Yesterday afternoon, my S/O and I were shopping at a little strip mall not far from home. My guy nudged me in the ribs and said, "Hey look, there's Cliff Ronning."
I said, "That's great honey," followed by the inevitable "who's he?"
I was informed that Cliff Ronning used to be a star player with the Vancouver Canucks. There was a time when he was very famous around here but not yesterday. Nobody approached him for an autograph, nobody called out his name or pointed in his direction. Nobody except my S/O seemed to know or care who he was.
I wondered how he felt? I wondered how much he missed the adulation that comes with being a star player in this city?
When I was very young, my Dad had a friend that played for the BC Lions. Dad would occasionally take my brother and I to watch the team practise. I was about 7 and couldn't have cared less about football. After practise, the players would often make themselves available to sign autographs and pose for photographs with fans that had come out to watch them play. I wondered where those men were today? I wondered how they felt when people stopped asking for autographs or when they heard the whispers of people like me, asking quietly who the heck they were?
So many times you'd hear about some famous personality that would blow a gasket because someone had the audacity to ask for an autograph. They would tell every televison camera available about how hard it is to be famous, how they can't walk the street without being hounded like a rock star. "Just for one day," they would whine, "I wish I could just be left alone."
For Cliff Ronning, that day was yesterday.
I said, "That's great honey," followed by the inevitable "who's he?"
I was informed that Cliff Ronning used to be a star player with the Vancouver Canucks. There was a time when he was very famous around here but not yesterday. Nobody approached him for an autograph, nobody called out his name or pointed in his direction. Nobody except my S/O seemed to know or care who he was.
I wondered how he felt? I wondered how much he missed the adulation that comes with being a star player in this city?
When I was very young, my Dad had a friend that played for the BC Lions. Dad would occasionally take my brother and I to watch the team practise. I was about 7 and couldn't have cared less about football. After practise, the players would often make themselves available to sign autographs and pose for photographs with fans that had come out to watch them play. I wondered where those men were today? I wondered how they felt when people stopped asking for autographs or when they heard the whispers of people like me, asking quietly who the heck they were?
So many times you'd hear about some famous personality that would blow a gasket because someone had the audacity to ask for an autograph. They would tell every televison camera available about how hard it is to be famous, how they can't walk the street without being hounded like a rock star. "Just for one day," they would whine, "I wish I could just be left alone."
For Cliff Ronning, that day was yesterday.
