Neil, Mort & Bert

Bert has spent the better part of his life in Blind River. He retired after years of owning his own mechanical and body shop. He raised a family and built a reputation as a fair and decent businessman.

In the summer of 1962, Bert was a young man just learning his trade and working in the same garage that one day he would own. He recalls that business was not all that great sometimes and there were days that there was not enough work and Bert would be sent home.
On one particular day however it got pretty busy (and as it turned out quite strange) when his boss pulled his truck up to the front doors with a black hearse in tow. Inside the 1947 Buick Roadmaster sat three young men, long and shaggy haired and looking tired and disappointed. Their trip from Thunder Bay to Toronto was interrupted just outside of town, when the drive train on the car snapped.

Bert recognized the men as musicians by the equipment heaped in the back of the hearse. Of course, he had no way of knowing that a few years down the line, one of the men would become a household name - a major star. The young musicians were Neil Young, Ken Koblun and Jeff Wuckert. At the time they made up the band known as the Squires.




One of the men wore an old style German army helmet and all of them wore the uniform of the 60’s – the psychedelic shirts, beads and headbands. Certainly standing out in a small northern Ontario town.

It was determined that the part needed to repair the vehicle would have to be specially machined and since it would take a few days, the young men had no choice but to plan on staying around. The problem was that they were pretty well broke and the local restaurant refused to serve them because of their appearance. Bert said that the garage owner allowed the trio to sleep in the garage and his wife made sandwiches for them.

In the evening Bert would drop by with his guitar and the four of them would jam. When the car was ready, the owner refused to give the boys the keys until the bill was paid and Young had to get on the phone and call his father Scott Young, a sports reporter with the Toronto Star, and arrange for money to be sent.

Shortly afterwards, the group was on their way. To this day a ton of myths surround the episode.

There are those who say that the hearse never left town and was in fact stored behind someone’s house. Bert says that this is untrue. The vehicle had been repaired and was full of instruments (Young liked the hearse because he claimed that the instruments were easy to load and unload). Bert saw the car- which Young dubbed ‘Mortimer Hearseburg’ - leave town.

I too fell victim to the rumor that the hearse never left town. I was walking past the parking lot of a local transportation company when I noticed an old rusting hearse parked in the back. Curiosity got the better of me so I walked into the yard and started checking the old wreck out. It was a Cadillac. But just for the briefest moment I thought that I might be onto something.

Of course the whole episode was immortalized in Young’s big song, “Long May You Run” which was released in September 1976 on a Stills-Young album. More recently he sang the song during the closing ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Because he mentions Blind River and speaks of the hearse in such emotional terms, at least one unofficial biography makes the absurd claim that Young was born in Blind River and that he was really singing about an old girlfriend. All untrue, of course. Young was born in a suburb of Toronto.

The story still circulates around the internet and Bert says that once in a while he’ll get a call or a visit from someone who wants to get a first hand account.

Well, it was
back in Blind River in
1962
When I last saw you
alive
But we missed that
shift
on the long decline
Long may you run. Long may you run
Long may you run
Although these
changes
have come
With your chrome
heart shining
in the sun
Long may you run.

One Of The Last Surviving Tug Boats

The day will come when the Blind River Lumber Mill, it’s distinctive burner and the surrounding buildings will be gone. Unfortunately that day may not be too far off.

Recently, when a 27 foot logging tug boat was found inside a shed that was scheduled to be demolished, one of the salvage workers took it upon himself to try to save the old girl.

The boat had a special significance for him since his father worked in the mill and his grandfather worked on the tugs. Perhaps even on the very tug that they found.

His plan is to get the boat back into shape and to perhaps use it to take people on short tours of the harbour area. It will not be a small project. Time has coated the 3 ton tug with a layer of rust. Vandals have sprayed graffiti on her.

According to my research, the tug was named Eddy VIII (C.176598) and was built in 1946 by Russel Steelcraft of Owen Sound. It was powered by a 2 cylinder – 20 horse power Russel-Hipwell gasoline engine. It 's job was to push and pull rafts of logs around the mill pond. It's powerful winch not only made it possible to pull large booms, it also enabled the tug to pull itself onto dryland or across portages.

Restoring the Eddy VIII will not be a small task. It will be time consuming and costly. But in the end there will be one more piece of the area’s past which may not have to be sacrificed to ‘progress’.

The Blind River Bethune Connection

St. Andrews: Bethune Connection

St. Andrews United Church stands on the corner of Center Street and Michigan Ave and over it's better than 100 years of existence has witnessed a lot of history.

What is not commonly known is that Dr. Norman Bethune, the Canadian physician who invented the mobile blood transfusion system, a variety of surgical instruments and a man who attained near sainthood status in China, lived in Blind River as a child. His father was the Rev. Malcolm Nicolson Bethune a Prebyterian minister. In 1907 he served as minister at St. Andrews. Norman would have attended the local school.

In 1925 St. Andrews church changed when 70 percent of members of the Presbyterian Church of Canada joined the United Church of Canada.

This past weekend the banks of the river were clear of snow and the river itself, although there is still 16 inches or so of ice, had a 2 to 3 inch cover of water. Ice fishing is finished for the season. Last year the ice stayed until the end of April. Not so this year.

A NOTE

In his book, 'The Force of Character' author James Hillman suggests that there is a stage some of us reach in our lives when we become more backward looking than forward looking. Have more in common with our parents than our grandchildren. Or worse, become more like our parents.

I think that I understand what he is saying. For me, I find that I now spend more time pouring through my family photo album, I certainly watch more of the history channel, I am drawn to stories of a historic nature, and hum Bobby Vinton's song 'Blue Velvet' more often than 'Speechless'. Who the hell is Lady Gaga anyways?

What Really Counts

It amazes how some people have managed to turn 'a day late and a dollar short', into an art form.

It seems that no matter what they set out to do – they come back with a complaint that they were too early or too late or that someone or something had beat them to the punch. Or perhaps if they had other equipment things would have been better.

My own experience is that when things look like there stacked against you, stop, take a look around and you'll probably see something unexpected waiting for you.

The other day I went to one of my favorite pike fishing spots and found; A) the early melt had set in and the river was flooded with a layer of water. B) the Coast Guard had posted red marker cones across the river as a caution against any further travel, and C) the fish were definitely not interested in any bait, spoon or jig that I dropped down the hole.

It could have bleak but I looked around and I saw, perched on a fallen tree near the shore, a beautiful Bald Eagle. I took the binoculars from my tackle bag and spent the better part of an hour watching the big bird hunt along the shoreline.

Net gain? The rare opportunity to watch one of the most spectacular birds in Canadian forests. Net loss? Non.

After two days of planning, the morning arrived that I packed my gear, made a thermos of coffee and and couple of sandwiches, and headed out to a small lake a couple of miles from my home. On the trail in I met up with an acquaintance who told me that the trout were not biting at all and that as far as he was concerned the lake was fished out to boot. He pointed out that I would be crazy to waste the energy hiking in.

I went in - and sure enough no trout. But I did notice that my friend had tossed a bullhead onto the ice. Probably disgusted because that was the only thing that he pulled out of the lake. Anyways, I changed my tackle for something lighter and spent the better part of the afternoon filling a bucket with mud pouts.

Net gain? Breaded and deep fried, I treated myself and my friends to a great meal. Did I regret hiking into that lake? No. It turned out to be one of the best days I've spent in the outdoors. Net loss? None

Big Fish

When I first saw this photo it nearly blew me away. This is my granddaughter Emily with a 5 pound bass that she caught near Espanola, Ontario.