Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. #183 - Daddio Newman

Episode Date: June 21, 2021

Happy Father's Day. On today's episode Steve "Daddio" Newman hopped on to talk about long haul trucking, farming, the early days of the oil patch and good people. Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

This is Glenn Healing. Hi, this is Braden Holby. This is Daryl Sutterin. Hi, this is Brian Burke. This is Jordan Tutu. This is Keith Morrison. This is Kelly Rudy. Hi, this is Scott Hartnell.

Hey, everybody. My name is Steele-Fer. This is Tim McAuliffe of Sportsnet, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Monday. Hope everybody had a great weekend. Hopefully you spoiled your dad as it was Father's Day Sunday. This episode, of course, me sitting down with

with Dadio for the first time since episode two of the podcast. So it's been a long time to get them back on. I'm happy I did. Got to hear just some good stories from back in Dad's Day. We'll get to that obviously. But hopefully everybody spoiled their dads a little bit. I said this about Mother's Day. I'll say it again about Father's Day without them.

We wouldn't all be here. And I can't speak for everyone, but I can certainly speak for my siblings and that Dad is the best. and he wants the best for all of us, and he always talks about good people. You hear good people on hearing off a lot from him, and dad is one of the good people. So before we get to today's episode,

let's get today's episode sponsors. Carly Clause and the team at Windsor Plywood Builders of the podcast studio table. Dad did ooh and awe over it because it is the first time he's actually got to sit and get interviewed around it. And it is a sharp chunk of, a slab of wood let's just be very clear if you haven't seen it check it out on on uh on social media

because it is a sharp maybe oh heck i'll stick another new picture of it up um i haven't done that in a long time because it is sharp for everything wood these are the guys of course deck season we're in the mid we're we're in full swing of deck season and they're stuck up in their windsor uh micro pro sienna brown treated lumber so if you got any backyard projects on the go stop in and see the group at windsor plywood or do what i do hop on your phone check them out on Instagram or Facebook, do a little creep in. Creepin. And whether we're talking about mantles,

decks, windows, doors, or sheds, give Windsor reply what it calls, 780875-9663. And a shout-out to Carly. Happy Father's Day. Happy Blade's Father's Day to you, big shooter. Clay Smiley and the team over at Prophet River, they specialize in importing firearms from the United States of America.

They pride themselves in making this process as easy as possible for all their customers. The team at Profit River does all the appropriate paperwork that none of us want to do on both sides of the border in order to legally get the firearm into Canada and into your hands. They also take care of registering the firearm and transferring to your PAL FAC before shipping them by mail, courier, or bus to wherever you are. Just go to Prop.Riverr.com and check them out today. They're the major retailer of firearms, optics, and accessories serving all of Canada. And a huge shout out to Clay and Mr. Ed.

Happy Father's Day, boys. You've definitely earned it as well. Trophy Gallery downtown Lloydminster is Canada supplier for glass and crystal awards. Business owners, we know this is the perfect way to show your appreciation for your staff as COVID restrictions are starting to come off and we're starting to see more sports starting back up. We're starting to see more gatherings starting up. If you got awards coming up, give Clint a call, stop in and see what they got in store. He's fantastic. He can design everything so that it's custom to you and treat your employees. right simple as that I always bring up the SMP travel mug that Clint did up for me

and I hand them out on the ride to all the riders for bike for breakfast and they they look really sharp everybody loved them and so if you're looking to get anything take a look at trophy gallery.ca he's got all sizes, shapes and price ranges or just stop in a day downtown Lloydminster he is Canada's award store and a big shout out to Clint Happy Father's Day, happy belated Father's Day to Clint. Hopefully you enjoyed your day. Jane Gilbert and the team for over 45 years since 1976, the dedicated realtors of Coldwell Bankers,

Cityside Realty have served in the Lydminster in the surrounding area. They offer Star Power providing their clients with seven-day-a-week access. They know service is a priority because, well, big life decisions are not made during office hours. That's Coldwell Banker, Cityside Realty for everything real estate, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 780, 875, 3343. I know there's a whole bunch of men working at Coldwell, so shout out to all them as well. Happy Father's Day.

I mean, I know it just passed, but this is the Father's Day episode, and I just hope all the fathers got to play a little golf, got to go enjoy themselves, spend some time with their kids, hopefully the kids are treating them right. Finally, mortgage broker Jill Fisher, obviously her name says it all. She probably serves the area as Lloydminster, Bonneville, Cold Lake, and Vermilion, and she's looking forward to working with you for all your mortgage needs.

Don't let me try and fool you with my knowledge on mortgages. But if you are buying a house or maybe you've got to renew and you're not sure about what the rates are, where they're at, whether you can renew, whether you can renew early, give her a call. 780872-29-14 or stop in on her website, jfisher. CA. Have you seen the SMP billboard across from the UFA? Because it isn't there anymore. It is now across from the airport down by the airport road. I got to give a shout out to the team at Read and Wright with the amazing work of Mrs. Deanna-Wan. They're always making me look sharp.

Everywhere looking in my studio, you know, whether it be the logo or the wall quote, that's all coming from Reading and Right. So if you're looking for any outdoor signage, give the team a call 306 8255-3-1. Finally, Gartner Management is a lawyer. Mr. Base company specializing in all types of rental properties to help meet your needs. Whether you're looking for a small office or a 6,000 square foot commercial space, give Mr. Wade Gartner a call 7808-5025. And happy belated father's day to Mr. Wade as well. Now, if you're stopping into any of these businesses, let them know you heard about them from the podcast. All right.

Now let's get on to the T-Barr-1 tale of the tape. Business owner, farmer, husband, father, community pills. and just overall good people. I'm talking about Daddy O'Neumann. So buckle up, here we go. This is Daddy O'Numan. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast.

Today I am joined by Mr. Daddy O'Neumann, Steve Newman. Now, this is your second time on here. I actually went back and listened to your episode two. If you can go back that far, Dad, and remember me calling you out of the blue because I couldn't find a guest to come on for episode two. You came and bailed me out. We had a funny little conversation, if you recall,

we were both wearing headphones, and I couldn't figure out how to get the delay out of it. So me and you, I listen back to it, and I chuckle, because if you don't know, you wouldn't know. But I can hear me, like, stuttering all my words at times, and it's because there's a delay in the headphones, and it's like you're hearing yourself a second and a half later. And after, you were like,

you got to figure that out. I'm like, well, I agree. But I guess first, thanks for hopping on. Yep. This is a little different than the first go-around. You're a little different spot than a couple years ago. Yeah. It's very nice.

Very nice. I should mention the table so that they get their plug-in because it is very nice. What do you think of, what do you think of Carly Clause and Windsor Plywood's table? This was not there either. So my birthday's coming up Are you trying So this would This would kind of go good in the house, eh

So I'm just saying I should get mom on board To get you a A river table for the kitchen table Is that what you want? Is that what you want? No, I was just saying I kind of like this one, Sean

Oh, you would like this one But you're kind of Acustum to it now Well, it's But it's very good. It currently does good work. It was in the original studio for like literally a month. And then,

well, then I moved and here he are. So. It's good coffee too, by the way. Yeah, happy Father's Day, by the way.

Happy Father's Day, too. Yeah. I don't know. I've marked it in my calendar now for the Father's Mother's Day. I just keep bringing it back. I always bring up Jason Greger talking about his father.

you know you got to spend the days you have yeah you know you don't have your parents yeah you don't have your parents forever everybody loses their parents at some point so I think it's uh I don't know I maybe I'm get too sentimental about it but I think it's really cool to be able to have you on and pick your brain about some things all the old allsters that I played hockey with are slowly starting to fade away and it makes you think it does so well I bugged the brothers actually bugged the siblings I shouldn't say the brothers

bugged us all and the first thing they wanted to know about was the early days of of when you came back and we're farming with grandpa when grandpa would have been a younger man and you were

I don't know lead me through it because you're early 20s you have Jay you're married you have Jackie not far after that. You have Dustin not far after that. So you've got three young children.

I'll ask you this question. You've got three young children. How is that? Hmm. It's fun. I don't know. Like once you, I don't know, it's an adjustment, right?

You go from, you go from your, my 20s, because we didn't have kids until I turned 30, essentially. And you, you know, go from being able to do whatever you want yeah to somebody says hey we're gonna play over here you go you want to come for drinks over here you go you want to travel to timbuktu you go you never really have to worry about anything to now I'm sure I got friends who absolutely just hate you because we we're really in a structure kids go to bed

by 7 730 which means you just can't go you like you have to plan things so far to that your life is just taking 180 but in a good way right like it's It's not a bad thing. I don't know what I'd do differently sitting here with, you know, five years into it. Shea being five now. I probably wouldn't do anything different either. It was, you always, you always hear in hockey circles. They talk about he's really mature for his age, eh.

I could never understand that, but it matures you pretty fast. Having kids. You're kind of going, what am I doing by any of you? What was, when you, when you, like, did you jump right back into the farm out of college? Because you went to college for a couple years. And then when you come back, is it like directly into the farm? No. Grandpa was actually talking about renting it out because mom and dad were getting to the point where they were, you know, kind of thinking about retiring a certain amount.

