Sunday 02 February 1986

Gunshow. Janitor was weird¹. Played with Greg and Joey². Went to store. Cashier said, ‘Cuse Me’.³ Went out for supper. Joey told funny stories.⁴

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1. I don’t recall exactly what was weird about the janitor, except that maybe he was annoyed to have all these people in the gym and kids like myself and the others playing Transformers on the steps when he needed to mop. But I’m bringing an adult understanding to the situation now. Or maybe he was retarded … that would have been something I’d have noted down, if it was a question of mental oddness. Take for example, note 3, where I write the cashier said ‘cuse me’.

2. Greg and Joey were two other kids who my sister and I would hang out with at gunshows. The odd thing about growing up this way was that we had friends in other parts of the province who we’d see every few months during these weekends. Greg was from Bible Hill, which is near Truro. Joey was from Syndey. Joey was the funniest person I knew, and he always taught me what the cool cartoons were that I should be watching. For example, because of him I started paying more attention to G.I. Joe and ninjas. I recall now that there was a ninja craze in the 1980s which I’d completely forgotten about.

3. We went to a corner store near the school where the gun show was being held. The situation was that the cashier was a little frazzled to have 5 near-ten-year-olds in her store, and as I recall the ‘cuse me’ came after one of us had paid or something, but she was all nervous thinking we were shop-lifting. In her accent, her ‘excuse me’ was heard as ‘kuse me’ (which is how I’d write it today). We all thought this was immensely funny and talked about it on the way back to the school, walking along the Dartmouth sidewalks bordered with snow.

4. As I said, Joey was the funniest kid I knew. On Sundays, after the show was over and the car was re-packed, we’d find some restaurant near the highway. I remember St. Huberts in this context, although I’m not sure if it was this particular weekend or another one. The kids would sit at their own table, where we would be entertained by Joey.