It's a very odd feeling to be
sitting in front of a long line of people, meeting so many of you so quickly
that sometimes it all becomes a blur.
Then, every once in a while, I'll look up from signing an autograph to see
a familiar face from the past smiling back at me. Last weekend, there were
lots of pleasant surprises in store for me. My high school girlfriend came by
and that was great because we haven't touched base in way too long.
Joachim Hermann, alias Jergen Himmler, the ref from the old Stampede days,
brought a contingent of German fans to see me.
And then there was Mrs. Gregory, my Grade 4 teacher. You might recall that
I wrote about her a few months ago. She encouraged me to draw, to have faith
in myself and never give up my dreams. There she was, the face that saved me,
standing in line to see me.
When she got to the front of the line, she said: "I bet you don't recognize
me." I surely did! And what a delight to see her. Mrs Gregory brought me a
special surprise, a photo from her personal collection taken in our Grade 4
classroom. (I'm the one in the Batman shirt, of course).
And, if you look closely, you can see Murray Reimer, the kid with the pet
gopher named Goofy. And Ted Bucilla, one of my best boyhood buddies. Ted came
to the matches with me when we were kids and years later came back to watch me
as a fan.
Look -- there's Blaine Humphrey and Cam Davis, two more of my best young
friends. It brings back memories of when we played King of the Hill in the
piles of snow at recess.
And there's Pat Goan, who did more on the junior high school paper than she
ever got credit for. And even Nevel Johnson, the tallest guy in the picture,
the highland dancer from Wildwood. I wonder if he'll be dancing up a storm at
the Ernest Manning 25th Reunion, Sept. 30 at Brewsters.
Now that is a once-in-a-lifetime party that I'm not gonna miss!
Nor am I going to miss the Ralph Klein Rolling Thunder Roast in Calgary on
Wednesday!
Jebb Fink from the A-Channel will be there. I've had a soft spot for Jebb
ever since what happened to him at Stu's house.
You might recall catching it on TV. See, Jebb was thirsting to learn the
art of flying head scissors and drop kicks and I said I'd be happy to show
him. But then I got caught up in training for the 60-minute iron man match
with Shawn Michales at Wrestlemania XII. Well, in the midst of all that, I'd
mentioned to Jebb that if he met me at Stu's, I'd show him a move or two.
It turned into one of those days where I was running behind and ... I might
have mentioned to Stu that Jebb wanted someone to teach him some wrestling. It
seems Jebb was unaware of Stu's passion for submission holds and he might have
underestimated Stu.
A dangerous mistake. I tried to intervene, but there was no sense in both
of us going down. Stu's hearing was just getting bad enough and Jebb was just
a little too keen and, next thing you know, Jebb allowed Stu to put just one
little hold on.
No, Jeb never learned any leap frogs but he used every ounce of strength to
fight and claw his way out of there. Stu kept pulling him back and taking him
to the top of the mountain, where Jebb discovered what his falsetto voice
sounds like.
I wanted to try and save ol' Jebb, but I knew that once you get Stu
started, there's no stopping him. After three or four hours, my mother
eventually rescued Jebb, knowing from experience that anything sooner would
have been futile. I'll bet, to this day, Jebb probably thinks I set him up and
that we all had a good laugh. But, honestly, I didn't mean to leave him down
in the dungeon with Stu -- but we did have a good laugh.
