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tbelkibiine arm fourth section a metroland community newspaper retirement means hes still on call at stouffville coop wednesday april 27 1988 by bruce stapley ross wideman has come in out of the cold and at the age of 69 hes making a strong case for the idea of seniors continuing on in the work force in a limited capac ity once they have outgrown the rigours of the daily grind the altona resident who drove an oil truck for the stouffville coop from 1952 until his retire ment three years ago has been on call ever since and as it turns out the call just keeps on coming i guess im averaging around 20 hours a week since i retired claims the fit looking gentleman with the contented approach to wards life some times ill work eight hours in one day other times ill work eight hours in a whole week his oil truck driving days however are over as he is now doing strictly inside work 1 finally decided to retire from oil delivery because the pressure got too great there were some long hours and a lot of time spent out in the cold i had to start worrying about my health at my age does he miss the old routine i kind of wished i hadnt stop ped for a while there afterwards he admits having gotten used to the routine after so many years it was an ideal job for someone like me for ross driving the oil truck for the coop meant he was able to have a certain amount of inde pendence he never minded the lone wolf aspect of the job in fact he thrived on it i work best alone he claims i spent a lot of time on my dads farm alone hoeing and the like when i was younger people like to chat sometimes but i always felt i had a job to do rosss relationship with his cus tomers through the years has al ways had special meaning to the man who believes in old time ser vice people come to trust you through the years he says i like to feel that the customers are my friends and ive always known that it was the customer markham farmer takes eyeopener holiday in africa by bruce stapley for harvey brown 20 years a beef farmer at the corner of 18th ave and hwy 48 a recent holi day in africa was a bit of an eye- opener in terms of cattle main taining methods employed by some of the herdsmen one of the highlights of the game viewing expedition throughout kenya for harvey and his wife nancy was a visit to a maisi village which centred around the raising of cattle the cattle were not being raised for the purpose of slaught ering them harvey explained they were used for dairy pur poses and the drawing of blood which when mixed with the milk made up a significant part of the diet of the villagers the cattle harvey claims are an indication of the wealth of each family the animals would be herded by day as there were no fenced in areas as we have in canada at night they would be brought inside the compound where the family dwellings were housed for their protection the cattle are never allowed to graze on their own like they are here because of the danger of their being attacked by lions and cheetahs the cattle he noted were a varied mixture of breeds not pure bred like on the beef farms in canada they were mongrels for the most part the holiday which was prom oted by the university of guelph where harvey and nancy both studied in the 1960s afforded the browns to visit five game camps altogether they were particularly im pressed by the facility at the camp called treetops named because of its elevated position which allowed a clear view of the variety of animals which came to the camps watering hole at night the safari brought them in plain view of elephants lions cheetahs wijdebeasts hippos crocodiles giraffes warthogs and a crosssection of birds the trip included a visit to the home of karen biixen who inspired the story line behind the movie out of africa the holiday served as an educa tional experience for the browns as well as providing the opportun ity to greatly enhance their photo graph collection i was surprised to discover that agriculture is the number one economic factor over there fol lowed by tourism says harvey i was also surprised by the ex ceptional quality of the food and the service in the restaurants even at the game camps the trip was a retirement pre sent of sorts for harvey who has decided to scale down his commit ment to beef farming somewhat who was paying my salary he has been equally comfort able through the years with his fellow employees at the coop a business which prides itself on its family type unity and the fact that employees tend to stay around for a long time stability is a positive factor in a business he maintains you learn to get along with people i always bent over backwards to get along with my fellow em ployees as for his staying put for so long ross admits to not having a restless nature when it comes to seeking out other employment opportunities i dont care for a change id have to be pretty up set to leave a job and i was al ways happy to stay im not a gambler in fact he believed there were so many positive aspects to his job that it would have been almost im possible to match the benefits anywhere else i liked every thing about the job the fresh air the exercise and the independ ence ross was born and raised on his fathers farm in dicksons hill on what is now the site of the hotel he was employed on the farm un til the age of 36 he married his wife ivy in 1955 and bought the fouracre plot in altona where they still live today ross and ivy have four grown children and six grandchildren he credits his placid attitude and