Art Wareham: A jack of all trades

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Published on Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Submitted Photo. This is a photo of Art Wareham from a 1979 document about his trip to Africa.  

By Kira Paterson

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

People rarely think their own life is interesting. They think they’ve had a regular, dull life that wouldn’t make a good story. The fact is, most people who listen to that person’s story would completely disagree. Everyone has an interesting life to others who are living a different life; an example of that is Art Wareham. He thought there wouldn’t be much to talk about in regards to his life, but found himself remembering more and more neat stories that others would find fascinating.

Wareham was born and raised in the Neepawa area. He grew up on a farm in the area and went to school in Neepawa. Then, his life in the workforce began. “When war came along, it was the beginning of [World War II], and we could get a job anywhere, so all of us young guys worked at the airport as carpenters’ helpers and all that kind of stuff,” he explained. 

After working at the airport for a while, he enlisted in the army and was stationed at various bases around Canada for three years. All the while, he was working towards a specific rank. “I wanted to be a paratrooper. You had to be 19 and a half, so I joined the paratroopers and got my wings... so my next step was volunteering for the Japanese area. We didn’t go, we took some Japanese training, but we didn’t go there. Then I took my discharge in 1946, late October.” 

A start

After leaving the army, Wareham had quite the variety of jobs, with many different experiences. “But one thing I never had to do,” he noted, “I never filled out a job application in my life. Not to this day.” He added, “I was always offered [a job] prior to being unemployed.”

“I tried various things. I had some carpenter experience from the airport, so I did that for the first few months. Then I did long-distance truck driving. Then, an [farm] implement dealer in town, which was at that time William Whitmore Ltd., he knew of me and he offered me a position there to study under him and to do all aspects of the business. So I did that and I was there for 17 years.”

While he worked for Whitmore, he spent time in almost every department of the business, from machinery parts, to sales, all the way up to assistant manager. He said that it never felt like working for the Whitmores, it was always working with the Whitmores.

“Then as things went along, the implement companies were getting bigger and absorbing one another and amalgamations, so I was offered a good deal to take over the business, but I figured with all these amalgamations and that, I’d try something else,” Wareham continued. “I certainly often think afterwards, if it hadn’t been for all these dealerships getting bigger and amalgamations and everything, I would [have] purchased that business. We had 35 employees, so it wasn’t a big business, but it wasn’t small either.”

After being there for 17 years, he moved on to his next job. “I came home one evening here from Brandon and the president and vice president of Agristeel Ltd. Minnedosa were there, offered me a job. And I knew the Whitmores were going to quit in a year and I decided not to take [their business], so I went with [Agristeel] and they gave me an offer I couldn’t hardly refuse... So I decided to take this other Minnedosa job. I’m glad I did in the end, because it gave me a chance to travel to Africa and Australia.”

World-wide work

Agristeel was a company that manufactured farming equipment and sold it to other companies, such as Massey-Ferguson, JI Case, Minneapolis Moline, New Holland, Versatile, Co-op Implements and even John Deere. Most of Wareham’s job was to go to these companies and sell their equipment, which was what took him all over the place. “I was on the road a lot. I think I knew probably every dealer in Manitoba and Saskatchewan by first name,” he stated. “After that, I was on international sales for a while. We were selling to Ethiopia and Sudan, so I flew to Africa a few times. One trip, I was on loan to the department of Industry in Ottawa and we took six weeks over there, visiting Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania... As well as being responsible for the dealers in Western Canada, I had this other added on, so I was a busy boy, but I liked it.” 

Even with being on the road quite often, he was involved in a lot of different aspects of Agristeel aside from sales. “[My] favourite job would be working with the engineer department or research and development department, designing machines. I didn’t do the actual work, but I had a lot of input. And finding farmers to use the machinery and evaluate it and all that. I was very interested in that,” he added. 

