Homme de musique aux multiples talents, François Dompierre anime une émission musicale à la radio de Radio-Canada depuis l’an 2000. Dimanche, grâce à un texte sollicité lors de son émission du 5 février qui m’a valu d’être sélectionné, j’ai pu assister, avec une vingtaine d’autres « gagnants » à son édition spéciale de la Saint-Valentin. Réunis dans la salle Raymond-David de la Maison de Radio-Canada à Montréal, nous avons pu partager pendant trois heures avec François et ses deux invitées, Catherine Major (sa nièce, la première fille de sa soeur, Jacinthe) et Bïa (dynamique artiste québécoise d’origine brésilienne) les instants exquis d’amour et d’amitié tels que rendus par certains des plus grands artisans de la chanson d’amour, en commençant par Piaf et suivie de Barbara. De plus, Daniel Lavoie, Léo Ferré, Brel, Marie Laforest, Pauline Julien, Juliette Greco et Monique Leyrac. Clin d’œil aussi du côté de la musique de langue anglaise : Joan Baez, Ella Fitzgerald et Louis Armstrong. Il manquait toutefois la « I Will Always Love You » de Whitney Houston, décédée la veille. Deux moments forts : Catherine Major qui interprète « Tu ne reviendras pas », chanson d’amour composée par son oncle François, d’après un poème écrit par sa mère, « Mamouche » comme elle aimait se faire appeler ; Bïa qui, à son tour, interprète l’une de ses propres compostions amoureuses, « Mures sauvages », suivie de la séduisante « Besame mucho ».

Je vous invite à fêter la Saint-Valentin en écoutant, en différé, où que vous soyez, comme j’ai pu le faire dimanche, accompagné de ma bru, Marie-Lou, « Les détours de la Saint-Valentin de François Dompierre » (www.radiocanada.ca/espace_musique/animateurs.asp?an=3640). Bonne écoute!

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *

Respectant le thème imposé par l’animateur la semaine précédente, voici le texte qui m’a valu une invitation à son émission spéciale du 12 février :

Depuis 40 ans, je demeure au Québec. En septembre dernier, je suis retourné dans mon pays d’origine (USA) pour le conventum des 50 ans de notre promotion (Orem High School, Utah). Ce retour m’a fourni l’occasion de renouer avec beaucoup d’amis et d’amies d’enfance que je n’avais pas revus depuis 20, 30, 40 et parfois 50 ans. À la suite de ces merveilleuses retrouvailles, j’ai publié sur le site internet OHS-61 le texte qui suit concernant mon premier amour. Malheureusement pour vous et pour les auditeurs, il est écrit dans la seule langue que je parlais à l’époque et la seule langue comprise par tous mes amis et amies d’autrefois.

Sophomore Bigshot

January 1959. I was the only sophomore on the starting five of Orem High’s Junior Varsity basketball squad and, as I recall, the highest scorer. The other four starters were juniors Glenn Bullock, Paul Kennedy, Dave Thompson, and Gary Shumway. The sixth man was Derrell Reeves, also a junior. Lee Bunnell, a junior and better known for his football prowess, was a starting forward for the varsity squad along with seniors Kirby McMaster, Bruce Watts, Rex Wright, and Jimmy Wilkinson.

I had just gone through that sacred rite of passage for all American teens, the procurement of a Utah state driver’s licence and Dad had just bought a new 1959 white Pontiac Star Chief with a bright red interior. When I wasn’t driving his 1955 red Ford pick-up, Dad would let me, on special occasions, drive the new Pontiac.

The most special of occasions came along on Saturday night, January 16, the day after my sixteenth birthday. The Harlem Globetrotters were making their annual visit to the George Albert Smith field house on the campus of Brigham Young University and I had tickets. What girl would like to accompany me? Possibly quite a few, but I had only one in mind. However, I harboured serious doubts about her willingness to accept the invitation of a sophomore boy, two years younger than she.

From the beginning of school that year, I had had my eye on one of the five Tiger cheerleaders, Shauna A. Blond, graceful, always smiling, full of energy, she captured by heart early on. Would she, an apparently very popular senior girl—a cheerleader moreover—lower herself to go out with a sophomore boy even if he was the high scorer on the JV team and had access to this dad’s shiny new Pontiac? It was a gamble, but gathering my courage in both hands, I cornered her near her locker the first day back from Christmas vacation and popped the question. To my amazement, she accepted without hesitation. We had a date! I literally floated down the hall to my own locker and into Mr Mangum’s English class!

OHS cheerleaders, 1959: Sandra, Toni, Shauna, Sheron, et Becky

The Globetrotter game turned out to be an afterthought. We spent the entire evening in deep conversation, discovering each other’s hobbies, preferences and histories. We discovered that we had spent the entire preceding summer working at neighbouring fruit stands in north Orem, I at Verd’s, she at Walker’s. Fewer than 100 yards had separated us every day for three months, yet we had never met!

Shortly after this first date, there was a second, the Rose Prom, organized by one of the LDS stakes. She danced like a dream and I guess I didn’t do badly myself. This lead to a third date and a fourth and a fifth … One date ran into another. We were together every Friday and Saturday evening and often all day on Sundays.

When dad’s pickup or shiny Pontiac weren’t available, we frequently doubled with Bob T. and Beth H. in Bob’s 1958 Chevy Impala.

I was very proud to accompany Shauna on her graduation night. I may have been imbued with my own importance. Our intense relationship continued throughout the summer and into the fall, but then the inevitable unfolded. Reality set in. She was two years older, a student at BYU and on her way to becoming a Cougarette and a flag twirler! I was but an ordinary high school junior…no longer the Sophomore Bigshot I once had been. Our destinies were at a crossroads.

* * * * * * *

On Monday evening following the 50th anniversary of the Class of 1961, 10 hours before I was to climb on the airplane to return to Québec, I had the opportunity of visiting Shauna in her Kaysville home. Although so much of that proverbial water has flowed under the proverbial bridge and although our encounters and conversations have been very sporadic, to say the least, there remains, a half-century later, a mighty bond of friendship that links the hearts of the people we have become.

Shauna and Dean, 2011, 50 ans plus tard