Curly: A hobo shack dweller in Edmonton in the 1930s, Story by Alex Latta
Alex Latta describes meeting 'the lone occupant' of a river valley shack east of the Dawson Bridge in 1935. Curly, as he was called, was a survivor in those tough years who constructed a hard wearing and long lasting rubber doormat from discarded rubber t
During the depression years of the 1930s, there were many itinerant people living in cardboard and packing crate shacks along the riverbanks and in the bush east of the Dawson Bridge. It was a life of bare survival. Each spring the shanties were searched for those that did not survive the long hard winter, and after the bodies were removed, the structures were burned to the ground by the fire department, probably for health reasons. As our home was the last one on the south side of Jasper Avenue going east, we had a very good view of these annual proceedings.
About the mid thirties, when I was about seven years old, my father took my brother, David, and me down into the bush behind our house, and in a small, protected grove of poplar trees we came upon one of these shacks. We were introduced to the lone occupant, who I only know as Curly. Curly was a survivor in those tough years who earned his way in a unique manner. He foraged for used, discarded car tires from local service stations or where ever. These tires were to provide him with a bare subsistence income until economic circumstances improved.
In his little grove of trees, he cut down a large poplar and left a stump about two feet high. On this he secured an anvil, which I think was made of a short piece of railway track. On another stump, he secured a homemade knife. On another tree, he fastened a punch and lever contraption. With these crude tools, Curly went to work on his used tires. Using the knife, he cut the tires into long strips of a predetermined width. He then took them to the punch apparatus and made holes in the strips of about one and a half inches apart, over their entire length. He also used the punch to make rubber washers from the sides of the tires. With the wire from coat hangers, he secured the whole lot together to produce his final product, a hard wearing and long lasting rubber doormat.
Curly must have made a great many of these mats. I know that our house had them for many years, as did many businesses, which had traded goods and services for them. Many years later, I returned to the area, but could find little evidence of the shack's existence as a home or workplace. I do not know what eventually became of Curly, but I hope that he was rewarded for his endeavors and survived a long time. His industriousness should surely be an example for all.