THANKS for stopping by, I do my best to acknowledge when someone leaves a comment,you do not have to be a member here & everyone is welcome.
Ps: This site is monitored but not actively posting on a regular basis. Mostly these are stories & some photos saved from a defunct site known as Verdun Connections which was on MSN Groups initially then on a social network called Multiply.
I would seriously doubt if anyone out there who knows this song,or was around in those days, didn't love grinding with your favourite gal (or let's face it ,any gal.......lol ) to this song "When a Man Loves a Woman" Sadly today the man who sang it died Percy Sledge dead @ 74 Can you imagine how many people have done the horizontal boogie to this song, never mind dance to it........Cheers ! Percy see ya on the other side.
Media captionUS soul singer Percy Sledge, famed for his song When a Man Loves a Woman, has died aged 74.
Steve Green from talent agency Artists International Management Inc confirmed to the BBC that he died at his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday.
"He was one of my first acts, he was a terrific person and you don't find that in this business very often," said Green. "He was truly a standout."
Sledge had surgery for liver cancer in January 2014 but soon resumed touring.
Percy Sledge died at home in Baton Rouge
Sledge's debut single When a Man Loves a Woman reached the top 10 twice in the UK and topped the US Billboard chart for two weeks in 1966, when it also got to number four in the UK chart.
During an interview for the the 2013 documentary Muscle Shoals, he recalled his first recording of it.
"When I came into the studio, I was shaking like a leaf. I was scared," he said, adding that it was the "same melody that I sang when I was out in the fields. I just wailed out in the woods and let the echo come back to me".
'Signed away the rights'
He told BBC Radio 6 Music's Craig Charles in a 2011 interview that he came up with the melody for When A Man Loves A Woman, but signed away the rights of the song to Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright, because "I didn't know any better".
"I had the melody in my mind so I gave that song to them," he said, adding they then created the lyrics.
Sledge did not contest the agreement, saying: "I felt like if God fixed it in my mouth to give it to them I won't change anything about it.
"I'm satisfied with what I wrote but I cut my kids out of so much because I gave it to someone else - I just wasn't thinking."
BBC Radio 2 DJ Tony Blackburn was among those paying tribute on Twitter, and said: "Sad to hear that Percy Sledge has died. I wonder how many times I've played When A Man Loves A Woman. RIP."
Musician Bootsy Collins paid tribute on his Facebook page with the words: "Just lost another legend funkateers, Mr Percy Sledge."
Sledge performed at his induction into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in March 2010
Paul Gambacini told the BBC that When a Man Loves a Woman was "one of the all time classic songs".
"This was the essence of soul, dripping with feeling. It never had a time, it was in a world of its own, so it was timeless," he added.
The track reached number two when it was re-released in the UK in 1987 after appearing in Oliver Stone's film Platoon, and was featured in several other films such as The Big Chill, The Crying Game and a 1994 Meg Ryan drama named after the song itself. It was also the soundtrack to a Levis advert in 1987.
'Transcendent moment'
It was the first US number one recorded at Alabama's Muscle Shoals studio, where Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones would later record.
The track also scored a first gold disc for Atlantic Records, whose executive Jerry Wexler called the song "a transcendent moment" and "a holy love hymn."
It remained Sledge's biggest hit and helped sustain a long touring career in the US, Europe and South Africa, averaging 100 performances a year. His other chart successes included Warm and Tender Love, It Tears Me Up and Take Time to Know Her.
The song found new life in 1991 when Michael Bolton's cover of the song topped the Billboard chart.
Before his music career, Sledge worked in the cotton fields around his hometown of Leighton in northwest Alabama, before taking a job as a hospital nurse in the early 1960s.
A patient heard him singing while he worked and recommended him to record producer Quin Ivy.
The singer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 and was a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
Although I don't recall this incident,especially since it involved the Verdun Maple Leafs (albeit a '74 version of the team) I used to watch them at the Verdun Auditorium in the 60's & they were great also produced some very big future NHL stars. but a kicking incident like this was just a no-no ,at least where we all came from. However over the years I seem to think there were others usually involving the Russians, didn't even Pavel take a boot at someone & that was years later maybe decades. Anyway I thought it may be of interest to some of you,if not for nostalgia sake alone, also if you click on te pages 'home' button at the bottom of the article it will bring you to a summary of the 1972 Summit Series........was there anything more exciting than that ....... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------LESF here's the article:
Russians Suspended For Life After Hockey BrawlVancouver Sun, March 14, 1974
Montreal (CP) - A promising young Russian hockey player has been suspended for life and two coaches for a year each as a result of a brawl involving the Canadian midget hockey champions.
