Martin Schultchen and Gary Olson, 1985, Summerland, B.C.
Every so often in your life you come across some very influential people. The two people pictures above are a couple of those.
I first met Martin Schultchen in September of 1979 when I started a job as a Manager Trainee in the Woolco Store on McLeod Mall in Calgary, Alberta.
Martin was a very uninhibited and outspoken individual with a wickedly sharp sense of humour. A lot of people found him to be a bit, or a lot, over the top as they say.
Martin and I did a lot of partying togethar in those days. Drinking buddies, yeah you could say that. Martin was my best man at my wedding. His wife, Jane felt I was a bad influence on him. My wife, Marie felt the same about Marty.
Whenever we got togethar, the music got loud and the beer kept flowing.
But if there is one thing I remember about Marty is this: He was and still is one of the most intelligent people I've met, with the keenest insights on the happenings of society and the world in general. He always had something interesting to say.
Gary Olson also worked for the same company as myself and Martin, that being Kinney Shoe Inc. He became my boss in summer of 1981 I believe. He had a remarkable resemblance to the singer/songwriter, Phil Collins.
Gary had the sharpest mind I've ever come across, you couldn't put anything past him. Like Martin, he always had what, to me, seemed to be the most accurate take on any situation. Like the truth is always there for him, as plain as the nose on your face. He was never boring.
Neither of these guys were what you would call "nice" people. It's been my experience that the "nicer" someone is, the more boring they become.
Both Gary and Martin had two things in common: an unusual level of insight/intelligence and always something interesting to say.
There are a lot of ways to abuse people and boring them is one of the worst. I don't care if a person is "nice' or not, just please be interesting.
Thanks to Gary and Marty for always being interesting, I hope you still are to this day.
