Name: Dustin Declercq
Family: Married to Michelle, with four boys
Profession: Office Manager for Hometown Co-op
Years living in Grenfell: 11
Age: 35
What was the last movie you watched?
It was "3 Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri" It was really good. It's with Woody Harrelson and Frances McDormand. It's about this lady who's daughter was murdered so she puts up these three billboards outside the town, basically calling out the law enforcement, saying "Why haven't you done anything to solve this?" It gets pretty, kind of 'deep south'... heated. It won a bunch of Oscars. I would recommend it.
What is your best characteristic?
I don't know... I guess I'm fairly easy going. That would probably be my best characteristic. I can tolerate more than I need to.
What is on your bucket list?
I've never really thought about it too much. I guess maybe skydiving. It's something that I've always wanted to do, but have been too scared to do. I was going to start with indoor skydiving in Vegas, but then I thought, "I'll do it later"... then we never went back. But ya, skydiving would be one of those things I'd like to do. I guess another bucket list, live long enough to see what the kids turn into. Like you see their different personalities and you just wonder, "What are you going to do when you're 18, 25? What are you going to be like??" Makes me wonder, not in a bad way.. Just, really curious to see what kind of people they will be.
How many different careers have you had?
This isn't going to be very interesting....one! I got a part time job at the grocery store in Shaunavan when I graduated high school. I was just going to take some time off. Then I got a full time job and all of a sudden it was 18 years later.
What types of volunteer activities are you a part of?
I coach the senior boys basketball team at the high school. I've been doing that for five seasons I think. It was the year Klaude and Kyle were in school there. They're the ones that got me to start doing it. I knew them because they worked at the store and we talked basketball. They wanted there to be a basketball team, because that was their sport, so they said I needed to come because no one else was interested. Aside from volunteering there, stuff through the co-op and the car club in town.
What's the best halloween costume you ever had?
I went to the curling rink in town dressed in drag once. I think there was a town halloween party there maybe. Mike Kardash was in a dress there the same year, and we were trying to decide which one of us looked better. Other than that, I think probably my best one I ever made was in Shaunavan. Me and a group of friends went as the Wizard of Oz and I went as the Tin Man. I made my own costume out of cardbard boxes and duct tape. So I had pieced all the different pieces together with duct tape and then painted it silver and put a funnel on my head. They had to lay me down in the back of a van with no seats to get me to the bar because I couldn't sit. Then I had to get a straw for my drink for the night, because I couldn't reach my hand up to my mouth. So that was a fun one!
What is something you're looking forward to in 2018?
Well, we missed it by 6 days - there's a baby! (Dustin's 6 day old baby boy is in the room with us). That's what I was looking forward to in 2018. Oh, and the Raptor's winning the championship series. They're in 1st place in the east, for the first time ever, so this is a big deal for me. They won game 1, which they've never done before.
Where did you grow up?
I have never grown up! Haha.. can that be my answer? This is a question I always have to think about. I guess I grew up in Shaunavan, but I was born in Portage la Prairie, in Manitoba, and then we moved to Strathclair, and then Kelliher, then Swift Current and Vegreville, Alberta, then Whitewood, then Shaunavan, then Grenfell. My dad worked for the Co-op and got transferred every couple years. I was grade 10 when I moved to Shaunovan....oh! I missed Regina. Whitewood to Regina, then Shaunovan. I did grade 6-9 in Regina. I say Shaunavan was my hometown.
How old were you when you got married and where was it?
Well, we've had three weddings now. I was 32?? I don't know... younger than I am now. O.k... so we got engaged at a Northcote concert in Regina, because Matt helped me from the stage, and I embarassed Michelle, and myself because we were in front of a large group of people. So then we decided we were going to get married in Vegas. When we first started dating, she (Michelle) said "If I ever get married, it's going to be in Las Vegas" and I had said out loud, many times before we ever met, that I'm only getting married if it's in Las Vegas, with fat Elvis. The fat Elvis was a stipulation and so that was the moment I knew she was the one. We had a legal ceremony in our living room on Valentine's Day. It was really cold and snowing outside and the justice of the peace showed up at our house. By the end of it, she said that her dream was always to do a Valentine's Day wedding, but it wasn't with us. So we crushed her dreams. We told her exactly what we wanted beforehand, that we just wanted witnesses and to sign the documents. We told her we had a wedding planned, we just wanted to sign the papers now, because we were going to the states later and we wanted to legally do it here. Then we were going to have our ceremony with our friends and family later, in Vegas. We just needed her to come and do the legal work at home. So she had other ideas and made us go into our living room and when we got to the part where we were supposed to, well I thought it was the part where I was supposed to kiss the bride, I kissed Michelle, and the lady got really mad and said "Not yet!" So then I just did it again. We had a lot of fun with that. She did not. And then we threw a sort of social at the hall in town in the summer time for all of our friends and family that weren't going to be able to come to Vegas. So they just came to Grenfell to hang out and party with us. So then we get bugged about our three weddings. Elvis ended up being pretty slim.. he may have had a narcotics problem that kept him that way. He was a different kind of Elvis. That was a lot of fun. So that's the story! That was four years ago. So now we have this confusing thing where we, well I, don't know which anniversary we're supposed to be publicly celebrating.
What's the first concert you ever went to?
I'm not sure what my very first concert was, probably because there's been hundreds. Music, and attending live music, are a defining thing in my life. I've spend the past 20 years with the same group of people, attending shows at the Exchange in Regina...feels like I grew up in that place. The underground music scene was like a family and I have a lot of lifelong friends because of it. Some of the most memorable concerts would have been The Tragically Hip, back in 1997, every single one of the dozens of shows I attended by Regina hardcore band, Means, and seeing my favourite band, Zao, in Pittsburgh two years ago at an old church that had been converted into a bar. All of the best live music experiences for me have been in small, intimate/interactive clubs with only 150-200 people, where everyone is connected and involved. Lion Bear Fox in Tatum's studio also exposed me to one of my favourite groups. Support your local music scene, and buy the new Altars of Grief album (Damian Smith's band)