The Three Musketeers...

Sixteen years after graduating from college is a long time. I know this because I spent most of my weekend trying (and, perhaps sadly, mostly succeeding) at reliving various types of college experiences and creating a whole set of new memories in the process with two of my oldest and best college friends. I don't think it's overstating things to say that we got up to a lot of fun during our tenure at Guelph. More often than not, I was the ringleader of "operations", Dave acted as the grunt man, while Mike was the conscientious bookkeeper.

It's hard (but not impossible) to pass a class based on lectures when one doesn't attend, and I always considered lecture attendance optional rather than a necessity. Thankfully, Mike and I were working toward the same major, which meant that we mostly had the same set of classes, for which I will be forever grateful, thank-you-Jesus. Mike's fastidious note taking and overall record keeping ensured our eventual success, but it really got under his skin when I would use his notes and then beat him on tests ! :)

None of us had ever had any experience with town living before we moved into our townhouse in Guelph. As you might suspect, this created some interesting problems with some of our neighbours, especially those who didn't like listening to classic country like Buck Owens, George Jones, Tom T. Hall or the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at full volume at four in the morning. As you might suspect, the local police ALL knew their way to our house; they were relatively frequent visitors during our residency, and I think it was particularly instructive for Melissa to hear that the most common refrain from them was in addition to turning the volume down, could we please get most of the people to pee inside rather than outside our house, and especially could we keep them out of the front yard. I'm not sure of very much, but I am 100 % sure that Guelph's finest threw one hell of a party the day we left town for good.

Today Dave runs his family dairy a few miles down the road from where I grew up while Mike works as an AI rep for a large dairy and beef genetics company in Eastern Ontario. I was proud to see them this weekend and if they had half as much fun as I did, I don't think we'll be waiting five years for the sequel ! :)

The three musketeers in our front yard this afternoon ! From left, Mike, me, Dave

At the rocket-ship ! Huntsville, Alabama

Travis Tritt sings a song with the title T-R-O-U-B-L-E ! I thought that was an instructive title for the evening ! :)



Some of the Animal Science Majors, Class of OAC 1994. Photo taken March 1991. Mike is at the bottom left while I am on the steps one row above him and to his left. Shawn was a fourth musketeer, and he is the fellow in the kilt (in keeping with good Scottish tradition, still prevalent in Glengarry County, Ontario to this day) !

OAC Aggies Square Dance Team ! Back row: Mike, me, Shawn and Kevin . The girls from left were Michelle, Karen, Anik, Barb and Jen. Our coach in the overalls and straw hat was the inimitable and much missed Doug Lawson.
Dave and I at the Opryland Hotel, Crops and Soils Club Pilgrimage to Nashville, Feb 1993
Me, Mike and Dave in residence, U of Guelph, Fall 1990. Goodness but we had a lot of hair between us ! :)