Stompin’ Tom memory He was the Bud in the Spud, the Man In The Moon and even with a sore back from Tillsonburg he was everywhere, in Canada, eh? Saturday nights at the Old Hockey Game or getting stinko in Sudbury it was all the same to one of Canada’s more colourful and true patriots. We will always have his songs even though he is no longer with us. I met Tom one time only. This was the only time I attended one of his shows but I will always remember the night we had dinner together at the Moosonee Lodge. Tom was at his best mixing with the local folks and his true spirit came through when he was with the ordinary people. The occasion to which I refer was back in the mid ‘70s on the banks of the Moose River up near James Bay. Moosonee is few hundred miles north of Timmins where Tom spent so many months entertaining the South Porcupine crowd many nights for the price of a few beers and a nights lodging before he became famous. I was involved in organizing the annual winter carnival and Tom was our headliner for the nightly entertainment in what was known then as the Moosonee Education Centre (now part of Northern College). We asked Tom if he would also be the Grand Marshal in our carnival parade. How totally hard to believe to this day we actually loaded him in the only convertible in town and with the top down drove around in sub zero temperatures as if we were all in our right minds and acted as if it was the most normal thing to do in the world. After the parade we went to the Moosonee Lodge, (at that time operated by the Ontario Northland Railway), and had a wonderful dinner and conversation. Tom put on really good performances that weekend. I know almost everyone in town attended. And you wouldn’t believe the mess he made of that piece of plywood with his cowboy boots. We had him autograph it and displayed it for years after in the school trophy case. I wonder whatever happened to it. The famous Canadian performer was just like the rest of us ordinary folk. Just Bud the Spud from Skinner’s Pond. And that’s my memory of Stompin’ Tom. RIP Tom.