Working at Agristeel for about 20 years gave Wareham some really interesting stories and adventures to tell. “When I was in Africa one time... we had this meeting with a bunch of bankers in Nigeria. Of course, we had to talk through an interpreter. Well I had never had an interpreter before, well that was about the scariest thing I’ve ever done. You get up there and you have one long sentence, maybe, and this guy would rattle on for about two minutes and I thought ‘Gee, I couldn’t have said that much!’ Anyway, we got through it,” he started. “We went to Nigeria first and then spent a couple weeks there... trying to promote machinery in Africa. Quite a job, because everything is done through government there. There’s no individual dealers and we found it kind of trying. And we got a nice trip to Kenya after that. That was the time of the uprising there in Uganda... so we had to fly around Uganda over to Kenya. But we never felt threatened or anything. Then in Kenya, we picked up our own plane, just about a 10 passenger. And that was quite interesting because there was the pilot, of course, and then the eight of us in the group and all our literature and luggage and we had to leave from this airport. The pilot said ‘It’s kind of a heavy load, so we’ll have to put the tail wheel off on the grass and try to put as much luggage as you can in the back and you guys move to the back until I get the front end off the ground.’ So we’re roaring down this runway, and he said ‘Okay you can start moving forward now, we’re off the ground.’ I thought ‘Oh, phew!’ And then when we got to Tanzania, they were at war, the Tanzanikans and Uganda. So the pilot... he couldn’t leave his plane, he had to stay out on the runway overnight and we were ushered into the terminal with a guard with a machine gun so we were very careful what we did. But [the pilot] couldn’t come in. He had a sleeping bag and they took him food, but he had to stay out on the runway. And then when he flew us from there... they had some kind of a war agreement, we had to land on the outskirts of the airport and carry all our literature and luggage, it was about a mile. He said ‘I can’t go any closer because I’m not allowed to. I can’t buy fuel here, I hope I’ve got enough to get back to Mombasa in Kenya, so you fellows are going to have to walk to the terminal.’ It was about 107 above or something, fahrenheit, so that was some ordeal, that was.”

Despite some crazy adventures, he stuck with Agristeel for a long time, but eventually, he wanted a change. “Now I had a chance to stay with them, but I was getting along in years... and the head office in Saskatoon felt I could take an early retirement because I had been there about 20 years. And then I took a whole new effort on,” Wareham said. “When I retired from up there, implement dealers in Neepawa here wanted me for a salesman. But I had had enough of farm equipment sales, I decided to do something else.” 

‘Like a paid holiday’

“I met with my brother-in-law at the [Beautiful Plains] school division bus garage, and he said ‘Here’s our next bus driver.’ And my knowledge of school busses was nil, you know. But I had some experience driving in my early years, you know, and I figured, well this was a real swing of things, but I would do it. So I took it on. I drove school bus for seven or eight years, I guess.” Wareham said that he quite often took the extra-curricular school groups in addition to his regular route. “So I enjoyed that, it was like a paid holiday,” he joked. 

As with his other jobs, he didn’t stick to one duty with the school division. He also helped them install the computerized heating and cooling system that allows them to control the temperatures of all the schools in the division right from the division office. In addition to that, he also took a course to be able to teach new bus drivers. “They never had a full time bus driver instructor for new drivers, so I took that on... And I did that for a number of years.” After a certain age, bus drivers had to retire and weren’t allowed to drive with kids anymore, however, they were still allowed to instruct. So even after he retired from bus driving itself, he continued to teach new bus drivers for a while.

“I eventually retired at about 1995, I guess... So that’s about my work career,” he concluded. “I think, summing it up, in the working world, if you’re worrying about it and have to dread going to work, it must be terrible. Because I enjoyed [it]; I liked going to work every day of my life. Always something interesting, phones ringing when you got there and lots of action.”

Adrenaline-filled hobbies

Wareham was a jack of all trades in a lot more than just the work world. He was also involved in a lot of things in the community and personally. In Neepawa, he was involved with the Legion for many years. He was also a part of EMO (Emergency Measures Organization) for five years, which involved being prepared for any emergencies that could’ve come up in town. “Nothing major happened in my time. A few snowstorms, we billeted people, but other than that, we had no major rail derailments or anything. But that was the purpose of it, to be ready for emergencies.” 

He was also involved with the local Boy Scouts for four years. “I liked working with Scouts. One time, we had an annual get together at the Peace Gardens. And no one else could go, we had the three of us instructors and the other two couldn’t go and they said, ‘You think you can handle 34 boys by yourself?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’ll have to try!’ We got through it, we had the odd little thing come up. Nothing major, they were good boys. But I had 34 of them all by myself. They were about 14 to 17, pretty active, those guys. But they were pretty well behaved, a good group of kids.” 

Wareham also had an affinity for adrenaline-filled hobbies. “One of the crazier things I got into was stock car racing,” he said. “We did that for years on different tracks around Manitoba and we finally got to racing it in Winnipeg. And I’ve followed it ever since. And my son has followed it. He’s right into that sort of thing.” He added that one time, he even got to race against his son.  “It’s quite a sport when you get into it, you have to be a bit wrong in the head to get into it, but it’s fun and interesting. Even my wife didn’t mind. She went to every meet.” He and his wife also had motorcycles for a while, too. “We had to be crazy,” he joked.