You know, because there's a fair amount of work, right? and so I was I was doing a bit of driving I was working for Gary Moore who had the Shell bulk station which was between the tracks over by explosion gymnastics there across the street from there

and so I was just driving a body job just a body truck and I did that for at least the summer I can't remember how long I did it. And then Gary had a semi as well. It was an international cab over. And he was getting

tired of driving it. He wanted to train me. And so he took me on a few trips. And I was not a very good truck driver right off the bat. I could drive a, you know, like you're hauling grain at home or all that stuff, but as a semi-guy and all them gears and shifting without a clutch, I sucked. I can remember coming home from Eminton, him letting me drive were empty. We're holding asphalt at the time. And I don't know how many times we stopped on the highway because I couldn't find a gear. And I just, I couldn't get the hang of it. And then went like that for quite a while. He had two friends with them. One was Cliff James. They held cattle for years. Gary held cattle with them and Peter Anderson. And I'm sure them guys would have liked to have killed me because they were

with us and then I'd stopped to have to start all over again and then I couldn't find the gear and it's like, oh. And then they'd stop and say, what's going on? Like after a lot of practice, I guess, finally got a thing and then I had a thing I was so happy to get actually back home that I made it that I delivered my load and that I'd phone Gary and he'd say oh that's good but it got going that I'd be home at 2 in the morning and I'd phone Gary and say yep I made it I'm made it home and after about 15 calls he said stop calling just call if you just call if you You have a wreck or whatever, so. But that was the start of it.

Well, to the listener who maybe doesn't know, you're by far the best, well, I don't know. I'm biased, obviously, Dad, but you're a fantastic truck driver. You could sit there and say anything you want, but under pressure, under everything, since a kid riding with you all the way through it, you're a fantastic truck driver. Yeah. Gee, I think that's, you know, and the fact that you. You stunk it out so bad at the start. I think that's great for anyone to hear that.

Well, I started with Roebergh's too, and Art Roeberg, who was very good to me. He said, okay, hook up to the 53 foot. They had a cattle liner that wasn't a boston belly. And he said, but you're going to have to move the fifth wheel. I didn't even know what the fifth wheel was. So I thought, I looked like an idiot. So how am I going to do this? So they had a, I'm sure his name was Sparky.

He was a mechanic that was pretty much an alcoholic. And the building, the Roburge Corner, we always called it, right? That was the edge of town. And it had big heating ducts. And he would stand, he would get chills because he wasn't drinking or something, eh? And he would stand right inside the heating duck. And all you could see was his feet. And so I went looking for Sparky and I found his feet.

So I said Sparky and he'd come out. He says, I'm having problems. I said, like, the fifth wheel won't work, eh? Because I didn't, you know, you go around all the wheels, where the heck's the fifth wheel? Like, which one's the fifth one, Mike? And so I thought, I'm going to look like an idiot. So how can I put this without looking like an idiot? And so I said, I'm having trouble with the fifth wheel.

And he says, that stupid thing is, it never works. So he came out and he slid it for me. And I finally understood what a fifth wheel was. But I didn't, there was no courses at that time. And the old boys ahead of me, they just paid a fee, and they had their class one. Me, it just had to be a four-speed, so a dad had a four-speed debts in Hafton, which was small, small truck. And the guy, we were rubbing shoulders as he'd taken me. And as long as I could shift that, then you were, you're, you're, you.

got your class one. No air. No air ticket, no nothing. It was just, can you shift gears? Man, it's changed then. Yeah. Yeah, it's changed a lot. And probably the two years on the road that I did run in Toronto, Montreal, taught me how to drive truck, actually, because you're driving on snot the whole time. It was Lake effect they called it. So it was either heavy snow, freezing rain, black ice.

And so you were, you just felt it in the seat of your pants. But you couldn't stop because you got to be somewhere. So you drove on everything. Didn't you, I don't know, didn't you do like one of those trips, two of those trips,

the 15th one ago? Like, I am, I don't want to do this anymore. Oh, I had that right off the bat, but I didn't have any choice. Like we had three years of crop fairs, dried out. In the third year, it froze June the 30th, so we had no crops. And the third year, I told insurance to go stick it in their left ear because I'd paid, they'd pay me out the first year, and then your rates go up. And then they paid me out the second years, and their rates go up even more.

And so they were hitting me really hard. And so I thought, we don't need insurance. We needed insurance. And so it was just a matter of what can you do at the time? There was no jobs after getting out of college. There was no jobs for wildlife officer or anything like that. And so I panicked. And what are we going to do?

And it just so happened I was driving for Walter Plandowski at the time. And Walter said, what's happening? I told him. And so I had trip after trip after trip all over Western Canada hauling asphalt. And I said, I can't do it. Like, there's not enough there, right? Because we owe people money. So he knew a guy that was, that wanted off the highway.

And I bought his truck. and went on the highway. And he got off the highway. So I should have talked to him a little more. Well, I never went to the oil patch. I didn't know the oil patch. We didn't have much for oil wells around us at all. But guys that I went to school with,

they were in the oil patch and had done quite well. I, when you look back at the no insurance on the crop, and you got always sure of it. Is that something that you look back on and go, Man, I wish I could rewrite that. Or do you look at that as like it ended up pushing your life through a lot of hard years, but altering your path, so to speak. Yeah.

It's, I think you go through stuff to learn. And it's good for you. And stress can be overwhelming or can be used for good. And it just taught me some hard lessons, which maybe at the, Maybe at the time I wasn't willing to sit and listen. If you'd have told me, I would have said, yeah, whatever. Yeah. Because we'd had, the prices aren't like what they are now,

but fertilizer and all that stuff was less. But we always had good crops, eh? Like you could bet on a good crop. So you just put in the inputs, and you're going to get a crop, eh? And we had three years in no crop. And I kept putting the inputs in, which is selling stupid. because, you know, you put on the fertilizer, the fuel, the spray, the everything, thinking, well, you know, this year, that's the farmer's optimist, right?

Because the farmers always think, okay, well, this is a wreck. Next year's going to be better, eh? And so I went three years of just putting on more and more and more. I should have just, there was probably enough fertilizer crowd that hadn't been used, but being young and foolish. I kept going until you went, holy smokes. See, and I always say to people, one of the good things that comes out of you driving truck and whatever is,

I guess I go like nothing cannot be solved without a little hard work. I say that right? Nothing can be solved without a little bit of hard work. Anyways, what I'm getting at is I watched how hard you worked for a good chunk of my adolescence. and man, it impressed upon me. Even when me and Harley had come out when you came back and started working at Sandpiper. And we were stinging tanks.

Now, I was actually saying this the other day, Dad. Like, have you watched them sting tanks these days? Yeah, they got a hydraulic stinger, and whereas I put you to work. You thought you were having fun, and I thought, this is really good. Dad brings Harley and I back up. So today, to sting a tank, right?

How long is this stinger? Well, it goes through the, So 15, 16 feet, probably? 16 feet long. And I'm trying to explain this. I guess I'm trying to paint a picture because I know there is people, a huge majority of people listening,

are in the oil industry and know exactly what the heck we're talking about. But then there's a whole bunch of people like, you know, I think of like Joe Blanche sitting there in Wisconsin, brewing beer and he's going, you're doing what now? So you're taking this, I don't know. Can you explain it better than I can? Okay, this is a tank. This is an oil tank.

So it's 153 in diameter. And up comes with the oil, there's water and sand, right? And they're pulling it pretty hard. And the sand is heavy, so it sinks. And the water, it's heavier than oil. So it's in between the sand and the oil, and the oil floats on top. But if you get the sand so high that it hits the burner, it can cause lots of damage. So the other knees would monitor it and when it was three, four feet high, there was a valve at the bottom.

We put the stinger in there, applied pressure to it at about 2,000 pounds. And then it had three, well, it had probably seven nozzles sticking out. And it would slurry this in and then you'd push this thing back and forth and then bring it to the valve and the back truck would suck it up. and you'd haul it away. So rewind the clock, rewind the clock, and I'm like, what, 10, 12 years old?

Yeah, probably. You guys probably shouldn't have been out there. Nowadays, it would never let anybody go out there. I don't think they would have let us out there. But Dad goes to us, okay, if we see a white truck coming, everybody in the bunk. All right, sounds good.

