Gary Tressider was one of the most beautiful teenagers I have ever seen. I and every other girl in Ottawa in the '60s. Think Troy Donahue, Brad Pitt, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, a Beach Boy...golden and lean, with a killer smile. And there he was in last Saturday's Calgary Herald. My heart literally skipped a beat, even though I had not thought of him in more than 40 years.
Back then he went to Ridgemont and I went to Lisgar, so I only caught sight of him when our football or basketball teams played each other. Rarely. But he was so beautiful you just could not take your eyes off him. He didn't know I existed -- in fact I don't think I ever met him -- but all of pubescent, female Ottawa knew who he was. Most of us just accepted the miserable fact that he was completely out of reach.
The Gary Tressider in the Herald was still long and lean, but his once-perfect face was craggy with the cowboy life he must have been living. But, man, he still looked good in that cowboy hat and jeans! Funny how the emotional memories you don't even know you retain leap to the surface and grab you with the same intensity as if you had just caught a glimpse of him in the bleachers across the 50-yard line.
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