The following transcript of Leo Desilets` interview on

The following transcript of
Leo Desilets’ interview
on
Memories and Music
(broadcast February 17, 1974)
was created by the Sudbury Public
Library as part of a
Summer Canada Project
in 1982.
<,
"
••• 1
D
"MEMORIES & MUSIC"
INCO LTD.
CIGM FM
SUDBURY PUBLIC LIBRARY
ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM
INTERVIEiiEE:
DATE:
INTERVEEEER:
Bonnie Savage ·
Leo Desilets
TNIjIRB~EH.ER:
Don MacMillan
DATE OF TRANS:
July 1982
SUMNER CANADA PROJECT
076
TAPE NUMBER:
BOSITION~
.
THEIVIE:
D.M.
Friends and neighbours we have 'a most interesting guest
with us today, Mr. Leo Desilets. Leo retired in
Septeme er , 1971, when he was, well what yere you aoing
when you retired here Leo?
L.D.
I was in supervision in the civic building at · the Copper
Refinery.
D.M.
How
L.D.
Thirty-eight years.
m~
years have you been with Inco Leo?
D.M.Alright Leo to start ' at the beginning.
from? Where ' s your home t~Wn?
Where are you_
L.D.
Capreol, Ontario is
D.M.
You grew up and went to school in Capreol?
L~D.
That ' s right.
D.M.
What would the population of Capreol be about tha t
time when 'you were growing . up there?
L.D.
Between eighteen, nineteen hundred and that .was back in
1918.
D..
Golly it ' s bigger than that now eh?
L.D.
Oh yes, about fifty, between five thousand and fifty five I:undred I would say .
.
D.M.
Right . Well now before the broadcast, you mentioned that
you had a fifteen, or excuse me, fiftieth annniversary
reunion of a-fi:i:~fi the high school.. there? Now was that so?
L.D.
Yes, in early September they had a fiftieth anniversary
of the opening of ~he high school in Capreol.
D.M.
Was there anybody there that , ·that anybody
would know. £:-._.
'0 rv I.\.L." i .~ ~ I
~y
home town.
aro~d
here
•••• 2
0 67·
DESILETS
Any .names
~t
al l that would mean anything
he~ e?
L. n.
Yes. What comes to mind is' two Horrick boys. Pete
Horrick and his brother, I cant' think of his first
name now, and two Nabb boys, Bud and Alan. We all
got t ogether and they came as far as California for thms
reunion.
.
D.M.
Well I 'll be darned.
vfuat 's Pete doing now?
L.D.
Pete's a salesman in Sudbury now and so is his brobher.
D.M.
Now I didn't ask you Le o, about your own background or
your father. What did your father ao in Capreol?
L. D.
He ' was a railroader , or a brakeman on .the, ramlroad .
D. M.
Right . Where was he from originally?
whereabouts?
Erom Capr eol or
I
.
~~w ~
L.D.
No , he originally ' camefrom Verner , Ontario just
from Sudbury here .
D.M.
Right , now what about brothers and sisters Leo?
L.D.
I have four . brothers and a sister.
D. M.
Well who are they , and what are they doing now?
brother I believe is named RolaIiJi.
L. D.
Yeah , I have a brother Roland in South Africa , I have
another brother in Sudbury, a brother in Renfrew and a
sister living in Hanmer , Ontario.
D.M.
Now you ' re going a little bit too fast for us . I 'd like
t o knOvl more about this brother Roland in South Africa .
How 'd he get down there? What 's he doing?
L. D.
\'lell belivv8 it or not , he 'went down there in 193f} t o
play hockey . He went down there with an Austrian team
on tour . He had been playing on the (
) at
the time and he stayed. He liked it s o much , and he ' s
been living there every since.
down ~ fl
One
l'
D.M .
And I believe h~~ ~ his own business going down there.
Is that right? .
L . D.
Yes he h~s , and that's really something. He 's in the
bubblegum business down there.
D.M.
If .we ' dknown , we should have had s ome bubblegum on the
program.
L.D .
Yeah , that 's right .
, m:SILETS
D. M.
And Romeo now .
He ' s , what ' s he doing in Kerland Bay,
L. D.
He's a salesman.
D. M.
mmhh , and Bill?
