For the past few weeks, I’ve been reading an autobiography of Stompin’ Tom Connors, whom if you don’t know who he is, check yourself out the door as a Canadian and remind me to call up Citizenship and Immigration Canada to change their immagration tests to include a question about the Stomper.
Stompin’ Tom is a country singer born and bred in Canada and is the stuff of legend. Hitchhiking across Canada dozens of times, living on scraps, he came to know 2300 songs by heart, hence a performer was born.
The book is based on his recollections of the time spent in his youth before becoming famous. I’m about 50 pages from the end so I figured it’s a good time to give a review. The book is amazingly funny as he gives you a glimpse of how it was hitchhiking across Canada literally dozens of times between the age of 15-30. There are quite a few good stories along the way and here’s a teaser.
One day a gentleman from Ireland was in Saint John New Brunswick and couldn’t figure out a way to Montreal where his family lived due to no money on his person (remember, these were hard times.). Tom Connors decided to offer up the services of showing him how to hitchhike to Montreal. Along the way, they usually took turns knocking on people’s doors asking for a bit of food. One day, Tom was walking up to a house and out of nowhere two pies were placed on the window sill, straight out of the oven to cool down. Tom thought about it and made a run for it with these pies, giving one to this Irish buddy and the other to himself. When his buddy was about to chuck the plate across the street, Tom said “Now listen, this lady was nice enough to give us some pies for free, the least you can do is return her plates in good condition.” He agreed and took back both of their plates. Well, the front door open and he got a frying pan to the head! Cursing and swearing and chasing him away, the Irish lad didn’t know what was going on! Tom was rolled over in the ditch laughing until his sides hurt and the Irish lad was pretty peeved.
Anyhow, the hilarity continues throughout the book, but also there are some sombre times when Tom recounts tales of not eating for days on end which, I can’t really even fathom how people functioned. Also, the entire outlook on hitchhikers and the drifters is a fascinating one as nowadays, people seem to disregard these people who are down on their luck, but really, the majority of them are just like you and me – but they have run into some bad luck.
You don’t even have to be a Stompin’ Tom fan to enjoy these stories! Just know that you’re reading about a Canadian icon!
All in all, I really enjoyed this read as it’s just stories from the road. It’s also funny to see him talk about places I know, such as Timmins and Kapuskasing. If you’re into biographies, or just plain old good stories, I highly recommend picking this up! It had me laughing out loud on the bus many times. Thanks to Dad for suggesting this to me.