Yesterday was a travel day and a very interesting one. While I was sitting at the airport waiting to get on the plane to Charlotte, a fellow about my age came and set beside me. We struck up a conversation and it turned out that he had had a career as a hockey player in the NHL. He had been in town doing scouting of some kind. As in most of those kinds of conversations, I never got his name. He was a very nice guy and I enjoyed the talk.
When I got on the plane, I sat by another guy about my age who greeted and had a brief conversation with the first guy. When they were done I asked my seat mate if the first guy was a known hockey player.
He gave me a funny look and said “That is Mark Howe” like I should know who he was.
I didn’t, so the guy said, “Gordie Howe’s son. He is an NHL hall of famer, too.”
I know that guy, so I thought that was very cool. Both Mark and Gordie have Wikipedia pages and very impressive careers. It is a short flight to Charlotte, but this other guy and I had a great conversation. It turns out he is a famous Hockey personality, too. His name is Dave Strader and he is currently NBC’s play by play hockey announcer. We spent almost no time talking about hockey. The thing that was totally fascinating about him was that he had three very impressive grown children. Two of his kids were, what we call in the Chapman household, math kids. A math major and a physicist with a strong chemical background, both from very strong universities.
When I heard that, I was very surprised and probably a little ungraciously said, “How did that happen?”
What are the odds a hockey announcer is going to have two kids that did hard math.
He laughed and said, “It had to be their mother” who turns out was a stay at home mom.
All this was very impressive for a guy like me, but then he told me about the third son who got a degree in voice at a school where it is extremely difficult to even get accepted. He is currently in New York working on kick starting his singing career. He told me about a youtube video of his son singing Ave Maria. Judge for yourself:
Betty Blonde #186 – 04/02/2009
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