L. D.
Bill is living in Sudbt~y here, and he ' s an insurance
salesman with Mutual Life .
He ' s witJ;1 Domin'i on Brev/eries .
D. M. , And now I think that ' s interesting , and- I think a very
n
nice story about Jaff another of your brothers .
L.D'.
Vlell Jarf , he's living 'in R.l!.nfrew' .a His wife is sherrif
in Renfrew and he ' s here assistant down there .
D. M.
He just gets _to , be half a star does he?
L. D.
That ' s right .
D.M .
He played aome hockey I think back in the ' 30 ' s .
right?
L. D.
That ' s right . He actually played with Montreal Canadians .
He played in the Stanley Cup Playof~s in 1936 and in 1938
he was traded to the Chicago Baack Hawks .
D. M.
Who were s ome of his teammaues on that Canadian 'team?
L.~.
Trembley , the two M6mfas , Wilf Kid, Roy Wilshell , oh
that's s ome of them.
D. r'I .
That ' ll do .
L. D.
Yeah.
D.M.
They in their prime , would do alright in our mew league
in the World Hockey Associatmon .
.
L. D.
Oh definitely , definitely, yes .
D.M.
Maybe they still would.
L.D.
I think so .
D. M.
lV
lajllbe we ' re being a little unkind.
L. D.
Yeah .
D'. M.
Now the juiiet , the sister?
L. D.
She ' s liging
D.M.
Alright , now after you ' d finished hockey in Capreol , .
what ' d you do then? p~ WI ~vr ~ -Is~~
Is that
/
tn , married and living in Hanmer , Ontario • .
~~~~?
.
DESILETS
••• 4
193
L. D.
WM~ r left Capreol in 1928.
I went dw\'ID to Toronto
to work £ or the Bell Telephone and play hockey for
them . Thi s is how I got on with the Bell Telephone .
D. f<1 .
I think there "s another name , was it Vern or Tuffling
or ' somebo~ here was down there about that, time . '
L. D.
Taat ' s right . Vern was playing in tfie McIntyreLeague .
They had two leagues . One , t he r1cIntyre in West TIJDonto ,
and we were playing in Varsity Stadium .
It was called
a major commercial league then •
.D.M.
Right , and you got on with Bell as soon you were hockey
playing the bill right?
L. D.
That is right .
D. M.
\fuat did , you play Leo?
~
L. D. , I played right wing for the Bell . We had a couple of
real godd e~ hockey players playing on there , with me
on the line . Percy Allan and Davey Horne . Percy Allan
was one of the slickest stickhandlers that ever ~layed ,
without turning pro .
·D. M.
·R ight . Well now, O. K., so ' 28 , working for Bell and
playing hockey , but that came to an end . I think the
depression had sometming to do with that eh?,
L. D.
That is right , ' in 19 , in the spring of 1933 , after the
st ock markets crashed , well • • •• '
D. M.
Well wait a IDlimute , before we get to ' 33 , you had an
interesting story to tell us before the broadcast about
1931 I belieye . Playing in the first unofficial hockey
game mn Maple ,Leaf Ga~dent, is that right ?
L. D.
That is right . I was playing with siniors at the time
and the unofficial opening at Maple Leaf Gardent ~ and
we played the Leafs in the afternoDnT=and the omly way
you could get int o the Gardens was the pe ople bringing
clothing or food , canned foods and things like this .
And we played four , ftheLeafs fifteen minute period ~.
(
.
) we played them fifteen minutes , the
Varsity Seniors played them fifteen minutes , Niagra -Falls
team played them fifteen minutes , and National Seafleas
played them fifteen minutes .
D. M.
Oh it s uunds interesting . Who ~lere some of the Leafs?
Do .; you remember the Lea:fs on that club?
L. D.
,D.M .
-
Oh yes .
An~
Blair , Ron Shabow , Franky Finnigan ••••
Would BushY Jackson be on that club or d-id he come later?
DESILETS
• •• 5
268
L.D.
No, thi s came h
D.M.
Oh yes.
L.D.
Well no , no , ~xcuse me .
time . Right away.
D. M.
I
L.D .
Yeah, that ' s r ight. They (
(
)
) Street Arena.
D.M.