So there is me and Harley. I don't know. I'm 11, Harley's 14 and dad. And we're manually stinging these tanks, and Dad's paying us five bucks a tank. Yeah. And I remember thinking, making five bucks a tank and it was hard work yeah it took everything in me to to push that sucker

in and out yeah but we had fun doing it like that's one of it that's a fond memory of mine and that wasn't going to a ballgame that was that was like working your bag off probably your first real job and it was with the lindsay lindsay and charick yeah and uh just good people like good people but well i come back to it right like if farming goes smoothly and you never do that maybe we learned the same lessons in farming, I don't know. But watching you get put to the absolute brink, in my opinion, as a young guy, or at least what I thought was, and seeing how hard you worked and that you never stopped. Because I always think, and I could be wrong on this debt, and maybe this got brought to you,

could you not just filed for bankruptcy, lost a whole bunch of stuff, and just started anew and not had to go through the jazz of everything? Yeah, you could have, but I guess that's, I don't know, that's not in me. I wouldn't you wouldn't give up without a fight so I was bound determined that you know we're gonna we're gonna make this somehow I don't know how but but we're gonna make it and there was a lot of good people too because I knew we had 350 acres of peas they froze June the 30th and dad had told me when there's a drought it'll freeze anytime mirror and I knew June 30th next day got up and everything was black I thought were toast

and we never even pulled a combine out that year and that's when I started driving crazy because that's when I was driving for Walter Plandowski and he says well and he talked to me and he says what's going on I told him so he was very good to me. so I just put your head down let's go to work you got two options you can call bankruptcy sit on the TV and watch or get to work so I got to work probably the first time in my life you had a goal and a drive I would work growing up I would work harder for you than I would for me. I don't know. I can't explain that, but, you know, I'd go help Walter and I'd work harder for him than I would for myself, but, uh, but kudos to your mom too, because there was

that put a huge amount of pressure on her with five kids, but he's a trooper. Well, you both are. you know I'm in today's land you know I'm good friends with Ken Rutherford right he's got six now I was laughing because I listened to the first episode I ever did with him and I was making fun of them for having five kids well he's got six now right and um that's just uh thank thank goodness for Ken because growing up everybody would you guys got five like what's the matter with you and uh they called me the western producer you're called that's the western produced you know like just give it to us all the time so I'm quite happy he's taking over the rain the title yeah so he's got six good for you kid well I guess I just come back to it like

in today's world specifically right now like big families are not as common not as common yeah and so I mean I don't know you ask how I'm doing with three I don't know I'm having a heck of a lot of fun there's some days where you want to pull your hair out because you just go like they will not stop yelling. We had your three, and we had Harley's two over yesterday, a day before, and they ran around the center of the house there screaming for an hour, right? Just run around screaming for no reason, just screaming, and I'm going, holy smokes. But they're all good.

I've been wondering this, because everybody knows I got a temper. I'm an emotional guy. at times I think I can be very balanced but you get me heated up everybody knows it all my good friends they love to poke until you get fired I'm curious Dad you got to be like one of the calmest human beings that I know

except for on the ice surface but I wonder in the early days were you a little more rambunctious or fiery or have you always been just calm cool and collected I don't know calm, cool and collected.

I had my moments. I just didn't like to show it, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, probably just didn't like to show any. But I'm, you know, hockey probably bought the worst out of me, especially when I got older. But I've, I'm not, you know, the saint that you think I am. I'm more like the movie six days, five nights.

Seven nights. Six days. Seven days. We're Harrison Ford. The lady's driving him nuts. So he goes into the bush and shakes a tree and you hear him work. That's me. And then come out and, you know, everything's all.

All's wonderful, right? But, yeah. No. You got to go back. Okay. Then I'll rewind this again. Yep. You start driving truck.

But when you come back to the farm, what was working with Grandpa? Because for a young guy like me, not the younger guy like me, what I remember of grandpa was, you know, his best days were probably gone, were past him, right? He wasn't farming that much anymore. Heck, the days I remember is him trying to make you eat everything off your plate and mowing the lawn and working on the lawn more all the time or getting me over because I had small hands and I could help him with the bailer and, and, and fixing little oddities like that. You would have got Grandpa a little more involved in life, I guess. What were the early days of working with him, Mike? He was, he ran to his clock, right?

He had his day where he knew what he was doing and he was going to get it done. He'd go for dinner. He'd drive me nuts. We'd go for dinner and he'd have 10 winks and I couldn't fall asleep. And he'd be snoring as soon as he laid on the couch 10 minutes later. He's up. Okay, let's go, and I'm just about out by then, eh? But he, um, those people were, uh, hard work. And they just put their nose to the grindstone and just give her, right? Something had to be done. You just did it. That's, you know, like, say, if you do it today, rather than leave it until

tomorrow, that was them. And, uh, I was probably hard on dad a certain amount, because I brought in the Charlie Bull. He was a herford man all his life. Well, all the Newman's were. And, you know, I threw a Charlie bull into the herford cows there. And so he was probably going, he put a little bit of fertilizer on where I, you know, and I didn't really know fertilizer-wise and stuff. I just thought more was better sort of thing.

And so I do that. Why did you bring the Charley Bull in? Because I'd seen that they were paying a five-cent premium for Charlie Cross Caves. They liked that buckskin calf. And so I thought, well, we got a whole herd of perfect cows. We throw a Charlie Bull in there. And I didn't do all the cows. I just did one pasture, and actually it worked, but I'm sure it must,

tested him to all his bounds because he lived all his life, you know, growing herford, but. Do you ever see us children do things where you go? I don't know. There's lots of stuff. Yeah, there's lots of stuff. I remember taking mom's dad out and you're full of piss vinegar. You figure everything you touch is going to be like this table.

It's just going to be amazing. and so we're driving around in the fields and yeah i got this canola crop here and we fertilized this and blah blah blah blah look at this we're driving through it you know it's window high and all this stuff and what i'm doing is bragging and uh uh grandpa bill and they were said nothing the whole time just driving around you know and the only thing he said at the end was there's no free lunch I didn't understand it at the time But probably Ten years later went

You know His words came back Is there You've given me a couple of them already That are just absolute Gold nuggets But are there other Nuggets of Wisdom

Then that you remember from Grandpa or Grandpa Stringer or the old boys because you can just seem to rattle them off, Dad. You have a good story and then, you know, there's no free lunch. I don't know if I've ever heard that. I've heard there's no free lunch before, but I've never heard that story before. Yeah.

Well, the other thing was the Charlize produced bigger calves, eh? And Grandpa would always say, you know, we'd end up having to have a cesarean or hard pull to get this calf out in. Grandpa would always say the small live ones will soon pass the big dead ones, And every time you lost one, it was like, well, he's right. But you didn't want to admit it to him. But, yeah.

It's why I enjoy, it's why I enjoy sitting, you know, and do all the archive interviews. Yeah. Like I get to, you know, I go back to when we first talk. You said, I got to get Des McMillan on. Well, Des McMillan now has been through the archives, right? Yep. And so getting to talk to everyone with all this, whether they think they have wisdom or not, They've just seen a lot more life than, right?

You're 30 years past where I am. All your kids have grown, and now you have grandkids and everything else. You've seen the different stages and you get to talk about them, right? And you just think of when I'm pulling you back into when grandpa was a young, younger man, you know, kind of showing you the way and saying some things. Like, it's just a way to kind of jump ahead, so to speak, and maybe pull some wisdom out of what you're saying and see what impacted your life. because well they'd gone through the 30s eh and so they were very uh they didn't like loans they paid

paid stuff for cash and if they couldn't buy it they just wait and just keep going they except for grandma's piano she bought uh she bought a player piano with the cream check that dad was saving for something and she just had enough had enough she wanted a piano so she bought this piano so I think they didn't talk for a week, maybe. But they're very strong. They didn't like loans. And having said that, when we got married, we didn't. You don't think about all this stuff, right?

So where are we going to live? We're, you know, oh, I don't know. Never thought of that, eh? And so they helped us out immensely. We bought a trailer and, you know, they helped with, digging the basement while you guys lived in that trailer. And so I guess that's what parents are there for is to help you think because you don't think very much when you're young.

You're just kind of going this direction. Well, we're going to go that direction and, you know, so on and so forth. Interesting. Goes back to maturity. Yeah. You mature as you go. You ever ask him about the 30s or World War II, anything like the war years? No. They didn't talk much about it.

They didn't talk at all about Tommy was their first son. Yeah. They didn't talk about him at all. And didn't want to talk about him, may. But, yeah, they never mentioned the war. Mum's brother was in the war. And he came back. It bothered him so much that.

He couldn't handle it, and then her other brother was in the war, and Candace's first aircraft carrier. Everybody doesn't know that Canada had an aircraft carrier, but they did. It never saw action, but Uncle Dave was on in it. But they never mentioned it at all. And I don't think Dad couldn't go on it because he was colorblind, eh? So he couldn't see colors.

I don't know if either went or not, but they needed food and everything. So they just stayed on the farm. Their whole life was hard work and providing me. Well, you think of, well, I don't know, you already said a few of it, the 30s and then the war not far off that. Yeah. Like you're just like, man, those are some long years. Yeah.

Well, Mom's sister worked in the bomb making factory in Vancouver, along with Annie Mae. So, you know, they were. they were in it and not in it kind of thing. I want to try and take you back to when you're 35. When you turn 35, because I'm 35 right now, it would have been 1991. Yep.

You would have had five children between 5 and 15. I believe you're still on the farm. Yep. Worldwide, it would have been Operation Desert Storm, so Kuwait would have been going on. That would have been big world news. In the sporting world, how about these throwbacks? Minnesota Twins won the World Series that year.

New York Giants won the Super Bowl. John Daly won the U.S. PGA Tour Championship. In the NHL, the Pittsburgh Penguins won their first cup with Mario Lemieux and Yager and Paul Coffey and Tom Brass, so I believe in that. And then Chicago Bulls, Jordan finally gets his first championship day. You know, I hate to say it, but we didn't watch a ton of sports. We had all you guys playing hockey, playing ball, Jackie figure skating.

