Blackie Truly Was One Of A Kind.

“He who dies with the most toys wins.” Paul Black loved his big boy toys.

Over the course of one’s life, a cast of characters will come and go. Some will be quickly forgotten and some will be forever remembered.

Paul Black was one character I will never forget.

For me just hearing the name Paul Black will always conjure up the same emotion. I will always smile and chuckle while shaking my head.

“Man that guy was one crazy dude.” I would say breaking out into laughter while recalling a funny memory of him.

Paul Black or simply Blackie as he was known to most was not just a work colleague, he was also my friend.

I first met Paul back in the mid-80's when he was hired on at Beatrice Foods as a driver. There had been some kind of merger between Pepsi and 7-UP and many of the Pepsi drivers lost their jobs once the two companies became one. A large number of those drivers were immediately hired by Beatrice Foods who was continually looking to expand its footprint into the Toronto market.

Paul was one of those drivers. The best way to describe Paul would be that of a jovial, portly character. He was the guy who could spin a tale with the best of them and he would always have a tale to spin.

Blackie truly was one of a kind.

Anyone who knew Blackie would surely have a story or a memory of him. Here are a few of mine.

Paul played one season on my men’s rec hockey team up at Doublerink Arenas. While at work Paul was always telling me how great of a hockey player he was. I had played with him a few times; he was by no means a great player. Although, he was better than I expected or even thought he would be. Paul’s first and only season with the Blazing Bulls was the 1988/89 season.

I would always be chastising Paul in the dressing room and telling him how he could be so much quicker on the ice if he lost some weight. He’d be just sitting there while chugging back a beer wearing his ripped, hole infested long underwear. A big grin was on his face while he stared at my skinny arms. After I had my say, he would then stand up and flex his biceps.

“I bet you’d like to have a set of pipes like these” would always be his reply. He would then sit back down, belch and open himself up another beer.

Blackie’s dressing room bellowing belches were second to none. For me, one of his on ice belches would also be an unforgettable once in a lifetime memory. I vividly remember the night I was playing against Paul in a pick-up game; we collided heavily behind the net. It felt like I had been hit by a truck.

At the exact moment of impact, Paul belched one of his massive belches as I went crashing to the ice. He was laughing while looking down at me as he skated away. The whole area behind the net now smelled like a fuck’n Italian restaurant. When I got back up on my skates, I noticed I had some kind of food particles on my white jersey. They looked like little pieces of pasta coated in tomato sauce. I skated over to Paul and asked him what he had eaten for dinner.

He told me he had lasagna.

“Well when you hit me, you fuck’n puked your lasagna on me,” I told him.

“Yeah, I know did you taste it, it was pretty good eh?” he said as he skated away laughing.

Other than my own daughter when she was a baby, I could never remember being puked on before.

Seriously, I can’t make this shit up.

And then there was the time my wife Bonnie and I had gone away for a weekend at a resort in the Minden area. The resort was apparently right near Blackie’s cottage on the Gull River. Paul came up the river and picked my wife and me up in his boat for a tour of the area. I will never forget that boat ride or the time he invited us up to his cottage for a bar-b-que. Those were fun times indeed and Paul kept us thoroughly entertained.

Paul was a hard worker, but he also could be a bit of a rebel. When all of us Beatrice drivers lost our jobs because the company was going owner-operator, Paul originally was not being offered a route. My boss told me that they were handpicking the drivers they wanted to keep and Paul was not one of them. He was a trouble maker I was told.

Well as it turns out, Paul Edward Black Transport would end up operating multiple routes for the company. Not bad for a troublemaker.

The last time I saw Paul, Orange County Choppers was a very popular television show. I had seen the show many times and Blackie was now looking exactly like the father Paul Teutul Sr. He was a dead ringer, right down to the handlebar moustache. Right away I called him Paul Senior and asked him if was now building custom motorcycles. He just laughed.

We never got a chance to go for coffee because Paul was in a hurry and he was running late. He was driving for one of his drivers who needed the day off. He told me he moved out of Mississauga and bought some property up in the Orangeville area. It sounded to me like he was very successful. We agreed that next time we ran into each other we would definitely have lunch and rehash some old times. Now that would have been a long lunch with a lot of laughs.

Sadly, I have learned that Blackie has passed away at the age of 59.

Although, we were never best buddies or real super close friends, I have many fond memories of Blackie. He will always be one of those characters who truly was a character. How could anyone forget someone who puked on them?

I think what I will remember most about Blackie, I can never recall seeing him angry or mad. He always remained the same jovial, portly character I had known since the first time we met.

He was always grinning, always smiling and always laughing.

RIP Paul Edward Black.