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Memories of Stuart McLean
Living in the backwoods of Parry Sound by a small lake is a quiet way of sitting out a Canadian winter. Sunday lunches were happy times in the front of the fire with homemade soup listening to Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Café, our young son laughing right along with my wife and me. He grew up with those stories and we found our lost youth in them too.
So it was that we decided one snowy school night to make a 2 hour trip to North Bay, to see this man in person. Our son was about 10 – and excited to leave school early so we could have a good start on this special evening. We drove through a snow squall, getting there just before the show started. It ended all too soon, and so as a final treat – we bought our son a Vinyl Café CD.
He waited patiently in a long line to for an autograph. It was late, we had a long drive ahead when suddenly Stuart stood up from behind his desk and walked past the entire line of adults. He gently took our son’s hand and leading him to the front, called out to the crowd and said “this young man needs to get to bed” giving him a big smile as he signed the album. For years after, our son tucked into bed on a cold Parry Sound night going to sleep with those magical stories and a warm memory of a very special man.
~ Tim