We watched very little TV because we were just on the go constantly. And we were, well, we won nationals. Would it have been that year? I think we won nationals that year with Jason and Dave McLean. And I don't know how many provincials, westerns we won in hockey, and that was Gordredden, surrounded by good people. Like those two, if you talk about Comcule and Collected, I think of those two. Gord very rarely lost his school.

He was very just on it. yeah but he taught those kids a ton and I think he even taught some of the parents a few things and Dave McLean never said a word he had parents that were deaf and so there was you know there was never any yelling

because they couldn't hear it might be good for us these days you know if but Dave was same way as Gord they were both exceptional so kind of learn from them as well you know you bring up good people lots and uh i think all the kids can reiterate this that that's something that is stuck with me and you talk about an awful lot is

good people yep there's good people out there and they seem to find you or you find them or you know just good people who are some of the good people dad who've made an impact on your life well mom and dad for sure gordreden um dame mclean even Dave Kerr. There was guys on the road that would just give the shirt off your back. There was the year we lost, well, the year we had no crop at all,

there was, if you want a humbling experience, have to go and talk to people and say, boring, tough. So I went, I thought, well, I got to do it because you can't just let it rule and we're not going to declare bankruptcy. So I went and talked to all the people, you know, money to. And they were very good. There were some that were not so good. And put Kleshing guys on us right away.

And I still remember that. But there was some that were, Gary Olin, can do it, sit. When you can pay, pay me. Don't worry about it. Kevin Meeger was our fertilizer guy at Paradise Hill. Same thing. You have Grandma's trait when looking back,

and I feel that at your age, Daddy-O, I will have the same thing. I can already feel it in me. Is it tough to look back at those stories, or does it just bring up good emotions? Tough emotions. Do tough emotions, but it's a learning curve too, like a lesson well learned. And sometimes when you humble yourself, that's the biggest teacher. Because pride can get in your way.

But another one was Bob Nelson. Same thing. Because they had a payment plan, and so he'd give me all the peas to seed and stuff, hey? Another one was Ken K at Agland. He said, don't worry about it. What else was it? You know, sometimes I think, you know,

I asked me, mom this too. Some of the success I think of the podcast has come strictly from whom my family is because I see what you talk about and who you talk about and how you treat people and I stand you know on your shoulders so to speak on how well I'm respected in Lloyd because I I see dad how people treat you and in the stories you tell and how grandpa and everyone else came before you and they were all just good people right? Yeah, good people. They approached tough problems the way you did.

And instead of being shady about it, you went and was there a few bad ones? Yeah. But most part, there's just good people out there. Well, I didn't have enough money to buy a truck, and he wanted $50,000 for the truck. So I went to the credit union, and I'd played hockey with, I believe his name was Bruce Sinclair, and he was kind of a loans manager or a loan guy. and I said, Bruce, I'm in trouble. And he said, what's trouble?

I told him. And I said, I haven't got any money to put down on the truck. He said, no problem. Try and do that today. So he bought the truck, or the bank bought the truck, and away I went. And somewhere between, on the first trip, I had a guy by the name of Bruce.

Can't remember his last name was out of Balford. I thought, I don't even know where I'm going. Never been to Toronto, never been to Montreal. I better have somebody that has been there so can kind of smooth out the rough road. So we had this Western Star. He had to crawl through a hole in the wall to get to the bunk, and the bunk was just shoulder width kind of thing. And it was an older truck.

And we got somewhere between Brandon and Regina and the transmission went out on. on the first trip. And another moment of going in the bush and shake the trees. And so I had to phone Bruce again and say, we just took out the overdrive and the transmission. And I said, I have no money for the transmission.

He said, we'll pay for it. So spent, I actually drove it in direct all the way to Brandon. And a place there could work on it, but they had to wait for, if you can imagine, the part to come out of Toronto. So we waited three days. They put it in,

and then the way we went again. And you're going, you know, I can't say it on here, but, you know, my life. And so, and then just drove. I got paid after every trip. So you'd never be able to do it now. because they're so sticky on logbooks and stuff like that. And I had it figured out that, what was it, two and a half years,

I'd have everybody paid off. And so, and you still had to, you know, supply for mom and supply for the family and all this stuff. So there was a lot of, most of the time I sent all the money back to the, to the family so that they could survive because you guys were still on hockey and all this other stuff did you have conversations of like maybe they just don't play sports right because I know sports back then would have been a little bit cheaper than they are today

but at the same time frame we weren't playing you know school sports nothing against them it wasn't like we were playing badminton and volleyball even and I don't know basketball means just like you know like hockey In anywhere you go, hockey is an expensive sport. And not only did we play hockey, but we played hockey at the top levels, traveling all over the provinces, played ball at, you know, J's winning nationals and everything else.

Like I always look back at it and I go, as kids, we knew things were up, obviously. But at the same time, we never lost all of the competitiveness that we all wanted to be in, right? Whether it was figure skating and jack in North Battleford or whether it was, you know, Harley and Dust and I or Jay playing the top-level sports and going wherever we had to go. Well, I'll ask you.

Do you believe it helped you in your life? Well, if it isn't for the game of hockey and mom's stubbornness, I don't go to, this is why I bring up, you know, if you've gotten insurance and you kept farming, because it's a very, this weird moment where instead of keep going straight, you take a hard right. And without hockey, I don't know where I end up. I just know that I stick in Lloyd a lot longer. Forget her bad.

And what playing hockey takes me to is Larry Wintoniac. You know how highly I speak of Larry. And I needed him at that time of my life. I needed somebody to be like, you're not drinking, you're not going out until 4 in the morning every night. You're playing hockey and that's what you're going to do. And so I don't know, as parents, that must have been a crazy experience to watch me go do that

because what it ends up happening is I quit. hockey and I'm done to I play like I don't know how 18 to 34 essentially like another 16 years of my life spent playing hockey yeah it takes me to across Canada to the states to Europe I mean you guys get to watch all that and that all comes from you know if you really want to be where it all comes from it comes from mom dragging me them MVP camps and me fighting her the entire way and then getting there and enjoying it and you know whether she could see that or I couldn't see it or what it was, but... It was probably the hardest on mom, because farm girl, we both grew up on the farm.

She loved the farm. And for me to... I just knew, you know, June 30th, I knew it's coming to Iraq here, and I got to start doing something. And she did not want to quit farming, and I don't blame her. But she was bound to turn. that your lifestyle you guys were still going to have it good so my part of the we had a meeting with you guys and you were probably I don't know how old you'd be five you probably don't even remember the meaning don't remember the meeting just around the kitchen table

and said this is what I got to do so buckle up here we go so it was harder on her sure but she's one tough lady yeah well uh having mum come on here and get uh for mother's day and get to you know what did you think of that how here um you know i i assume you knew all that but at the same time to have um your wife of decades come on how many years you guys been married now dad uh 45 so closing in on 50 To have her come in here and me pick away at her, was there anything that you're like, I assume you thought it was really good,

but to hear her side of it, especially when you go long-haul trucking and she's left with kids and she's got to figure it out. It's always good to hear from your spouse. I'm sure she didn't think it was fair, but I just didn't know what else to do. and I knew a job just from the driving I did, I knew it wasn't going to pay enough to get us out of the mass area,

and so I had to figure out a way of go hard, go hard or go home, and so that's what we did. Whether right or wrong, it's hard to say, but it was a learning experience, like never been to Toronto. and the driving down there is way, you know, Western boys are courteous, cautious down there, nobody, nobody cares. They just signal once in there in front of you, like, you know, deal with it sort of thing. And so it was a big eye-opener. What do you think of all this talk of separation or of the West getting out of Canada or, you know, there's a lot of divide right now, not only in our country, in the world.

Yeah. What is your thoughts on, you know, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the West? Well, the West is definitely different than the East. And most decisions are made in the East. But when I was a teenager, I mean, we'd just come out of the hippie, peace, power, love decade, and everybody thought the hippies, everybody thought the youth were crazy. Like, they're losing it. day. They were living on flower power and all this stuff. And I, you know, I'm sure, you know,

it's not an easy world right now, but as long as you've got morals in that, I don't see, from the traveling of the world we've done, 85% of the people are the same. They, they enjoy seeing people. They aren't, they aren't vicious, you know. But, yeah, I don't know where it goes from here, but I guess I believe in people. Well, you've got to experience some of the best in humanity. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I ended up, I was going too hard. So I forget how many trips I had figured out made that I would have to make. And. But essentially going two and a half years. as hard as you could go. Yeah. That's what you were thinking. Yep.

Yep. And that's what I did. I was probably home two days a month, which wasn't, you know, it's not great for mom or the kids, but I got paid after every trip. The funny part, we were making decent money.

And we're, you're always putting money on the bills and making sure that mom and the kids are looked after. But one day, I wasn't paying. paying income tax on the, so I'd gone probably a year and a half and not paying income tax on the money that we'd derived from the truck and going as hard as I could. And one day the owner, El Moffat, phoned up and he said, I'm going to have to fire you.

