Shaun Newman Podcast - SNP Archives #3 - Larry Olynyk

Episode Date: September 4, 2020

Born & raised near Lloydminster Larry talks about working in the 60's oilpatch for Husky, travelling the world, owning & operating Furniture Clinic for 45 years in Lloydminster, his love of fireworks, restoring the town clock & more. Always love the opportunity to sitdown with our community pillars and Larry did not dissapoint, such a character.  Let me know what you think     Text me! 587-217-8500

Hi, this is Braden Holpe. Hi, this is Brian Burke. This is Kelly Rudy. Hello, everyone. I'm Carly Agro from SportsNet Central. I am Jason Greger. Hi, this is Scott Hartnell. This is Quick Dick McDick.

Hey, it's Ron McLean, Hockey Night in Canada and Rogers' Hometown Hockey, and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Let's get on to today's sponsors, Jen Gilbert and team want you to know for over 40 years since 1976. The dedicated realtors of Coldwell Bankers, Cityside Realty, have served like Minstead and the surrounding area. They are passionate about our community,

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framed to make it look right. She can make it, well, like I say, I got the old jersey hanging above my left shoulder currently and it looks amazing. She was telling me a little while ago that she'd had a sheath of wheat brought in from a farmer who had finished this final year of farming and wanted to capture a piece of that final field. I mean, it can be as simple as a sheath of wheat. It could also be a jersey, a photo, a piece of artwork, you name it. The stories go on and on, and honestly, she remembers all of them, which is crazy. She's got just a talent for it. Now, she's open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

You can give her a call at 780, 808, 6313, or stop in at 50, 16, 39th Street. It's more than just a frame. It's a story. I've got to give a shout out to read and write and miss Deanna Wander for the amazing work they help do on the SMP billboard. I've got to give a special thanks to Lloydminster Archives who help put these together each week. They help line them up so that I can sit down and talk with these different guests, especially Lynn Smith, who works tirelessly behind the scenes. She helps line up, you know, all the different people I get to sit down, and I get the fun part I say. I get to

sit and hear the stories and record it, and it's just a ton of fun, so I appreciate the Lloyd Archives entrusting me with talking to the community pillars of Lloyd Minster. Now let's get on to your T-Barr-1, Tale of the Tape. Born and raised near Lloyd Minster, he worked for Husky back in the 1960s. He's known around the community for owning with his brother Furniture Clinic, which they operated for 45 years. His love of fireworks has made him quite popular, and overall, Larry is just a character.

This is his story. So buckle up. Here we go. It is August 16th, 2020, and I'm sitting across from Larry Olnick. Did I say that, Ray? Close. You got the accent on the wrong syllable. Damn. It's Olinic. Olinic. Larry Olinick. There you go. Well, first off, thanks for joining me. I look forward to sitting across from you and getting to know you a little better. Absolutely, my pleasure.

Well, you're wondering how we go about this. We'd like to start from the beginning because, I mean, that's where it started. Your parents moved here from Eminton? No, my parents moved here from a little Ukrainian community north of Two Hills, Alberta, by the name of Ispice. We moved here in 1955 to a farm that my dad had purchased along with my uncle just south of Lloydminster, about 10 miles. And they commenced the farming there.

built a house at that time and that is where I grew up for the most part of my life. I was five years old and we moved here in 55. So I guess not too tough to figure out that I was born in 1950. So it was quite an adventure moving here, you know, picking up the whole family and some of the livestock and along with granaries and a very limited amount of machinery had and, you know, just pull up stakes and head to a new location and start out anew with just a bunkhouse and a granary to live in, basically. So that's kind of where we started in 55. I started school.

That was the spring of. We got here to put the crop in. The crop was put in. It was taken off with a binder and stokes for the first two years in a thrashing machine because we didn't have the equipment, and it was quite a ways back. I remember driving the tractor at five years old. I couldn't do too much, but steer it down the road as, or down the field as my uncles and my aunts would be pitching sheaves onto the wagon onto the rack.

So that's kind of where we started. I started my school in Lloydminster. In fact, there was still a rural school by the name of Southminster. No, let's try again. Golden Valley. Golden Valley School, my parents, whether they heard word of it or had the wisdom to get me started in Lloyd, because within one or two years, the country school shut down and everybody moved anyhow. So we started school here, 8, 6, I guess I was almost 7 as my birthday turned out, or a good 6 and a half.

Didn't know two words of English when I started school. Like I said, we came from a Ukrainian. You didn't understand. You didn't know two words of English. Nada. Nothing. I went to school with total Ukrainian head full of knowledge. So I can also remember that on one of my first days, it might have been either my first or second day at school, where monkey bars, I'd never seen anything like that in my life off the farm in East Bus, Alberta. There was always long lineups at recess I discovered they didn't get across there many times.

So I stuck up my hand and asked the teacher if I could go out and play on the monkey bars in Ukrainian, of course. My teacher being English-speaking, I'm sure thought I needed to go to the bathroom and gave me the nod. So I did. I went outside and I was having just one grand time on the monkey bars of myself. No line-ups, man, I was just going. Until about 15, 20 minutes later, teacher discovered what was going on, spotted me out there. and was kind of, hey, let's go back to the schoolroom here, little boy. We don't care if you can't understand English or not. This isn't what we do during the day.

So that was kind of the beginning of my school, and I guess I kind of learned most of the language by now. So that was beginnings, did my 1 to 12 here in Lloyd, finished high school, played a lot of sports during my growing up, much perhaps to my parents' chagrin. They weren't real crazy about driving into town to pick me up and deliver me to different sports. It cost the gas and machinery and et cetera and work to do.

But I did play a lot of sports. I played football in high school. I had a chance to go to Camrose College. But by then I'd land a job at Husky Oil, and I was in the oil patch making big money. What year would that have been? That would have been in 68. I went into the oil patch.

I graduated, well, I graduated a couple times, actually. I graduated once in 67, and then I liked it so much, I did it again in 68. I repeated part of my 12th to get some marks up. That was really what happened. So. What was Husky Oil like? What was the oil patch like back in 68? You know, I loved it.

It certainly wasn't as hectic as it was now. I talked to some of my old foreman and some of the guys I see around that are still around. And I said, you know, that was the best job I ever had, especially as a kid, you know, 19 years old or whatever, had a new pickup, but Husky was paying me for using. So they were basically making payments on my new pickup. up and the money was good. I mean, I was getting paid the same as men that were raising families of four or five, so I had lots of chaff in my pocket that I managed to waste pretty much every penny

of it. How are you wasting your pennies back then? Well, the Villa Motor Inn nightclub got a good piece of it. I built a hot rod as well, and that's what the Villa didn't get. I think J.B.'s Automotive in Edmund and did get in parts and pieces because everybody had an opinion on what I should put into this hot rod and I just kept signing the checks and putting it in there.

Did you finish it? Oh yeah, it's just finished. It's been, yeah, I drove it for, I used it on the street, you know, year round for a few years. I shouldn't say year round, that's a bit of a lie. I parked at no intertime, but I did use it as an everyday driver.

It's sitting in my garage at home as we speak. hasn't been on the street for probably about 25 years. And now that I'm unemployed on a full-time basis, I plan on digging it out of the archives and getting it back on the street. And I'm hoping that's next year, meaning 2020. So that's kind of a plan. So that's, like I said, worked at Husky for two and a half years,

went traveling, became an aspiring hippie during the 70s, did a bit of traveling through New Zealand, Australia, up through Malaysia, Singapore, England, and then back to home. Back then, was it an unusual thing to do, or was there tons of people out traveling a boat? There wasn't that many. I mean, there wasn't as many backpackers, perhaps, as there is this day and age. But I did have a buddy that had moved or had gone to New Zealand and was down there

at the time. So I guess that was kind of a bit of a destination somewhere to go and then also that I knew somebody at the other end. So three of us took off here from town and went exploring. When you look back at your exploration, your travels, everybody always has a good story or two. What's a fond memory or a story you share from back on that trip or those travels? Well, I guess it probably shouldn't be telling you about the half a pound of pot.

I smuggled into New Zealand in my cowboy boots, eh? No, I think you certainly... That's a bit of a crap-your-pants moment now, but you know, 19, 20 years old, who cares? No worries, no cares. See, you stuck a half a pound of pot, you just threw it into cowboy boots and figured out. Well, just a quarter pound in each boot.

Just in a couple bags. They fit nicely in the lace. It worked well. Kept us entertained in New Zealand for a few months after we got there, and my buddy was certainly glad to see us, I can tell you that. So we lived there for a couple, a few months, actually. I can't remember many. I'd have to count back now. I ended up getting a job in the biggest Datsun garage in all of New Zealand.

