Sunday, October 11, 2009

Tom Selleck misses Grand Bend and his old Budweiser canoe






Tom Selleck misses his "friends" and Grand Bend a lot. Now, what does Michigan native, Tom have to do with the Bend and canoes? Let's try to explain some of that. The first pic here is one of Dave's autographed pictures of Tom and one of hundreds of pieces of memorabilia in our favourite pub at the beautiful Oakwood Inn. The second pic is of the relatively new canoe, the "Miss Oakwood" hanging above the pub. Now the "Miss Oakwood" replaces a "Budweiser" canoe that hung in the ceiling of the original Oakwood pub. The Budweiser canoe was donated by Tom Selleck after it was retired from duty in a couple of his TV movies. The original canoe and hundreds of other pieces of memorabilia were lost in a fire on New Years morning 2005. The entire pub was burned to the ground. It was one of the original Oakwood buildings and absolutely beautiful. It was the scene of many of our early adventures in the Bend. Tom and Heather will not let me forget one of those nights. I cried when I heard the news on TV that New Years day. The third pic is just the shed outside the pro shop today but it was built from the same logs as the original pub and is a good illustration of what the old pub looked like (the pub was much bigger of course). The fourth pic is looking out the huge front doors of the new pub which was open in time for New Years 2006. Now Sidney Crosby has replaced Mr. Hockey in some respects in the magnificent new three story pub which is still our favourite pub (don't worry, there is still some Gordie Howe stuff to be found). Dave Scatcherd has somehow preserved the rustic feel of the old pub, maybe it's the use of some of the original oak cleared from the property decades earlier in the bar or maybe it's all the memorabilia or maybe it's just more of the magic of the Bend. I will do something special on the Oakwood later - it holds a lot of special memories for me and my family and our friends.

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