Thursday, October 1, 2015
I worked with Kinch, (we always called him Kinch back then) on the CP Rail Extra Gangs from `76 too `81; on Tie Gang #1. He was the ballast regulator operator. We were all young guys in our late teens or early 20`s, and he was about 40 or so. Whenever we cleared for a train or finished spiking and caught up to his regulator, it was a race to get a seat inside his machine, because he had so many old stories and jokes to tell us. A master story teller, and yes, a special sense of humour. We laughed so hard. He only had to look at us, with that smirk he had. And yes, when things were dull, he would liven things up quickly, by spontaneously breaking into song. We looked up to him and respected him too......a bit of a father figure to us. Mostly he only had to look sideways at us, and we would break out into laughter, which was what he intended. He sure was a special guy. When my brother died at a young age, he showed up at his funeral. Everyone on the Tie Gang loved him. He often spoke of his young daughter. If we had a break and there were woods nearby, he would show us where to find the wild leeks, and pick a bunch to go with his dinner. In those days we worked 10 days on and then had 4 days off. So there were lots of nights playing cards to pass the time, and he enjoyed the camaderie with us. If"Kinch was in" it was very difficult to get a seat at the table. They do not make them like "Kinch" anymore.