And I said, you can't fire me. Like, I'm relying on you, right? Because he knew my story. And actually, he'd gone broke in BC as a dairy farm. farmer and then he'd moved out to sketch when he was from Bethune and he'd started this trucking company and he says no no he says I'm firing you and I'm hiring your wife because um the CRA or after you because they got a hold of him and they wanted to confiscate all the all my paychecks so he was hiring mom and I was driving for mom but so we

kept going like that but it was a shock when he foamed me because I thought home but he knew because he'd gone through it himself so he ended up actually doing very well but he was a great man as well al moffin there's another one but the guys on the road were great uh once you got to know him I was out there for I bet you at three weeks never saw another truck with the company name on it I was thinking I'm the only one out out here like you know and then eventually you'd see one at a fuel station and he'd talk to them and so on and so forth you know when when COVID started and they started talking so highly about truckers yeah I just remember thinking like I bet you dad could be could have told you a long

time ago like the world runs on trucks and if people don't realize that they're starting to it now because in the middle of all the crap falling out the truckers were still moving product from here to there to everywhere but you saw that firsthand and what I always asked you and I was excited to bring you on and talk about you know as you get older you start to become like huh I didn't recognize that or I didn't like I was oblivious to the facts right yeah well as you get older you start to realize lots of truckers especially who drive long haul do drugs yeah how many times if I ask you this question, but how did you stay away from doing drugs when you're driving that much to keep your, not even, not even like, I'm not talking alcohol, I'm not talking drugs to

keep you awake. Because I mean, if anyone's driven 18 hours in a day, it's tough. 18 hours and two days, okay, 18 hours for two and a half years. I don't know, you had to have been, you know. Well, we'll go back to stress. My mind, well, first of all, I was. blessed that I could I could drive all night. The only time I couldn't drive was when the sun came up. We called it death rate. As soon as the sun came up, it was just like, I had to quit, but I could drive all day all night for whatever reason, but I had stressed too. Mom was getting phone calls from collection agencies. One of the guys I talked to who put a collection agency on to us next day.

So it was constant every day. And one day she was crying, talking to me. I had a bag phone, so I said, send all the calls to me. So I had these guys phoning me. We were on a first name basis,

but they would drill you. Just drill you. And so I remember banging the phone on the truck, eh? On the dash of the truck. because the guy would say we need money now every day every day like this I need money now

every day and I said I'm doing the best I can you'll get your money but it's not going to be tomorrow right and they would just call you you know just call you out and just and so I the one time I remember I was pulling in to read on it and I was just banging the phone on the dash can you hear me now

like just losing it you say I'm so calm and cool I wasn't calling cool but the stress kept me awake and there was lots of drugs out there lots of drugs and there still is I remember getting interviewed in Windsor, Ontario and I'd gone down there with a load of lumber

stopped at a husky truck stop had a bite tea I'd come out and there's a film crew and they're trying to get somebody to talk and they had this little lady there in a short skirt with a microphone and she's trying to interview truckers and they're just pushing her aside.

So she came to me as I was walking back to the truck and said, if you mind to interview us? We want to know if there's drugs on the highway. I said, yeah, sure, if you want. I already knew that some of the guys that I worked with were doing marijuana and stuff like that.

operas, downers. They took operas to drive four days in a row without sleep, and then they took downers to sleep. You know, like it was just a menagerie, eh? And so I never did take drugs, but the stress level was so high. I mean, my mind kept me awake. And so she said, do you know if there's drugs on the highway?

Oh, yeah, there's drugs on the highway. She said, why would truckers take drugs? and I said, you ever been on the 401 in rush hour traffic? 401 is 10 lanes of traffic going each way and it's a parking lot. That's probably the only city that I know of, the men in business suits would sit on the guardrail and read newspaper because they weren't going anywhere. And she wouldn't talk to me after that, eh? She had, okay, fold it up.

and like you know but part of it is loneliness as well part of it was to deal with the long hours the loneliness away from the family just

scheduling you know and all this stuff but you talk about the trucks around the world they do like everybody went into Toronto probably two or three in the morning. And there'd be 300 trucks trying to get in there before the rush hour traffic started.

And it was everything from fuel to your lettuce. I want fresh lettuce on my plate and you know at dinner time. To the lumber we hauled, to the steel we hold, to the flowers you gave your wife. Like everything came by truck, eh? And truckers always laugh because they say, if we want to shut down cities of the world,

all we got to do is just, you know, that's it. because you wouldn't have your gas, you wouldn't have your food, you wouldn't have... Just park it. Just park it. And so, yeah, it was just, that's what it was. How did you meet Tim? Because Tim's one of the guys on the highway who, even as me and Harley were driving out to, you know, I don't know if you guys planned this.

But I told this story to Quick Dick, I think, early on in us doing podcasts. But I said, like, you know, one of the stories that I'll tell my kids about you to tell the day I die is, I don't know if we hadn't seen you and how long, dad, but you said you guys want to go to a ball game. And I can just imagine mom. I don't know if mom would have been like over the moon to have a weekend away from me and Harley. Like, it just take the kids and go or what? So you loaded me and Harley up. Once again, we couldn't have been that old, 11 and 14, probably, I would assume. Grandma Newman gave us a bag full, probably 200 ginger snaps that were hard as rocks.

And we put them on the heater, and that's what we ate. The only meals we ate the way there were breakfast because it was cheap and it was big. You drive all through the night, parking a parking lot. We go to the Blue Jays home opener. You fall asleep out in left field. Even when there was a home run hit in front of us and the crowd's going nuts, that doesn't fudge. So you can imagine how Hardy pushed it to get us all there. And I don't know.

To me, on that way, you're talking about Tim. And what was your name for Tim? We always bugged each of you. I called him Timothy's squat to pee. So you would say, I can't remember, is that what you said across the CB? Yeah, probably. So you're driving and you're going,

you know, you just, as we're driving, on the way back or the way there or wherever it is. Timothy, Squatopi, are you out there? And all sudden, out of nowhere, well, Steve, or whatever it is, comes on. And I thought you were a magician on how you could do that because I'm like, that can't be real, right? He called me Farmer.

There you go. Yeah. But, but, uh, yeah, Tim, always bugged him. You don't look like much, but you're good people. We ran together. He wasn't even with the same company. So, but we always tarped together. If we had troubles, we looked out for each other.

And just give her, right. Well, when did you meet him, Dad? Like, when did you come across Tim? Probably not too. Well, like I say, I never did run into any of the company that. And I don't know. Just ran into Tim one day and sat down and had. probably a coffee or something, and then just got to be a friendship.

He was going hard too, and so we just went hard and helped each other. And by tarping is probably a two-hour job, and with two guys that just sped it up and stuff. If we had a breakdown, we'd help each other. and it was just mutual friendship. He had the time he had long hair, so he didn't look like much, but he was good people. And there's lots of guys out there like that. There's lots of guys that were doing the same thing I was. And so I got no qualms about trucking industry because it helped us a lot.

You know, and at that time I was running two logbooks, which is legal. But I had an Eastbook. When I was running West, I'd go out to Vancouver or whatever. The East book was on holidays. And when I was running east, the West Book was on holidays. Because you'd never get anywhere in rent. So I was just going as hard as I couldn't. And just trying to pay everybody back that I owed money.

I always laugh. I remember going out West with you and pulling into a gas station just before the scales. And he said, what we're going to do is we're going to sit here. and we're going to wait for four or five logging trucks to roll by. And when we get into the scales, they're going to be so full and busy with logging trucks to wave us through. And so we sat there for about 15 minutes, four or five logging trucks went rolling by, you pulled out, and what happened when you waved on through?

You're hard on yourself with how, you know, you started out as a trucker that wasn't that good and everything else. But I always admired and still do your ability to like, just be. pick up the little things, right? And the little things are big things. Just read the situation. Yeah. But the Ontario scales always pulled in Quebec trucks, for whatever reason.

I don't know. I don't know why they pulled in Quebec. Because they're Quebec then. Yeah. And when we're in Quebec, they always pulled in Ontario trucks. It was just vice versa. And so I always, you notice that stuff. And when they pulled in trucks like that, they'd shut the scales down and they'd just go

through everything. guys and so once the lights are off you just because we're lots of times we're heavy because they'd throw stuff on you and uh you know you're driving across canada and they they knew that you were going to be heavy but you deal with it so we actually dealt with it but you mentioned that uh you pushed yourself too hard uh and driving do you remember what that ended up like? You're going too much. I give you an idea.

I would be, I get to go home, so I would go push myself to get home. And you started thinking about being in an actual bed, having a pillow, being with your wife, seeing the kids, And there's more than once I made it to the 10 mile, and I would go like a mile down the road, and I had to stop and sleep because I couldn't make it. I don't know how many times I ran down the road, slapped myself stupid, you know,

ran back and then fell sleep on the steering wheel. Because you just, you started thinking too much about what is it going to be like to be home. My pillow is calling me. and but it wasn't much fun for mom because when I was home I was so tired and she she spent her whole time talking to kids which can you know drive around the bench she wanted an adult to actually talk too and I was so tired I couldn't even talk like I was my mind was I was just numb and and I'd sleep you know he'd probably sleep like 12 hours because he were just so sleep deprived.

