I have had some good buds over the years, both of the smokable and human varieties. I knew a man named Dan, he moved to our neighborhood when I was in Grade 8. His mom was raising him, his 2 younger twin sisters, his older sister (who had a great rack) and sometimes his older bro Rick was around, but he was kinda 'underground' cuz he had been a rabble rouser at some riots in the 60s. Dan's mom let us smoke cigarettes in her house, she had one of those great old smoke-makers that was like 20 inches long: you had this huge long paper and put it in the groove, then formed the tobacco in, moistened the glue edge, rolled it up, and it had built in guillotine that cut it into 4 smokes. Also, their house backed onto an empty field that led to the creek party spots along the Red River.
Dan was a smart guy who didnt thrive on school. He had a copy of Leonard Cohen's "the Energy of Slaves" which he liked to quote from, but he skipped out a lot and didnt make it past Grade 10.
I used to cartoon a lot, and Dan's face was a bit pointy , so I drew a cartoon of him as a rat, in a plaid shirt, holding a joint. His last name is Milne, so the talk balloon said: 'the next person that calls me Milney gets a fast one to the head'. Hence, Dan the Rat Man, AKA Rat Milney.
He had some great records, and he dwelt in the basement, and his mom was cool with guys hanging out. More security if her crazy ex came around. Me and Dan once walked from Sevenoaks (jefferson) and Scotia to Brooklands through a 'snowmobiles on the streets' blizzard to get a quarter of hash, and back, in time to bake up and watch an all night horror movie fest on Fargo TV. You have to be from Winterpeg to get that.
Decades pass, Dan gets into the wrong drugs. Havent seen or heard of him for a while, but I wish him well.
He was a great lacrosse player, fast small guy who could stickhandle and dodge the hits, used to play for the north end team, and John Ferguson came to some games when he ran the Jets. Me and some guys are in the bleachers rooting for Dan, chanting "Fergie, Fergie" with booze in paper bags.
Peace out, my friend.