I was the number one Greece monkey, if that's something to brag about. But when I took over there, the service bay, they did a lot of, of new pre-delivery inspections and lube and things like that. So it wasn't even really a dirty job, but probably 90, 95% of my cars I was working on were brand new and non-dirty, non-greasy. So it was very nice. And other than that, there was a few early service jobs, meaning the first few thousand miles. So I did that. I know the bay was quite a mess when I got there. It didn't take me long to get that all spick and span clean because I was running out of work generally one, two o'clock in the afternoon and trying to find something to keep myself occupied so they didn't

find something else to occupy me. So I did that and of course then when I was leaving the boss who was trying everything in his power to keep me there because I did I think maybe told them a little bit of BS to start out with it. I kind of moved there knowing full well that We were probably only staying three or four months and then moving on to Australia. So I guess if we ended up with a little bit of a Pinocchio nose out of that one, I guess I did. Anyhow, he tried everything in his power to keep me there when we were leaving. I was supposedly the best Louvre guy they had there in a long, long time. Anyhow, we did take off one of our traveling mates.

from town here, Wayne King, had went ahead of the other two of us, and he went over to the West Coast Australia and got a job on the offshore drilling rig over there. So being from Alberta and being in the middle oil patch, and heck, I worked for Husky Oil on the water floods and satellite system, saw a drilling rig. Anyhow, we went there, we were going to apply for big money in the drilling, rigs and the sea because we were from Alberta. Well, we didn't get hired. We did manage to make a living, finding apples and things in the evenings and orchards and things. Things got pretty hungry there for a while. And finally. Things got pretty hungry there for a while?

Really hungry. You were broke. Oh, we were not only broke. I think when we went to Australia, I had, I think, $40 in my traveling buddy, Ron Gunn, had $20, and that was it, and a plane fare. As a matter of fact, Ron didn't even have the plane fare. I did. He bought the other fellow that we went to visit. He bought his plane fare and used his passport to vacate New Zealand and go to Australia. So we're lucky he didn't end up in jail there as well. Anyhow. They're probably still looking for him somewhere in New Zealand here, you know, 40, 50 years later. So, I mean, when he got to Australia, in fact, he just took and put the passport and everything back in an envelope, mailed it back to, mailed it back to Ramdy. So he could go home eventually. So that was a little bit of an adventure.

With the money thing, with only having a handful of money left, was that you just spent it way too fast? You went there going, you know, we'll figure it out. We went with a one-way ticket and I think $500 in our pocket. So, you know, a few months later after, I was, I mean, after a month or so went to work at that Datsungrad in New Zealand. I still remember like yesterday I was making $1.22.5 an hour. Right down to the half a penny. Got paid on Friday afternoon and come in a little brown envelope. Cash.

There is all your, I can't remember whether an amount of two late. $46 or something, you know, well, about 22 and a half an hour times 40 hours or whatever that gives you. So that's what the rate of pay was. So we, you know, did that and yeah, no, we just didn't. We were an adventure. We were going to go work. We were on a world cruise. We were, you know, going to go for forever. Or maybe a few months or years or whatever. We didn't make about, I guess, eight, ten months, I guess, before. got home, but I did get to the time when we were in Australia on the west coast there in Perth, that I did end up wiring back to my, I was smart enough before I left to leave enough money in my bank, that no matter where I was on God's green earth here, I would have enough money to get home

without having to make that dreaded phone call to my folks needing money. I wasn't going to do that. So I did have enough money stashed aside, so when we were in Perth, I did get some money wired down to me enough to buy flights home, basically. You went to New Zealand, Australia. Where else did you go? Malaysia was our next port to call, and then Singapore, and then up to England. At England, I deported my traveling buddy Ron because of our lack of funds. At the time we got there, we had basically no money. and a ticket as far as England. Well, they didn't want any,

they didn't need any long-haired bums in England any more than they already had. They had enough of their own, I think, was more or less what the guy told us at customs. So they did end up. There was a charger flight of old veterans heading from England back to Toronto. Had one seat left on it.

And lo and behold, with my luck, They chose my buddy to go instead. So now we cleaned out his pockets. I think he had about $10 or $15. He gave me all of his money. The old guy counted it. I had $68, I believe it was. He says, you should have enough.

You made it around the world. He says you should have enough money there to get you home. The deal was there was charters that were coming home for you can get them at that time about $50. $60. But they were kind of an illegal thing because you had to be a member of this group for two years before you could qualify for these flights. Well, the guys that were running these things were ignoring the two-year thing. So the guy knew I could get home. He just kind of knew it wasn't real kosher, perhaps, but figured I probably could get home. So he gave me the money. They took Ron, put him long hair down to here with headband and all this business. And we must have stunk a terrible fright.

We'd been awake for, I think, about 48 hours straight drinking whiskey with some rich veterinarian from Australia that was flying to England and needed company. Well, we didn't have money, but we were company. So we spent 30 well two days partying with him on the way home. So we were quite a sight and hadn't seen water, and I don't know how long, so I imagine between what we look like and what we smelled like, I can imagine him walking in

all these, a full plane of veterans, let him right to the back seat, right down this row in handcuffs, and handcuffed them to the seat once he was in there. And all these guys are wondering what they got their hands with at the back. Anyhow, he did get, I did give them name to my aunt and uncle in Toronto. I said, you know, you give me all your money, here's the name and my phone number and everything, my aunt and uncle, tell them what happened here. They will see you good for, you know, $50 or $100 or whatever it is.

They'll see you home. So that's what, in fact, he did. And so then the guy snapped my passport in England for 21 days. And I jumped on a train, and, I'd taken history lessons in school before. I heard about Piccadilly Circus. Conduct says, where are you going? Going to Piccadilly Circus.

I had no clue what the heck Piccadilly Circus was if I heard it in history class. So finally on this tram or bus I'm on, conduct, is okay, this is your stop. It's Piccadilly Circus. Well, I expected to at least see a merry group. around or something that looked a little bit circus. Well, there was nothing. Near as I could gather, the only thing that was circus is the street was kind of round there, and the buildings

were in fact built in a circle. There was your circus. Yeah, so I got off, not knowing anybody, not knowing nothing, and now what? Okay, so it did run into a couple of Scottish fellas, which took me about four days to even figure out three words that those guys were saying, man, those guys can roll their ars. So kind of hung around with them. I think two of them had a bit of a day job and we would meet up at night. They knew their way. They'd been there for a spell, I think, maybe a couple of years. There was quite a few abandoned buildings that time. And like I say, these boys knew the ropes. So we did find an apartment suite that was kind of shut down and found a room that we kind of called our own, that we could kind of half board up and keep safe

during the night or, you know, it wasn't a complete shambled and hadn't been used as a bathroom, as so many of the rooms had. So that's where, that was my accommodations for my stay in England. And then grabbed the flight that the guy was telling me about. It was illegal, grabbed one of those on the way home. Matter of fact, I went to work a little bit for the guy that was organizing that. I was running his tickets back and forth to different locations there for a few days. So he cut me an extra $5 or $10 off the price of my ticket and the end result. And last night I was there all of a sudden a bang, bang, bang, bang on the doors, and they hear this, okay, get them all up.

I say, oh, now what's going on? Well, sure enough, next thing, a couple of Bobby's police come bouncing, and kick their door open, kind of come bouncing in. He says, okay, get them all up. And I'm thinking, okay, here we go. Here's my last night in England. I'm going to end up at jail overnight. I'm going to miss my plane tomorrow, and I'm here.

It was pretty much down. So it got up, rolled up my sleeping bag in my pack and everything sitting there waiting to go. And they never did come back. So I was thought after, I think what they must have meant when he said, get them all up was get them all up. and they were looking for somebody, I would think. So anyhow, it was, even though I didn't get locked up, but certainly didn't get any sleep for the rest of that night, I can tell you.

And then we hit the train there, the train back to the airport next day, a delay there, the plane was delayed for two hours. I thought, you know, I'm never getting home. I know I'm never going to get home again ever in my life, the way this whole sequence is going. But eventually they did get our problems fixed, jumped on the plane and off to Toronto we went. What did you think when you first got home after that sequence of events,

like, were you like, did you go do something in particular? Were you just happy? Oh, I was, how would you say, elated beyond comprehension just to be on Canadian soil again because like I said for a while there, I didn't think that was ever going to happen to me with delays and police and this and that, and that a lot of lack of money. And as a matter of fact, our first thing, and when we landed in England,

they were deporting us back to Singapore. The talk, you'll do it. They're like, no, we're in Canada. That's closer. We're commonwealth, you guys. Come on. They didn't care if we were commonwealth or what we were. We were just a pair of long hairs,

and they had enough bums in their streets as it was, and they didn't need two more, basically. So as Singapore, I mean, you think we're in bad shape now, we don't have any money. Wait till we show up next time? I said, do you ever see how many guys are trying to find jobs down there, Chinese fellas? And I said, I bet you they're working for a nickel an hour, and some of them for less. So you send it wide. Well, because we're sending you back to your last port of call.

We won't advance you to where you're going. Really? So after that little scare, I tell you, the, how would you say, the deporting back to, to Canada and East Dane in England was a heaven scent compared to what we were looking at. Because I thought, okay, we end up back in Singapore now. Now what, really? We don't have a room. Where do we eat, sleep?

How do we get a ticket back out of there? Yeah, anyhow, that was anxiety. So it was very nice when I got to Toronto. I was dead tired because we sit ahead and slept for quite a while. My aunt and uncle, I'm sure, I don't know why they didn't just look through the little people and not bother answering the door. I think I might have seen what was standing on the other side. Had a beard down to about here and here to about the match,

and the same thing as I hadn't had a bath in... Actually, my situation, Ron would have had one. I probably hadn't had a bath in probably two or three weeks. probably three weeks before I got to England. So I imagine I was fairly ripe by then as well. And like I said, so basically they just more or less got in, went and had a bath, I can kind of remember that feeling. I betcha I scrubbed myself, almost rubbed myself raw for three-quarters of an hour to wash, a lot, and soap, just trying to get clean or feeling like I was getting the smell off of me, basically.