But I remember hauling to Thunder Bay, and I don't remember unloading because I got there. I knew I got there, and I'll sleep on the steering wheel. And when I woke up, I was parked over the side, unloaded. And so the guys had unloaded me must have pushed me into the bunk, which I don't remember, and pulled my truck off to the side and let me be. But our scheduling, well, your scheduling was tough because you didn't want to be in Toronto on the weekend. If you didn't get out of there by the weekend, you had to sit the weekend.

So I never sat a weekend. Same with Emmington. Same with Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal. I just made sure. So you drove as hard as you could, got unloaded, got loaded, and got out of there. So sometimes you had to go. Otherwise, you were sitting for three days. So I never sat.

I just don't. Yeah. I try, like I try and, like, when I have a bad day at work, whatever that is. Yeah. I sell chemical, right? Like, or not even a bad day, dad. Lots of people ask. And maybe what I need to do is I need to convince my wife to come on our adversaries and come on and talk.

I don't know if Mel Will or not, but at the same time, she's as, she's smarter than I am. And she deals with my shenanigans all the time. But people always ask, like, how can you find? find ways to do all the things you're doing, right? Like, how do you, well, one is you got a good woman at home, right? Like, if you don't have a healthy base, it just falls apart, and that can be something else. But then I just, I always lean back on like, well, I don't know, I remember watching dad work 18 to 20 hour days in the oil field, doing some of the hardest labor job a man could ask for, never complain and just go back to it day after day after day. And what am I

doing. I'm sitting here talking in a studio and selling chemical and like none of it. It's sure mentally challenging at times, but like overall, the hardest part about it is being away from your wife and kids. And I had a guy who showed me the way and how to deal with a lot of different things and never be, I don't know, short or stern or whatever else with the kids because you were always great with, I don't know, I just, I never saw your blood rise unless I was going by you on the ice surface. That's the only time. But I mean, Like, I watched... Have I given you the stick before?

We almost had it out at Christmas time. This was back when I was 30 pounds lighter and dancing out there because I was playing college hockey, probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I guess I was always aggressive when I played. If somebody went around me, it drove me nuts. so I would do everything in my power to you weren't going around me kind of thing but it goes back to your mother and your wife and everybody else's wife

they put up a lot of stuff but she also pumped my tires so I crashed in northern Ontario that was I don't know what it was trip 70 or a little more than that and when I came back I'd played hockey with Dwayne Bexon and he said, why don't you, why don't you get off the highway? And I said, this is my words. I said, I would if I could find something. And so he said, go see Lauren Olson at Sam Piper. So he'd talked to him, so I went and seen him.

And I didn't think I was going to get a job there because I was sitting down. I was still sore because I spent a few days in hospital in Sudbury. but I was feeling sore and I was sitting down and they had a balcony and Lauren and Kim, Kim's his wife, was up there arguing and she was saying, I told you no more trucks, hey?

And I thought, this is, I'll never work here because, you know, she's really giving it to them, eh? And so finally she stormed out and I don't know if they knew I'd, could hear them probably I don't know but they were having a pretty good set too so I went up upstairs and first thing Lord says so Dwayne says you're good truck driving I said well I just finished crashing but whatever and he says would you like to put a truck on and I went didn't

well I didn't say it to him because he said you know his wife just wrote him or read him the riot act but and so He was building on a semi-vac, and he needed somebody to pull it, so I put a truck on it. And then how did I for the truck? Well, Jason and I were in the truck, and it burned in Quebec, going to Roan Miranda. And it just, we had a break that seized on us, and it caught fire. And Jason was in the bucket. time so I got him out of the bunk. I said we're and we tried pouring water on it. That just

made it worse because the tires when they're burning water means nothing to them. So we started blowing tires and air pots and it just sounded like Fourth of July out there, middle of the night. And so you talk about Tim, Tim said, where are you at? I said, I don't know. On our way to rowing around. I'll pick you up. And we had mining balls on, so I had a super bee load of mining balls. It looked like potatoes, eh, brown potatoes? And it burned the floor of the trailer, and all these mining balls had fell on the, and I was on my way to rowing Miranda, which was a single lane highway in Quebec,

and super bees weren't allowed on a single lane highway in Quebec. But dispatch said, well, I'm a farmer too. Just go in the dark. Nobody will be around there. So we closed the highway with a super B load of. So they ended up with fire department, police, a crane, you know, just everything. And Tim picked me up. We threw what little out of the truck we had and laughed, eh?

And then they said, oh, probably a week later. Meanwhile, I'd had this. No. No, that was, I hadn't had my accident then because one of the guys that you'd finally got to know all the people that were in the company because we've been to a Christmas party, A, Regina. And so the one guy, his name was Rinkles, said, can you drive my truck, so I drove his truck and then that's when I crashed, hey? felt like it was having a heart attack but they couldn't find anything wrong with me

in Subbury they flew me off off the highway Wait oh we gotta stop there for a second you didn't have a heart attack that No it felt like it the only thing they could come up

was an angina attack which is just going too hard for too long for in eaten eating bad.

I've probably, you know, I got truck driver guts now because I had one meal a day and the rest of the time you're eating chocolate bars and drinking coke. So, and putting in long hours and just going and going and pushing yourself.

And so it felt like a heart attack. This arm went numb. Cold sweat. It felt nauseous. And I reached for the buttons, I thought. If I can reach the buttons and pull them, I'll stop the truck and I'll land wherever I did. And I didn't get the buttons.

And there was a corner down at the bottom of the hill and I just off into the two of these. But then they land helicopter on highway and flew me to subway and I spent, I know what I spent 10 days or something, seven days. And then the guys, we didn't have any money. because we've been sending all the money home and paying bills and all this stuff. So all the truck drivers bought me a flight home. The truck drivers bought you a flight home. Yep.

It's just, by that time you probably knew 25 guys on the highway. And they, yep. But you're always helping somebody. The one time I stopped. And there was a, well, it's probably changing. now but coming from the farm is somebody who stopped on the road he's you all right you need help there was no phones really at that time so I stopped in Northern Ontario this guy had his four ways off so I stopped turned out to be a

Quebec biker truck driver he was like six four with hair down to your leather jacket and he he so stopped and help he didn't know a lot of English I knew next French what you learn in school and if I ran across

him somewhere he would like walk into a restaurant he would just stand he was such a big guy

he'd stand up and yell Steve get over here you know well I didn't say that because he didn't know enough English, but he just knew my name. He just had guys like that.

It's pretty good. You can't just tell how much it means to you, Dad, right? Going through the toughest times in your life, one would argue, right? And a simple act of kindness of stopping on the side of the road and just helping a guy out creates a bond that it did, right? It's a, well, I don't know. It might be another thing that you've imparted on me because I think, well, I say it on here all the time.

You listen to this all the time. I say positivity spreads just fast, negativity does, right? Yeah. Could have drove by, never stopped and never had these memories, right? Instead, you stopped and, you know. He was such a big guy. At least I knew I had backup. He was a huge guy.

But it was kind of funny. But there was, you know, there's lots of good people out there. And we've got to remember that. Yeah. You know, it's nowadays such a strange time, right? Like, I don't know what, you know, you turned 65 here in August. And over your 65 years, I assume this is the last, what are we at, 16, 17 months, whatever it is, has been probably the strangest time to be alive in your history.

certainly in mind. And social media, and not that you're hopping on Twitter and Instagram, but at the same time, everything is very divisive. Maybe it always has been, and maybe it's just louder now because of all that. But you still got to remember that, like,

your, you know, your lifetime is made up of good people who helped you out in the good and the bad and coaching and work and everything, right? Like, everywhere you went, different people, as you keep bringing up have impacted your life quite significantly. Well, you still get calls from guys, and that was mid-90s.

So, I mean, you know, you would think that they'd just kind of forget about you, I guess, or whatever, right? But still get guys stopping into the shop and stuff just to say hi. So, interesting. Well, and it's Tim when, you know, and it's, you know, It extends further than just you because, as we know, Tim and Yorkton, right? Yep. He was the guy that on my way to Dryden or to Wisconsin, for that matter,

would give me his number and say, if you need a place to stop, you just stop. Oh, yeah, they go out of their way. Any one of them go out of your way. You're on a team. I have the same colors. But pretty special. I wanted before, you know, we've been going now for an hour and 20 minutes, not that we need to stop by any stretch imagination.

But, you know, in your coaching career, you got, you brought up the Gord Reddenin and the Dave McLean. But maybe whether it's a good story from the Spurs days or Midwest or Midwest Spurs, whether hockey I meant or baseball, fastball, or even some of the things that you picked off of Gord and Dave on how they coached and dealt with kids and parents, for that matter. Gord was terrific with parents and kids. He taught those. I remember being in, well, the kids were in Bandom,

and we went to a Blades game because we were in a tournament down there. And I couldn't get over. The blades were doing the same drill as what the kids were doing in Bant of them, eh? And he was teaching them, understanding the game. And, you know, you've got to have a lot of patience for that. I remember Gretzky and them, remember Muckler and Slats, on the boys on the bus there, and Slats saying, we got to slow down.