Reports of the suspensions, imposed by the Central Red Army Sports Club, were carried by Montreal newspapers today. The writers were in the Soviet Union accompanying the Verdun Maple Leafs. The midget team has been on tour playing games against top Soviet teams in several locations.
The Montreal Star and the French-language dailies, La Presse and Montreal-Matin, all reported that co-coaches Anatoly Firsov and Anatoly Galamosov have been suspended for one year.
The Star further reported that Viktor Ovaskin, who had all the qualifications to make future Russian national teams, has been suspended for life for kicking Verdun's John Bethel during the second game of the series.
Last Friday, during that game, one of the most serious brawls in the history of international hockey competition occurred and apparently the Soviet Union frowns on this type of incident.
Firsov is a former star forward with several world champion Russian teams and also was a member of the Soviet Union's gold medal Olympic Squad.
When the Verdun team returned to Moscow from Riga Wednesday, it was by Col. Dimitri Goulevich, one of the top officials of the Central Red Army Sports Club. he Russian official held a short meeting with Brian McKeown, the chef-de-mission of the Verdun team.
The Russian official told McKeown that he apologized for the incident and that the decision to suspend the two coaches and Ovaskin had been made last Saturday.
We as your hosts are very ashamed this happened to our guests; never before has there been an incident like this in the Soviet Union."
McKeown asked Goulevich why such action had been take and was told: "There's a great deal of pride at the Central Red Army Sports Club and, when something like this occurs, our image as a whole is affected. Also it isn't a good thing for the Soviet Union.
McKeown was reported to have told the colonel he felt "very badly" and Goulevich told him not to.
"We jumped the gun when we thought they didn't regard kicking as seriously as we do in Canada," McKeown said. "Their rule also calls for automatic disqualification."
The incident occurred when a fight broke out near the penalty box and when the Verdun player gained the upper hand, Ovaskin, who was already in the penalty box serving a major, jumped out and went to his team-mate's rescue.
Both players benches cleared and a real fight ensued.
When order was restored, Bethel was found to have a gash over his eye from a kick administered by Ovaskin and Jim Mann had a large welt on his stomach from another kick.
The Central Red Army Sports Club had a video tape of the game and, while the film did not reveal who kicked Mann, it was clear Ovaskin was the player who kicked Bethel.
"There's no excuse for players to kick with skates," Goulevich said.
"As far as we are concerned the coaches are responsible for the control of every player and our coaches lost control."
McKeown reportedly feels that both teams share the responsibility.
"We must share the responsibility. Two wrongs don't make a right. Our player was first off the bench and if their coaches lost control, so did ours."
Another grreat ex-Hab has passed away, Verdun boy Dollard St.Laurent ,won a few cups in his day, I also seem to remember him having an office inVerdun on Wellington I think it was right on a corner .didn't he have an insurance business or soemething like that ? I also have a vague (really vague) recollection that he once moved his office into the old weight lifting joint at Desmarchais & Wellington which in itself had some famous people work out there (may be Reeves ??) anyway if I'm remember correctly Dollard had an office on the corner of Argyle / Melrose/ ? & Wellington ST. & may hav e later on moved to Desmarchais & took over the defunct weight gym , what was the gym called, it had a big sign ,was it Gold's Gym or is that too easy a guess.......lol Anyway back to this story, it looks like if the Ghosts of the Forum who it was said 'guided & helped' the Habs win Stanley Cups , but Never liked to leave the Forum,cause they have never showed up at the Molson/ Bell Centre ,at least not yet,but it seems that they might be assembling an allstar team of ex-Habs greats who know where the Bell Centre is & maybe can guide the present day version of the Habs to winning ways again & maybe start a new tradition in the new building. Just in the last number of years the ghost team has acquired the likes of Maurice Richard/ Jean Beliveau/ Elmer Lach / & now Dollard St.Laurent......among others I can't recall right now, so maybe just maybe this new Habs Spirit Filled line up will turn the tide for Montreal & guide them to Lord Stanley's Mug before too long. Afterall it has been since 1993 that Montreal raised the hardware in Victory & that is just way too long 22 years is ridiculous Imagine over two decades without a Stanley Cup is blasphemy in Montreal & needs to be dealt with.......Now guys let's "get this party started"...................Cheers ! LesF now here's the Gazette article below:
Former Canadiens, Blackhawks defenceman Dollard St. Laurent dead at 85
Dollard St. Laurent, who won five Stanley Cups as a defenceman for
the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks, has died, the Canadiens
announced Monday. He was 85.
