EPISODE 276: NEW SERIES COMING TITLED ‘DEMOLITION’ -TALES TOLD FROM DEMOLITION SITES.’
alan skeoch
March 2021
The new series of stories is titled DEMOLITION….tales told
from demolition sites.
-probably 6 to 10 stories beginning with the demolition of
the Massey Harris – Massey Ferguson site which stretched
along King Street West for several city blocks. Many buildings
to be toppled. Seemed such a waste that i could not resist
the temptation to save what was retrievable. Luckily I was able
to take care and that made penetration of the site possible.
What was necessary? First I got a good reddish hard helmet. Then
some old steel toed boots. Absolutely necessary. Then I made
lots of friends with the demolition crew…assured them I would
be careful. Got permission for everything I did. Even though
some of the rescue efforts may have seemed dangerous the only
real tricky one was the rescue of the cast iron and steel iron
working machine. Thankfully a police car arrived on the designated
Sunday morning making possible theextrication of the machine from the third floor
of a factory to my truck far below. The policeman and Bill
Parsons helped. Wow, Did Bill ever help. Sadly I cannot find the machine at our farm…must
have gone to scrap. Too big…too heavy.
-The Massey family were the largest employers of Torontonians
at one time and their bright red machines were shipped around
the world. So the demolition was a sad affair.
-Efforts to dedicate the great bull wheel as a memorial to working
class history failed as told in the first Episode 272, already told.
THE CHALLENGE:
-Hook a chain to that beam…wooden beam made of Southern Pitch Pine…terrific
grain once put through John Calder’s saw mill. Must get it out. Hook chain to the
trailer ball on back of my truck. Move ahead slowly. Watch out for spikes on the
ground. The rescue could be done. Truth be told I never waded into a pile of
twisted steel and fractured wood like this. Way too dangerous. But I did rescue a number of those
wood beams before they headed to a dump site. Later some really enterprising
person did the same thing using huge trucks. Much had been lost by then.
My truck was small, a panel van,
but had the advantage of being brown and bashed up a bit. It fitted into
the decor of the site.
-The presence of a movie crew at one point lit a light bulb in my head.
‘Al, this stuff could be the start of a new business.’
alan