Maurice Quinton & Sons Transport

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My father had a trucking company — Maurice Quinton & Sons Transport, Walter's Falls. They had a slogan: "Big enough to handle your job, small enough to appreciate it." For more photos, click on the image.

He and mom had seven children, six boys and the eldest daughter Ellen. At the left that's a picture of his sons with his newly purchased International Harvester cab over diesel. The sons are Larry, Tony, David, Reg, Dale and Paul in a row from oldest to youngest. I don't recall the date but my guess is it's sometime around 1964. I do recall the occasion, it was a big deal when he brought this newly purchased cab over sleeper rig home. It was a big investment and a big risk on borrowed money.

In the background is the modest home I was raised in. During my university years, when my brother Tony returned to work with Dad, they moved to a larger home in the village with an attached work shed and large yard for the trucks. That was during their expansion years and would be the home Kate remembers.

Before this diesel he had gasoline powered trucks which spent a lot of time at Miller's garage on 8th Street in Owen Sound getting valves replaced. Gasoline engines run hot, they spin faster at higher RPM and the valves burn out. Buying a diesel was a leap of faith which worked out well. Diesel engine spin slower and are much more reliable on long haul jobs. Much of Dad's business was long haul — trucking loads of calcium chloride from Allied Chemical in Amherstburg to the far north for road construction. A sleeper cab gave you a "Hilton on four wheels"; no need for expensive motels. I understand this was the first diesel truck in the area. In the album there's old photos which predate this vehicle. Tony recalls the snow plow and has a story which I'll come to in a moment.

Dad had "Maurice Quinton & Sons" painted on his vehicles. It was a bit of wishful thinking. At the time of this photo Larry was off on his own career. Tony and David both worked summers with Dad while at school and both drove this truck — it was a bit of a bone shaker with solid blocks of rubber for the rear suspension. I worked summers for them when I was at university but never really learned to drive the big rigs. Tony was the only son who returned and went into business with Dad. Dad's grandson Ken (Ellen's son, our nephew) drove many years for Dad as well. There's a good picture of them mugging together in the album.

The first equipment Tony remembers is the snowplow.  He recalls being in it with Dad who was trying to break through the drifts on the church hill in the village. He got motion sickness and vomited in the cab — he was not a very popular boy that day! 

When Tony graduated from the Haileybury School of Mines he worked in the mines of Northern Ontario and BC and then on the Churchill Falls Dam project in Labrador. He had saved some money, came home, bought his first truck (a blue Ford Louisville) in 1971 and went into business with Dad. I recall riding with Tony on jobs during my summers from university. Dad and Tony formed a corporation and for the next 25 years ran the business together. They had some very good years and had expanded to a fair sized fleet but ultimately started to lose money by the early 1990's. I recall the deregulation of the Mike Harris years contributed to their ultimate failure; there became too many guys chasing not enough jobs for too little money.

Dad was getting on in years and it was left to Tony to decide what they should do. In 1993 he decided to sellout and move on. Everything went to an auction outfit on airport road in Mississauga. They had quite a bit of quality equipment at the time: there were three Kenworth cabovers (No.s 6, 9 and 12), two Kenworth conventionals (No.s 14 and 15) and there would have been several trailers as well. The auction house had offered a guarantee of $130K but they decided to take what the sale would get and ended with only $125K. They had lost again! When all the bills were paid Tony got only what he had started with back in 1971; he had worked 25 years for no return (he was remembered in Dad's will). Mom and Dad retired and moved into the city of Owen Sound. Tony moved west and worked in the oil and gas industry in Alberta and BC until he was 65 then co-drove a truck from Edmonton, AB to Houston, TX for a year and a half. They'd drive down and back in 6 days loaded both ways.

Tony asked, as an aside, if I remember the tire exploding on you at the  Allied plant? It was scary. 

I do indeed remember the tire exploding at Allied Chemical. This was early on after Tony had come back to go into business with Dad. They were in the plant together and I was riding along with Tony; two trucks were loading up 25 tons or so of calcium chloride for road construction. After the trailers were loaded and we were preparing to go a final walk around revealed that Tony had a flat on his trailer. Dad was pissed about the flat on a fully loaded trailer — lifting the axle to change the tire would be difficult given the weight of the trailer. Tony was pissed because Dad was being nasty ("You should have known!"; "How the hell would I have known that!"). Dad had the expectation that everyone should know what he knew without ever communicating it.  Tony was learning his way with a terrible teacher. Dad was not a good communicator.

Anyways, I was trying to help them (and stay out of the fray) and was under the trailer getting out the spare tire. I had pushed it out of the cage, it fell to the ground and promptly exploded with some force. Truck tires are under tremendous pressure and these had a metal retaining ring around them that held the tire in place. The explosion was the retaining ring slipping out of it's place and the air pressure letting go. The ring dented the metal of the trailer under carriage — had I been in the way it would have cut me in two. When the tire blew my first thought was I had screwed up and now Dad is going to be pissed at me as well! Instead he and Tony both recognized that I might have been killed and blown to bits. Dad was almost in tears and held me close. He would let you know that he loved you, but he was often a bear. Tony, working with Dad, got a lot of the bear.