The announcement came only two days after the passing of 97-year-old former Canadiens star Elmer Lach.
St. Laurent played eight seasons for Montreal in the 1950s, winning
Stanley Cups in 1953, 1956, 1957 and 1958 before he was traded to the
Blackhawks on June 3, 1958 for cash and future considerations. He won a
Cup in Chicago in 1961.
The Verdun native had 29 goals and 133 assists in 652 games over 12
NHL campaigns. He had another two goals and 22 assists in 92 playoff
games.
Former Montreal Canadiens defenceman Dollard St. Laurent (right), a
dependable, stay-at-home rearguard who won four Stanley Cups with the
Canadiens and one more with the Chicago Black Hawks. 2001 SNOWBOUND, ALL RIGHTS RESER /
Montreal Gazette
The stay-at-home defenceman made his NHL debut with three games in
1951-52 before becoming a regular on a powerhouse Montreal team. But the
five-foot-11 180-pound rearguard was dealt away before they completed
their run of five straight Cups from 1956 to 1960.
He was steadying influence at the back for a rising young Blackhawks squad that ended a 23-year Cup drought.
After the 1961-62 season, St. Laurent was sent to the Quebec Aces of
the American Hockey League, where he broke a leg and then retired at the
end of the season.
He was the fifth former Canadien to pass away in recent months, after
defenceman Carol Vadnais in August, legendary captain Jean Beliveau in
December, former coach Claude Ruel in February and Lach.
The Gazette has a very insightful article about Elmer Lach in today's edition. I will post the entire article just below this brief bit of adlib by me.LesF Of course he was part of the famous "Punch Line" of the 1940's & 50's version of the Habs Quite an interesting guy,who never sought the spotlight & to quote a line from the article met his celebrity status with a 'shrug' ............sounds like kept things all in perspective. & stayed really down to earth, ......well see you Elmer ,now your back with your old buddies.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------LesF
Dave Stubbs: Canadiens legend Elmer Lach dies at age 97
Published on: March 30, 2015
Last Updated: April 4, 2015 10:34 AM EDT
Montreal Canadiens legend Elmer Lach stands at a goal net on a Pointe-Claire rink near his home on his 92nd birthday in 2010. Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette
Canadiens icon Elmer Lach, the nearly indestructible centreman
for Maurice (Rocket) Richard and Toe Blake on his team’s magnificent
1940s Punch Line, died Saturday morning at the West Island Palliative
Care Residence in Kirkland following a stroke suffered last Saturday,
March 28 at his Beaconsfield care home.
The Canadiens’ magnificent 1940s Punch Line. From left: right-wing
Maurice (Rocket) Richard, centreman Elmer Lach, left-wing Toe Blake.
This is the unretouched image that Lach had in his home, the only Punch
Line photo he owned. Elmer Lach Collection
But Elegant Elmer, as he was sometimes called by Irvin, was a
brilliant talent in his own right, and often it was by his playing a
little off-centre, dragging checkers out of the slot and bulldogging
them in the corners, that so much ice was opened for Richard to weave
his goal-scoring magic.
Lach won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player in
1944-45, leading the league that season in assists, with 54, and points,
with 80. He also captured the inaugural 1947-48 Art Ross Trophy as the
NHL’s top point-scorer with 61 points, on his career high of 30 goals
with 31 assists.
Lach also topped the NHL in points in 1944-45 with 80; that was seven
points clear of No. 2 Rocket Richard, three seasons before the Ross
trophy was introduced.
He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966, having scored
215 goals with 408 assists and 478 penalty minutes in his 664
regular-season games. In 76 playoff contests, he scored 19 times and
added 45 assists.