And then it was pretty much straight to bed and, you know, kind of talked to my aunt and uncle next day. So I was very tired, but just relieved to be back on Canadian soil. When you left on the trip and you had your grand scheme of how this was going to go, were you planning on, I don't know, like working abroad and earning some money and kind of like seeing a bunch of countries, or was there a different mindset on what you guys were trying to accomplish. I don't even know if we had a mind.

Truthfully. No, actually, I mean, we were going traveling. We were going to go down and see Randy. It was down there. I figured that was a bit of a start. And then we planned on really doing a bit of traveling work for a month or two and then carry on. And, you know, that's like say, we bummed around New Zealand for a couple months.

And we did get jobs. We both got jobs. I and the Datson Garage. and Randy in a warehouse, clothing warehouse. When did it get to the point, though, where you're like, you mentioned anxiety. When did it get to the point where you're like, was it just, you're on your way and you're like,

if we can get to England, we'll be home and it won't be a big deal. And then England happens, and now you're like, oh man, what happens now? Is that the part where it starts to fall apart then? That's where she really started to kick in. And where it really started to kick in even more, I guess is when I seen, well, no, not his plane didn't be part, but I seen him, my buddy, traveling buddy. They took him down the corridor and I knew that was the end to him and I'm seeing planes leave and then the old fella at customs, he was, he was my salvation, he was a nice

grandpa-type fella that could kind of understand. To start out with, we had a couple of young hot dogs and I make no bones about saying, I'd know how old these guys were, they weren't a hell of a lot of older than I was at the time, they might have been 25 or under 30 for sure. And there were these English-type dudes that would walk along with their little top hat trying to play the role and with their umbrella that they would tap down on every second step. That's the kind of guys we were dealing with. Those guys would have nothing to do with us. They'd do nothing for us. Finally, when the head supervisor, the old grandpa guy, came out, we could see that maybe we were going to survive this

because it was looking pretty grim to start out with those two hot dogs. Was that the first time then you'd traveled alone is when your buddy goes off on the plane and now you're by yourself? Well, I mean, yes. Abroad, obviously, yes. I mean, in Canada I'd been on different 4-H trips and things like that where I'd traveled by myself to camps and things like that on the bus. I was just getting at, I've been in a different country's far away from home before, by yourself,

and it is a very lonely feeling, is all I was curious about if it had been the first time you've been by yourself. It certainly is a lonely feeling, and especially then you didn't have all this media communication. We've got today, Facebook's chat time, blah, blah, blah stuff I don't know or understand. So it didn't even really have the luxury of trying to make a phone call home. It was difficult to do. So, yes, like I said, when Ron finally left then, there was devastation. And then, you know, like I said, I got on the train, took me into downtown London, onto the old tram.

And I've seen that lawyer, that veterinarian, his wife, walking down the street not too far from when I was getting off at Piccadilly. If I could have jumped through that bus window to get near them, I would have, but we were probably doing 20 miles an hour at the time and I couldn't jump off. Because there was the one face of familiarity, somebody that I knew in England. Like, there they were.

And then just vanished just like that too. That might have been the low, you know. Any last hope had just vanished. What did that? Well, you mentioned communication. So were you writing letters to your parents at all to let them know where you were? Anything like that? Oh, yeah, we'd do the letters.

But even air mail, my goodness, I can't remember. It took, I think, a better part of a, was it a week or two weeks? It probably was two weeks time. It did a turnaround time. The letter got home and somebody jotted some words and sent it back. So things that were happening were happening very slowly, or in our minds leastways, they were happening slowly. It just took that long to community.

I think we didn't make one phone call and it was oh geez at the time remembering that I'm making a dollar 22 and a half an hour I think that one time we made a phone call it was 17 dollars oh you know a couple days work exactly and that was a three-minute phone call so obviously you weren't doing those too often you know when you look at it now over your lifetime and to see how the world has become a really really small if you were to do the same trip today and be over in New Zealand, you could face-time your entire family whenever you wanted and it would almost feel like you weren't gone. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

That's how small we have made the world with this communication and with travel. You take a look at, you know, these planes are getting from one to destination to the other. And there's not too many places we can't be on anywhere on this earth within about 12 hours, you know, 12, 18 hours. You're there. and in some of the most remotest places possible. Know it's that we've really shrunk this planet of ours, you know, as far as that goes. What did your parents think of you had a note to seek the brave new world?

Well, considering I was, what was I, 1920, 21 years old, they might have been pretty damn glad. I don't know. I might have been a bit of a challenge, I suppose, at times, I guess there's a lot of teenagers are, so maybe they were just damn happy. No, they were, I could. Dad had been across the pond during the war. Mum had never been, you know, been across the state's border twice, just to say that they'd been in the States, you know,

and they're visiting an aunt in Bromhead, Saskatch, and that's only five miles off the States. Like, Dad had done some traveling and he'd been over there. So he could maybe kind of rationalize or understand that a little bit more. But just, you know, the old, be careful. God put a head on your shoulders for a reason and it wasn't to keep you from floating away, so use it. You mentioned your father was over in the war.

Did he fight in World War II then? Yeah, yeah, he was over in England. And then he was kind of there towards more the Belgium and the cleanup and the end part of Holland and Belgium and the cleanup and the getting rid of the Nazis at that point in time out of there. So he wasn't over in France or any on that continent. That was kind of his deal. Did you ever ask him about it? He didn't talk.

Oh, yeah, some, but it's not a thing that he talked a great deal about. He had a couple of photo albums that, you know, had a lot of pictures that, while him and his buddy and seemed like a lot of gals, all the time at these different dances and social. So I'm starting to wonder how much he really did in the war. I'm starting to think he was maybe the social convener. I don't know. No, he talked about it some, but he definitely wasn't a warmonger. And it was nothing worth bragging about nothing.

I guess in his mind, there was nothing worth remembering about the whole thing, you know. So he certainly, you know how some guys would tell you war stories for hours and, you know, maybe half of it might have been BS, who knows, but he never did talk too much about it. If you asked specific questions, you'd probably get a specific answer and that would probably be about it. Yeah. When you come back from your traveling, do you think about going to the farm? Like, I mean, you grew up on a farm.

Did you at any point think maybe we should grab some land and start? Yeah, well, I thoroughly enjoyed that farm life. But again, I guess when I got finished high school, I never really thought about farming as such. Because the only part that I understood from farming is you worked like hell and you got no money out of it. The only time I kind of seems a little bit funny, but I had mentioned earlier that my uncle came down

and started farming with my dad here, and then four or five, maybe his five years later, my dad bought out my uncle's two quarters and acquired a bit more land and carried on. But the only time I really got paid for anything as far as a kid is concerned, he doesn't see that he got two bits here to go to the show and a pair of skates or whatever used as they were at Christmas.

At least when I went picking rocks for my uncle, I'd always end up with a buck or two at the end of the day. So I didn't mind picking rocks for my uncle, Steve, as much as I minded perhaps picking rocks for my old dad. Though my old dad was feeding clothing and housing me. But yes, I never really, I guess, considered the farming. And then, you know, of course, like I said, I got right after high school, I worked in construction here. In fact, helped build the Dr. Cook nursing home. Shortly after that is when I got that job at Husky, and I probably got spoiled a little bit with the money.

I mean, I was making pretty good money for a 19, 20-year-old kid, you know. New pickup, life was good. A gas, I remember burning purple gas, though I shouldn't have been, but I did have another tank and hooked up in the truck with a secret little valve. Purple gas with two bits a gallon. And my dad couldn't understand how I could put more gas through my pickup than he could put through running that entire farm. But somehow that old truck didn't stay still too long.

And I think I did have over 100,000 miles on that thing in just over a year. In just over a year? Just well between working. No, pardon me. That's a bit of a misdemeanor. Two years because I was trading off in two years' time. Yeah. But that was between work, you know, which I was getting paid, I think,

15 cents a mile or something for my work time. And then my personal bill, like I said, that truck didn't stay still too long. Well, you remember about the early years of Lloyd Minster, not the early years of Lloyd Minster, I guess, but your younger years of Lloyd Minster would have been a smaller town at that point. Do you remember some things that stick out? I don't remember very well. I was a five-year-old kid when we moved here from, like I said, east bus Alberta, which was just a little community north of two hills about probably 20 miles.

When we moved here, I mean, and sure there was a little town there, but consisted of maybe 10 stores, a hotel, which every town had a hotel. So when we moved here, I can remember, kind of lost myself here for a minute, Sean. No, that's all right. When you moved here as a young kid, just talking about Lloyd. Yes. Okay. All the buildings, big buildings and lots, well, I thought they were big. You know, to a five-year-old little Ukrainian kid who now speak of the English. Everything seemed marvelous here. I can tell you, see these dents on the sides of my head? They're still there, 65 years later. And that's from running in to all the...

parking meters here in Lloydminster. There wasn't such a thing as a parking meter in two hills whenever we went into town. So as a kid fascinated and big eyes, you know, windows and walking along, I rattled my head on more parking meters than I can care to imagine. And they were just the right height than I'd be walking along, looking in the store, wham! And the next one, I'm looking at the store, wham. And it just never, it took me forever to get used to those stupid parts. So that, and I remember a little taut, a little taut, a little taut, they, they care, playground, I guess it was, right beside the old fire hall downtown 49th Street in Lloyd, and was the first black person I'd ever seen in my life, Mrs. Lawson, remember like yesterday, mom would leave me over there, five-year-old kid, she would walk across the street and buy groceries,

the week or two weeks that she'd plan on buying groceries and leave me over to play at the taught lot. Well, I was so fascinated. It was Mrs. Lawson. I would sit there on this little bench I can still see it like yesterday, a little curb they had there all around the paddling pool. And I think I would just sit there and stare at her for like for two hours. I couldn't believe how dark she was, and I couldn't believe how pink her hands and her tongue and everything where this, I was amazed. And I hope this isn't a bad story in this day and age. Actually, I just wonder, you know, what you think about,

what's going on with today's day and age. I don't think it's a bad story whatsoever. Well, that's the way it was. Like I said, first black person, because we didn't have TV. We didn't have anything. I mean, and if they were black talking on radio, I would have not known that.

