New Website, First Blog

It was December 1969, when I went to visit a pregnant girlfriend. We had met at University of Alberta a year before. She lived in a three-bedroom apartment with her boyfriend and two other men. I remember being shown the apartment. The room at the end of the corridor had a window facing south. It was a simple room, with a mattress on the floor, a small stone slab on a wooden box, above the table a round large rice paper lantern with a yellow bulb in it. Above the bed was a large image with yellow and green marks from a sign company. It was very colorful. Opposite the bed was a wood pallet, leaning against the wall, photos tagged on it and some contorted seven up bottles. This small bedroom in an ordinary walk up apartment struck a chord in me. I uttered to my friend, “I love this room and I want to meet this guy!” She told me that he would not be interested in me because he is a professional. I had just turned twenty-four years old, in my second year of University taking my BFA arts degree.

Because she was pregnant, she didn’t visit her family and my family celebrated on Christmas Eve, I spend the holiday with her and her boyfriend. The weather that year was the coldest until 2009. In a rather cold Volkswagen, we drove around looking at Christmas lights. The person I wanted to meet was David. He was in Toronto visiting his family. I was invited to visit later in January 1970. My friend, her boyfriend and David invited me to a movie,”On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. The next time we met it was suggested we all go skating in Mayfield Park, later re-named Hawrelak Park. I didn’t have my skates with me, but we dropped the other couple at the park on the way to my basement room. David and I ended up talking all night, totally forgetting about out stranded friends. He went home and phoned me to join him to a film society screening on Monday night. Coincidentally I was about to phone him with the same idea. We agreed to meet in the lobby of the Jubilee Auditorium. I arrived at the south entrance and across the room I spotted him, a brown leather coat and jeans. A cliche but at that moment my life changed.

The image of Four David includes: Donatello’s seductive or erotic David, Michelangelo’s classic and ideal David, Bernini’s realistic David and most important my David.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply