Earl Smith

Back in the summer of '76 the Canadian dollar climbed to $1.08 US.

We packed up next to nothing in the trunk of the Dodge Colt because the Datsun pickup was not a vehicle to be trusted on road trips and then we headed south.

In Bellingham we stopped to buy some camping equipment, where an energetic young salesman worked extremely hard on us for his commission. We had never seen a plastic cooler before and you could only get the metal ones in Canada at the time but he assured us that it kept your food just as cold but it was lighter and easier to carry than the old-fashioned kind, and he added that it was very durable plastic too. He jumped up and down on the floor model to prove it. We were sold.

I still use that thing from time to time and to this day I've never come across a better plastic cooler. I just wish it wasn't such a hideous shade of green.

Down the Oregon coast, with its breathtaking views and beaches, camping all the way. You used to be able to do that right by the side of the road. Stayed at Disneyland for a while, got a terrible case of heatstroke, then eventually it was time to go home.

Somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, just over the Washington border, we stopped to help a woman whose car had broken down by the side of the highway. Looked like a radiator problem. Inside the car was a bevy of children of various ages. I don't remember exactly how many. We asked if there was anything we could do to help her out since it was so hot out and she had the children with her.

At first she refused, but then changed her mind to say that yes, indeed, we could do something for her. She asked us to take her oldest son with us on our way home to Vancouver and make sure that he got to Seattle safely. An odd request, but nevertheless we were soon waving goodbye to the woman and the majority of her children and en route to Seattle.

We spent about four hours on the road with him. He was a nice enough kid but for the life of me I can't remember his name. Turns out that it was his birthday and he'd just turned 19. His mother had scratched together the money for a ticket to go see Earl Smith play a concert and they'd been on their way there from the farm where they lived when their car had broken down.

We had never heard of this Earl Smith guy before but we just assumed that he was one of those obscure American country singers that you never hear about in Canada. Not really our thing.

Finally we made it to Seattle and we dropped him off somewhere near downtown, never to hear from him again. However, a while later, an American band that no one had ever heard of came to Vancouver. They were called Aerosmith. Coincidence?

It was the summer of 1976.

Sometimes my memory goes back further than it should.