A local veteran spends his days now tending to relics of wars gone by, but his memories of the past are still clearly focused.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we sat down with Don Wilcox, 79, veteran, former newspaper scribe and legion volunteer.
Q: What is your background? When did you come to Collingwood?
A: I came from Woodbridge. I did five years in the navy. I worked for Culligan but I lost my job, and Parry Automotive in Orillia was looking for a driver, so that brought us to Orillia in 1966.
The funny part of my life is... I couldn’t get up to go to work at 9 o’clock in the morning.
But then I joined the navy at 18. That was stupid. I had to be up at 6 a.m. every morning. I had no choice.
I thought I knew everything, and I learned about 30 seconds in that I didn’t know very much. This poor kid was just learning how to live life. It was the best thing I ever did. I sailed on two different ships and had some fun.
I came to Collingwood in 1977, from Orillia.
I got an invitation from George Czerny – he was the publisher of The Enterprise-Bulletin at the time – he said, come over and enjoy Summerfest with us.
So Diane (my wife) and I drove over and we enjoyed Summerfest. He invited me over to show me The E-B.
On the way home, I said to my wife, “There’s no way in this world I’d work in that filthy building.”
Two weeks later, I was here. Czerny had a plan. He knew he wanted me. (laughs) Besides being a friend, he was a good publisher.
Q: You ended up as editor there, is that correct?
A: Yes. We didn’t call it a general manager at that time, but I was, more or less, the general manager. But I was the editor.
I started with Thomson (Newspaper Group) in Orillia as sports editor.
Q: What drew you to newspapers?
A: I was on the executive of the senior men’s hockey club. We used to travel for the games and the sports editor (of the newspaper) travelled with us. I used to phone back to the radio station between periods and give them an update on what happened.
The sports editor suggested I apply for his job as he was being transferred to Peterborough. I went in. The editor asked me if I could do the job and I said, 'Sure I can.'
I didn’t even know what a sports editor was supposed to do, but I lied and said I could do it.
I was a two-finger typist.
I did about 12 years there. I moved around a little bit. I worked at the Barrie Examiner and the Belleville Intelligencer.
I did a total of 28 years with Thomson Newspapers.
Q: Are there any stories that stick out in your mind?
A: Oh, yeah. There was a marijuana bust.
Somebody was growing marijuana (in a corn field) and it grew so big it outgrew the corn. The OPP spotted it from the air.
George and I went out to get some pictures.
While we were there, this great big black limousine arrives. So we dove into the ditch and hid.
We got a picture of the car. George and I flew over as well and got pictures.
We developed the film, and we headed to Toronto for Canadian Press. I was holding the film out the little car window to dry it because it was still wet when we left.
When we came back to town, somebody in town had been smart enough to put up a sign at every entrance to town saying, “We’re up to our ass in grass.”
That was a good one. We had some fun stories.
Well, one of the first stories I had after I moved here was when the police officer was killed. (Sgt. Ron McKean was shot to death by a robbery suspect on Oct. 12, 1977, on Simcoe Street in Collingwood.)
Sue Nicholson (current general manager of the Collingwood BIA) was the ad manager at the paper at the time. She called me and told me there had been a police officer killed.
I was there when they arrested both guys.
I learned how to deal with a big story. Not interrupt the police. Being a weekly, we were alright.
It’s a small town. You know the old saying, things like that don’t happen here? It could happen anywhere.
Q: Journalism and news has really changed over the years. What are your thoughts on that transition?
A: Well, I think they’re taking away the community.
George Czerny always had a saying, that if it moves in Collingwood, we’re going to print a story about it. We covered a lot of things.
At one time, we covered community news. We had little old ladies out in Feversham, Flesherton or Maxwell who wrote things like, “Sally was home for the weekend. She brought her boyfriend with her. Fred had tea at Mabel’s house.” All that stuff.
We decided we didn’t need it, so we were going to cut it out.
I remember a lady came in and said, “If you cut out the community news, I will make sure nobody in any of these areas keeps their subscription to your paper.”
So we decided to wait until (the ladies who wrote it) either quit or died.
It meant we still needed to go into those communities and cover some things because we still wanted them to buy the paper. It was interesting.
Q: What advice would you have for current journalists?
A: Get into electronic media. That’s what I would tell them.
I loved the newspaper business so much, and it was so close to the people.
I used to have some people who, when I saw them coming in the newspaper’s door, I would go hide. Sometimes they would come in and just talk, talk, talk and take up your time.
Q: What do you do with your time now?
A: I’m involved in a lot of things. I’m a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge. I spend most of my mornings at the military museum at the legion. I’m a member of Friends Forever which is a social club that meets Friday morning.
I’ve thought about getting out of it, but the late mayor Ray Barker was a member, and when he was dying, he asked me to keep the club going.
People ask me, “What do you do there?”
We sit around and lie to each other about how great we are. (laughs) We’re old people. We can do that!
I can do what I want.
I’m 79, in my 80th year. I joke that if I die tomorrow you can say I was in my 80th year.
Q: What are your future plans?
A: I joke that I’d like to have a big party for my 80th birthday. That’s my joke.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every Saturday. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
