JIM PRICE, YET ANOTHER EXTRAORDINARILY ORDINARY CANADIAN by BARNEY MOORHOUSE
Born Saturday, October 13, 1934, in the year of the dog, Jim Price, by age, if not experience, is the elder of our deer camp; known affectionately by some as The Old Farts’ Club. Jim usually sets up shop at THE CONDO and often manages to take a deer from his vantage point when the rest of us seldom see anything from that same spot. Perhaps Jim is a deer magnet?
Born and raised in Sudbury, Jim’s mother would gather up Jim, his sister, two brothers and head for the bush for summer vacation. Kids in tow, Woods-like bags full of food and supplies, Mrs. Price would catch the CN train for Sudbury Junction then travel from Capreol on a mixed passenger/freight to Crerar (“named after the General”), disembark and hoof it a mile and a half down a bush trail to Ashigami Lake, aka “S” lake for its shape. They leased a trapper’s cabin from the provincial government. “Mother had to make a couple of trips to bring in all of the supplies.”
“WE emptied the cabin and scrubbed everything,” said Jim. The kids hated this part. Before they could go fishing or for a swim they had to scrub all of the pots & pans. “Mother made a whitewash mixture and painted the entire interior.”
Naturally they had no hydro, no running water and an environmentally friendly outhouse. A trap door exposed a hole in the cabin’s floor where they had a box that provided refrigeration for eggs and butter. “You couldn’t keep meat in it.”
Bacon, wrapped in cheesecloth, hung from a pole. “We ate a lot of walleye and cooked it in the fat from the bacon.”
There was only one other camp on the lake, “Old Harry’s, the Ukrainian Postmaster.” According to Jim Old Harry basically served two families in the area – the railway’s Section Man and the Telegrapher.
At age 10 Jim was sent to Sudbury for food when they were running low. Up early, Jim hitched a ride with the Section Man on his Handcar Pump Trolley to Capreol where he caught the bus to Sudbury. He found his dad who managed Silverman’s Department store, obtained the necessary cash, and then went shopping at Loblaws. The return trip consisted of taking the bus to Capreol. For two-bits (25 cents) he rode the caboose of the freight train to Crerar. After a long day Jim finally arrived back at the trapper’s cabin in darkness. There was no time for fun as he had to get the fresh produce to camp pronto. Imagine this happening to-day?
Sometimes on a Saturday night, after work, his father would make the trip. Days off were Sunday and Wednesday afternoon.
They stayed on the lake all summer only leaving in time to get cleaned up and prepared for school.
Upon years of reflection Jim has come to the conclusion that his mother was “Amazing.” At the time, of course, she was his mother and he would have had no such sense of appreciation.
“First thing in the morning we kids stayed in bed until Mom had her toast, coffee and cigarette. That was time to herself before the start of the day.”
They had no radio, no communication and sometimes played card games by the light of a coal oil lamp. With visions of mother’s pies they were inspired to pick lots of blueberries.
Jim’s first summer job was working for Palm Dairies by helping his neighbour deliver milk by horse and wagon. Readers may recall the horses used by milkmen, breadmen and ice men that knew when to start and stop on their own so the deliveryman could replenish his supplies for household delivery. Jim was introduced to book keeping when he delivered bread on Saturdays – “25 cents for a package of buns.” At noon and at the end of the workday he had to record his sales. Another summer he worked as a baggage man for CP Rail.
Jim’s first full time job was with Silverwood Dairy. “We sold a lot of ice cream.” Basically, a “Joe Boy or gopher (‘go fer this; go fer that’)”, Jim packed ice cream in dry ice for shipping. But, he needed a driver’s license and had to borrow a car for his exam.
“How did you get here?” asked the examiner.
“I drove,” replied Jim.
“You’re not supposed to.”
“You said that I had to have my own car,” responded Jim.
The examiner just laughed.
