Wilde said people shouldn't be judged on whether they are bad or good but on whether they are charming or tedious. The CBC nickname for Peter was Saint Peter and Peter was no saint.
I met Peter when he was doing his TV Show. I guess it put him under a lot of pressure. He would come to my bar a couple of times a week to unwind. We spent many a night just the 2 of us in my backroom playing pinball for 20 bucks a game. We talked about a lot of things. One morning for some reason we were both chasing the same lady and neither one of us would give in. We ended up back at his place, with the lady making breakfast or At eight o clock in the morning we were sitting at his kitchen table on Yorkville Ave. with a bottle of wine on the go. We were very very drunk.
Out of the blue he stops and says. "Want to know what is the most important thing I ever did in my life?" Of course,
I said "Sure." he proceeded to tell me about a hockey game he had played. Something about beating a really tough team from another town. I don't remember how old he was when he played this game or anything. I just thought of all the things he had accomplished and that is what he thought of. It was not long after this that Peter wrote "The Game Of Our Lives."
Peter sometimes brought some of the guests to my place. through his show, I met Jack Webster, Hunter S. Thompson, a to name a few.
a lot of Peter's staff were regulars at the bar. And many the day I had to send a taxi to CBC with the master script of the next night's show that somebody left behind. I did many favours for Peter like lend him a room for card games with Michael MacClear, Bobby Miller etc.
Both Peter and I liked to play the horses and I met him at the track more than a few times. Once I met him after the first race and was surprised that he left. He left his pile of tickets behind and he had lost over 500 dollars on the first race.
Gary Maclean introduced me to Burton. He brought him to my Bar.So I buy him a drink and then I had to kick him out because he attacked Peter Gzowski. So he comes back apologizes , I buy him a drink and he goes back and attacks Peter again (more verbal then physical but never the less threating and Peter is like my best customer.(not just drinking but I took hundreds off of him playing pinball)
Burton did this twice more until I wouldn't let him back in. Over the course of the next couple of years he apologized and we became friends.
After The TV show, I didn't see him for some years.
Then I ran into him on the Esplanade one day.
"Peter," I said where the hell have you been."
"Sorry, man he said but you just remind me of a very bad time in my life."
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