There are other stories about the various sons and the trucking company, but that's enough for now. I'm sure more will be added later as I continue conversations with family. Until then, enjoy the pictures.

Ps. a few years ago a hobbyist, Robert Fitzsimmons, got hold of me for pictures of Dad's trucks. He was building a model and wanted to get the painting scheme right. He also shared with me a picture of one of Dad's trucks that is now in the possession of a collector. You'll find pictures of both in the album. The model he produced is a bit misleading — it's not the right truck and, while over the years they did haul a lot of lumber for Hallman Lumber of Walter's Falls, they never produced shrink wrapped kiln dried lumber.

After sharing these stories and photos Leslie wrote "Thanks for sharing! I have memories of both houses and even of sitting in the sleeping cab - always secretly hoped I could hide away in there on a trip. " I replied that I recall sleeping with Dad in the truck on long trips but it's not that cozy!

Alison wrote "I have some memories of Grandpa’s trucks. I remember riding in them at times, a bumpy ride and feeling so high in the sky in the cab. I remember Apple loads and watching the process of having them washed on some kind of device."

69th Birthday

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Most years it seems we're out of the country for my birthday. And most years Kate, as designated driver, takes me on a tour of local wineries where ever we might be travelling. This year, like everyone else, we're not travelling. But that doesn't mean we can't continue the tradition.

Kate arranged a wine tasting for my birthday at Fielding Estates near Grimbsby (it's on the Beamsville Bench in the Niagara wine country). Fielding Estates is one of the "F'ing Wineries" — Featherstone and Flat Rock being the others. She had booked this back in the fall. Since the COVID-19 crisis, which began last year just as we returned from Texas, this winery has had these neat little geodesic domes set up outside where you can socially distance but still enjoy the sun, something to nosh on and some fine wine. Unfortunately, back in February, when it was my birthday the wine area was completely locked down because of the virus. She rebooked and we went over on Saturday. This was our first adventure out of the house in a very long time. We put gas in Kate's car on the way — the first fill up this year!

It's a little over two hours from here to the winery and we got there in good time having planned an extra half hour. Since it was my birthday Kate insisted on being the designated driver; I was the designated drinker, she limited her tastings. We got there early and were advised that we'd have to wait until our 1:00pm appointment — they have to wipe things down and let the dome air out for a half hour between customers to keep things safe. Some domes had comfy chairs and sofas in a lounging setup. Ours was a table with 6 chairs in a dining style. We could have brought some friends with us but we're not comfortable with doing so yet. All our friends agreed that going to this event would be safe enough, some even encouraged us to visit a few of the other wineries. We'll do that another day.

We had our reserved dome (you need to book ahead and it costs $20) from 1:00pm until 2:30pm. We ordered a cheese tray with several extras and sampled all of their white wines (that included a Rose). That was a flight of 7 wines, 2oz each that we shared. I was particularly impressed by their two Riesling and a Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend they call White Conception (the name doesn't do justice and doesn't tell you enough about what to expect). From our Australian adventures we've had a lot of "Sem/Sauv"; it's a pretty much a "go to" blend there; it's also a common Bordeaux blend. All of these wines are well worth enjoying; however they do command a wine boutique price. We ended up buying several of their Rose which were more in my price range. 

We shared two cheeses (Gunn's Hill Handeck and Cows XO Aged Cheddar — both impressive and presented as huge blocks) with some crostini (we ordered extra), some Greaves Marmalade, Garlic & Red Pepper Olives (a whole jar!) and some crackers. There was more than enough for us to munch on as we enjoyed our wines for our allotted one hour and a half. After the white tasting we ordered a glass of their 2016 Syrah and their 2017 Rock Pile Chardonnay. Again Kate only tasted, while I finished them off. Kate encouraged me to sample a flight of their 6 reds but instead I just tried a glass of the one. We added a bottle of their Pinot Noir and the Chardonnay to our take home bag — that's six wines we took home.

The experience in the dome is pretty slick. As you can see from the photos they're clear vinyl and quite large. You're zippered in and given instructions to help manage the virus. E.g. we were required to wear a mask when ever a server entered and we had a paging device to summon the server when needed. It was a sunny day and quite warm within the dome. There was an electric space heater but it wasn't needed when the sun was out. Mind you it cooled very quickly when the sun went behind the clouds. There are zippered windows and a door to keep out the cold. It was quite comfy, we actually looked them up on the web thinking that we might enjoy having a dome on our deck.

It was a lovely day spent together. An especially nice gift for my birthday from my Sweet Baboo. We enjoy Niagara wines and miss our adventures in the wine country. When things return to normal later this year (touch wood) we'll be back.

Kate remarked that it's been a year with us at home every night (modulo a couple of hospital visits for each of us).