his overall contentedness to a strong christian faith the lords been good to me he in sists a keen bible student he claims that his beliefs have made it possible for him to keep an even keel throughout the years ross remembers the early days when he would make oil de- liveries in the coops old interna tional truck top speed was ab out 40 miles per hour he recalls it carried about 800 gallons compared to todays trucks that will hold around 2500 and it was a pretty rugged routine back then youd often find yourself working til 9 pm or whenever the job was done i re member being on the job until past midnight one cold new years eve he was on call if a customer was to run dry of fuel oil in the middle of the night he claims the introduction of the degree day system whereby a card is kept for each customers house which takes into accunt how cold the weather has been went a long way towards elimi nating the emergency fill ups at odd hours that plus rosss own intuitive sense of which houses went through more fuel oil under the various winter conditions as for how much longer he feels he will want to stay on as a part- time employee ross just shrugs and says he has no idea of what the future will bring although hes retired ross wideman is still on the job 1955 ross says the parttime arrangement suits him part time at the stouffville coop where hes been a just fine familiar figure as an oil delivery truck driver since busy life for uxbridges ouie wilson oilie wilson still finds time to relax and is always ready with a smile despite operating a major auction business north of uxbridge shes also the pianist for her churchs choir oilie wilson is the first to admit that she has her hands full as far as her lifes involvements are concerned the owneroperator of wilsons auc tions ltd two miles north of uxbridge on durham road 1 presides over a business that has been growing steadily ever since she and her late husband lloyd started it up in 1958 and with five children four of them teenagers living at home helping run the family dairy business oilie claims she doesnt get much time to sit back and contemplate her very existence but shes the last to complain con tentedness virtually radiates from her voice and her pleasant nature makes her a most engaging individual to meet i just love it she says of the auc tion business that specializes in hol- stein auctions and estate sales i think its great you get to meet a lot of peo ple and its a fun business oilie doesnt consider herself a one woman band by any means despite her ability to look after family and busi ness affairs that require some astute time management on occasion im dependent on others she insists im not an independent type she has managed to surround herself with knowledgeable competent indi viduals whose contribution to the run ning of the auction operation is im measurable her full time auctioneer is neil bacon and operations manager jim huffman heads up a fulltime staff of three she has access to experts in various fields who are available for specific duties such as the man who comes all the way from the ottawa area to help out at cattle sales oilie also has a spe cialist who comes in to do pedigrees on cattle being sold and a fulltime cattle clipper i also have people who go around to the farms to select cattle for the sales looking for quality stock she main tains this was the area that husband lloyd used to specialize in and it has taken a while to bring back that end of the busi ness cattle sales are almost back to where they were when lloyd was out beating the path to line up busness the business is run out of the sale barn the wilsons built in 1979 before we had the barn we would conduct the sales on the property of the farmers or on the sites of the estates oilie says but we found that farmers in particu lar wanted the sales done somewhere else not on their property it has work ed out much better this way cattle sales arc held at the rate of one a month on average furniture and estate sales are more regular usually running twice a week and often con sisting of goods from several consig nees the big sales arc advertised about a month and a half ahead oilie states it takes a lot of organization furni ture must be picked up and trans ported she makes a point of being there on sale days and says shes on the site at least for a while most other days and while most sales are somewhat routine there are noteworthy exceptions the estate sale of the antique collec tion of markhams john kerr last fall brought buyers from all over ontario and saw prices as high as 8000 paid for a quebec armoire in the fall of 1979 we had a cow go for 60000 says oilie we offen see prize animals go for ten fifteen or even twentyfive thousand dollars a recent purchase saw a calf bought for a man in calgary with the calf being flown directly to the western city in preparation for the cattle show held there this month cattle auctioned from the barn have also gone to new york pennsylvania and utah amongother places the big gest cattle sale ever held there claims oilie saw 200 head go on the auction block as for the furniture and estate sales she maintains there is always someone who wants to sell some property we have people calling almost every day with 5 or 10 items they want to have sold oilie claims shes still learning the business even after almost 30 years im still learning i guess you arc al ways learning despite her commitment to business and family oilie finds time to attend the uxbridge baptist church where she plays piano for the choir