# When I met Normand - True untold stories...



## zguitz (Aug 18, 2017)

Hi, I don't want to hijack the forum with multiple threads,
But you seem like a great bunch of guitar nuts enjoying good stories.
Here is my true strory of when I met Nornand Boucher.

Normand Boucher, first meet – 1977
Sherbrooke, Quebec, fall 1976 – college years
I just bought myself a nice Notman B-20 at Steve Music Store in Montreal.
I had to work all summer long to get enough money.
1976 right in the middle of the Norman guitars crazyness,
A storm of « wow man a guitar made in Quebec that looks good, plays well and smells like a guitar!! ».
So I get to meet and jam with new friends.
One day a guy said to me « I know a girl who’s from La Patrie,
She once said to me she could get guitars from the shop ».
So I met the girl, she said « Yeah no problem, I’ll set it up and come back to you ».
The plan was that I could get to the shop and buy me a nice B-30, « no problem it’s all set! ».
I think it was January maybe Febuary, anyway one of those Monday mornings, -22*C windy and…
Hitchiking to La Patrie with money and an empty case.
Finally arriving in the village a few hours later, found the shop, opened the door…
Workers stopped their work to look at me, I asked for M. Boucher, I’m pointed to his office.
The man looks at me…
Naming myself, I try to shake his hand… looks at me…
«Who the hell are you ?...» Not aware of whatever I’m trying to explain to him.
He his not in a good mood at all.
« Do you really think I can pick a guitar off the production line and sell it live in front of everybody here my
son !! »
« I’m no outlet guitar store here, it’s no musician’s Salvation Army here, I’m running a shop…but euh…
what’s your story ? tell me again… »
At one point he said « OK leave me your case, give me your money, I’ll see what I can do… »
I left La Patrie hitchiking, still -22*C or maybe -21*C, came back to Sherbrooke, no case, no money…but
A week later that same girl called me, she had a B-30 in my case !!
Brand new out of the shop!!
That’s how I met M. Normand Boucher for the first time

Normand Boucher, second meet - 1996
1996 I think it was, probably since Normand passed away in 1997.
So I had this neigbour, you know the kind who always want you to have a chat
In the garage so he can open a room temperature beer at 10 in the morning…
Anyway, he knocks on my door one day explaining that he wants me to give a hand
To a friend up the street with a broken VCR, I said yes why not, let’s go see your friend.
A few hundred yards away, we arrive at the house and Mrs opens the door.
I saw an old man in a rocking chair, looking sick and I said to myself « I know this guy… I’ve met him somewhere…»
Chating in the living room I noticed two guitars on stands.
We keep talking to finally realise I was in Normand Boucher’s living room !!
Beside me was Norman guitar no 1, the first one !! from 1967.
The second guitar was his latest !! the name on the headstock was NBoucher.
OMG !!!
So he said « Here take this one (the NBoucher) you say you play…well play me something »
It was not my best performance, I was shaking a bit, hardly able to strum a basic chord…
I ended up setting up the clock to fix the VCR !
And said good bye, real nice humble and simple people.
That’s when I re-started playing guitar and searching the net.
The Godin guitar site said « …it all started in 1982… »,
I said to myself nah ‘cause I went to the Norman shop in 1977 so…
A few years later I went back to talk to M. Boucher but sadly he had passed away.
Mrs Boucher was kind enough to show me all their family archives,
Including those guitars plus the original 1931 Martin 00-40H he played for years before building his own.
My quest to know who, how, why and when had just started…

Dan


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Daniel Laroche said:


> … Hitchiking to La Patrie with money and an empty case.
> 
> it’s no musician’s Salvation Army here, I’m running a shop…
> 
> ...


Great story, thanks for posting this.

Following your frozen breath to a guitar shop in the Canadian winter to be told this ain't no salvation army for musicians and room temperature beer at 10 a.m. - yeah I been there ... lol

And again, great story and like so many things in life; hilarious with a little bit of sadness - that's the way it is.


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## Lord-Humongous (Jun 5, 2014)

Amazing story, thank-you again for sharing this history!!!!!


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## rollingdam (May 11, 2006)

Daniel,

If you are the one who had a web page on all the old Normans, that used to be on the Boucher guitars web site, I would appreciate if you could post a link.


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## zguitz (Aug 18, 2017)

Yes Rollingdam I am the one. There is no link to post, the "Old Norman" web site was shut down a few years ago, sorry
Dan


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