They don't understand this. And Gord was just terrific at that. Dave McLean, calm, cool, collected. The story of Dave were in nationals in Victoria. And we had picked up four guys off the SAS First team, or the Canadian team that were from Saskatchewan. One was Ryan Ray. very, very high, what we?

IQ? No, just compete level? Yeah, and just very vocal, very, very energetic? Energetic. Couldn't sit still, eh? And the story of Ryan, too, we're in a tight match with New Brunswick. And he comes in there, of course, he's been on the Canadian team. He comes in there and he tells him you've got to sing.

And most of us are framboy's, eh? We got a what? He says, we've got to sing. We've got to loosen ourselves up. We're too tight. And so we did the brave chant, and it unnerved New Brunswick. But you got a bunch of people from the farm. And I always remember that.

But anyway, Dave, he was back at your, eh? And Dave noticed that he was just every pitch he would turn around and talk to the umpe. And the ump would talk to him. And Dave figured there's something going on here. And so when the inning was over, he comes, Ryan Brand comes, you know, racing over to the thing. Dave stops him and says, what's happening with you in the hump? He says, he won't give me the plate. He says, they're perfectly good pitchers, but he won't give me the plate.

And so Dave says, do you want me talk to him? Yep. So he goes off there and he talks to the hump. And he says, is my backcatcher giving you a problem? He says, oh, no. You know, he's just, he says, I'll talk to him. So he comes back and Ryan Brands standing at the door, dug out there. And he says, what do you say?

What do he say? And he said, he told me, if you don't turn around, I'll give you some of the plate. That's what he told him. He just worked the two conversations in Spanish. moved everything out yeah and Ryan uh was just calm after that you just calmed right down right and that was Dave did you um you know I've heard from you know like talking a morrid and Mervman specifically uh and I never did ask Gord you know me I don't think I did but you know as time goes on I hear more and more as I'm you know my hockey career is you know it's funny with last time

I was on dad we were talking about whether uh you know how you know when when you're done playing senior and that's funny because you know whether COVID happened or not I was done playing senior that was going to be my last uh my last year and me and you talked a bit about that but now the thing I hear more and more about is that uh you're going to get into coaching and you're going to like coaching um did you enjoy coaching more than playing because I mean you got to not only did you get to coach with some of the best but you got to win too which I mean we all know winning trumps just about everything in life like winning is so much fun um Did you enjoy, like, was coaching something that you just got out of bed and went and couldn't stop thinking about?

Because I hear about this all the time now. Or was it just, I was okay. I go back to good people. I don't know if I'd have been a great coach. You know, if I'd have been head coach or whatever. I'm going to say no. But, I mean, having Gord and having Dave, you probably learn from the best. and then they were just very good at what they're and got their plane across and I just kind of rode their coat tails

and so it's just it's good people and we had a terrific base well and you had good players too I mean when you got Travis and Bart and Wade and Jay and there was a Hartman like you had a very good, it was, it was just very good. And those guys played ball too. So like you were one of a tight knit. Yeah, tight knit group. Yeah. And when you get into sports,

understanding what everybody does under stress is a big component. Oh, yeah. You're going to get into some things. You're going to find what people are made out of. And knowing that before you walk into said stress, gives you an easy, you know, breath of fresh air, right? We'd be in, well, you can see it in the NHL right now, going through playoffs, I'd say,

but we'd be in a tight stretch, five minutes left in the game, and I'd watch Gord, and he'd look down the bench like this, and when Gord would look down the bench, you'd have some guys lean back, and you'd have some guys lean forward. And the guys that lean forward, I'm here for you. The guys that lean back, I don't want the stress. And, you know, just he'd,

read and react to stuff. And stress affects people differently. Some people can handle it. Some people put it to their good. And people don't want anything to do it. They just shut down. If there's anything I will miss about playing, and I know coaching will give you a different side of that

because you'll get to, but if there's anything I'll miss about playing, it is that stress. That is playoffs. That is some of the funnest time. It weighs on a guy because, you know, like every game means something. But at the same time, when else do you ever get that?

Yep. And talking about the playoffs right now, you know, before we started, we got to talk about Montreal. And I was saying the New York Islanders. You look at the four teams left. Who do you think is making the Stanley Cup finals? Well, you look at Montreal and you go, holy smokes, they've got a tough road to climb, but they've got a bunch of veterans there that don't quit.

And it's don't quit that is a big thing. They've got tons of stress. They don't even have a coach right now. And it's those guys that can put the stress to good work. And you've got Vegas that have got probably by far the most talented team between the two clubs there. But they've run into some bad luck. And some of this is locked too.

You get the balance. don't get the balance, but Montreal's living on the balances and dealing with the stress. The Islanders are just a hard-working team. And you look at Tampa, another team that's got all kinds, and they've been there, and they've got all kinds of talent, and they should blow away, but sometimes hard work and just go to your favor. and after you get hit 15 times in a row in the corner, maybe I'm just going to get rid of this buck, eh?

Well, watching the Islanders game last night, I couldn't believe the tenacity, which the Islanders go after the puck. And the D-Man, they didn't score on the shift, but two of the, maybe they did score on the shift. Two of the Tampa Bay D-Man got stuck out there for over two and a half minutes. They weren't even thinking anymore.

No. They weren't even rimming the puck cart. They weren't even trying to get an ice in. And if you're the Islanders, you could just taste it. Yeah. Like, and they just kept coming and coming. But what I love about the Islanders dad is you got Barry Trots who wins a cup with the Washington Capitals. For whatever reason, they don't sign him back.

Whoops. And then you got Lou Lamarillo, who was with Toronto, and he kind of gets pushed out. And then, on top of all that, you had John Tiberas, I don't want to come back. So you've lost, you got all these different, like they feel kind of like Vegas did the year where you got a bunch of guys who got pushed out of their teams they all come together they gel and away they go and the new our calendars right now you know arguably one of the best coaches of all time doing what he does best you had lou lamerello who might be one of the best gms of all time i don't know how many people can really argue that because of his success in new jersey and even assembling

Toronto to where they became very good before he got taken out and then you got all these guys like i mean jordan everleigh looks like a looks like a player right now how many years do we watch him in Eminton and go, yeah. And Matthew Barzell, I mean, he's by far their only superstar. Yeah. And every time you think he's going to, you know, Boston started to push them around, and then he found a new gear and away they went again. And that's what they just seem to do over and over and over again. Well, it's really hard to play hockey when somebody's in your left ear all the time. And even if you do a tight turn or, you know, you make this fancy move, and they're still there

and they don't give up and it stops and it starts and it's no swinging and it's not stick checking and I'm going to take you and every time you do that it is just hard hockey and it takes a life out of you

and it took the life because that's what they were doing they were just I don't care if you want to stop behind the net I'm coming for you I don't care and so you think

do you think the Islanders in Montreal could be the final this year? If they get a couple of breaks, anything's possible. And sometimes that's hockey. You get a break? Well, I mean, who would have thought that Flurry would have played it off his foot to an open net? That's a break. And it's bounces.

I mean, they talk about, you know, taking the eyesight away of a goal tender. Look at how many bodies are in front of there. You can't even get the puck through. but when the puck goes through, that's a bounce, right? Who you got winning the cup then? You're going to have to... I'm like you. I like the Islanders just because they're tenacity, and they just, they got no give up, eh?

Their crowd is crazy. Did you hear them chanting? What's the guy's name? Josh, did you hear them chanting there? No, I guess not. They've got a thing where they chant, Josh, what's his name? Are you going to score me a goal? And he scored the first goal.

But the whole crowd's, look it up. It's crazy. Josh Bailey. Josh Bailey. And so they go, Josh Bailey. And they're singing it to the song. I forget what the song is, but they're saying, Josh Bailey, are you going to score me a goal tonight?

And in the second period, you got the first goal. And the crowd went. Can you imagine being a player, having your name sung enchanted like that? That must have just sent chills up here. Here's what it says. Okay, I'll play it. I'll see if I can play it. It says, for years, Islanders fans would give it to Josh Bailey for his low goal totals

by mocking him with DJ Otsey's Hey Baby song. No more for his playmaking than goal scoring skills. The Islander's right winger has come up clutched so far in the postseason with goals in each of the Islanders wins against the Penguins. This is going back a while. Fans have changed their tune with a simple change in tents along with the overall tone. As seen and heard in Friday's game two win, Bailey is able to add the insurance in a 3-1 win.

It's Hey Bailey to the tune of Hey Baby. Yeah. I want to. Can you score me a goal? The Islanders fans, that's another reason to love the New York. They got some good fans. Like that's why I like Vegas. Vegas has great fans too.

Yeah. But, I mean, the Islanders fans are, they don't stop. It's like a soccer game. Yeah, it is. They don't stop chanting. But can you imagine being that player when they're singing that to you? Your skin would be just. It would be electric.

Oh. But yeah, you'd just be, and then when you scored, he was pointing to the crowd like this. Oh, that's wild. That is wild. That's how sports is beautiful when you get things like that, right? Yep. Now, with slowly, well, I don't know, Dad, we could go out this all day long. I'm really happy you came in for Father's Day because I, well, you heard my spiel off the hop of it.