O.K., that takes care then of -hhe first unofficial hock ey
L. D.
That is right . I come up here then in -the fall of '33
and hired on at Inco· at the Copper Refinery to play
hockey, or hockey helped me to get the job.
D. M.
A good thing to have , right. Wh_o were some of the {lockey
players with you on- the Inco tepms at that tim~?
~e~~R-
after.
.
/
No , t hey weBe theFe at the
thought they were about that time .
. ) the old
game at Maple Le af Gardens and t hat brings us up to 1933
and depression era, and things sort of backed in at the
Bell. I s that r ight?
Well s ome that come to mind, Red Porter for one . He ' s
just rec~ntly ~e~~~e retired. Doctor Jack McInnes in
Sudbury n ow, and Mac Forsyth has re~ently retired also
. and making
. hi s home in Florida now.
Alright . 'Well then Leo , you , things packed in at the
Bell . You came up to Copper Cliff . You got working for
Inco _partially through your hockey ability and largely
through that , but what type of work Ylere you dolimg~
L. D.
When I was first hired on, I was in the plate shop . I
became a plate worke-r through , starting as a helper and
up to a plate worker and this is layout work . I was
there for about ten ;yeass . _
D. M.
Well now, ~-w you wouldh't have
for this Leo?
L. D.
No,' I learned on the job .
D. M.
vfuich is maybe as good a way to lwarri as apy eh?
L-. D.
Well it ' s , you get a thorough training , and that ' s one
thing -Inco always gives their men • . A good training .
D.M.
vfuat sort .of work did you have to do Leo?
L. D.
It was mostly
D. M.
You say layout .
~ayout
work
y~u
~
know?
Laying out what?
any special training
.
(
DESILETS
(
••• 6
328
L. D.
Well if you ' re m~ing an elbolJ or a cone or a ninety
degree or anything , I , you had t o lay it out on paper
and then on steel and then fabricate i~ .
D. M.
Right . So , at ten years at this and then you moved
from ther~ t o another j ob I gather .
L. D.
Yes I went down , I transferred t o the (
) as a
production clerk and I was on that about roughly ten
or . eleven months , and t hen Mr . -Coat who was superintendant
or the tank house department at that time , asked me if
I would l ike t o go on supervision which I did , and stayed
there .
O. K., that ' s , that ' s a success st ory I think . There ' s
no qv.estion about that . Now, what sort of work , what
were y ou supervising and what \vere you doing in this new
job?
L. D.
Well the process of processing special metals , came from
t he tank house in a sludge f orm and we started- to separate
i t and process it and bring it down t o gold arid silver
t o metal and (
) t o a conce ntra~e .
D. M.
And here were you without a degree in engineering or
whatever supervising this type of thing right?
L. D.
This is right .
Well Leo I think that you are ·to be congratulated. However ,
sir we ' re on into the later ' 30 ' s now and I think that
s omething , of some importance happened around about 1938 .
Is that true? In October or thereabouts?
L. D.
That I S right . I ~ married , I shouldn ' t say I married
we married , I got married to a Miss Loise Joduin .
I
Yes .
L. D.
In October 12 , 1938 .
Well now I know that you had nothing ' but nice things to
say about t-1rs . Desilets or Lolilise . Where and how did
y ou meet?
L. D.
We met ~ skkting at the old Pal ace Rink in 19 , the fall of
1936 , and we courted until we were married and we used
to go skating at the ol d Palace Rink there ••••
D. M.
Right .
L. D. '. •••• and also I was her next dowr neighbour . I lived at
the Idy(
) Club On Elm. Street , where the
Canad ian Tire is t oday,;
DESILETS
••• 7
407
,
D. M.
,Ji...
Now, that I t hi nk w a s run by a pair of/l wonderf ul old
l adi e s who were well-known and fondl y r emembered by
people here . Is that right ?
L. D.
That ' s right .
D. M..
Right . Are there any of t he poeple who lived with you
at thms (
.
) Cl ub who are -still around or with
I nc o?
L. D.
Well , two t hat come to mi nd, are sti ll i n Sudbury . One
i s Li onel Roy who recent ly ret i red and I think he ' s down
in Mal a sia now i n the Lenolea se pr oject and Art Roy
who i s still working ~it h Inco.
