Steve Ogden
Writer, Communications Officer, and Millwright Apprentice in Saint Thomas, Ontario, Canada
Random things, facts, habits, or goals about me
1. From the age of 12 I wanted to be an actor, but my parent's discouraged it. My dad wanted me to be a physicist (yeah me... the guy who hates math).
2. As a 10 year old I was paid to sing in a boys’ choir in Montreal. I sang clearly and beautifully, and could even reach high A... and then my voice changed. I didn't even know such things happened! No one would believe me because I was so young, and I got drummed out of the choir for not trying, or being disruptive or something. I was so upset at losing that angelic soprano voice that it was years before I would sing again.
3. As a teenager I once met a good friend of Jim Croce's, who let me use his Social Security number to work in Florida.
4. At the age of 14 I once successfully masqueraded as a member of the Windsor Police Force's "Junior Detective Division" (there's no such thing, of course... I made it up).
5. I was once offered a Newscaster position with the radio station in Elliot Lake, which transmits from The Sault to Sudbury. I turned it down in favour of a being a meat cutter's apprentice. I lost that job two weeks later when a former boxer thought I was putting the moves on his daughter in law, and I ended up tearing a ligament in the ensuing conflict.
6. I was in reform school at the age of 11.
7. I once shared a concert with, among other singers, world renowned tenor Ben Hepner.
8. When I was 32, a 12 year old girl once told me I had great legs. I found that disturbing.
9. At 14 I sometimes cried myself to sleep wondering why God made me attractive to men and not to women.
10. At 13 I once spoke in a Belfast accent for ten hours on an bus trip from Montreal to Toronto (complete with supporting life story yarn)... and never once broke character!
11. I was once interviewed on CBC's Radio Noon show.
12. As a kid, I tried to swim once from Quebec to New Brunswick on an air mattress.
13. I've ridden an elephant and a camel, eaten crab guts and squid brains, and been told by a group of Egyptians that I look like Omar Sharif.
14. I once had a cop stop me for speeding. He asked me for my driver's license and registration, then without even going back to his car to check anything, suddenly said: "Well, fair is fair... other people were speeding too. Have a nice day."