I'd never seen a black person until that day. And I can't tell you. how many Saturday afternoons had it spent there after that every time we went shopping. I was over there staring at Mrs. Lawson. And she was just the kindest lady. I mean, I don't know how she looked after all us. Torp's her.

Had to have been 50 of us little boogers running around in there, you know. But she did. No, she was a great lady. No, it's not a bad story. Everything that's going on this day and age, I just don't get it all. A lot of it, I almost, I guess, refuse to comment on it because some of my comments might not be so nice. I think we're making,

in some cases, mountains out of mole hills and that always bothers me no matter what we're doing when we try to create a mountain out of a mole hill. So that's my feelings on that. What year, what year did you get into the furnish clinic? Forty-five years. So that would put you 19, We started that in 1973, I believe it was. So that's got to be darn close to when you come back from traveling. I think about two years later, yes, because after I came back from traveling, as a matter of fact, just to make this story a little bit how it falls into place. I said I went to work with Husky for about two and a half years just at a high school there shortly after my construction job.

Truth be known, Husky ran my ass off down the road after that point in time. And that's, I guess, was part of the reason for going traveling. So after I traveled and I got a little bit old. What did you do in order for Husky to run you off? Well, you know, being tardy numerous times was the biggest. Yeah. Young guys aren't ever tardy. Come on.

Okay. I was just playing out. out late lots. I laugh, I laugh about it because back then, even the same thing you say, for a young guy to be working in the oil patch, it was making a really good wage.

Well, heck, you can say that for the last 20 years. If you started in the oil patch, you made really good money. Absolutely. And guys, young guys who get lots of money, like to, well, it doesn't, it burns a hole in your pocket. So you find ways to spend it.

The Villa nightclub. So what was the villa night club like? Oh, she was a shaken place. I tell you what. That thing would be filled to the rafters putting her every night Monday to Saturday. Live band or? I think continuous or all the time. I don't think they had days off from a live band.

I think it was live band daily. No, it was a place to go. It was it was romping and that was right during my hey day. and pocket full of money and away we go, you know. And yeah, so that's, it was a good place to go. It was fun. So then you decide to open up a business? Well, what point is that?

Actually, my friend, Wayne King here, he just recently sold off his holdings with grit hog industries, had gone to upholstery school. In Wayburn at that time they had an upholstery school. And while he was taking that, a fellow from Prince Albert had a furniture repair store up there. And he called himself the furniture doctor. And I guess he was looking to get into upholstery but didn't know any upholstery. So he was recruiting the school for any up and coming upholsters. Offered Wayne a job when he was done his course up at Prince Albert.

So Wayne moved up there and started upholstering with this fella. While he's upholstering, he's watching and learning a little bit of what this fella does with antique restoration and a lot of new furniture repairs, shipping damages, that kind of thing. So he went to work there for, oh, goodness, I don't know now. It might have been a year or two possibly even, ah, probably a year. And I kind of wanted to get back to his roots here, and Lloydminster were his parents and his wife's parents and everybody was, friends were. So he was planning him moving back,

and then he asked me at that time if I'd be interested in going into business with him. Well, I was still working at Husky, and they said, Macon. When I got back from my trip, when I say Husky ran me off the first time, I went back to him the second time as, hey, I was a young punk,

didn't deserve what I had. Sorry, I screwed up. getting married here shortly. I'd like to think I've matured, and my head's in a little different place than it was, and I would certainly appreciate if you'd entertain the idea of hiring me back again. Well, it turned out that it was summertime and, of course, holidays,

and as it turned out, at least I think, this is kind of what happened. A lot of the operators were going on holidays at that time, and they needed a relief man that could fill in, and I already being green, so to speak, again, I knew a lot of these batteries and satellites and things like that and how to operate them. So I was kind of an easy fit for them,

two weeks here, three weeks here, two weeks there, and I did that for all summer. So whether that was a reason or whether the guy really believed in me or whether I really bullshitted them that good that he decided to give me another try. But anyhow, I did go back to work for Husky at that point in time. And was, again, doing the...

I enjoyed the job that put me on the gas system. I was kind of my own boss out there, so to speak. I just report in once in a while, the foreman, traveling, checking the gas walls. It was a great job, one of the best jobs I've had. And so then after that, I... Like I said, Wayne kind of offered up some partnership or would you like this. So I hung around and worked with them for a while there at the shop and helped them out a bit.

And then kind of handed in with my notice and joined on with Wayne. And then about probably about two years later, Wayne sold out his interest to my younger brother, Rob, who remained my partner for the rest of the duration. So, yeah, we started out in back of right about where Arby's is. There was a little shop back of where we first started. Not many people will probably remember, but we had a great big Canada flag painted on the side of our building that must have been 20 feet high and 40 feet long,

just for identification kind of thing. So that's where we started, and then down to our digs downtown. to now done. Over 45 years, that's a lot of years to be in business. I assume some very high highs, some very low lows and a lot of in between. When looking back over your 45 years

of running a business, what's maybe some of the things that stick out? Well, highs are kind of, they're almost tough. Well, yeah, highs, I mean, obviously are the people. I was so fortunate to have run into so many good people over my lifetime. It's just crazy. You know, another thing that I can't ever say enough for is that 4-H movement. That 4-H movement as a kid taught me more for my adult life than I ever knew was happening at the time.

I get a little jerked up talking about the 4-8. but it's an excellent program for everybody, and I don't care if you're taking photography or if you're in a B4H club as I was. Just a training and experience will do you a lifetime of good. So when we started that business, I kind of had that part going for me, I guess, and I'd worked with Gene Science through my high school,

and Gene gave me all kinds of responsibility at age 16 and 17. I was manufacturing the plastic signs, not the neon ones, but the electric fluorescent signs. I was manufacturing those at age 16 and 17. When golf switched to, no, to Petrican, there was at ESO switched to golf. Esso switched to golf. He had the contract on a good chunk of this north country

and all the way down to Provost to change out all the golf signs. or all the ESO signs to golf signs to ESO. And two of us, me and my buddy, 16 years old, out on the road, and just send us signs ahead and gave us that responsibility to go out there and change those signs. So I was fortunate in a lot of ways that way, that, you know, whether I had the capabilities or people believed that I did,

they kind of let me run with some of this stuff a lot more Well, a lot more than kids would get an opportunity for today. Let's put it that way. So that was also good learning experience. So then when we got into business, you know, with Wayne, we kind of started up. And, you know, then like I said, about two or two and a half years later, Wayne sold his interest to my brother, and then we carried on. So from Arby's location there to the old bowling alley downtown,

which is what now a lawyer's office, it's on 49, to building across the street where we are presently. That was kind of our transition for, start to finish. You have me curious now, because you got emotional about 4-H. What was it about 4-H that is tough to talk about? It's not tough to talk about.

I'm just an emotional person. There's nothing wrong with that. I get very emotional. And sometimes very easily. My father's an emotional guy. It actually runs in the, we joke, the chambers side of the family because my grandmother was an emotional person and my father is an emotional person and I'm an emotional person.

So it obviously strikes a chord with you. And if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. No, I don't have any problem talking about it. Just, uh... Was it a pawn part? I guess it's, oh, the best time of my life. It's probably... God, get my head straight out here.

Probably taught me more than anything taught me in my life. Besides maybe my old dad. No, it It was a great experience. Like I said, I wish every kid in this world could do that 4-H movement. It would do them all a world of good. No, it's great stuff.

It can't say enough good about the 4-H movement. It got me going, and in fact, I was a big farm kid. You were supposed to be 12 years old when you started, and I was only 10, but they were short a couple members, so somebody pulled some strings or something. And anyhow, I kind of got started a couple years older, sooner than most of them did.

But it was so good to me and what it taught me. It also sent me to a lot of 4-H camps. I was to two, three or four camps in Alberta, Gold-Dye Lake and Olds, things like that. Junior leadership. They taught you junior leadership at some of these things. I was also a thing in Ottawa, where there was 10 from each province

and seven out of the states, and they'd have all these different. You know, a lot of it was fun stuff, but a lot of it was work stuff too that you kind of really didn't realize that you were working at at the time, but something was still getting drilled in there. And that's the kind of stuff

that's rewarded me my entire life. So, yeah, I get emotional about that. Let's go back to your business. I think, you know, 45 years is a lot of years to be in business. Do you look back and, like, was there ever a time you thought, you know what, maybe we should just be done and I should go back to working in the oil patch? You know, Sean, I can tell you during, I guess,

some of that mid-80s in through there. I thought about that nearly daily. Why we didn't go belly up two or three times through there, I only have to thank probably Peter Gulak at the Border Credit Union. You were the second person

to bring his name up in here. He's seen us through. we were struggling there was a lot of times in through there we were struggling didn't know how or if we were going to pay our bills at the end of the month

if we were going to build up afford to eat if we were going to bill up afford to pay the few employees we had I remember going to St. Peter

saying just all I got. I've got nothing more to offer. I'm working 12, 14 hours a day. And I seem to be going backwards. Peter's advice to me was, keep doing what you're doing. It'll come around.

