Cars had the photo spotlight last week, but now trucks are on the Flash from the Past highway. The first gas-powered contraptions to scare Waterloo County horses were cars, but soon came trucks — larger, smellier, noisier ..
. and more useful. A) Oscar Thompson took over Kitchener’s Ford dealership at 12 College St.
(behind today’s Shoppers Drug Mart) in 1919. Not long after, Thompson and his grease monkeys celebrated a holiday at their banner-bedecked building. By dialing 85, you could have Thompson’s truck No.
2 rushing to tow, replace batteries or repair tires. Thompson sold the business to Hall and McKie in 1926 and took up fox farming. Model TT Ford trucks were sold as a simple cab on a chassis and purchasers could mount a custom designed box.
B) Loaded down with bundles of animal skins, the brand-new truck of Kitchener’s Breithaupt Leather Company shivers at the tannery near Adam Street. Louis Breithaupt opened his firm in 1857 and for six decades teams of horses with wagons did this job ..
. taking much longer. Inside this truck, there’s a Dodge engine but the truck itself was called Graham.
In the 1920s, Graham Brothers made all trucks sold as Dodges. C) Fire trucks with lights flashing and sirens screaming ..
. but no fire! In March 1956, Kitchener Fire Department Pumper No. 4 had lights and sirens on, but also a cargo of hockey players.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen seniors were returning from Cortina, Italy, where they captured the Olympic bronze medal i.