A new display at Collingwood Museum feature hand-carved replicas of horse-drawn delivery wagons bearing the names of Collingwood’s pioneer business families.
There’s Potts Bros. Dairy, Seiggel’s Ice, Keith’s Dairy, and Reid’s Superior Dairy.
They’re hand-carved and crafted by Garry Reid – whose grandfather owned and operated Reid’s Dairy – and they’re part of the latest instalment of Collingwood Museum’s Community Collector series.
Reid’s carvings go beyond delivery wagons, there’s also a model of Eleanor Sproule’s (nee Kelly) delivery truck she used to take flowers and small loads from Smart’s Flowers to their final destination.
Sproule’s story is posted beside Reid’s carving exhibit, and it’s an “interesting one,” according to Reid.
Eleanor Kelly became a delivery driver for Smart Bros. in the 1940s and made history as the first woman delivery driver in Collingwood at a time when it was rare for women to even have a driver’s license.
Another carving of a green and white truck sits next to a label letting viewers know it’s Sonny Robinson’s oil delivery truck.
Reid has a file of his research compiled before he started whittling the pieces for the model truck. He had a photocopy of a black and white photo, and since nobody knew what colour it was, he had to look into the historic colours of that year’s Fords.
Reid has a file of research on most of the trucks and wagons he’s carved. He talks to descendants of the original business owners and digs around in archives and photo albums.
“It’s preserving history,” said Reid. “This is what we were. It was a great community.”
Reid was born and raised in Collingwood. He worked for Smart Bros. canning before moving to Hamilton for another job. His old Maple Street phone number 52W, or “five-two-double-oo” as a young Garry Reid would pronounce it, is painted on the side of Reid’s dairy delivery wagon. In Senior Public School, Reid’s woodshop teacher Larry Holbrook taught him the basics of woodcarving and he’s been whittling ever since. His favourite subjects are birds and trucks.
Reid’s exhibit also includes a tribute to his father’s business: the Reid’s Transport delivery truck, a 1949 REO carved by his Uncle Bob Hilts that served as inspiration for Reid to start carving historic vehicles of Collingwood businesses. Reid’s father was primarily a mover, but also did some shipments for Smarts Bros. Reid built a metal dolly with a pulley system to manoeuvre the dolly and the load up and down stairs. He said Holbrook sent him to a local steel producer where they were making raw materials for the Avro Arrow project to gather the materials for the dolly.
“It was made from metal intended for the Avro Arrow,” Reid said, with a grin and a twinkle in his eye.
But it’s his woodwork on display at the museum until March 31. Reid has a shop at his home, and said he enjoys working with his hands to create something.
“You never rush anything,” he said.
He has a few of his bird carvings on display including a piping plover, which is the endangered bird making a comeback at Wasaga Beach’s sandy shores.
His carvings, from the birds to the trucks and wagons, are scaled with each detail planned out ahead of time. He orders metal bird feet – matched with the bird species – from a catalogue.
“The whole point is to try to replicate something,” said Reid.
Reid regularly enters his carvings at the Great Northern Exhibition, but he isn’t sure what he’ll enter this year. He needs some pressure of a looming deadline to get the surge of creativity.
The selection of Reid’s carvings will be on display at Collingwood Museum until March 31. There will be an evening reception on Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. at the museum featuring a live carving demonstration by Reid and an opportunity for questions.
Learn more about the Collingwood Museum on the town’s website here.
