Where did summer go?

At a news meeting this week, we were talking about summer, how wet it has been and how it seems to have flown by. This week the CNE opens, always a sign that cooler, shorter days are coming.

Here are a few tidbits on columns from over the summer as we clean up the readers' file and start thinking of the fall.

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about Garney Henley, a Tiger-Cat hero from my youth. It prompted a note from Bob Nielsen. Bob and Garney met while they were teaching at Hillfield-Strathallan College in 1963.

"When he joined the staff I was afraid to even talk to him, as he walked the campus like a god, with the little kids jumping up at him as he ambled along," Bob recalled.

Bob sent me a copy of his 1972 book, Garney Henley: A Gentleman And A Tiger (Potlatch Publications, $5.95, also available at the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, $10).

The cover shows Henley exactly as I remember him. Small, wiry but ultimately dangerous. Number 26.The timing of the book was perfect. The Cats won an exciting eastern final that year, made it to the Grey Cup, which was being played in Hamilton, and then won the game. Garney finally won the most valuable player Schenley Award after a successful "Henley for Schenley" campaign.

Bob sent my column to Garney, who lives with his wife, Charlotte, in Huron, S.D. Thanks for the book, Bob, and no, I don't have the chin strap anymore.

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I have received a number of calls and e-mails about Tim Prawdzik, my grade-school friend who died in a car accident in 1968. The nicest call was from Tim's mom, who still lives in Hamilton.

"I was so pleased that, after all this time and almost 40 years later, people still remember Tim. He was special." Mrs. Prawdzik moved off Hixon Road but has spent her life in the east end, raising her daughter and also being there for other family members. Thanks also to my Grade 7 teacher Ms. Hickey, who wrote in with this memory: "Timmy Prawdzik was on my class list for the September after that dreadful July day. On and off over the years he has crossed my mind even though I'd never actually met him. I was moved by your message today." And Tim's cousin, Rick Roscovich, who lived on Cochrane Road, wrote: "Though it has been 40 years, the memory of that day came flooding back, as if it were yesterday." Sadly, Goredy Prawdzik, Tim's uncle died July 1. "I think the loss of Timmy and Vern (his dad, who died soon after, also in a car mishap) played a huge part in the way he lived the rest of his life."

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Watching the 2008 Olympics from Beijing, I couldn't help thinking about Richard M. Nixon. The 37th president of the United States loved China. His historic 1972 visit there -- the first U.S. president to visit the country -- changed the world. The secret visit, a brilliant act of international diplomacy, also made Nixon a lifelong lover of Chinese culture.

"In four visits to the People's Republic of China from 1976 to 1985, I saw a country evolve from one of the world's most reactionary, doctrinaire communist nations into one of its most progressive in terms of breaking free from the dead hand of Marxist ideology," Nixon wrote in his 1990 book In The Arena. "One hundred and sixty years ago Napoleon had called China the 'sleeping giant.' Today, China has become an awakened giant."

Had he lived, Nixon would be 95. And you can be bet he would be rising early each day to take in every moment of the Games.

David Estok is The Spectator's editor-in-chief. editorfeedback@thespec.com