"Eighty years old and almost blind, Alfred Tout of Newmarket is launching a business that he hopes will bring him enough money to buy a house. Alfred has turned his life-long hobby, weaving bamboo furniture, into a full-time job so he can get out of the senior citizens' apartment he and his wife moved into a few years ago. "You can't do anything there (at the seniors' home). You can't hammer, own a dog or cat or anything. Some people might like to sit around and do nothing, but not me." Alfred used to have a workshop in his Bradford home before he moved to Newmarket. He misses the freedom of having his own house..."
"It was up, up and away at Bak's Market on Wednesday, August 21 when the windmill on top of the market was completed. The job of lifting the blades up to the steel stand took only minutes after workmen finished putting the finishing touches on them. (right) The cost of the whole windmill is roughly $15,000 according to proprietor Casey Bak. The blades and shaft alone weigh two tons and will turn at one and a half revolutions per minute when the drive motor is installed."
"It was up, up and away at Bak's Market on Wednesday, August 21 when the windmill on top of the market was completed. The job of lifting the blades up to the steel stand took only minutes after workmen finished putting the finishing touches on them. (right) The cost of the whole windmill is roughly $15,000 according to proprietor Casey Bak. The blades and shaft alone weigh two tons and will turn at one and a half revolutions per minute when the drive motor is installed."
"A pressure vessel manufactured by Bond Head Welding is seen here starting its route to Toronto. Weighing 18 tons and holding approximately 15,000 gallons the tank was ordered by B.P. Oil. It took two men four weeks to construct the vessel."
"It was up, up and away at Bak's Market on Wednesday, August 21 when the windmill on top of the market was completed. The job of lifting the blades up to the steel stand took only minutes after workmen finished putting the finishing touches on them. (right) The cost of the whole windmill is roughly $15,000 according to proprietor Casey Bak. The blades and shaft alone weigh two tons and will turn at one and a half revolutions per minute when the drive motor is installed."
"This was the scene in a greenhouse operated by Ferragine Brothers on Simcoe Road. They estimate their losses in flowers and stock at between $20-30,000. Mud and water, 10 inches deep, swept through the greenhouse."
"Norm Barron, owner of Barron's Dominion Hardware, has retired after 32 years in the hardware business. The store was founded by Norm's father Harry Barron in 1932 in a location now occupied by John Gaus Interiors and N.S. Smith Real Estate. The elder Mr. Barron, a native of Brampton, had been a foreman at the Peace Foundry before making a move to Bradford and starting in the hardware business. Norm helped his father part-time in the store until the Second World War broke out and he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was stationed in the western provinces during the war and taught aerial photography, and while out west met and married his wife Carol.After the war, Norm returned to Bradford and entered into full partnership with his father."
"On the eve of his 92nd birthday, Tuesday, Bill Ruffett told the story of the booming ice industry of yesteryear. Bell Ewart - "I started on the ice when I was 12 yeards old. Father had rented the old hotel on the south side of the dock of 1897 for one dollar a month. After the old sawmill had burned down, the hotel went out of business. I remember well tearing out the bar. It was then I started to lead a horse on an ice plow for 50 cents a day for the Belle Ewart Ice Company. It was the only ice company there then and was across the road from my home where Sheppard's Marina is today. I remember the winter of 1906 was very mild and the big lake never froze over until nearly spring. The railroad was still here, you see, from the era of meeting the Lake Simcoe excursion boats. It was then ice companies from Jackson's Point came here, partly because of the railroad. Their only transportation there, for ice to Toronto, was by street car. I had anywhere from 60 to 80 men working for me at one time, all farmer's boys."
"Liquor store manager Clare Sullivan (left) stands with cashier Herb Taylor at the opening of the new Liquor Control Board outlet on Holland St. W. The store had six customers in the first 15 minutes of business, according to Sullivan, who also said the Monday opening helped by being on the same day prices went up. All stock showed the new price raises."
"At the first conference of employees in the Consumer and Commercial Relations Ministry, the Honourable Sidney Handleman presented a survey of consumer attitudes taken in North Bay recently. Aside from revealing that the vast majority of consumer protection law, the most startling revelation concerns the attitude of young people towards the business. That concerns me. It should concern small business people even more. What is even more startling is the result of the question, "How much profit out of each dollar do you think food chains make after taxes"? The answers covered the gambit from nothing to $2. One food chain in its 1976 annual report stated that "earnings per dollar of sales were less that 8-10 of a cent, compared with one cent per dollar in the same period last year..."
