Today, at MY Jane’s suggestion, I am including a little story about one of my memories of Temiscaming. It’s about my very first job, pumping gas at Tom’s Esso, back in the sixties. This is a picture of that gas station, as I remember it back then (posted by Lise Lefebvre Campbell whose Mom & Dad [Tom Lefebvre] owned it back then.
Those days, there were three main gas stations in town – Tom’s Esso, White’s Texaco (near where the Tem Rose is now) and Lynn’s Auto Sales down near the ball field. My good friend, Myles Prince aka Mouse, worked at Lynn’s doing the same job.
Each of these businesses used to take turns being open on Sundays while the other two were closed. I worked at Tom’s with Ron Lecuyer and Roger Monette.
I remember one time, just Roger and I were working on a Saturday and a carload of American tourists pulled in for gas. Well, Roger and I were not busy, so we gave them top notch service. They were so appreciative they gave us a case of 12 as a tip. Roger and I couldn’t wait to close up so we could drink that beer. And that’s what we did.
At some point, I bought a brand new motorcycle from Hays Marine- a Honda 90 – and I kept it in the basement of Tom’s Esso. I didn’t have a licence, insurance or plates for the thing, so I used to go down to the basement every chance I got just to start it up and ride around in a circle there. I soon bored of that, though, and decided to take it out in the back lane way and ride in circles there.
That, too, became boring, so I thought if I covered up the licence plate holder with a few Esso tiger tails (back then there was a big Esso promotion “put a tiger in your tank” and we handed out all kinds of tiger souvenirs and things) nobody would notice there was no licence plate.
These were the type of tiger tails I used.
With that, after work, I would hop on the Honda and drive all over Temiscaming, proud as anything with my new motorcycle.
Then one evening, driving up and down Kipawa Road, I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed the Town Police Cruiser following me. I think Raymond Bean was the cop on duty. I thought for sure I’d get pulled over but that didn’t happen. Raymond was a good guy.
It was a great first job.
Life Unfolding 