Hi everyone! What exactly made Christmas Eve 1968 so significant, you ask? Well, I will get to that in just a minute, but first a little anecdote. So, this week is the second of my two weeks of holidays, and with my wife at work, and my son still at home awaiting school to start, I’ve been on duty taking care of him. Overall, it was an ok week if you take away the non-stop rain and stomach flu I suffered through the first two days. On Wednesday, I recorded a podcast episode with the Washington Capitals’ Mike Vogel (“Break the Ice”… more details on that in the coming days), and things started looking up. On Thursday, we played mini-putt, had some McDonalds, played outside a bit. Today, we had nothing really special planned so I decided to take him shopping at Canadian Tire, Dollarama, and any other store that struck our fancy at the Carlingwood Mall. We got all we needed to get done. I finally recycled that old car battery that died last winter, I got a new bin for my Hockey News back issues, and I even picked up a few new books for the kids’ bedtime. All in all, everything went smoothly until we get back home. Just as I’m about to unlock the front door, my son tells me he can’t find his favorite teddy bear, Snowy. He’s had this bear since he was one, and it is his most prized possession. He often takes it with him when we go places (against my wishes as I know that if he loses it, his world will literally come to an end). He goes back to the car to retrieve it, and, Jesus Murphy, it isn’t there! How could this happen? I’ve always been so careful to make sure that bear was within arm’s length of my son. This moment, standing at my front door holding my keys, I just kept thinking, “No, this can’t have happened!” So, after having suffered about four simultaneous heart attacks realizing my son is never going to ever sleep again, and that my wife is probably going to kill me when she arrives home from work, we jump back into the car praying that Snowy is still at the mall, somewhere. Of course, my son is six years old, so he has the memory skills of a 97-year-old man with a severe case of amnesia, so pinpointing Snowy’s last-known whereabouts proves to be a challenge the Criminal Minds team would be hard-pressed to overcome.

My son remembered last having Snowy at Dollarama, so we spend about 30 minutes scouring every inch of the joint without finding a trace of Snowy. The clerks have seen nothing. The shelves contain no Snowy either. Disappointed and feeling a fifth heart attack coming on, I desperately ask my son if he remembers having his bear at the book store we visited afterward. He finally remembers that he thinks he sort of maybe walked out of Dollarama with the bear after all. So off we go to the book store full of hope. Sure enough, there is the bear behind the counter. Never thought that finding a tattered, smelly old bear could be like being brought back to life by a defibrillator, but I learned something today. And Snowy is never coming in my car again!

Now, back to this week’s new article. On Christmas Eve 1968, some Seals fans may have felt a bit weak in the knees once they found out that their lovable losers had escalated the West Division ranks and were in a second-place tie with the Los Angeles Kings. After getting over that initial shock, the fans got used to the idea of their team actually deserving that spot as the Seals began winning games regularly and beating some impressive competition from the East Division. On the night of December 23, 1968, Gary Jarrett’s 15th goal of the season occurred at the 29-second mark of the opening frame, and the Seals never looked back. You can read all about the Seals’ big night here.

Anyway, that’s it for me this week. Hope you’ve all had a great summer and that you are able to have one great final long weekend before slipping into fall. Until next time, stay gold!