I ended my last column with a note on Wally and technology. He was not a man to shun technology, for after all, he was a printer by trade. From what I understand, the printing press has been around for a long time.

Let me take you back to when Wally was a young man working for a newspaper in  Alberta.

Wally could repair anything mechanical.

When he lived in Bassano, he bought a car, a 1927 Oldsmobile. It had 2 doors and a rumble seat. It had a sun visor that went from one side of the wind shield to the other like you see on some transport trucks today. That Olds was a classy car in its day.

When he, Auntie Kay, and their first daughter moved to Oliver during the early 30’s, they arrived in the Olds.The family eventually grew to four children and even with the rumble seat the car was too small. The birth of their son in 1948 was the straw that broke the camel’s back, they had to get a bigger car!

Wally found a 1937 Dodge, 4 door sedan that was perfect for his family. Dealers were not taking in trade-ins at this time so Wally parked the Olds by the barn where it sat for years.

In 1960, Wally traded in his 1937 Dodge for a 1954, 4 door Plymouth sedan, that one I remember. There was a noise in the motor that Wally could hear but was unable to find. He took it over to Sid Scott, the mechanic at Wilcox’s Corner and Sid couldn’t find it either. Wally brought it back home and worked on it until he found the problem and repaired it.

Wally had acquired all the latest toys for mechanical repairs for there were orchard implements to fix, jobs around the house as well as the never ending lino type repairs at the news paper office in town.

In the early 1970’s  Wally bought a Mazda station wagon. This was his first new car so repairs were a thing of the past for him. I think he was glad for a bit of a reprieve since he still needed to maintain and repair the Kangaroo, the tractor, and the mower.

For Wally, technology presented no problem for he always was open to learning something new.

I was hoping to write about Wally and orchard irrigation but that will have to be for next week’s column.

email: ruralreportwithlairdsmith@gmail.com