D. M·
Right • . We ll now incident ly ladies and gentleman we ' r e
having a l itt l e chat t oday with Mr . Leo Desilets . Leo
ha s been with Inco , or has r etired ~om Inco . He retired
in 1971 after thirty- eight years with the c ompany . He
is n ow what I think we coihld call sixty- ywo years ' young .
He played a lot hockey . G ot his j ob wit h Inco in the .
first place through his hockey ability but I think it ' s
f air t o say that it went on through much greater thi ngs
entirely on his own . Now Leo , what about family and so
on? _ What , have you got any family?
L. D.
Yes .
L. D.
Oh , what are their names and where are they now?
.
. _
t.o..~~ ~\ <-o.r ~uv.
Denise is living in tH5!~I!iti(), Missouri . That ' s roughly
about a hundred and twenty- f i v e miles south- east of
St • . Louis .
.
vV
ft
Two t>i neand Irish l adi es .
I have t wo daughters .
Both married .
Well vlould a daughter of your get dovffi t o Mi ssouri?
L. D
. ..
They -met in Sudbury here , and she ' s married to a chap
..,-..rho 'a, bytbe name of Pat Cushing . His father recent l y
ret i red from Inco here t 09, and he got a job \'lit h Proct or
and Gamble , and they were living in .Shaborgan l Hiehigan
and then he w~s t r apsferred t o ~ 8 ~e~ido Cape uirandeau .
D. M.
I think Shaborgan is where , . i s t hat vlher e Jack Benny
claims t o have come -from as you recall or am I thi nki ng
of s omebody else?
L~ D .
No . T ere ' s another name wfl.:t:efl. where Jack Benny came from '
that ' s s omewhat like Shaborgan but it liisnt t Shaborgan . I
can ' t think of the name right n o\v either.
-
\
.
Maybe s om~b ody liatening to the show wi l l look y ou up and
t ell you . There ' s s omet hing familian about Shaborgan f or s ome reas on r at her .
.
••• 8
DESILETS
475
L. D.
That ' s right , =it could be .
D.tlJ .
And the other daughter is living where?
L.D • . In Toront o .
D.M .
. L.D .
Oh yes .
And she ' s married to a chap by the name of Dan McLean •
Right .
L. D.
Yes . Three grandchildren from my oldest daughter that 5
living in Cape Girardeau .
D. r'1
And what are their names
good grandchildren?
L. D.
Oh they were very good this past Christmas. The oldest
one ' s name is Keri , she ' s· twelve years old , and Teddy
is ni~e , and Erika. seven.
D. M-
Right . Well now , apart from your work , .to which you
devoted a great deal of time , . I gather that you have ,
turned to curling and to golf. I think you had a good
year of curling in 1966. Is that i ightLeo?
L. D.
Well I was one of the highlights of curling . I ' ve won
bonspiels, but this particular one , we won the Copper
Cliff post season and Wes Hart was the skip , I was vice ,
Roy Johnson \'las second ,amd Rich Kelverson was lead .
D. M.
Any of the ~ en on the rink , . still around maybe list·ening
to thesho\v.
~~,
Yes , ~oy Johnston and WES Hart are st ill in ~
\
,L. D.
Right .
Now have you any
grandChildren~
D. M.
.,
and ages and are they. pretty
1
·Are they pretty ,good curlers .
L. D.
Yes they are , very good .
D. M.
Well you were the skip of that rink were you?
L. D.
Wws Hart was the skip , I was vice .
D. M.
Right .
L. D.
No, I haven~t curled in the l ast f our years because the
las t t\'lO years I worked I didn ' t feel l ike curling and
the last two years I ' ve been retired . I spent my winter
in Florida.
D. M.
Oh yes , yes . I was going t o come t o that . "Now what about
go14? You ' ve played quite a big of ~olf ?
~
You ' re n ot curl ing as much no\'l though eh?
••• 9
DESILETS
L.D .
529
Yes . Every day if I can in the SUIlllIlBr time and then
the past winter I played pretty near e¥ery day also.
:i:~
D.M. · This is down in Florida eh?
L.D .
mmhh.
D. M.
Well now , one of your golfing partners is
L. D.
¥ee-e:i:~y-That ' s right:
D. M.
• ••• and I warned you that I was going to ask you
the better golfer, you or Vern?