On Dec. 4, 2009, during festivities for the Canadiens centennial
game, the Habs retired his No. 16 jersey and pulled a banner bearing his
name to the rafters of the Bell Centre.
Lach’s durability and pain threshold were beyond compare, returning
to action from a shopping list of gruesome injuries that had earned him
another nickname: Lach the Unlucky.
They included a nose shattered seven times; a jaw (later permanently
wired) officially broken twice but, in reality, three times – he didn’t
tell Irvin of one fracture lest he be scratched from a game; a fractured
skull that at first was treated as a “slight concussion”; and two
severed veins in a foot from the slash of a skate blade, an injury with
which he played until a teammate saw the blood.
Canadiens icon Elmer Lach with his wife, Lise, and the Stanley Cup,
which he won three times, photographed in the Habs’ Bell Centre dressing
room on the occasion of the team’s 2009 centennial. Courtesy Bob Fisher
Published March 26, 2005, Montreal Gazette
It seems right, somehow, that Elmer Lach is in a wheelchair when he greets you with a broad smile and a strong grip.
Lach the Unlucky, as he was known for much of his glorious 14-year
Canadiens career, is nursing an ankle he broke 11 weeks ago while
scraping ice on his back porch. But it will take more than this to keep
him off the fairways of Summerlea come golf season; at 87, he expects to
shoot his age, or better.
To his coach, Dick Irvin, Lach was Elegant Elmer. To others, the
three-time Stanley Cup winner was the Nokomis Flash, named for the swift
skates he brought from his Saskatchewan hometown.
Later, his longtime friend Red Storey would call him Scratch, Lach said, “because I’d whip the ass off him on the golf course.”
To Canadiens wingers Maurice (Rocket) Richard and Toe Blake, he was
one-third of the magnificent wartime Punch Line, the 5-foot-9 bulldozer
who cleared the lanes, traded elbows in the corners and passed the puck
as though it had eyes for the Rocket’s stick.
Lach (pronounced lock) was the humble workhorse on the dominant line
of its era, a player who seldom got the attention or credit he deserved.
In 1944-45, the season Richard scored his historic 50 goals in 50
games, Lach won the NHL’s point-scoring championship – three years
before the Art Ross Trophy was introduced – and the Hart Trophy as the
league’s most valuable player.
He won the Art Ross in 1948, and would retire six years later as the NHL’s all-time assists leader.
A 1940s cartoon/caricature of Canadiens’ Elmer Lach. This hung on his kitchen wall for years.
Lach remains modest to a fault, few reminders of his Hall of Fame
career displayed in his Pointe-Claire home. It’s in the laundry room
that you’ll find his museum-worthy photographs.
Soon, he will warm to conversation about the Punch Line. But for now, he’s talking about the sound of his breaking bones.
Lach sees the double ankle fracture, his first serious nick since he
retired from hockey in 1954, as just another inconvenience, merely one
more injury for an inventory that’s as frightening as it is impressive,
in a macabre way.
Almost 60 years after the fact, he still chuckles about a doctor’s hands wrapped around his neck in an emergency room.
It was Feb. 6, 1947, and Lach had been wheeled into Montreal’s
Western General Hospital. A half-hour earlier, he had been savagely
checked by Toronto’s Don Metz, his unhelmeted head almost cracking the
Forum ice.
“A specialist came in, put his hands around my neck, gave me a few
hard shakes and said: ‘Do you feel anything?’ ” he recalls, laughing.
“When I told him I didn’t, he said: ‘Well then, there’s nothing wrong
with you.’
“The next day, X-rays showed them I had a fractured skull.”
From which Lach recovered to win the NHL scoring title the following year.
The skull story has set the table for another thigh-slapper, a story
about his first game of the 1941-42 season, his second with the
Canadiens.
Lach was racing to the Detroit net when he was tripped by the Red
Wings’ Alex Motter, which sent him at full flight into the boards.
Extending his left arm quite literally broke his fall – he shattered his wrist, tore up his elbow and dislocated his shoulder.
“Honestly? I thought my career was over,” Lach says.
Canadiens’ Elmer Lach, in 1953 and 2014.
He missed the entire season as he healed, doctors figuring the elbow
would mend on its own. For six months, it had all the flexibility of a
hockey stick.
“I’d go out to dinner, cut some meat, bring the fork up in my left hand,” he says, demonstrating, “then stick it in my ear.”