I look forward to doing this every year with you because, and maybe I'll have to. to get the brothers or Jackie in or what have you to pick their brain because I know how my brain thinks and all the siblings have their their thoughts on different questions what have you. But before I let you go, let's do the Crude Master Fon 5. It wasn't a thing the first, the second episode. So I didn't get to ask you one of my favorite questions, which is if you could sit down with somebody to pick their brain, who would you take? I'm going to steal Jason's Grandpa Newman.

I never, I can't. remember him because he passed away I think when it was about three but to leave your home and cross on a ship that wasn't a cruise ship by any means and then to take a train to Saskatoon

and then to find your way to him well actually he went to I think him and Fred Thompson started a livery stable first day and to there was no

fences, there was no roads. And they tell me about him, you know, getting lost from the wagon train and he's seen a fire. And there was a guy cooking flapjacks. He was out shooting ducks, trying to find food for everybody. And what, that's just, it blows you away because now we travel that same, what, to an half hours. How long would it taken them going in a... Well, even on a pedal bike to Saskatoon took us... You're still going faster than what they went.

Yeah. That would have taken them forever. And, you know, getting... Excuse me. You wouldn't have... You wouldn't have the roads. You wouldn't have the direction. You wouldn't know where you're going. There's no railway to fall. Like, that's an experience. It would be. I wonder, do you think you had any stress on?

I'm sure they do. You know, you've been, I've talked about this, probably on a few different podcasts. I certainly put it out on Twitter for people to fall along with about reading the Fort Pit Trail. You were all over me, you got to read the Forbett Trail. You got to read the Forbett Trail. You got to read the Forbett.

And they talk about the hardships they faced, which is, I don't know, it's hard to even put yourself there. But what I do find curious is almost in all of them, but we found the good times or we had good times or people were smiling because that's, you know. Yep. They weren't the thing that is now in society is it's all little groups, eh? And so it's all the minorities want this and, you know, whether it's this or this or this. It's all different little groups. Back then they were just trying to survive.

and they were so glad to have meet somebody or like mom talked. You know, if somebody was going through, come in the house, but we don't do that now. And now it's individual groups wanting this, and it's all about minorities. But back then it was just all for one and we're in this together sort of thing. And that's probably what we've lost is because, yeah, because, mom and dad wouldn't change a thing they enjoyed everything they did yeah you wonder if we could ever get back to that where we're not yeah you know where we're all together yeah well and it's community i mean the community always came together right so they were always they did everything

together whether it was a ladies club or renats or you know building uh sprees and all that stuff. You got to finish the story. You said that Grandpa Horace was out trying to find game and then sees the smoke and sees the guy cooking flat jacks. What happens after that?

Well, he actually got lost because he couldn't find the wagon train anymore because it was dark, right? So he saw a campfire, so he found the campfire and it was a guy cooking flapjacks And so he said, would you trade a couple of ducks for a couple of flapjacks? And so he swapped. And he said his best flap jacks they ever had, eh?

But I guess he must, the next morning must have found the train. Found the wagon train and carried on, but he was lost. Flapjacks for ducks. Yep. I asked Mumness. I'll ask you it. When I first, you were guest two. When you were guest two till now to the entire idea, what did you think?

of the idea of a podcast and I don't know what it's turned into what did you think of this when I first brought you on that wasn't it you know you've been part well I've been telling you you've been podcasting

when you were since you could talk because you talk to yourself and whether anybody was listening you were still talking a lot talk about flooding at the rink you were probably three at the time and the one

the closest to the concessionary always we had ice there before we did anywhere else because it wasn't levels on gravel or sand and I'd be down at the other end spraying and and you'd be talking the whole time and then you'd go off and sit down I couldn't even see you anymore because you were behind the boards eh and then you were talking and then you come out and you race around score a goal and then arms go up and you're high-fiving imaginary people and then you go off again and talk and so finally I put the hose down and I thought what is this kid who's he talking to and what's he talking about and I said so I finally got to a place where I could actually see you sitting because you were in behind the boards and there was a bench there and I said

Sean, who are you talking to? Oh, just grets and messy and that we're just talking about the game and we're making up plays. He's got a vivid imagination. I see it in my oldest right now, Shay. That's what he does, right? He does not stop talking. Yeah.

So this doesn't, I should say that we took Shay for a bike ride. This is like a year ago. He's like four years old. He doesn't stop talking. The entire time we're biking, he's just like narrating the bike. Go by people. Hey, how's it going?

Starts talking to them. They're laughing. I remember the guys pouring the cement for a driveway. He must have had like a 30-second chat. I'm going, Shay, we've got to keep biking. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, right? And the guys are laughing out, and they're having hilarious time. So what you're saying is none of this surprises you because since I was knee-high,

I've been doing it anyways. Don't you remember trying to stuff the ice cream in the bear at Jasper? You were talking to the lady the whole time, whether it made it. She was mad, but. I was trying to stuff. I thought it was a garbage can because it was a hot day. And you had ice cream all over the place and finally I had had enough. And I was trying to.

And she came out and said, this isn't a garbage can. And it wasn't. It was sealed up, but you were busy talking to her. So it was a good thing you were there because you talked her right out of what she was trying to talk about. De-escalated it. But, yeah, no, you've always been to talk about everything. and I don't know an interview but you always had conversations

with whoever What's the most memorable place you've ever been? We've done a lot of traveling Israel, there's lots of stuff that just amazes me and you talk about the human spirit there's a place in Israel in the Dead Sea Masada it's called

it's a flat table mountain with about a thousand foot cliffs and the Jews ran up there there was just a goat trail going up and the Roman army was chasing them and they stayed up there they didn't realize that they'd already built

while it was Herod built it rains in the desert about twice a year and it filled up these huge cisterns so they had all the kind of water and the Roman army was there for seven months trying to get them. And they couldn't go up there because they threw rocks at them every time they went up the goat trail.

And they built a ramp. And I thought, there's no way. And then they walked us over to the other side of the mountain. And sure enough, there's the ramp. It's gone down a lot. And it's amazing. But that's human spirit. We're going to stay here until this ramp is built.

And how long would it take to build an earth ramp, eh? Jordan, we went to Petra. That's amazing. I never expected to see something like that. And that's the, in Indiana Jones, that's the, that's all hand carved out of stone. So it's soft stone, eh? Finland was amazing. I mean, every country we've been to has been amazing.

And the people are amazing. Like, like I say, people are people are people. It's just the ones governing that Twist it Twist it Yeah Where are you going to go Northern Saskatchewan

Went up there And When you went to La Roche hockey trials Remember going to the Or were you there It was just dust And mom and I

Waterfall And the Yeah when we took the boat there Yeah And the native fellow Was just scooping Pickerel out of the bottom of the falls with a net day.

Like I never knew any of that stuff was there like that. Northern Northwest Territories, same thing. There's waterfalls and I never knew over there. The moment I went up there and there was probably five that were just, they're amazing, but never knew they were there. So where are you going to go when you can go? I mean, we're getting awfully close to everything opening back up, I think, assuming that happens, where are you going to go?

I'd like to see the rest of the world, actually. I'd like to see the animals in Africa, you know, Australia, New Zealand. All the places my kids have been that I haven't been, right? Because Dustin and Harley, they spent a good lot of time there. But it's good to see the world because it makes it sit up and pay attention to your own spot. Final one for you then is what piece of advice has stuck? with you. And maybe you've already said it, but what piece of advice has just stuck with you?

I guess I go with Grandma. It is what it is. Just deal. And just suck it up. But that was her advice. And she'd lost the son. They've gone through a lot of stuff, but she said, it is what it is, just deal with it. So we're dealing with it.

Well, thanks for coming in on Father's Day, Dad. Happy Father's Day, Do you? Appreciate you doing this with me. Yeah, happy Father's Day, and you're still one of my favorites. Hey, folks, thanks for joining us today. If you just stumbled on the show, please click subscribe. Then, scroll to the bottom and rate and leave a review. I promise it helps.

Remember, every Monday and Wednesday, we will have. have a new guest sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you get your podcast fix. Until next time. Hey, Keeners. Hopefully you enjoyed the chat I had with Daddy O'Neumann. Always love sitting down with dad and hearing some stories from, you know, back in the day and just some questions I've had rolling around in my brain. And I don't think anybody tells a story is good as dad.

So I got to give a shout out this week to T.N. Anderson, we used to play hockey together. He's a Wainwright boy, but he came and played for the Hillman for a year and had a lot of fun. Got along extremely well. He reached out via email, and he just said, just wanted to give you a shout out on your podcast and what you've done with it. I've been following it for some time now, and I've got to say it's been very motivating and inspirational for me. The guess you've had on there just speaks to what you've done with it. I know it's been a great tool for all kinds of individuals, athletes or not.

So I want to give a shout out to Tiana Anderson. I appreciate you reaching out. You know, I haven't seen him in a few years. So next time he's in town, I certainly hope he's dropping me a line so we can get together and have a BS session. Now, for the rest of you, I hope the week is starting off right, and we'll catch up to you Wednesday on another archive episode.

So until then, champor, stop lifting things with your, your beat up wrist. If we're ever going to go off this summer, that thing's got to heal. All right? We'll catch you guys Wednesday.