Jim’s next job was apprenticing as a dark room technician for the Sudbury Star. That involved both taking photos and developing them.
“Saturday afternoon Teas were very popular; as were sporting events.” Jim’s days were very long as he had to develop film shipped by bus from correspondents in distant places. When the Briar was on he often worked all night sending photos via telephone to the national newspapers across Canada. “It was a really slow process.”
On one occasion Jim met and photographed the Bowery Boys who were visiting Sudbury, performing at the Century Theatre.
Naturally Jim grew up playing hockey. At the same time as Eddie Shack. “I never played against him but we knew his mother well because we bought her perogies (pierogi) by the pail full.” A goalie, Jim was drafted by the Montreal Canadians and on one occasion was their stand-in goalie (no mask) at their Copper Cliff training camp circa 1949/50. Although Toe Blake was not the coach at that time Jim’s mother knew him well as Blake had grown up in Coniston. “They were family friends.” By the way, Dick Irvin was Montreal’s coach at Copper Cliff.
Jim went on to be hired as the Assistant Manager of the Century Theatre. Not sure whether that was before or after his sister married the Manager.
“He was one of the smartest guys I ever met,” reflected Jim. He loved classical music and passed on that love to Jim who, to this day, attends concerts and watches classical telecasts. “I’m not too fussy about the modern scene,” he added.
Jim used to take the theatre’s deposits to the Royal Bank where the Manager took a shine to him and invited Jim to join a “good company.” Eventually, with television making inroads upon the movie theatre, Jim could see the future impact and, because he was good at math, joined the bank.
“When the manager said I had to take a test I objected. You didn’t say anything about a test!” So the manager said to an employee, “You take Jim and you write the test for him.”
From Sudbury Price was transferred to Woodbridge as an assistant accountant. It was there he met the Cherry family. As in Don Cherry although Jim became friends with Don’s older brother Jim who worked for the Toronto Star. “They lived on the outskirts of Woodbridge and Mrs. Cherry owned Cherry Downs golf course near Ajax. Mrs. Cherry was a very nice lady.”
Those were the days of the Alonso Boyd bank robbers. Before Jim’s arrival the Woodbridge bank had been robbed twice. The bank closed at 3:00 p.m. and re-opened at 4:30. “That’s when they would hit the bank.”
At that time the accounting staff was armed. In Blind River a bank manager shot it out with a robber and was killed. “After that the banks collected all guns. They didn’t want anyone playing cowboy.”
Due to a bout of wanderlust Jim resigned from the bank and headed for New Zealand. The boat trip took 20 days. He applied for a bank job but they were unionized and he would have had to start at the bottom. So, he worked for Bow Water Pulp & Paper at various jobs making better wages than he would have at the bank. After 6 months and correspondence with his sweetheart Jim was enticed to return. The 29 day voyage cost him $290.00 to Florida. He checked with a car rental company which hired him to drive a car to Buffalo. All expenses paid. When he learned that his father had suffered a heart attack he flew from Toronto to Sudbury and later visited his girlfriend who was teaching school in Deep River. They dated “5 or 6 years and have been married 56 years.”
Married during the July 1st weekend, his wife continued to teach and Jim returned to work for the Royal bank at St. Clair and Oakwood. He was then transferred to North Bay. He spent four months in Montreal teaching computer course classes to bank staff as the branches were converting to computers.
After being transferred to Toronto, Jim resigned, returned to North Bay, bought a 100 acre trailer park on Four Mile Lake (“Really it was only one mile”) behind the air base and established a fire extinguisher company. He sold the park and extinguisher business in 1988 and after his wife retired from teaching they joined the snowbirds. Not bad for a guy with a grade 8 education!
Each season Jim attends deer camp and this year he was provided with a side-by-side ATV for transport to his “Condo”. And although, for the first year in memory, Jim didn’t take a deer he continued to inspire and contribute to our collective memory and the ambience and fullness of camp life. 2018