One of my two closest guy friends at Vista Heights was Robert Dykeman. It was a kid’s thing to do that whenever we played hockey, we would pretend we were some player from the NHL. The player he always chose to be was Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders. He preferred Mike Bossy, over Gretzky, because the great one was a wuss.
He also had a big brother that went to that school. His brother would have been in grade 6 when we were in grade 1 or 2. One time we were playing British Bulldog and he ran past me not thinking I would even try for him. I kicked his leg out as he went by. He stumbled about 10 feet before landing on his chest. When I tagged him he got up laughing all the way. He was a good sport about it and shook my hand. What an ego boost. His brother was a very big boy.
For lunch sometimes Dykeman and I would go to the hill. There was a hill in a field just outside of the school grounds on the side of the school where the water tower used to be. That field has since been developed with houses and it appears from the satellite image that the water tower is now gone.
Sometimes we would go to his house for lunch or meet up there before school in the morning. He was one of the first to have an Atari 2600. That was an uber rig back in the day and we would play Asteroids or Missile Command.
One tradition we had in the first month or two of school was to have chestnut fights. There were a few trees in the town of Streetsville that would drop chestnuts. Everyone would get a dozen or so, and bore holes in the middle. We would run a shoe lace through the hole and take turns whacking each other’s chestnuts until they broke off the string. One year it seemed like there were no nuts dropping from any of the trees in town so we couldn’t play. Then one day for show and tell, Dykeman brought a rope a mile long with chestnuts stretching one end to the other. That’s when we figured out where all the chestnuts went that year.
One year Dykeman got it in his head that he wanted to assert his position as class tough guy so he picked a wrestling match with me, then Remi Kaiserman, and then Gerard Real. There was really no need to do that, the issue was not in dispute. Dykeman was the class tough guy hands down. Doing that to Gerard Real was not nice either. Gerard was big, but he was too nice to ever fight anyone.
He also had a big brother that went to that school. His brother would have been in grade 6 when we were in grade 1 or 2. One time we were playing British Bulldog and he ran past me not thinking I would even try for him. I kicked his leg out as he went by. He stumbled about 10 feet before landing on his chest. When I tagged him he got up laughing all the way. He was a good sport about it and shook my hand. What an ego boost. His brother was a very big boy.
For lunch sometimes Dykeman and I would go to the hill. There was a hill in a field just outside of the school grounds on the side of the school where the water tower used to be. That field has since been developed with houses and it appears from the satellite image that the water tower is now gone.
Sometimes we would go to his house for lunch or meet up there before school in the morning. He was one of the first to have an Atari 2600. That was an uber rig back in the day and we would play Asteroids or Missile Command.
One tradition we had in the first month or two of school was to have chestnut fights. There were a few trees in the town of Streetsville that would drop chestnuts. Everyone would get a dozen or so, and bore holes in the middle. We would run a shoe lace through the hole and take turns whacking each other’s chestnuts until they broke off the string. One year it seemed like there were no nuts dropping from any of the trees in town so we couldn’t play. Then one day for show and tell, Dykeman brought a rope a mile long with chestnuts stretching one end to the other. That’s when we figured out where all the chestnuts went that year.
One year Dykeman got it in his head that he wanted to assert his position as class tough guy so he picked a wrestling match with me, then Remi Kaiserman, and then Gerard Real. There was really no need to do that, the issue was not in dispute. Dykeman was the class tough guy hands down. Doing that to Gerard Real was not nice either. Gerard was big, but he was too nice to ever fight anyone.
