post 20

• Wayne's dad told you about the rest of the family. Now i'd like to tell you about my dad. I've heard all the stories about how he pushed me into hockey and kept me out in the back yard practicing because he wanted me to be a star in the NHL. But my Dad never put pressure on me; I put pressure on me. All he ever said was, "I don't care what the outcome is. It's good to win and I want you to do your best, but as long as you prepare and do the job to the best of your ability that's all anyone can ask for." If he knew that I hadn't prepared or wasn't ready, then he would question me.
• We lose the game, the season's over, and now it's May and I'm at the farm with Dad. It's hot and Grandma's watering the garden. My Dad looks at me, looks at her, looks back at me and says: "See! She's 79 and she's still working, and you're in the playoffs and you're not even practicing!"
• He is a man who works at the phone company, but now he reads every contract I have from top to bottom - hockey, endorsements, everything. I guess the bottom line is that he's looking out for me. He's looking out for Wayne Gretzky and Wayne Gretzky only.
• When i was 9 or 10, Dad and I would play catch in the back yard maybe 20 minutes every night. One day I decided what we really needed was a pitcher's mound. Down at the end of our street there was a vacant lot covered with rocks and stuff, so I went down there with the wheelbarrow and a shovel and loaded up. I was wheeling it up the driveway when Mom came out the door. "Where do you think you're going with that junk?" she said. "Back yard," I said. "Build a pitcher's mound." "Oh no, you're not," she said. Well, i knew that my Mom Meant business. But i also knew my Dad. I just left the wheelbarrow in the driveway and waited for him to come home from work. "Where are you going with that?" he asked. "Back yard," I said. "Build a Pitcher's mound." "Sounds good," he said. He went to the basement, nailed a couple of boards together for a slab and helped me build the mound. It was there for 11 years. He loves the back yard.
• In 1979, I told a reported for the Toronto Sun that my Dad and I would be on the rink for hours a day. And I was quoted, accurately, this way: "Honest to God, It was cold I'd Come in the house crying." Now I can just see a bunch of kids coming in crying and hearing their Dads say: "Get back out there! Wayne Gretzky froze. He's sitting in a penthouse in Edmonton. Where the heck are you?"
• I did a lot of other things, and that's important. I playe other sports, I swam - for a couple of years I crocheted. Got pretty good at it, too. I read somewhere that Jacques Plante, the famous goaltender, crocheted as a hobby, so I tried it. Made my Mom a purse, did a rug. I still try to do a lot of other things. I didn't sing on The Paul Anka Show because I plan to be a singer, or appear on The Young and the Restless because I want to be an actor. There were new things to try. Hockey can't be everything. I'll keep trying things that look interesting or challenging, looking ahead to the day when hockey will be over and I'll need something else.