Captain Dave Poulin
Imaginary Cat
Name: Joe
Age: 47
Location: Snohomish, WA (since ’98)
Originally From: Bucks County, PA
Favorite Teams: Flyers, Eagles, Phillies, PSU (’91), Temple (’95), UO Ducks
Favorite Active Player(s): Giroux, Ghost
All-Time Favorite Player(s): Bobby Clarke, Ilkka Sinisalo (wore the same jersey number growing up) , Ron Hextall, Mark Howe, Brad McCrimmon, Tim Kerr, Big E, Peter Forsberg.
Position (if you play): D
Flyers fan since: 70’s
Hello hockey world. Old guy here, just getting around to joining this site. I’ve been a flyer’s fan as long as I can recall. Hockey was my favorite sport growing up I’ve played street, ice and in-line hockey since I was a kid. Until recently I played in several adult hockey leagues in the Seattle area. I got a kick out of the other guy who posted his first stick was a vintage Bobby Clarke model. Me too!
I had the craziest experience with Clarke sticks. I couldn't (and can't) ice skate, I just never figured it out and my ankles are ruined from sprains playing soccer my whole life, but I've always been an avid roller skater. I had a hockey net and I used to set it up in my driveway, against the garage door, and fire shots at it, pretending that I was Eruzione or McClanahan or Clarke. I used a tennis ball and it picked up all the grease from the driveway, so the garage door looked like a dalmation My dad hated it. The driveway sloped sharply downward, so I had to be really careful that I didn't skate down too fast and end up in the street hit by a car. One day I left the stick in the driveway and my mom ran over it in her car, breaking it in half. I was crushed (like the stick).
Years and years later I was working as a waiter at a country club and our manager was this crazy guy who would slide from white-hot rage over nothing to friendly banter at the drop of a hat. I hated his guts - he's one of the worst people I've ever met. But he used to work at the old Checkerdome in St. Louis and he knew that I loved the Flyers - one day he strolled in to the club and handed me a game-used Clarke stick. I was like "What?" He said "You can have it." I was thunderstruck. But I still hated him.
I was only working at the club because I had lost my scholarship to college. After a few years, I left the club and went back to Mizzou and got my degree. I worked for a while and met a Swedish girl and moved there with her for around three years. After we broke up and I came back to America, I had trouble finding a job, but one of my friends had stayed at the club all that time and become manager so I went back there until I could find a real job. That original manager, the horrible guy, came in as a guest one night. He saw me and said hi and then, if you can believe it, he said "Remember that Bobby Clarke stick I gave you? I think I want it back." It had been like 12 years and I hadn't done anything bad or whatever - I hadn't even been around him. I told him "I don't have it here with me, but I'll send it to you. Give me your address and I'll put it in the mail."
Of course I never gave it back to him It was all just surreal.