And you're driving the emotions on me here today, Sean. Anyhow, Peter kept us alive at least twice where I'm sure any lending institution would shut us down and buried us. Without a doubt, with no question in my mind. He must have seen, he must have believed, he must have had some vision for us perhaps, kept us afloat. never forgave any loans, I might add, but he did keep us floating there for a good number of years. And, you know, eventually we did crawl out of it. We were able to build our own building downtown after, you know, renting for a good number of years. And eventually saw ourselves through the retirement age, I guess.

Yeah, 45 years kind of came and went in such a bloody hurry. have no clue that it's happening to you, and then all of a sudden, like, blam, you just got hit with a truck. Wow, okay, 45 years. I remember when somebody that was 45 years old, was pretty damn old, let alone of having worked that long, you know? So, but it was enjoyable, you know, I like to say people,

the amount of, and the amount of people kind of got off the subject there a little, you know, highlights the people. The amount of good people we've met over the time has been unreal. And a highlight from business, you know, this is probably asking about a highlight. One of the, I suppose, neatest thing, well, we did a couple of pretty big projects for a small turkey company we are. We did the original Husky Tower there was, you know, manufactured and sold and installed all the grapes on six floors of that. I was pretty happy with that the infancy of our company. I also did it. the Dome Petroleum Building, you know, was pretty pleased with that.

So, you know, beat some bigger boys and that was kind of nice. So that, but the thing I felt maybe the best about was getting Lloyd Minster's clock at the old post office operating again. That old clock was, I can remember that as well as a kid. Big old clock up there and it dawned. and you know you knew when the hours were and etc and then that clock sat there for about 25 years at least 20 and I think it was closer to 25 years and didn't operate I kept asking what's the problem no motor no motor is a man a woman we put man on the moon 50 years ago and we can't make one little clock from 1920 operate in our clock tower there's something wrong here something wrong so I got a hold on Jeff Mulligan was mayor and as Jeff as you

know what I said that clock up there I says when you and me finish this conversation if I were you I said I would go and see Bill Musgrave and see if you'd be okay if we put his logo up in those clock faces. He said, well, because then we'd look like a happy town. You know, we'd have those smiley faces on four sides. Because I says, right now, you know what we look like? We'd look like a bunch of schmucks. I said, that clock is never right, you know?

Look at the clock. I said, no, no, let me correct that. Sorry, Jeff. I am wrong. Twice a day that clock is correct. Only twice a day. the rest of the time we look like a bunch of dummies clocks sitting there and say you might as well

blank it out. I said this, they're going to get it going and get it going and so even more or less well you think you can get it going I said well we work on clocks but I work on mantel clocks and things like that he says well he says I offered that to Tom Lysick here about two three years ago

he says Tom will fix that clock for you no charge The cost of the motor, whatever it takes, but no labor. So never heard anything back. Really? Yeah. So I just kind of left that alone thinking that's good. Lo and behold, I think it was next day or two days later, I get a call from Tom.

I heard tell you might want to fix the clock. I said, I'm not sure, Tom. I made that offer to you a couple years ago and sounded like you didn't want it. So I just kind of put it to bed. He says, well, it doesn't sound like you totally put it to bed. I might still grumble about it once in a while. He says, yeah, there's some of the right people, but it sounds of it.

He says, well, I'd be pleased to take a look at it, but this was in January. I said, I know what that clock tower is like. It's full of pigeons, full of pigeon shit, and it's 40 below up there. And I'm not going up until it warms up in like springtime, and then definitely I will go up and take a look. So we did go up there and see what the problem was. And yes, the motor was missing. They couldn't find a motor.

Also off the motor, the first gear was missing. So nobody knew what size it was or how many teeth. So there's many configurations of gears that run up the tower of this clock, as it turns out. So we got my brother who tinkered more at the clocks than I did back at the furniture clinic. We decide we can fix this thing. So now we have an upholster and a wood butcher trying to fix the town clock. That's quite the thing in itself. So we, first of all, we've got to find out what kind of motor and what kind of gear we need.

So I was getting up at about 3, 4 o'clock in the morning and phoning England to try to catch those guys before the end of their day to try to talk to the guys who manufactured that clock originally. got a little bit of information from them, but they were more apt to wanting me to cut this old one off and put a new head on there, an electric clock. No, this clock should last for two or three hundred years with no trouble at all if it's got its yearly maintenance,

which consists of basically nothing. That clock won't wear out. So he says, well, he needs a motor. So we start, then we start with this. Okay, well, we've got to know how many teeth and what the gears and blah, blah, blah. So we start counting teeth on all these gears. Well, after a while you get going and you lose yourself.

Then we resorted to a paint on the end of a stick. Count one. Count is, and I think there must have been 25 of these. We counted up. Somehow, between Rob and myself, through a backwards fashion as we do, We had it figured out that this motor needed to turn three and a, four and a half times a minute and needed, then I can't remember now, 28 teeth on this deer that was this big.

As it turned out when we finally did find somebody a few months later in the States that knew how to calculate this, I guess when we were ordering the motor, lo and behold of somehow figuring from the top end back down to the bottom end, we did have it figured out the right amount of turns on that motor and the right size of gear. So whether God looks after fools and children or what, but somehow we fluked in and we got the right amount. So we did order the motor, ordered the gear and, you know, serviced the thing. Cleaned out, I spent an entire probably a day or two days and had one big garbage can full of debris, meaning. pigeon skeletons and droppings and feathers and crap out of the top end of that thing. So first job was to clean it up and secure it, get some windows back in the place

so the pigeons weren't using it for a home as they had been for a good number of years, apparently. And got that going. So that I had a good feeling about what I was done. It was a, the mayor kind of rededicated it again after being off for that long. And the only improvement I'd like to see at this point in time, because, you know, when the town, when that clock was first put in, the town was probably about, I don't know, 2,000 people. I would suggest it probably didn't go more than probably two or three blocks

each direction from that post office. And there certainly wasn't all these semis and everything else and all this traffic going up and down the road. So it was quite quiet. And he asked when we moved here, well, yeah, we had a population, I think, of about 4,500 at that time. That was in 55. So obviously, everything was quieter back then.

I would like to see a microphone or something hooked up, and it wouldn't take much to that bell so that we can, in fact, hear the bell when it tolls. As a matter of fact, I might have to go to the mayor and offer the donation of the Amher. amplifier or something to kick this thing along. So that was my, and I know it's got really nothing to do with my work, but I was pretty pleased with getting that going again,

considering it was starting to look like it was never going to get going again. Because different people had tried, and they'd, I'd seen pictures where they had, and it looked like these little motors they got off at timers, and they just, they were trying all the wrong things right, you know, kind of thing. They just didn't, didn't follow it through. far enough. I asked you about your business and what one of the highlights was and you told that story. I think it fits in perfectly to what you're talking about. That's a, you solved the problem. Nobody else could solve, it seems, in the town of Lloyd Minster. And it means a lot to you.

Well, I don't know if nobody else could solve it. Nobody else did. Nobody else wanted to. Maybe that was it. But that to me, it was, well, like, I'd have been happier. Well, I wouldn't have been happy with smiley faces in there and seeing a clockwork, but I'd been happy with smiley faces and a clock not working. Not just crazy. You know, blank it out, do something with it. But to have a, I mean, it's like, wait, can you imagine wearing a watch it doesn't run? What's the point? You know, so this is kind of the same thing. So yeah, that was my one little Yahoo moment, I guess. I know you like the parade.

There's one thing I've, there's been two things I've heard about you, two things being the parade and being around it for, I assume, year upon year, and fireworks. I've heard those two things. Now, maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right. Well, somebody must have guided you. Parades, Sean, again.

Small little Ukrainian boy from north of two hills. Never seen a parade until I got to Lloyd Minster. And I don't know if they've had one every year since 55 or not. As far as I'm aware they have. Now, if they didn't have it for a first number of years, I'm not aware of that. All I know is that ever since there has been a parade in Lloyd Minst. or at least since I've been here, and there's been a parade in Lloyd Minister, I have attended everyone.

Probably nothing to brag about either, but I can remember working for Husky Oil and my first time before they ran my ass down the road. And it was parade day and was talking to my foreman suggesting that I would maybe be going to town to watch a parade. and he suggested that I probably had a job that needed doing. And I'd kind of suggested that probably there's a damn good chance I'm going to jump in my truck and I'm going and I'm not coming back after the parade because I'm going to see the parade.

Simple as that. I haven't missed one yet and I'm not going to miss one. So he ended up sending me into Bill's stationery actually to pick up a, I think, a notepad in a couple of pens. So I had a legitimate reason to come to town. But I think I probably would have quit my job over that. That's how... What it means to me, how, I guess, bullheaded I can be on certain things. The parade to me, just look up and down the roots.

