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<\/a>What a great car… I remember the snowy day she drove this thing home.<\/p><\/div>\n
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We\u2019d sometimes end up at one of her friends\u2019 places, or even more interestingly, she\u2019d want to stop in and see people at work.\u00a0 Not necessarily *her* place of work, however.<\/p>\n
My sister is in the RCMP, and much like myself at my current tech support job, she gets to associate with many people around the province.\u00a0 Dropping in to say \u201chi\u201d to people you talk to every day is nice, and it helps give you that extra connection with the person on the other end.<\/p>\n
I was always \u201cMichelle\u2019s little brother\u201d whenever we stopped at a detachment somewhere, but I didn\u2019t mind \u2013 these were all top-notch folks that were very kind to me, and I actually hoped to be a policeman myself, someday.<\/p>\n
Even now when I stop at routine police checkpoints, they look at my license and say \u201cHey, you\u2019re Michelle\u2019s brother!\u201d<\/p>\n
There were so many people I met in those years that some of their faces are only brief, fleeting images in my mind.\u00a0 I remember the names and nicknames, but what they looked like is somewhat blurry in retrospect.\u00a0 For one person, however, the memory is quite clear.<\/p>\n
Probably only because it pertains to video games, but it\u2019s quite clear nonetheless!<\/p>\n
On one of the last nights I can remember driving around with her in early \u201999, we ended up visiting one of her longtime friends and her husband in Oromocto.\u00a0 They lived in a PMQ, and although I just had to Google what it stood for (Personnel\\Private Married Quarters), it\u2019s basically where members of the Armed Forces or Mounted Police and their spouses can call home.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t big, but they\u2019re cheap and comfy.<\/p>\n
In any case, the guy had rented a Nintendo 64 along with a couple games, and Michelle brought me along to give him a few pointers.\u00a0 He was considering buying one himself, so I brought a couple games of my own to try and convince him the N64 was worth it.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Who wouldn’t love owning this?<\/p><\/div>\n
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The idea was that my sister and her friend would catch up and talk about whatever while he and I played games.\u00a0 That worked for me!<\/p>\n
He had also rented Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire<\/em> and Top Gear Rally<\/em>.\u00a0 I thought (and still think) SOTE<\/em> was an absolutely fantastic game.\u00a0 Exploring each level thoroughly yielded some cool secrets, and getting every Challenge Point in the game became an obsession of mine.<\/p>\n We played it quite a bit that night, but he didn\u2019t seem to be sold on it.\u00a0 He listened intently when I talked about what the game was like in the later levels, but even though he dug the atmosphere and the flying stages, I don\u2019t think he was particularly fond of the controls.<\/p>\n We moved on to Top Gear Rally<\/em> for a little while, which was the first (and so far only) time I played that game.\u00a0 There were some unique vehicles and the controls were pretty good, and we had some pretty fun two-player races\u2026 still, it wasn\u2019t long before we swapped it out and played some Mario Kart 64<\/em>.<\/p>\n Michelle and her friend watched us play and laughed as we kept taking each other out with shells and trails of banana peels.\u00a0 I really thought that this was the game that would sell him on the console!<\/p>\n We had a blast, and I recall he was leaning towards buying one as we were leaving.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t give up on Shadows of the Empire<\/em>!\u201d I shouted from the door.\u00a0 \u201cKeep playing it, it gets better and better!\u201d<\/p>\n He smiled and laughed and said \u201cYep, I will!\u00a0 I promise!\u201d<\/p>\n I really don\u2019t know if he ended up buying a Nintendo 64 or not, but playing SOTE<\/em> that night re-invigorated my love for that game.\u00a0 I went to Wal-Mart with Michelle a few days later and bought it, and even though she said \u201cWasn\u2019t that game not fun?\u201d, I knew that wasn\u2019t the case.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason it\u2019s number #33 on my Top 100 list!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n