I, like most people live day to day, passing along a chain of petty and momentous events throughout the day but not out of the ordinary daily life experienced by the people around me. But through having had an unusual trajectory into life, parental and family background, childhood experience, quirky personality, and exposure to momentous events in society and personally as a physician, scientist, and notorious eccentric. Although I will tell of a number of extraordinary “once in a lifetime” experiences, my focus will be to keep to those that I believe have universal human meaning, perhaps even a life’s lesson. I will keep each installment to between 600-1000 words so they can be read in less than 3-4 minutes. Longer stories will be told in a linked series of parts, each of the same ‘bite size’ portions.

I will initially try to group the stories by themes and sub-themes, within the categories such as “personal history”, “scientific discovery”, “greatest medical cases ever” “life lessons learned”. But I suspect in the breadth of time the readers will see the stories all coalesce by time-line, by theme and story line, into a single life story.

Father's Day, past now and future: Part I (of III), The REAL Santa

Father's Day, past now and future: Part I (of III), The REAL Santa

Joseph Fisher
Family History

Banff-Canmore trail. June 16, 2019. My sons, Arie, Noam and Eitan and I had completed a Jasper to Banff bicycle ride over about 3 days, 430 km and about 4,500 m cumulative climbing. Rain, cold, sunshine, the most awe inspiring vistas imaginable. A wonderful shared adventure. Great bonding as friends. Yes, the boys were a bit protective of me here and there (letting me draft when climbing against the wind), but they were also great to each other and delightful company. This day happened to be Father’s Day.

As a new father I found Arie, my first born, was wonderful company on our outings. From the time he was 2 years old, we had a wonderful time talking, playing, singing, “having adventures” on each outing. We always went to exciting places where adventures were sure to happen: Toronto Islands, Ontario Place, the McMichael Gallery, Hart House Farm.

Sure there was an age difference and I had to be a guardian. I may have been a bit protective of Arie even. But when we were out I seldom had to be disciplinary. This left a great deal of room to be partners in adventure; friends, actually. We would go here, there, try this, that—pick strawberries, drive go-carts, slide down the giant slide at the water park in Ontario Place, ride on a streetcar, duck into Starbucks for a hot chocolate and a cookie during a rain shower, tall boat ride at Harborfront…Sometimes places we would go to would be absorbing and intriguing, novel and previously unknown, sometimes not so great, but mostly fun.

Like in Paul Simon’s song, ‘I found myself driving down the highway with the child of my first marriage’. At age 5 ½ Arie and I set out in my new Volvo (first car I bought as an adult) for Stowe Vermont for a ski holiday. Sarah stayed home with the babies. It was the week before Christmas. There was lots of snow and the hotels were empty. We drove first to Montreal. In the evening we stopped in a Hotel: Arie’s first time. That night we went for dinner at Georgio’s, a very fancy pizza and pasta restaurant. We ordered, talked excitedly about skiing. Arie had never been on skis before but he was excited. That night we slept in the same room. A first. The next day we had a long drive. Arie was in charge of “music”. He mixed songs from various albums in the stereo: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Meatloaf, Evita, Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Diamond…We both sang along with the songs while the gorgeous snow covered rural Americana and quaint Vermont vistas passed us onto to Stowe and our Chalet.

The next day I signed up Arie in beginner ski lessons. He was in the Eeyore group. By the end of the day, the instructor told me he was able to get on and off the beginner chair. Wow! We skied our first run together.

To celebrate our great adventure that day, we went out to a highly recommended restaurant. It was Christmas Eve and we were lucky to get reservations. The inside of the Restaurant was warm, with a crackling fireplace and lots of people in good spirits. A ‘Santa’ was making his way around, stopping at the tables and giving candy canes to the kids. He stopped at our table. Arie was a little kid, but his speech and vocabulary was discordant with his age and size. Even back at age 1 he spoke with full sentences and had an amazing memory for words. He and Santa began bantering. As Santa became more provocative, Arie parried all this thrusts on a wide range of topics. Santa said “Can I speak to you privately?”. This he addressed to Arie, not me. Arie followed him to the front of the restaurant and I saw them infront of the picture window. They were very engaged in private conversation for about 10 min, then Arie came back to the table with a couple of candy canes.

I was dying to find out what they talked about. Arie wouldn’t say. I became progressively concerned. The meal was served and we ate. We talked, but I could not get Arie to address his tet-a-tet with Santa.

At the end of the meal, there was a quiet moment or two where we were just eating desert. I began talking about what we were going to do tomorrow. Arie said: “That man who came to our table today…”

“Yes?”

“I was talking to him”

“Yes…”

“He told me that you have to be very careful, as Santa is a famous figure and many people dress up as Santa…just look around at all the guys in Santa suits”

I looked around. There were more than a few red Santa caps in the Restaurant.

“So, he told me his secret: He is the REAL Santa”

“Arie, be reasonable, why would the REAL Santa be here in the middle of nowhere Vermont on Christmas Eve? And why would he confess to some Jewish kid?”

“He actually told me not to tell you because you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Just because he told you doesn’t mean he isn’t lying. Think about it. If you asked the other Santas if they are the real Santa, most would also say that they are. He probably just works for the Restaurant to hand out candy canes to the kids.”

Arie had a resigned look on his face. “Daddy, I checked him out. He actually is the real Santa. Tonight he is going to bring me lots of presents.”

(Next: Father’s day, Past present and futue. Part II of III: Times past/times passed)

Father's Day, past: Part II (of III), The mountains as the busom

Father's Day, past: Part II (of III), The mountains as the busom
What to do with this child?

What to do with this child?