Have you ever seen more happy people? I mean, it's like going to Disneyland. You watch the crowds there. Nothing but smiles. So this is the same thing. Yeah, I was with the parade. Well, and then I, so like I said, a kid, even that, when we were in Australia and whatnot, I managed to get home just in time for the parade, I think two days before.

So I thought I was going to miss that one, but I didn't, anyhow. And then I was on the parade committee, actually, for probably far too long, many, many years helping coordinate that. My main job on the parade committee was coordinating the judging of the floats. That's a fairly monumental task in itself. They've got five different categories to pick a first, second, and third out of. And this all has to be done within like about a half or three quarters of an hour from the time they kind of start accumulating in one area

until they start marching down the road. So that was kind of a little task that was given to me that I did up until just about two years ago. I finally got too old I discovered to run. They were doing their staging area right on about, what was it, 46th and 52 Avenue on that cross section there. And then I would take the results and run them down to CPSA, so they'd be there for when the floats came through.

But I got to the point where I thought I was going to expire on the way with this running down there and not make her beyond macaws. And even though it was just across the street from CKSA, I didn't think I was going to make it anymore. So I bought myself a little motorbike for parade-specific use. And it's just the smallest little trail bike. So that's how I used to get around after and kind of keep the parade, try to keep the holes tightened up. and things like that. So, yeah, that was, I bought that specifically for that so that McCaw didn't have a service in the middle of a,

in the middle of a parade, you know. What was the best float you ever seen that? And I know that's probably a hard question, but. Oh, geez, there was a few. Unfortunately, I must say, all the best ones that come to my mind were out-of-towners. And they were professional-type floats at some of the bigger,

cities like Edmonton, I think he used to bring one around, but they were your class act type floats. I mean, long, huge, floral leaf. There was nothing chinty about them. There was one of a cowboy riding a giant mosquito, and I can't even remember what it was about. It was always a bit of an eye-catcher. There was quite a few, like you say, I just have a hard time placing any of such. And I just, you know, Besides the look, I was the coordinator guy, so I had my little group of judges. I decided that's the way to do it to get myself five group of judges, and then they go out and judge report back to me. I grab all this info and then go to CPSA with it.

So that actually worked out really good. And I fell upon that after the first year when I was asked to help with that. And I thought I was just showing up to help. It sounded like I was when I got there and I'm waiting and I'm looking around for the guy who had. me and he ain't around and I know like what's going on here so the parade was already starting to march down the street as I'm getting all these lists together discovering hey like you're the only guy here and the one person can't do

all this so the next year I got in this two five groups of two people you do this section you do this section you know you do the theme you do the horses you do the best commercial and that worked out great and in fact they're still use in that model to this day. What was it about a parade? You said happy people? Is that what sucked in? It's life.

It's happy people. It's kids. It's clowns. Our parades are really gone to hell over the years old. Let's face it. I mean, you know, they're getting worse and worse.

And one thing I was glad to see them eliminate a good number of years ago. It really got to be kind of like machinery row. You know, you'd get a half a mile these combines that can't even fit down. on the streets and tractors of the same sort. Well, you know, that's not really a parade to me.

Parade is people, it's floats, it's clowns, it's horses, it's, yeah, it's all of that. It's exhibition. I mean, it's the announcement for the exhibition. And as a kid, man, you waited all year long for probably Christmas in exhibition. That was the two big highlights of the year. remember collecting bottles all year long.

We'd come in early that morning from the farm and sell the bottles at Wallen's Bottle and that's the money you'd go to the exhibition with in the afternoon. So, yeah, I guess the parade being the big pre-exhibition, that's where the big draws. Now when you say it like that, I remember as a kid always, mom would always put us in the parade, they always had kids on bikes.

I remember we'd dazzle up our bikes. and I'm pretty sure I wrecked that part because I'm pretty sure I absolutely crashed in the middle of the parade. I was so young and nervous. That's quite a stage. Was that here in town? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Yeah. Sellers dairy freeze. Yeah. Well, there was, I'm sure, 100, 150 kids at one time dressing those things up. And there was some great ones. Well, and you mentioned kicking off the fair and everything. Like, you're right. As a kid now, thinking back, on it you really look forward to the Lloyd Farrer coming in and and that was like a big big event and something we didn't have around until the following year and it was only

here for a few days and then she was gone and on its way again absolutely no it was always fun times so why do you think then that's changed I I guess we've got desensitized to a lot of things I mean everything's out there it's either on TV or or you go buy it or I think a lot of it's maybe cost because getting to do up a proper float

with all the festoon and the floral sheeting and all the fringes and stuff like that isn't cheap. So as you see, most of our floats are looking pretty chinty on the decoration. Or, you know, vehicles or things like that coming through with two flowers

on a hubcap is hardly my idea of decorating, you know. If it's a 1923 Packard or something, fine. But it just, I think it's cost. Because I think you find people to put the time into it. I'd certainly put the time into it. And I haven't asked. But to throw a number out there,

I wouldn't doubt you'd spend $1,000 on decorations in a second. So that's probably a lot of it. But no better. I mean, form of advertising, how many people are going to see you within an hour? Good grief. You know, they line those streets and they're three deep and as thick as you can put them in there for a mile and a half. On both sides of the streets, not many more people are going to see you. I remember as a kid, though, you used to love going because you get so much candy.

Like, so much candy. And the rules got a little tight. on that? Well, it did because that, you know, there was a bit of candy and then it got to the point of overkill almost where they were just literally... I don't think you can any... Well, I can't do overkill on candy.

No, no kid could ever say that it was overkill. No, I hear you. But they were pitching out like just mittfuls. And then what, because I sat in that committee and I know what our problems were, kids running out and fear of somebody getting run over.

And in fact, somebody did get run over last year. Where was it? Not here. Vermillion. Wainwright, maybe it was at Wainwright. Some were fairly local. Kid got run over with a float. So that's then when we, the parade committee decided, hey, we need walkers.

If you guys are going to give away treats, that's fine and dandy, and it's all good. But you're going to have to utilize walkers to do that. You guys are going to have to get your candy or goodies from your float, take it to the curb. No more mittfuls. No, well, yeah, they still kind of do, no, smaller mittfuls for sure. But they kind of walk along just to curb and do it. So now the kids aren't running the street because at times it got quite bad. And parents, I don't know, some of them are trying to get rid of those kids or what.

I don't, you know, like, I think I'd have a tendency to look after mine a little better and let them run out there amongst the horses and the, you know, tractors and things like that. over a one-cent jolly rocker, you know. And then it gets almost to overkill. You see people showing up with their shopping bag and, you know, trying to fill the thing up. It's for a few treats, you know. It's not your next year's worth of supply of candy here, you know.

But people being people. People love free things. Oh, absolutely. How about fireworks? Fireworks. Yeah, that was actually, I imagine you could consider a passion perhaps. Okay.

I did enjoy that a lot. Kind of got into it a little bit by accident with family fireworks. Way, way, way back when, that even family fireworks were very difficult to find, and if you found them, everybody thought they're illegal, you know, you're kind of sneaking around. Well, as it turned out, they really weren't illegal, just everybody thought they were,

and basically nobody sold them. So we used to have a horseshoe tournament up at Bright Sands, a bunch of us locals, and, you know, just party time on the May-long weekend, basically, and draw-up teams. So it always has some fireworks at the end. Well, then it got to the point, well, who's going to light these things? Well, geez, you needed a fire chief or somebody,

to, you know, somebody of the liceness. Well, nobody wants to come out there amongst a bunch of drunken teenagers and do a bunch of fireworks, especially a responsible adult, you know. So a couple guys then discovered that you didn't need a liceness, actually, for these family fireworks. But, and I think, in fact, they discovered that when they went and took the fireworks course for the bigger stuff. And then I kind of hung with them for a show or two

and went and took my license and they just kind of did a couple, you know, with the Lloyd X, and I kind of, just because I did like it, decided to get into it and a little bit more of a commercial venture, I guess. Yeah. So kind of got started a little bit

and built up a bunch of equipment and got, you know, ordered by, up on electronic firing board and stuff from the States and shooting strips and things like that. So we started, I think time I was done, well, five, what was that, five, six years ago yet, I know we'd destroyed over a million dollars in the sky, so it seemed quite a, quite a few sparkles. So having shot a million dollars, or over a million dollars worth I kind of, There's small town, Lloyd Minster and small town, Lloyd, small town Larry.

I was kind of proud of that accomplishment. But I'd appreciate some of those bigger shows that, some of those have a $100,000 budget. Well, if you just did 10 of those, you got a million dollars worth all. It took me about 30 years to hit that million dollar mark. And you know the beauty of that whole thing was? I destroyed a billion dollars. Didn't cost me a penny.

Somebody else paid for every penny of it. Isn't that neat? Absolutely. So were you, then was it all in Lloyd here? Was it all over the place? Oh, no, we went, we'd been as far north as, I guess, Coal Lake, south to provost, east to north, Balford, west to Spruce Grove.

so kind of what was it about blowing is it just blowing shit up is that what it was cool about it well you gotta like the boom but have you never watched fireworks oh yeah absolutely well I rest my case it's the sparkle

it's magic in the sky you know it is it truly is magic in the sky how can you take this gunpowder that goes boom and make it do this and then with the next one you make it do this you know it just It's magic in the sky. It really is.

