If you don't mind, I'm just going to take a moment here to be proud of my Dad.
You know how when you watch the 6 o'clock news, and the weatherman says, "The coldest town in Canada yesterday was this town, which had a high of -40!" Ever wonder how they get those temperatures? Well, Environment Canada has an army of volunteers all across this land who record those temperatures.
For 20 years now, my Dad has been the volunteer for Entwistle, Alberta.
If memory serves, we started doing it all those years ago because it met the requirements for some badge my brother wanted to get in Cub Scouts. I was in Cub Scouts, too, but I didn't want no part of it. I was a lazy Scout and was never too motivated to earn badges and all that...I still don't know how I earned the five I did earn. But I digress.
The calls were made, we volunteered, and the government came out and put one of their official monitoring stations in our backyard. When my brother got his badge, my Dad and my brother just kept doing it. When my brother moved out, the torch was passed to me and I started doing it. Then I when I moved out, Dad started doing it solo.
So the government men came out a few days ago to give Dad his 20 year service award and thank him for all his hard work. While 20 years seems impressive, Dad says there's still a long way to go. According to Dad, there are some people who have been doing it for over a hundred years, and it got passed down through the family.
So, congratulations, Dad!
And while we're blogging, I guess I should also take a moment to talk about the big story sweeping Canadian pop culture right now.
After 40 years of using it, the CBC has decided to dump the theme for Hockey Night in Canada.
See, the theme song is not owned by the CBC. It's owned by some agency. The contract between the agency and the CBC ended at the end of this hockey season. Shortly after the Detroit Red Wings hoisted the cup, re-negotiations began. And then, a few days back, the agency released a note to the press saying that the CBC had decided to dump the theme and negotiations had ceased.
The CBC said, "No! That's not the case!" Petitions were started. Facebook groups sprung up. Angry phone calls were made to the CBC. However, as of Friday night, the CBC said that they decided to stop using it, and they're starting up a contest to find a new one.
There's no doubt that the Hockey Night in Canada theme is part of our pop culture fabric. I mean, I could already hum it when I was 9 years old, and I wasn't a hockey guy at all. I don't think I'd even watched Hockey Night in Canada before that point.
It's a brave new world, that's for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment