Dear Penny and family,
Randy was such a great guy. I was so shocked to hear of his passing. My heart goes out to you and your family. He will be sorely missed.
Just some thoughts about Randy….
As a young “Tomboy”, Randy and I spent every day together at Grand Beach. We loved the outdoors and were inseparable.
Together we climbed oaks and poplars, rolled in the sand dunes, dove into Lake Winnipeg’s mighty whitecaps. We lived in our bathing suits, always ready to take a quick dip, wade through reeds and bullrushes, or step into mucky roadside ditches to catch humungous bullfrogs. We carried plastic pails and nets to catch minnows, rope to swing from trees, pocket knives to carve our names in park benches, pickerel rigs for our rods. We never wore shoes, never carried a towel, and seldom stopped to eat or sleep. We kept watch for shooting stars, and the Big Dipper. We ate french fries and drank Lime Crush at The Hilltop Restaurant and bought penny candy at Lou’s Store. We skipped stones by the hour and filetted the sunfish and pickerel we caught at The Lagoon. We trotted around Grand Marais down dark, secret paths at midnight. We played cards, roasted marshmallows, had spitting contests, and jumped from mighty boulders. We slurped Gertie’s delicious Kool-Aid, and spent Saturdays nights at the huge bonfires and singsongs on The Hill, complete with piano and eukele accompaniments from Cuddy and Pearl.
Keeping up with Randy was no small feat. Behind his beaming smile, skin like a cocoa-bean, and blonde rush of sun-streaked hair, was a formidable rock-skipper, wood-chopper and foot-wrestler. Our world was born of the beauty of nature, and the freedom we had to explore it.
My “best-bud” Randy taught me many things each summer, but being a girl, what I most valued was that he taught me to be confident, daring and energetic. He demanded that I do whatever he (a boy!) would do.
I cherished our childhood summers together, and they would never have been the same without such a wonderful buddy.