He relates how doctors told him that in July they’d have to rebreak
and reset the elbow, then distracted him and kicked the joint to shatter
it again.
Lach rolls up his sleeve to reveal the ragged scar, a reminder of
where the bone fragments were finally trowelled out. Then he rattles off
a career list, in no particular order:
• Nose broken seven times, “mostly because I skated crouched over the puck.
“The first time was in my rookie year,” Lach says. “I went around big
Chicago defenceman Earl Siebert a couple times and told him: ‘You old
bastard, you’re too old to catch me.’
“Well, he caught me. Caught my nose with his elbow. They tinkered with it in the hospital the next day.”
(It was rearranged for the final time, and most famously, in 1953,
when he scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in overtime and the Rocket
leaped into Lach’s arms, smashing his forehead into his nose.)
• Jaw broken, reportedly twice but, in fact, three times. He didn’t
tell Irvin once for fear he wouldn’t be allowed to play. The jawbone is
now permanently wired.
• Cheekbone shattered, twice.
• Foot sliced open with a skate, severing two veins.
• Leg fractured.
• Stitches uncounted, but in the hundreds.
Only when a teammate saw the blood did Elmer Lach stop skating, two veins sliced in his foot by another player’s skate. Montreal Gazette files
In 1950, Toronto Telegram sportswriter Trent Frayne introduced Lach
to Americans in a Saturday Evening Post profile, accurately headlined:
“You Can’t Kill A Hockey Player.”
Today, Lach sees nothing remarkable about his durability, nor how he
constantly rebounded from career-, even life-threatening injuries.
“We recovered quickly,” he says of himself and those of his day. “We
were in good physical condition, and there was always a guy waiting for
your job.”
Not that many had Lach’s skill, work ethic or pain threshold. His
contribution to the club was recognized two years before he retired, the
Canadiens and their fans holding a special Elmer Lach Night at the
Forum. He was showered with $10,000 in gifts, the largest tribute paid
to a Montreal athlete to that time.
Lach had arrived at the Canadiens training camp in October 1940 on a
train from Moose Jaw, Sask., where he was starring for the senior-league
Millers. With him were Ken Reardon, Jack Adams and Joe Benoit, who
would be among nine rookies to make Montreal’s roster that fall.
This wasn’t Lach’s first exposure to the NHL. A few years earlier,
he’d been invited to the Winnipeg camp of the New York Rangers, who were
so tight with a dollar that they told him to arrive with his skates
sharpened.
Moose Jaw’s coach, Art Somers, had played four seasons with New York
and knew of the club’s shallow pockets. Lach heeded Somers’s advice to
stay home.
In those days, amateur players never knew who owned their negotiation
rights. Lach was later invited to skate for Boston, but declined that
offer, as well.
But in 1937, he and future Hall of Famer Doug Bentley were scouted by
Toronto. They arrived by train, both weighing barely 150 pounds, and
plunked themselves down in the dressing room on either side of hulking
winger Charlie Conacher.
Lach recalls Conn Smythe, the intimidating Leafs boss, striding
loudly into the room with: “They were sending me big guys from the West,
but instead they’ve sent me peanuts.”
The players passed on an offer of $1,500 for a season of senior
hockey, jumping a train home even after the Leafs’ King Clancy suggested
they take the gruff Smythe with a grain of salt.
“King would become one of my best friends,” Lach says. “Later, when
he was refereeing, if I was caught up ice on a play and he was near me,
he’d say, ‘C’mon, Elmer, I’ll race you to the other end.’ ”
Lach hadn’t played organized hockey until he was almost 17, suiting up one season with the junior Regina Abbots.
“The fellow who picked me up at the train in Regina asked me:
‘Where’s all your luggage?’ ” he recalls. “I told him: ‘It’s in my back
pocket: a handkerchief and a toothbrush.’ ”
The youngest of William and Mary-Ann Lach’s two sons and four
daughters, he had learned to skate on a pond outside his home in Nokomis
(population 600), borrowing a neighbour’s blades on the days they
weren’t being used.
