One day this spring a couple drove into the former Con’s Corner business and asked owner Gene Ward if they could look around.
“I kinda remember this place. I grew up down here,” said the fellow.
For 50 years Con’s Corner Cafe, 20 miles south of Moose Jaw, was a hub of activity featuring over the years, a cafe, gas pumps, confectionery, bulk fuel and a mechanical repair shop.
Ward and wife Rolene, who owned the business from 1973 until 1989 when they closed it, don’t want the memories forgotten so a special sign in memory of the place will be dedicated June 29 at 4 p.m.
“It’s just a heritage thing. I don’t want people forgetting about it. The more generations go on the less they’re going to recall.
“It was a spot that people used to stop. This is where they had their pie and ice cream and gassed up.”
The business started in 1939 when Con and Kay Walz bought it and moved it up Highway 2 to this location.
Local farmer John Hales recalls: “Con had an old Jeep with a trailer and a welder on it” to serve area farmers.
Until power came in 1954 Con’s Corner had the the only electricity made from a diesel generating plant.
Some of Hale’s earliest memories are the old gas bowsers with gasoline in glass up top.
And he remembers the ice cream his mother used to buy, take home to make milkshake treats in summer.
“There’s a million stories,” said Hales. “You had to be there to enjoy them. Corner Gas has nothing on us. They should have come to us to see what it was like.”
Starting work in 1942, a character called Bob Armstrong became a fixture.
“You had to know Bob. He fixed all kinds of stuff. Bob would go ahead and drop a million dollars’ worth of sales to help you.”
Once in Regina, someone told Hales “that tall dude in coveralls” (Armstrong) made the best coffee in southern Saskatchewan and wondered what was in it.
“It’s like Col. Sanders, a special recipe with a hand full of calcium chloride,” replied Hales.
Ward says the business attracted customers from Ponteix, Mankota and Bengough on the way to and from Moose Jaw and Regina.
“Bob and I would sit there until midnight waiting for guys to come back so we could fuel them up so they had enough gas to get home.
“We had quite a few night calls,” says Ward, and in winter a lot of storm stayed guests.
“In that bad winter of 1973-74 I can’t remember how many stayed over in blizzards. One weekend there were hockey fans from Bengough. They were stranded two days. The deep freeze got pretty low.”
The business was still there in 1989 but after 17 years “I wasn't prepared to do it anymore and then computers started coming in. I had enough,” Ward said.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