So was there a firework that came in? And you're like, oh, man, this is going to be, I can't even wait. We're closing the shop up today. We're driving out and we're going to let this thing off. Wait for dark. Well, we had a couple big ones that we were, you know, I mean, that we had to have special permission to use. And that was a 10 and 12 inch because you're only good for 6 inch on those licenses.

So you've got to get special endorsement for a 10 and that 12. we did shoot those. I remember, now just basically to see how big they are. And I know that 10 inch probably went up pretty close. You can pretty much figure on about a, you'll get about 100 feet of elevation per inch diameter of shell. So a 6 inch will go up about, you know, 600 feet.

And I know that 10, 12 inch are probably in the neighborhood of 1,000 to 1,200 feet. and then break about almost that same size, not quite about probably three quarters, because you're getting fairly close down the ground too. So they're just huge, so kind of with anticipation awaited that first one of that. Especially when it came in, and in the bottom of the box, here's this firework.

It's, I don't know if you've seen them, but there's goiter that's obviously 10 and 12 inches in diameter. It's got a big plastic cup underneath that holds all this black powder and one that size probably two cupfuls. This cap is off the bottom and there is these little black pellets and powders all over the inside of the box.

Now what do you do? Well, can't shoot it. Can't send it in the air. Well, let's take apart the other one and see how much of this this really got in there. Yeah, I've measured it up. pretty well two cupfuls.

Okay, so then I started taking a bunch. A bunch of this had fallen out. I had maybe one cup full, and then I still needed to get another cupful of powder somehow. So I started taking apart a bunch of six-inch shells and getting enough powder to make up this cupful and paint it back together, and we sent it in the air and everything worked.

But then I had all these six-inch shells to destroy somehow, so I put them inside the steel mortar out in the country and fired them, and I still remember when the bang went and the smoke cleared, I couldn't find that mortar. It shot it straight. Like I put it on the ground sideways. I didn't want to shoot it up into the air.

Didn't know what was going to happen with it. That mortar, which probably weighed 30, 40 pounds. I bet you must have skidded it backwards about 40 yards into the grass. The only reason I found is because it was smoking back there in the grass. Oh, yeah, okay. So anyhow, that was the one anticipation. But other than that, I mean, you're always looking for new and exciting, wonderful things. You know, the spinners, they call them Tour Billions.

They're always kind of neat. But a lot of it is, too, it's, you could give ten guys that same box of fireworks, and I'm sure you'd see ten different shows. It's all in the guy's interpretation. Some guys can't interpret them. It's like some guys can't saw a board, you know? There's one fella I work with, he just, his idea of shooting, you light fuses, bb, bb, bb, bb, bb, bb, there. Well, no, you put together sequences, you put together different things to make effects out of them.

Them by themselves are just, yeah, they're another large sparkler, but it's what you do with your large sparklers that makes a difference. I've always felt, anyhow. And I did. I said I had training from this barn eye. who owns BM fireworks, big company, Eastern Canada, and then I worked on a few displays in Calgary at the Global Fest with Big Bang fireworks. And so, you know, you kind of get spoiled there

because you see these grandiose ideas and then you try to pull it down into your small town budgets, you know. But a lot of the ideas, you know, you'll do. It just may be in not as a... grand dose way. You still get the effect. Some you just can't. Are you doing any more fireworks now or you're done?

I'm almost retired with everything but life. I'm hoping to really kick that one into some longevity. What did you thought of retirement? You know, it beats the hell out of working. No, I really, honestly, Sean, I thought I was going to struggle. People deprivation, I always thought was going to be my big thing because you maybe haven't noticed, but my wife claims I do like to talk. I'm not sure where the hell she gets up from.

Well, if you didn't talk, this wouldn't go so well. We never have brought out. You know, we haven't talked about your personal life very much. How many years have you been with your wife? This is my second attempt, and we've been 99, so what are we, 21 years here? A blended family. She's got two children, I've got two. Well, growing children, obviously, but now sucks when your kids are middle age,

but that's a reality. So, yeah, we've got how many grunion? we got there. I think it's about a graham bustle. It feels like at Christmas and Easter, anyhow. Eight, nine of them, yeah.

So we're doing our job for keeping the world populated. Is there lessons, you know, I always ask people about their relationships, their marriages, being on your second. Is there things you learn from your first or things you've learned in your lifetime about a marriage that, you know, you've learned now since the beginning? Well, you'd have to be one awful dumb bugger if you didn't learn nothing from the first one or the second one.

I would 100% agree. So, yeah, I mean, obviously a couple of things. A guy was a lot younger then. Probably a lot, well, no question about a lot stupid or two, or I would like to. think I was stupider then than I am now. So, you know, things like that. But, yeah, I think a lot of it was age and maturity, perhaps, and maybe. But, you know, the whole world just made wrong.

You know, you go through school and they teach you all the arithmetic and all the history and all that. Did they teach you anything about marriage and child rearing and finances? Zero. Probably the three most important things in your world, and they teach you nothing about it when you leave. school. You know, you come out of school, well, okay, you're starting to work, now you've got some money. Well, geez, oh, you open a bank account. What do I do? You know, nobody's taught you anything about that. Kids, does anybody talk to, well, I don't even know how you teach anybody

how to raise a kid, first of all, but marriage, too. It's, okay, there you go. And you just go at it dumb, try to figure it out. Like, there's no education on any part of that. And I always said that's so wrong. So it's little wonder we bugger up as often in as much as we do perhaps. I got to admire the people that have done their 40, 50, 60 years. Good grief. How did you not kill him by now? There had to have been arsenic in the medicine cabinet there at one time, you know, all the power to them, like hats off. But yes, I obviously learned from the first time. Maybe at also

had a little bit to do when I got back from Australia. Maybe I was a bit on the lonely side. I felt like I needed somebody or something. I don't know. Maybe didn't make as well I know definitely I didn't make as good a choice as I made my second time.

And my second one, if that would have happened the first time, there wouldn't have been a second one. So, yeah. But in the meantime, I've kind of got my head out of my behind here and, you know, they kind of matured up a little. Well, and the other thing, too, I mean, we were to the age, too, where we weren't raising children anymore, too.

And that takes its stress and a strain on a lot of times on people and relationships as well. Kids aren't time-consuming whatsoever. No, and they're not. not hard on the nerves or nothing. You know, you mentioned school's not teaching about finance, marriage, kids. You ever wonder why they don't do that? Wouldn't that just make complete sense?

Well, to me, it's always made sense since I was probably in junior high. You know, even as a youngster, they teach us nothing about that. Well, in my second year in 12, when I picked up another subject so I could play football, I picked up economics because I was told it was. an easy subject. They taught us a little bit there, but it was so minute. It's not even worth mentioning.

And it just started that one year. I imagine they probably still got it. Yeah, it's... Well, I sit here and people hear it on the podcast all the time, but I got three kids, four and under. And I worry about a couple of things. And one of them I always say to Mel, my wife, is, man, how did I get it really?

right on the first time with, you talk if you would have met your second wife when you met the first. Maybe none of it ever changes and there you are. Well, I did that in my first and I sometimes wonder how on earth that is possible. And we're not nearly as far along as you guys are, but I mean,

that's a big choice. And you don't, there's not like a, I don't know, there isn't no such thing as a school of marriage or a school of, you know, we, the Catholic,

church system. They put you through a course. You have to go through a course to get married Catholic. And it's, I laughed at it because I was like, man, if you haven't thought of these questions and you're coming here to get married, you probably got more problems, right? Like talking about religion and kids and a couple different things and it's like, I'm hoping you're talking about this before you decide you're getting married. Finance is another one, right? People put themselves in very tough positions, but schooling, we never talk about it. We never talk about a ton of things there. And you hit it right on the head there

that people put themselves in some very awkward positions when it comes to financing. Most of it is self-caused, you know? I've known people are just like you're a stupid in the head spender. Like you just stop pen and paper in two minutes. You'll soon figure what you're doing isn't right, you know. But that's people.

Well, this time we're living through right now, I mean, uh, government giving out money and I don't know. I don't know what to think of this. I don't, I don't either, Sean, and that's, you know, a lot of people. I mean, now I'm starting to think a lot of these people just, you know, $2,000.

Hey, I can live not bad on that. I don't think I want to go to work. Oh, I guarantee there's a ton of people like that. But what happens when those get cut out? Yeah, but the thing is these meatheads don't realize too is they've got to come up with the taxes of this come April. And I can bet you a nickel to donuts that there's, be lucky if 1% is hung on to anything for taxes.

And they're going to come April. Geez, I got taxes to pay on this 12 grand I got here. Yeah, you know, you a dummy. No, I don't know. This is really trying time. But, geez, I'll tell you what, at my age 70 here, I'd have never, ever imagined in my entire lifetime, 10 lifetimes at something like this could come down.

You know, somebody six months ago would have said, Sean, you know what? On about March 15th, we're going to shut down for a million. Totally shut it down. You're going to keep people in the houses, going to lock the stores, shut down. You'd look at them, like, like, what are you crazy? Like, that's impossible.