Canadiens legends Elmer Lach (left) and Émile (Butch) Bouchard are
honoured by having their numbers retired during the the Habs’ centennial
game celebrations on Dec. 4, 2009 at the Bell Centre. Behind them are
defenceman Ryan O’Byrne (left), who switched from Bouchard’s No. 3 to
No. 20 that night, and Bouchard’s son, Pierre, a former Habs defenceman. Richard Wolowicz /
NHLI via Getty Images
He graduated from Regina to the senior Weyburn Beavers, a catcher for
the town’s baseball team in summer and centreman for their hockey club
in winter – room, board and laundry paid.
Lach moved on to Moose Jaw, winning a scoring title and advancing to a
provincial final in two seasons, and it was here that he caught the eye
of Paul Haynes, an injured Canadien sent west on a scouting mission.
Millers owner Cliff Henderson urged Lach to go. He figured his star
would return in better shape, Moose Jaw lacking artificial ice and
unable to train until the local creek had frozen over.
But Lach, 22, would not be back, agreeing to a 1940 contract of
$4,000, plus a $1,000 signing bonus, for his first season with the
rebuilding Canadiens. This would be his salary for his first seven
years; his career high was $22,000, including bonuses.
He had seven goals and 14 assists in 43 games, a rookie centring Tony
Demers and Adams, but was more impressive for his rugged play. Lach
says he took one suture for each of his points.
He was sidelined the following season with his shattered elbow, then
was inserted in 1942-43 between the veteran Toe Blake and a promising
rookie named Maurice Richard, who broke his ankle after only 16 games.
Right-winger Benoit was plugged into Richard’s spot and the trio
clicked, hailed in Montreal newspaper cartoons as the Punch Line for its
potency, the players’ caricatures shown with drawings of a clenched
fist.
Such a cartoon is pasted into one of Lach’s three brittle scrapbooks, which he hasn’t opened in 50 years.
The Rocket was back in 1943-44, and he, Lach and Blake assumed the
Punch Line label. They led the Canadiens to their first Stanley Cup in
13 seasons that year, and another championship in 1945-46.
These three men had unique skills that perfectly complemented each
other: Richard was the short-fused stick of dynamite with a gift for
finding the back of the net; Lach, the tireless, indestructible
playmaker and ice general; the veteran Blake, a superb positional player
who anchored his teammates.
A close shave in two different hospitals for Habs’ Elmer Lach, in 1946 and in 2011. Montreal Gazette
“We were just a line,” Lach says in stunning understatement. “I
didn’t sense anything special when Irvin put us together in practice. As
a group, we were good. Individually, we were just average hockey
players.”
So average that in 1944-45, Lach, Richard and Blake finished 1-2-3 in NHL scoring.
“There wasn’t too much conversation off the ice. But on the ice, we
covered each other, helped each other. When I’d go in to forecheck, I’d
wave my hand at the Rocket so he’d cover his wing.
“It’s how we were taught. We were always a little ahead of Toe
because he was the slowest skater. But he got there. I often
concentrated more on the Rocket, but I knew where Toe was. Always.
“I was a team player. In practices, with no goalkeeper, the Rocket
and I would go down the ice and even if I had a shot at an empty goal,
I’d pass it to him and he’d whack it in the net.”
Overnight train rides around the six-team NHL were memorable, if
costly. Lach recalls Richard rounding up the shoes of sleeping
teammates, filling them with water and putting them between the rail
cars, turning brogues into blocks of ice.
“Rocket, Murph Chamberlain, Jack Portland, Ray Getliffe – they were
all comedians,” he says. “If you ever fell asleep with your shoes on,
you’d wake up with a hotfoot.”
It was wartime, and Lach, like others, held war-related jobs during
the day while playing for the Canadiens at night. He worked at Pratt
& Whitney and Noorduyn Aviation, on the assembly line by 7 a.m.,
allowed to go home after a six-hour shift for a pre-game steak and a
nap.
But Lach left the game at the rink, if not the hospital. In 1941 he
had married his Moose Jaw sweetheart, Kay Fletcher, who four years later
delivered their only child, Ron, while Lach was playing in Detroit. His
telegram read like she’d scored a winning goal: “Nice going, honey,” he
wired.
“No matter whether I played good or lousy, it wasn’t discussed,” Lach
says. “Think about all the times I was hurt – Kay and I would go to the
rink together and she’d come home alone. It wasn’t easy.”
Young left-winger Dickie Moore eventually joined Lach and Richard
when a broken leg forced Blake’s retirement in 1948. Lach played through
‘54, quitting when a leg fracture robbed him of his speed.
