Winter 1989Those Crazy Canadians and a Brush with Fame
Author: Ken Homer Issue: 2024-06-05
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Winter 1989–Those Crazy Canadians and a Brush with Fame
by Ken Homer
In 1989 I was working for Pixelogic A third-party manufacturer for Apple We made the first video digitizer for the Mac I was the National Sales Manager I landed a plum assignment as part of an Apple Road Show 25 vendors would travel across Canada for six weeks from February to April We visited: Quebec City • Montreal • Ottawa • Toronto • Edmonton • Vancouver
It was a young and crazy crowd of wild rowdy and hard-partying Canadians I was one of a handful of Yanks along for the ride There was woman on the trip who lived in my town she worked for Adobe and was super talented I’ve forgotten her name but I remember she had dark eyes and eyelashes but half of her left eye had blond eyelashes–not dyed It was a striking look that suited her artsy personality I was in awe of what she could do with Illustrator
Among the fond memories I have of that time was when Apple chartered an L-1011 widebody jet that flew us from Toronto to Edmonton We were only about 50 souls on this huge plane we had the run of the whole thing from first class to the galley at the tail of the plane There was lot of drinking and partying going on The flight attendants were saints to put up with the foolishness that we unleashed upon them
We landed at about 2:00AM in a deserted airport Several of the guys got on the luggage conveyor and rode if through the plastic dividers until they came back out on the other side Others were conducting an elaborate ballet with the luggage carts The lone security guard shook his head and went out for a smoke This was before 9/11 when things were more relaxed
I met a wonderful woman and fell in love on that trip Her name as Pascale and she was from Paris I had noticed her right away but it wasn’t til we arrived in Edmonton and a bunch of us went out dancing that we really connected with each other Someone had a joint and few of us stepped outside to smoke it When we came back Pascale and I started dancing we danced together for at least an hour not speaking words but our bodies were having the most fantastic conversation!
Pascale lived in Montreal and I near Boston I drove to Montreal every weekend for five months as we got deeper and deeper into our relationship Then she took a job on an organic farm in British Columbia As so often happens with long distance relationships we couldn’t sustain our love without regular visits But that’s not the story I want to tell here
When we arrived in Vancouver my friend with the eyelashes told us that two friends of hers were playing at a club She said they were on their way up and would be big stars soon About six of us accepted her invitation to go to a club I approached the concierge at the hotel to inquire if it was safe to walk the mile and half to the club Safe? He looked at me as though I were an alien species Are there any dangerous neighborhoods to traverse? Ah, right, you’re from the states (so, I was an alien species!) I assure you that in Vancouver it’s safe to walk anywhere I hope this is still true 35 years later…
We all set out and arrived at a club that could probably seat 150 people But there were only about 15 other people besides our group The lights went down and two women took the stage They played their guitars so hard that they kept breaking strings I was really caught up in their lyrics and the quality of their singing their playing and their songwriting–they were ridiculously talented Thanks to Ms Eyelashes they sent drinks to our table Then they came over and chatted with us between sets We were all effusive with our praise which they accepted graciously They were from Atlanta and had lovely accents We all enjoyed talking with them and listening to them little did we know that just few months later These women would be selling out stadiums Their names were Amy and Emily now known to millions as The Indigo Girls
Ken Homer • March 2024
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