First & 10 | LDC Memories - Ed TaitA few years ago, Mike O'Shea and his Winnipeg Blue Bombers had settled into Regina on the eve of the 2014 Labour Day Classic.
This was to be O'Shea's first experience of the Prairie version of the Canadian Football League's second-best weekend - trumped only by the Grey Cup - after he had been on both sides of the historic Toronto Argonauts vs. Hamilton Tiger-Cats annual throw-down in Steel Town.
And stepping outside the team's hotel, O'Shea instantly got a profound visual image of what the game means to fans from Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
"I saw a really sweet Saskatchewan Roughriders beer fridge in the back of a pick-up truck right by our hotel," O'Shea said at the time, "and the driver managed to roll down the window and yell at me."
When quizzed as to whether the fan had offered a warm welcome to the Saskatchewan capital, O'Shea grinned and added:
"Sort of... not really in those terms. It was a Regina welcome. It's all good. They buy tickets and support their team. It's all good fun."
We open this week's First & 10 column reliving this tale because a few days ago, yours truly was asked to explain Labour Day weekend by a fan who had hoped to experience it for the first time in 2020.
And "It's all good fun" might just describe the whole event perfectly, although there are certainly levels of that depending on your level of fanaticism and alcohol consumption over the weekend......Read the rest of Ed Tait's LDC Memories
here!Note
Number 4 in the article especially. Marni Cramer is, of course, our Marni the Moderator here. John Guelich is a former Moderator who made valuable contributions here. Brent Shule was a Moderator when he passed away in December 2012. He was a great fan and a great help to this forum as Marni is and John was.