The Rocket was part of the Canadiens dynasty that won five consecutive Cups from 1956-60 before taking his leave.
“They started winning two years after I quit because they’d cleared
out the deadwood,” Lach says, laughing. “Skating was my game, and my
legs were gone.”
By now he was established in business, working in sales and public
relations for Maislin Transport, entertaining clients 18 holes at a
time.
“Hockey opened doors for me,” says Lach, who was with Maislin for 32
years. “I had a good job, a car, an expense account and I was playing a
lot of golf.”
To a 4-handicap.
Elmer Lach hit a mean golf ball for decades, playing into his 90s. For a time, he was shooting his age. Montreal Gazette files
He dabbled in coaching, guiding the junior Canadiens and senior
Montreal Royals for a few seasons, and had Henri Richard under his wing
with the juniors, telling him he was too small to make the NHL.
Of course, Richard did make the Canadiens, winning 11 Stanley Cups in uniform No. 16 – the same sweater worn by Lach.
“He was a little guy, but he always had the puck,” Lach says of the Pocket Rocket. “And when he didn’t, he went and got it.”
They stood together in the Forum in 1975, two small men with large talent and larger hearts, when Richard’s No. 16 was retired.
(Editor’s note: Lach’s No. 16 would be hung from Bell Centre rafters
on Dec. 4, 2009 during the team’s centennial-game celebrations.)
Lach lost his wife to skin cancer in 1985, and a year later married
Lise Desjardins, whom he’d long known from Summerlea. Until two years
ago, they would spend their winters golfing in Florida; today, they’re
counting the days until tee-off.
“I’m as competitive on the golf course as I was on the rink,” Lach says. “Golf is just a different amusement.”
A half-century since his last game, he still draws stares everywhere
he goes, from card shows to the local mall. If he doesn’t hear the
whispers, Lise is quick to let her shy husband know.
He is the last of the Punch Line, Blake having died at age 82 of
Alzheimer’s disease in 1995, Richard, at 78, having lost his battle with
cancer in 2000.
For one morning in five years ago, Elmer Lach was no longer a
centreman, but the Rocket’s right wing, a pallbearer at Richard’s
funeral.
“I still feel a part of the Canadiens,” the team’s senior-most Hall
of Famer says. “What amazes me is that people still remember me. All
these years later, it’s a great honour to be spoken of with the Rocket
and Toe.
“And maybe we were a little better than average.” dstubbs@montrealgazette.com twitter.com/Dave_Stubbs
Canadiens Hall of Famer Elmer Lach at his West Island retirement home on December 26, 2013. John Kenney /
Montreal Gazette
As a kid growing up in Verdun, I remember it snowing lightly on May 4th, this was the closest I had ever seen it snow as close to my birthday (mid-May) . I don't know why I ever bothered to remember that (or why I still remember that) but I did. It just seemed all too odd I guess, & according to this story from today's Gazette, snow has reared it's ugly head again,& it'sApril 3rd, so I wonder will it repeat the May 4th I remember from so long ago. Who Knows. However it won't be long before the sidewalk cafes are open & summer will be in full swing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------here's the Gazette story..............
'Special weather statement' in effect for Montreal — Yes, that means snow
Well many of us filled our faces on the Main ,either at Schwartz's or hotdogs at the Montreal Pool Room......all that gourmet dining, & healthy eating would one day require us to maybe shop across the street from Schwartz's to pick up a headstone for ourselves, & now many of us are closing in our 'best before dates' .we won't be able to get a stone from these guys,they are closing there doors.......Oh well I guess it's back to plan B anyway , get ourselves fried up & give the ashes to one of our kids or family members to keep in a jar in the basement/garage/maybe on a mantle for a while....all without a monumental stone marking a spot where we never were.........Lol
------------------------------Here's the story from today's Gazette.......Cheers ! LesF
They’ve hammered a symbolic nail in the coffin of the Old Main.
A “For Sale” sign has gone up outside one of its oldest and most unusual landmarks: Berson’s funeral monuments — right across from Schwartz’s.
The business’s front lot, cluttered with slabs of gravestone, has been there 93 years — the oldest family-run business on St-Laurent Blvd.