There's no bloody way that you can... Yeah, there's no way you can shut down an entire town. Well, hell, we shut down a town, a province, It's a country, the world. You know, how, like God, who, I just get lost for words when I get thinking about that. It just, it's, you'd think it's an impossibility, and yet it's happened, you know,

and maybe going to continue happening. My stepson said to me the other day, said something about, well, his mother, she's not traveling down to Costa Rica until there's a, we've got a place down there, but she's not traveling down there until they've got, a vaccine in place and it's proven and whatnot. And he kind of looked and he says, you know, he says the colds of virus, isn't it? Yeah. If they found a vaccine for that in the last couple

hundred years? Good point. Maybe they may never find a vaccine for this. Wouldn't that be something? Humanity for the rest of time without this go? That'll be the new picture. That'll be the new what man looked like, you know. But how the heck, you know, like it's... I struggle with how we get past this. Well, I do too. I do too. Like, is it any year? And I don't think you can just go ahead and ignore it.

You know, the part that's scary is the rapidity of how it spreads. You know, it's not that it's spreading. It's how quick, like you can put one person in a room of 500 and they've pretty much all got it by the afternoon out, you know. I don't know how we get around it and I you know Jesus I'm almost at the end of my tanture I keep thinking of all the young ones coming up shit we lived I've lived a great life

man a woman you know like right from my we came through the 50s and all that sure there wasn't land of milk and honey and the horn of plenty but you know what we we were all the same people I went to school with I don't know if there was two rich kids in the entire school, we were all average. And everybody got along well.

Like I said, I've had a great life. I've never had abundances. I've never really done without. And I'm much content, as they'd say in Spanish. Well, a couple more before I let you go. Maybe what do you think the biggest achievement is over your lifetime. Is there's the crown jewel? Is it furniture clinic?

Is it something you accomplished? Is it the clock? Is it? Yeah, well, I mean, furniture clinic, that was a lot of my heart and soul, me and my brother Rob. I'd hate to think that that was my crowning glory. I mean, if I had to built the Empire State building or something, I would have maybe never brought it up. No, I mean, I'm proud of the fact that we did own a business. I was able to provide a living for quite a few families over that 45 years,

including my own family. But a lot of the employees raise families while working there. That makes me feel good. I guess really anyone's crowning glory. would have to be the next generation, the raising of your kids. I had one in particular that if I could have caught mad, if I was quicker on my legs mad than he was on his legs scared, I might have killed him.

His only salvation was he could run faster than I could. So I had one that was, challenging and you know what took a while but has turned into a respectable good adult that I'm proud of. So and the other one never really was any grief. But then I kind of think back in my own upbringing and I think maybe my parents had one that might have given them a little grief too and the other two weren't too bad and we won't mention who he was. so maybe some of that a friend of mine always does say that an apple doesn't fall too far from the trees so there may be something to do that

but I guess like I say the crowning glory would be I guess to bring up some healthy children with a set of brains in their head that will go out in the world and in fact use them you can't you can't want more than that the life. I laugh about your comment about the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. My oldest son

is Sean 2.0 and I am in for a hold on boys. It's going to be a fun ride but he talks a mile a minute. I don't like to talk at all and he is a handful and I've heard from friends of my parents that it's me running around right and so when I hear you talk that you had a sudden after you just told me the story of being on a trip across the world and almost not making it home and husky getting booted out of there and everything else. And I could see it. Yeah, well, I guess I had fun. You know, and it came out of it fairly unscathed.

It's the beauty of it. I often tell people, geez, I'd love to just do that one more time. And of course, you always throw it and know what you know now. No, I don't want to know any more than I knew the first time. I'd go through it stupid one more time. I kind of came out of it fairly unscathed. They still have all my hands, all my legs. I'd do it stupid one more time.

If you could take a time machine then and go back to your 20-year-old self, 25-year-old self, right at the start of your business, you wouldn't be like, listen, just remember this lesson. Nah, n'uh. No? No, no. Just put me back there. Just an empty head and put me back there and I'll figure it out.

I mean, you'd have a hell of an advantage if you knew what you knew now, but that's unfair. I mean, no, I'd go out of her dumb one more time. One more for you then. In business, in business in general, if there's somebody who's going to start their own furniture clinic, is there a piece of advice you give them now that you've gone through it all? Buy lot of tickets. No, I'm just kidding. It's, I think, I mean, some, get used to some fairly long hours, quite a bit of hard work.

And I guess some, if you get large enough, maybe get quite lucrative. Our situation, I mean, we never got filthy rich out of it. We didn't make a living, decent living. We said we employed families who ate and had somewhere to sleep as partial our doings, I guess. But no, I don't know that I would. Yeah, I don't know. That's kind of a tough one. Did you enjoy owning a business?

Oh, I enjoyed it. You know, I really enjoyed it from the aspect of you think you've got a little bit more freedoms. I can come and go when I want. Well, I don't know, weren't the heck of a guy ever got that one put into his head, but I can tell you, that's probably quite opposite of that. If you really have to get away, then you can. I'll put it that way. But chances are you're staying there more than the guy that's.

working there. Well, you are. You're there before, you're there after, and on Saturday and Sunday you're thinking about what you're doing on Monday. So from that aspect, but yes, I did enjoy it. And I enjoyed the people. I'm a people person. I don't do well by myself. So, and I had, you know, a constant flow of people. That's where I thought retirement was really going to be difficult for me. But I'm surprised how easily I've fallen into it. What's your best act? What do you like most about retirement? What do you, what's your, you got coffee row or are you golfing or are you traveling? What are you doing? Nothing. No, that's a, that's a bit of a lie. I've been busy my whole life. I can't do nothing. I've been doing a little bit of maintenance

on our house and our yard this year. But I'll get into some volunteering. I mean, I do a bit of volunteering now, different things. So I'll do a bit of that. No, you got to keep these things busy, and you got to keep this thing busy, because otherwise, Macaw will get you quicker than you know. One foot ahead of the other, you've got to keep moving. And you've got to use that noggin.

God put that there for a reason, like my old dad said. It wasn't just to keep you from floating away. That was all you wanted. He'd have put a rock up there instead, you know. could have used a smaller one. But yes, that's, I, I did enjoy the business. I did enjoy the people. I like the work I did.

I still, God, I still love touching up. I mean, hell, I'll take any, you want me to make that not disappear. I could make that not disappear for you. That's a bit of an exaggeration. But, you know, we did a lot of repairs, moving repairs, shipping repairs, and the stuff got fixed up and went brand new out in the store floors for sale. They weren't the markdown item when we finished with them. They were sold off at full price.

So I had a bit of a knack and not bragging, but I had a bit of a knack for that, and I enjoyed it, I guess, because I had a bit of a knack for it. I could do a good blend on colors and do a lot of good disguises. Like one guy we had there for six, seven years, I couldn't let him do a touch up for love of me. no matter what he tried it, always ended up a black blob. You know, and I find him like, no, quit.

I can't get you to do my touch-ups. He just didn't have an eye for color, you know. That's the way it is. Well, I've thoroughly enjoyed this. I hope you have too. Yeah, it's been, geez, what a BS session this was. 10% of this might have been factual. Well, you're locked in now, sir.

Appreciate you sitting down with me. Well, I appreciate being asked. I kind of honored, I must say, humbled would be a better word, probably. I say when Lynn phoned me, she surprised me and humbled me, and I'm not sure what, all in the same motion. But I said, what you need is somebody, a politician that can really BS the troops. I don't know. She figured that was me or what?

deal was. Anyhow. Well, it's been an enjoyable almost couple hours there sitting, so. Well, I've got to thank you for taking the time to do all this, Sean. I mean, you know, it's like you and the rest of these archiveists. If somebody doesn't do that,

a lot of that stuff was going to end up in the dump, basically. I mean, if somebody didn't start cataloguing or doing something. And I know that's like I've saved sports things and stuff for the last probably 50, 60 years at home. I just kept shoving on my book. I'll put them in there one day.

Well, I got to start at that one of these days because this is going to end up in a dump too. And there's a lot of good old information in there. But this is kind of the same thing. If you and people like you don't put the work and effort in there, history gets erased. It's gone. And once it's gone, it's gone forever.

Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. I listen to you talk about, say, fireworks. and the time and effort you put into that hobby. And some people get it, some people don't get it. But sitting here doing this, I find highly enjoyable. Very enjoyable. That's it.

Time flies by. And especially when you're talking about shuffling some weed in your cowboy boots across the border, that's something you just don't hear every day. That's something maybe my grandkids don't need to know. Also part of my life. No, it's, if I was Jesse James at one time, I guess I was Jesse James at one time. I know. I am thoroughly enjoy. I appreciate it. I hope people enjoy listening to it as much as I do. But I enjoy the stories. I enjoy hearing about our past and where we've come from and people's perspectives, because everybody has their own perspective.

And you running a business in this city for 45 years and growing up in this area, you know, for 70 years, I mean, there's something to be said about that. And you just, you know, I put it at, you've lived double my time. So as much as I think I know, someday I know I know, squat. It all, it, well, you hope it all keeps adding up. You'd hate to think you get to the point

where you stop learning. Because then you are a dummy, you know. Well. I think, you know, I kind of go with the old theory that, you know, listen to people because it's the same old thing, even the dumbest person on this earth, has something to offer.

I don't care how dumb he is. He's got something to offer. So listen to him. That's just life. Treat people like people. Well, I appreciate it. Well, I certainly appreciate the time. I didn't realize that I'd rambled on

for quite as long as I had. It was perfect. Hell, I would just getting started. Hey, folks, thanks again for joining us today. If you just stumble on the show and like what you hear, please click subscribe. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday a new guest will be sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you find your podcast fix.

Until next time.