Walking After Midnight!
Recently on nostalgia radio, I heard the late Patsy
Cline's rendition of Walkin' after Midnight. It triggered memories of some of
my walks in Winnipeg after midnight.
I worked as a member of the CNR spare-board in Winnipeg
from 1960 until 1963. In all that time I never got to work a steady job with
the exception of a one or two T.V 's or temporary vacancies, which meant
filling in for someone on a short vacation. I was always called to work a
matter of a few hours before the shift would start. In the days before cell
phones, I had to be near a phone waiting for a call to work from the crew
office. This meant being available to answer the phone between 5 in the morning
until 6 in the morning for the rare day shift as these mostly went to people
with more seniority than I had. Then I had to be available between one p.m and
two p.m for afternoon shifts and from nine p.m. to ten p.m. for midnight shift
calls.
Because of my being so low in seniority, the majority of
my shifts occurred in the four to midnight shift. But also because I was a
quick learner and had learned the ins and outs of all the jobs available to me,
I often superseded some workers who, while having more seniority than I did,
could not handle the job. Thus I worked jobs as a call-boy/messenger-boy,
car-checker, yard clerk, IBM machine operator, scale-man, mail-room clerk,
passenger train baggage car supplier, chauffeur, the bill rack, crew calling,
and on one occasion as chief clerk when none of the guys on the shift wanted to
do it because of the position's many responsibilities.
I started working in September of 1960 at the tender age
of 17. Initially because work was scarce for me on the spare-board, I would be
lucky to get one or two shifts a week and an occasional third one if I was very
lucky By November of 1961, I was working either 4 or 5 shifts a week, and the
pay was generally good except for the wages of a call boy/messenger boy. I was
scoring so many shifts because I could successfully work all the jobs and
because I had the reputation of being a very reliable worker.
My shifts took me to the Fort Rouge yards, the CNR depot,
the East Yard where the Forks is now located, Transcona, and the old Paddington
yards which then in 1962 became the present Symington Marshaling Yard. I had no
car so I had to rely on buses to get me to from work. Buses were more frequent
back then. However because I most often worked the afternoon shift and didn't
leave my place of work until midnight, buses were often not running some of the
routes or came only once an hour.
My worst places of getting home from were Symington and
Transcona. Transcona was still a city
apart from Winnipeg and there was a private bus line providing the transportation between
it and Winnipeg. The last bus left Transcona for Winnipeg at midnight and if
the chief clerk didn't release me about fifteen minutes early, I would miss the
last bus because of the distance to walk/run to the little terminal from the
yard office where I worked.I have described elsewhere in my blog what happened
when I missed the last bus. The same applied for Symington.
Catching the last bus would mean I would get to the drop
off at Portage and Main point well past midnight. If I was fortunate I might
catch one of the last Portage Avenue buses heading west. Most of the time I
wasn't lucky. So rather than waiting for another hour for the next one which
would be the last bus running until the work bus which usually made its run
between three and four in the morning, I would start hoofing it.
I usually walked on the south side of Portage as I headed
west for Maryland Street. There were few people out at that time of night. Some
were like me, simply trying to get home after a hard day's work. There were
others who were more "interesting". Some were people reeling along
after an evening of drinking. These I learned to avoid because, while many were
happy in their current state, others could be surly and very edgy.
There were some transvestites and some gays who often
traveled in small packs for protection. There were the occasional beat cops who
in winter wore their massive buffalo coats and who carried long large 4-cell
flashlights. These soon learned which of us were just workers and not someone
out looking for mischief or trouble. There was the occasional homeless person.
I was often approached by them because they knew I would be good for a quarter,
enough to buy them some coffee and a doughnut at a Sal's House, basically the
only places which were open 24 hours a day. I knew what it was like to be cold
and hungry!
I also preferred the south side because this was where
most of the store fronts with display windows were. My walk was often
interspersed with looking at the window displays. Eaton's and The Bay were my
favorite stores because they had elaborate displays. Kresge's, the Metropolitan,
Woolworth's, and Dayton's were also interesting. I would also stop to admire
the large posters highlighting current and coming movies. the Lyceum, the
Capitol, the Dominion, and the Gaiety always had colorful and intriguing
posters.
Near Maryland Street and on would be a few car dealerships
where I could admire the new unaffordable cars (unaffordable for me) and some of
the tempting used cars on the outside lot.
As well, if I got cold or felt hungry and I could afford
a "nip", the word in Winnipeg for a Salisbury House hamburger, I would cross the street near United College, now the
University of Winnipeg, and I would go to the Sal's House at Portage and Spence
near the CBC building. There were always interesting characters hanging out
here after midnight.
From there it was about another 10 blocks and I would be
home in my 3rd floor rented suite which I shared with my parents who had
recently located to Winnipeg from their small farm in Saskatchewan.
With apologies to Patsy Cline:
"I go out walkin' after midnight
Out in the moonlight"