It’s strange to mourn the burial of a gravestone shop, but Berson’s was an eccentric ghost of the Main’s past on this changing street of hip bars, tattoo parlours and Vape shops.
In recent years, Berson’s has been oddly sandwiched between an ice-cream parlour and a sports bar — and was still maybe the only place in the world you could line up for a smoked meat — then order your future headstone.
But it was a reminder of the mishmash that’s always been the Main.
We replaced the word “sons” with “fils,” but the language inspectors also wanted us to change the Hebrew word for “monuments” — because it was the same size as the French word. My dad Mendy fought it — and the media supported him so eventually the Hebrew stayed. — L. Berson & Fils Monuments owner Brandee Berson
That includes the trilingual sign outside saying “L. Berson & Fils Monuments” — in French, English and Hebrew that became a small cause celebre during Quebec’s language wars.
Says 4th generation owner Brandee Berson: “We replaced the word “sons” with “fils,” but the language inspectors also wanted us to change the Hebrew word for “monuments” — because it was the same size as the French word.
“My dad Mendy fought it — and the media supported him so eventually the Hebrew stayed.”
Mendy himself was practically part of the street’s pavement. He was buddies with many legendary characters of the Old Main — like Simcha, the timeless fruit vendor across the street who stood outside every day like a sentinel — guarding his barrel of pickles — as serious and unsmiling as a Buckingham Guard.
Down the street was Mrs. Levy, platinum-blond owner of dilapidated but soulful Warshaw’s supermarket. It was a weird jumble of fruit, vegetables, meat, sofas, ironing boards, desks and carpets hanging down over the watermelons.
In the store’s legendary motto: “Warshaws has it all, from croutons to futons.”
Berson’s, too, was unique, its yard packed with slabs of immense unmarked stones and heavy machinery. A friend who “shopped” there says Mendy could locate every cemetery gravestone in the city in seconds in his vast and mysterious, handwritten notebooks.
I’m not trying to turn back the Main’s clock. Things move quickly everywhere in our ultrafast, high-speed world — and the street obviously couldn’t stand still.
But it’s difficult to keep any street unique in a chain store world where most cities’ commercial arteries look identical — rows of Starbucks, Gaps and McDonalds that feel like Nowhere-ville.
The Main has fought that valiantly for decades with its popular old stalwarts like Schwartz’s, Moishe’s, Vieille Europe and Berson’s. But lately there are vacancy signs on far too many boarded-up windows.
Much of this is city hall’s fault, ever since they launched a murderous assault on the street, officially labelled as a “renovation.” It brought two years of jackhammers, dust clouds and misery to the merchants.
“We never recovered from that construction work,” says Brandee. “Most of our customers drive here from the West End and they couldn’t get to us at all for a year.
“Then, when the work was over they cut the street’s parking spaces and no one wanted to schlep to the Main just to go around the block 20 times looking for a spot.”
I hate leaving. I’m so attached to the Main — its history, its memories, especially the people. At lunch I love to watch everyone go by: students, old people, musicians, businessmen, black, white English, French, poor, rich, from every corner of the world. —Brandee Berson
Berson’s is relocating to a new showroom on Ferrier St. with easy parking — but Brandee feels emotionally uprooted.
“I hate leaving. I’m so attached to the Main — its history, its memories, especially the people. At lunch I love to watch everyone go by: students, old people, musicians, businessmen, black, white English, French, poor, rich, from every corner of the world.
“Sit and watch, and eventually everyone in the city comes by. … But we couldn’t do our business there anymore.”
City hall is trying to help, at last. It’s letting the street’s stores stay open till 8 p.m., in an effort to resuscitate them. This spring the Plateau borough launches a massive operation to remove the street’s Great Wall of graffiti.
Let me add another suggestion that might help other commercial streets, too. If Montreal really wants to fight off suburban megamalls like Dix-30 they need lots of cheap, or free parking to compete — and the Main is a great place to start.
A hospital down the block, Hotel Dieu, is closing and whatever replaces it, let’s also try something new. Make at least some of the hospital’s vast outdoor parking lot available to customers on the Main.
Brandee Berson couldn’t agree more, though she does have her own dark hopes for the street.
“I hear they’re renovating St-Denis and then Ste-Catherine — and I do feel bad for them, I do.
“But maybe when the construction starts, with all the dust and noise we had, people will come back to the Main.”
