Squeak and the Mustangs (Part 2)

but I knew Squeak after his glory days on the ice
he had been a high scorer
but whether he showed any hustle or was a cherry picker
it made a difference
but unless he used to dig for the puck
he would never saw
like Gordie Howe he had played right wing

my position
maybe like his politics
and whether he used his elbows in the corners or winded defenders
with the butt end of his stick to the solar plexus like Gordie
nobody's saying now

in those days I didn't know much about those things
politics
I mean
except that if you lived in Calgary
you were probably a So Cred

and listened to Ernest Manning's evangelism on the radio

and had been complicit in saving funny bucks

and if you shifted your allegiances
it was probably only as far as Herbert W. Armstrong

or his son Garner Ted Armstrong

and the World Wide Church of God
The World Tomorrow today
out of Pasadena California
these were before the days when people were gone but not away
Alberta had its day of the perma fry
but we listeners were just God fearin' Christians
who said their prayers after the broadcast at bedtime
so this was hardly a con
or a cult
like Amway

but Garner Ted made a change
and to be fair
even that was an advancement on Bible Bill Aberhart who did the same thing

and you might have tried to trade some of your funny money
for a few American stamps
to affix to a self-addressed envelope
for a pamphlet or two
Why Were You Born?

or Are These the End Times?

and in those days
voting for Peter Lougheed

was not that much of a stretch

when you heard the voices of doom
from Pepperdine University
speak over the waves
of Malibu
to you
to beware the illuminati
and head the warning of Robison from Edinburgh

who know the score
whether he was a free mason or not

To be continued.