L. D.
Well we're pretyY close together . ,Money-wise at a · nickel
a hole , I would say I ' m, about fifteen or sixte en holes up '
on him in ' the summer . I didn't make a fortunate and he
didn ' t lose too mijch either.
D. f-1 .
Too, bad we've already had Vern on ·tne program or otherwise
he wouldn ' t have a chance to answer . Do you think you
got sneaky and practiced dOvm in Florid~ might have
something to do with it?
LD.
v/ell it doesn ' t hurt .
shape .
D. M.
Nol,v tell me about Florida. I mean, have you ever thought
of retiring permanently to Florida . I don ' t , I think
that you ' d , really not in 'favour of that .
L.D .
No , I like to go down therereally three months . January
February and March . I l ike t o get back here in April and
you can ' t beat this country in the summer time .
D. M.
I think , that ' s what you were saying earlier , that Sudb~y
is. home as far as you're concerned .
.
L. D.
Yes definitely . Oh no~ we like it here . h~ have a ,lot
of friepds here . We have some , I have brothers and sisters
here . My wife xx;x has family here too , s o between
families and friends I \flOuldn ' t leave here .
D.M .
So a c ouple of months in the winter in the sout h land and
Sudbury looks pretty good eh?
L. D.
That ' s the \flay I like it anyway .
D. M.
.n
L.D.
. Vetil
~
.
Tuffling ••••
\f/ho '
s
You knol,v , it keeps your game in
,
ight • Nol,v I gather also Leo , that you've gone into a
little business on your own? ' Is that right?
Yes . I ' m a part- time salesman and this is more or less
a hobby I would say . Some people have bobbies . I don ' t
have a hobby r eally. But this is what ,I enjoy doing .
DEE1LETS
••• 10
578
I like meeting. people , and the product we're selling is
wi th the Ontario Hotor League which is CAM and MAAA
which gives wonderful emergency road services . I like
doing it and I think that -anyone that signs up is ••••
D.M.
Making a good move eh?
L~D.
• ••• making a good move and I wouldn ' t recommend it to
anyone if it wasn ' t , if I didn ' t believe in it, an~
expecially when you get older . You know, of you ~
have a ~lat tire , you just call us , and we ' ll ch~e
it for yo~l£ your car won ' t start , call us and we 11
start it for you . Let me get a little bit wi~e , it ' s
'
handy and it ' s not expensive.
D.M .
We ' re not even going to 'cbarge you for this commercial .
This f s free on the house .
.
L.D .
Thank you jfer:! much .
I
_
But you better
w~
vp,r I
del~~ .
L. D.
Oh \ve do ~
D. M.
Alright . NOvl let me be semi- serious f or a moment.
The chatting befor e the broadcast , you made what I
thought was a very , you said a very nice thing . You said
that you cons idered in this lifetime th~t a marriage parbner
IDS very important . Wpuld you like to. elaborate a little
on ,that?
L.D .
Ohdefinitely .
This is the most importann thing there
~s .
More , even more so now because you ' re getting older
and you have someone there to look aftere you . Of course
it works both ways you kllo\'l. We look after one anot her ~
but , I don ' t know , I HI have a wonderfu~ wmfe. She ' s a
real good cook if -I may say so , and it ' s just 'great.
guarantee it .
~w
I think Le0 1 have you got a favourite dinner or something
you would l~ke to have, comked, ·1 think after that
EEMmmRRX commercial , that probably -you might get it cookeci
for you sometime .
L.D.
Well I tell you , we had lamb for dinner last night and
it was -just terrific. '
D.M.
Leo , you grew up threugh:l; the depression . You got jobs '
through .hockey. ~ ou made something 9ut of your job when
you did get it / You have seen tough times , depression
times . What advice would you have to a young fellow now?
L.D.
Well the first thing I v/ould say , is to , if possible , get
your education . Get your degree if you can get it , and
once you get it, get established and really work at it.
As far as promotion is concerned, work is the main thing .
<)
DESILETS
D . ~1 .
••• 11
641
Well Leo thank you very much . Ladies and gent~i.men , o'lir
guest today on Memories and Music has been Leo Desilets
who retired on September the first , 1971 at age sixtytwo after thirty- eight years with Inco . Leo , we thank
you very much f or having been our guest today .
/