Reunion

He and his wife also kept busy in their personal life. “We did quite a bit of traveling in my life. Trips to the States and stuff, whenever we had a chance,” Wareham noted. “We did one interesting trip, and I’ve got to thank my wife for this. My dad was 96 years old at the time, he hadn’t seen his brother in England in 78 years. So we arranged to take him over there. Some of the family thought we were out of our tree to do that, but we took him and he was game for it. So we went to England. My wife arranged it. She went, and my sister and her daughter and my dad. Five of us... One of my cousins over there organized a meeting over there of the clans and there was 72 people showed up from all over England. So we had quite a time there. Dad, he had a chance to visit his brother and his brother was 94 at the time. And sometimes, we left the tape recorder on and left the house and just let them talk and my sister has the recordings somewhere yet. But we’ve laughed over that several times because some of the antics they went through as youngsters.” Wareham said the two of them were like big kids when they got talking together. “They were both in the First World War, but my dad was a Canadian. And when he was in France, his brother, Bill, was in England. And they never met ever since he left for Canada. Because eventually, when he left for Canada... [Bill] said ‘Oh, you’ll be back in six months.’ So it was almost 80 years later he’d go back. But that was quite a visit, I’d have to thank my wife and sister for that. They organized all of that.”

Shared interests

Wareham talked about how much fun he always had with his wife. “I think one of the main points in marriage is liking the same things,” he noted. “We love dogs. We had dogs for 49 years. We had Great Danes for 32 years. Three of them, consecutive, not together. And they were wonderful dogs. Of course, my wife and I were great nature people. We used to go walking on trails before anybody else thought of it and we went for hours with dogs. 

Took a backpack and drink and drink for the dogs and we were gone... My wife used to walk up to eight miles with the dogs... We had them all obedience trained and went to dog shows, that was another part of my life,” Wareham explained. “My wife usually showed the dog and one time, she had to go on emergency, her dad was sick in Mexico. So she had to go down there and the tryouts came up when she was away and I had to go and handle the dogs. Now there’s no problem there, I was familiar with what to do, but when the results came back, we lost four points, ‘handler’s error’... She’d bring it up occasionally, about once a week. ‘The dog did perfect and you mucked it up.’” He joked that she would never let him forget that.

Local travels

Travelling, for he and his wife, was not just going overseas or down to the US, it was also going around the province for day trips. “One of our favourite things we had to do, in fact our friends used to laugh at us, we’d go to these country fall suppers,” Wareham began.  “And some people go to one or two, we had an average of 18 a year. We worked at it, we knew everybody ahead. And we’d go as far as Rossburn, Oak River, Hamiota, Rivers, Langruth, Ste. Rose even... McGregor had one Nov. 11, no matter what day of the week it was, they’d have the supper. They still do and they get 1,200 people. But we always figured that was good eating and a trip and both of us enjoyed it. In fact, the first three years she was at Country Meadows, we took in about 10 a year, I’d just sign her out.”

Wareham’s wife, Dorothy, has been at Country Meadows for about seven years now, since being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Now, he goes to visit his wife there every single day. “I go out [to Country Meadows] every day. And until I had to have [an operation], I had 2,341 days all consecutive. But then I had to spoil it by being in the hospital for a few days. But I’ve only missed, I think, 22 days out of seven and a half years going out. I go about three o’clock and stay late, so I know everybody out there and it’s gotten to be a life.”

He also helps out a lot with some of the activities that go on at the care home. There are two summer barbecues and a Christmas supper that the staff does every year. Each wing has their own group meal, because having all 100 some people eating at once is a lot more work than the staff and volunteers can handle.

He also helps by bringing the residents their weekly entertainment. “I take the fellow that entertains at Country Meadows [Remi Bouchard]. I take him out every [Wednesday] afternoon to play piano for seven years. We’ve become pretty good friends... he sold his car a few years ago, so I have no trouble [driving him]. There’s another lady that takes him out every Monday to read and whenever one of us can’t go, we just switch... so we just interchange if we have to, it works good. That’s one thing I do.”

He also helps out the community outside of Country Meadows whenever he can. One way he did that was helping other seniors out during the election. “I’ve always been interested in politics. So I always leave my name in for a driver to take old folks to vote. Always interested in politics, never active, but interested.” 

He mentioned some other things he does to keep busy. “These days, besides going to see my wife... They’re trying to get me into that seniors group downtown, I just tell them I’ll do that when I get old... I read quite a bit. If I can’t sleep, I’ll read... I’m a radio man, not too much TV, but radio I couldn’t do without it; I think I have a radio in every room except this one. Always been interested in radio,” he said, adding that he also goes for coffee or visits with his neighbours. “I’ve got wonderful neighbours. One neighbour, 38 years I’ve had at this corner here, go back and forth all the time. Look after each other’s place when they’re away and vice versa and go to help when they need help, that’s worked out good. Good friend.”

Wareham has always been a more private man, who doesn’t like to talk about himself too much because he says it feels like bragging. But when he does start to talk, he has a lot of stories to share. “I’ve had so many embarrassing moments and interesting moments, but obviously I’ve managed to survive most of them,” he said. “It’s been interesting. There’s lots of other things I could add, but I’m not going to. But it’s been lots of fun.”

Do you know someone with some interesting life stories? We’d love to hear them, please contact us at 204-476-3401 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.