The Industrial Heritage Centre in Port Alberni was abuzz with retired loggers and woodworkers earlier this month for their annual coffee social.
It was a new location for the event, which took place on Tuesday, April 8. Retired workers had a chance to check out the vintage vehicles that they drove for work back in the day.
Hank Bakken, 84, sat in the seat of a truck that he drove when he was working for MacMillan & Bloedel Sproat Lake Division.
“I started work in 1959 and this truck was a 1958 that came with a Rolls Royce motor," he said. "HR MacMillan swapped lumber for the motor in England."
Bakken is also an avid member of the Western Vancouver Island Heritage Society (IHS) and has lent his hand to many projects in the Industrial Heritage Centre.
Ed Spencer, 98, soon to be 99, was a truck driver for Sproat Lake Division. Omer Pelletier, 87, drove his truck for six years. He later found it in the bush and was gifted it.
“I tore it all apart and it took two years to bring it back to this condition,” said Pelletier.
Pelletier is also a member of the IHS, and gave the last truck in the collection to the membership.
Seeing Barry Ensor and Ron Salsman brought back nostalgia and memories of my late dad, Fred Drinkwater, who worked with these fallers in Sproat Lake Division.
