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tribune february 10 198s c3 back to nature spademan disposes of business by bruce stapley sorry folks but ralph spade man is no longer at your disposal the gruffmannered hard working former ice delivery man has sold his business spademans waste disposal west of hwy 47 north of the stouffville sales barn but one things certain we ha vent seen the last of ralph spade man not by a long shot im not going to sit down and vegetate ive still a few ideas left he states with certainty these ideas include farming 20 acres of christmas trees on his property near utica and the promotion of his pet cause re cycling he also hopes to find time to do a little travelling the business sale in itself tells a great deal about what makes this unique individual tick the pur chaser was miller paving but not because the markham firm was the highest bidder mr spademan a fierce nationalist was determined the company wouldnt fall into amer ican hands i regretted the canadian firm couldnt come up with the same money as the american com- pauy he says but i couldnt let it go american a big part of his opposition to an american takeover was the pro tection of his employees i didnt think it would be fair to them he said spademan who worked alongside his employees driving the disposal trucks until three years ago developed a great re spect for the people who worked for him and he says they came to appreciate it the employees worked for ralph they didnt work for fri day night he insists many of his 34 fulltime staff had been there up to 20 years when he sold the business in de cember i always got involved he says i worked alongside them they knew that if they so long spademan ralph spademan inset has sold his waste disposal business to miller paving in markham the utica- area man says hell now focus some of his spare time on recycling ideas predicting that by the turn of the century there will be no garbage jim thomas didnt do it i would i always started first and finished last ralph spademan has never known anything other than hard work born in 1925 his father moved the family to markham in 1930 to start a market garden op eration after he lost everything as a machinist in the stock market crash of 29 he remembers help ing his father in the fields as a kid handling the horsedrawn culti vator when he was 11 his father be gan an ice delivery operation he and his dad cut ice from milnes pond markham and delivered it to customers by horse and demo crat the business became his re sponsibility when at age 16 everyone went to war with the give and take of prog ress he lost the icebox servicing business to electric refrigerators but gained a new livelihood col lecting garbage ralph went out and purchased an old threequarter ton interna tional truck he then began lining up patrons id do anything to get custom ers he says id follow- moving vans and help people move in just to get to pick up their garbage for 25 cents a week i threw the garbage on and shovelled it off he laughs as a sideline he would repair broken sidewalks in this regard he cant forget the time alma walker then the reeve of mar kham got her heel stuck in one of his repair jobs on her way out of the post office she fired me on the spot he says with a loud laugh but i was reinstated mind you some of those pot holes i filled are still holding up by the time 1965 rolled around ralph spademan could brag an impressive lineup of equipment including sideloading garbage trucks frontend loaders and roll- offs it was in that year that he moved the operation to stouffvil le where he would line up con tracts such as the one that saw him responsible for collecting all residential garbage in town other contracts were arranged with the scarborough board of education the town of east g willimbury and the york region board of education when he sold the business he had 2000 customers which he serviced with as many detachable rolloff containers and 20 trucks ralph spademan agrees gar bage has been good to him in more ways than one its always been hard work he insists but still a lot of fun he claims some of his proudest possessions have been obtained from other peoples waste i re member a lady who just wanted to clear everything out when her family broke up he says we ended up hauling away a truck load of linens im still using them you can obtain anything you want from garbage he claims we actually put in orders for things we needed we obtained them eventually ralph spademan becomes se rious when the subject of recycl ing is raised at the turn of the century therell be no garbage he maintains no one will have it he insists products will have to be sold in returnable or recycl able containers mrs housewife has been trained to spend over half her grocery money on pack aging this has to stop weve run out of places to put garbage ralph personally composts his trash and refuses to buy anything in a can we received an electric canopener for christmas he says its never been used ralph says he has ideas hell promote in an effort to make re cycling more popular his own garbage he claims consists of one grocery bagfull every two weeks at age 62 ralph spademan in tends to make his mark for years to come while hes not at our dis posal the man and the company he created live on have your say j question are you disappointed the academic program will not be extended past grade 10 this fall deborah dutcher ill miss all the pfeopepve come to know here but im looking forward to attending a larger school m rob lowe the teachers tod myfrierids here have helped me alotiu be sorry to lose those close re- lationships i really enjoy this school- -iv- v- v marclapointe yes im disappointed all of riiy friends are here ill be- going to a school where ill hardly know anyone its diffi cult breaking up friendships youve made over the years beaupaquin k this is a good school my marks have improved be- causethe teachers pushed me v v vyy