Gord Gibson is ready to let his hair down and enjoy retirement after a long and varied career with the City of New Westminster.
The New Westminster native recently retired after working with the city for 36 years and five months.
"I started with the city at $5.50 an hour. Thirty-six years later I went out at $25 an hour. I think it was actually $24.99," he said. "It's been good."
Gibson started out in the parks department, building adventure playgrounds in city parks. About six weeks after starting the job, Gibson lost his wallet and identification so a co-worker cashed his cheque for him on their lunch break - a move that didn't sit well with his supervisor.
"He told me that afternoon that would be my last day," Gibson recalled. "I was just flabbergasted."
A co-worker asked Gibson why he was looking so glum and went to the boss to explain the situation. He was rehired and soon took a full-time graveyard shift at the Canada Games Pool.
Gibson was working at Canada Games Pool the night that an earthquake struck the Lower Mainland. Guests attending a "splash party" at the pool were leaving the facility when the earth started to shake.
"I remember them being outside and being scared because things were shaking," he recalled. "I remember I had a bucket and a mop in the sink. It actually got thrown out of the sink, all over the floor. All the containers and cleaners on the shelves were all falling off the shelves. I went out to the pool - there was actually a great big wave (that) went down the whole pool."
A fter taking some time off to undergo two operations related to his appendix, Gibson jumped at the chance to take a Monday to Friday job that had been posted.
"I took it, but it was down in Queensborough working in the ditches," he said. "It was working with a scythe. They didn't have weed eaters. It was cutting grass in the ditches and pulling all the grass and weeds out of the ditches and putting it out on the side of the road, building culverts."
Gibson soon discovered that it wasn't the ideal job for him.
"It wasn't a bad job, but it wasn't so good for me - I have really bad hay fever, and in the summer when we were cutting the grass that was pretty hard on me," he said. "Finally a position came up on the garbage trucks."
Gibson worked on the city's garbage trucks for seven years, followed by 17 years at the cemetery, where he cut grass and did burials and cremations.
"I actually buried Raymond Burr, his ashes. Me and my boss did. I met him once. He came there before he passed away to visit his parents' grave. The next time I saw him he was in a cardboard box, and we buried him," he said. "I am a big Perry Mason fan, and I watch it all the time. I still watch it. I probably watched it a couple of days ago. I actually got to meet him, and I got to shake his hand. That was kind of neat. He was a great big, big man."
man." G ibson took some time off to have surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands and returned to work in the city's work yard. He followed that up with a beat position, which involves cleaning a designated area of the city.
"One thing I like about the beat is I work by myself. I like working by myself because you get your own type of system," he said. "I keep pretty busy. I just do my thing."
In recent years, Gibson has worked a beat position formerly held by a municipal employee who was known as "the hat lady" for her affinity for wearing an assortment of hats throughout the year.
"They asked me a couple of times to dress up," he said about people on the beat. "I wasn't into getting dressed up. I just couldn't see myself dressed up as a rabbit or something at Easter. It wasn't really my cup of tea."
While decorative hats aren't Gibson's style, his long hair and handlebar moustache give him his own distinctive look. At times, his appearance has made some street people suspect he's an undercover police officer.
"They would get to know after a while that you weren't," he said. "Most of the ones that were normally around would let the rest of them know you were all right."
right." G ibson finished his career working the Sixth Street corridor, but he previously worked the downtown beat when the area was plagued by open drug dealing.
He took the information presented in violence in the workplace workshops to heart.
"I had guys downtown dealing drugs right in front of me," he recalled. "I basically carried on my job. If you were to interfere or make a ruckus about it you were going to get labelled, and you were going to end up in dire straits. I'm not really saying you turn a blind eye to it, but you had to be street smart. Just being a worker, you had to be streetsmart. That's what I did. It got me through."
Gibson has been known to help out some of the regulars he sees on his beat who are in need, whether it's money for breakfast or a coffee.
"There's a couple of people on my beat I sort of looked after," he said. "You see these people all the time. You feel sorry for them because you have got a pretty good job; you've got a pretty good income and everything. These people don't have much of anything."
B orn at St. Mary's Hospital, Gibson has lived in New Westminster his entire life. He attended Lord Kelvin Elementary and New Westminster Secondary School.
"I hated school," he said. "I remember one teacher one day, he said, 'Mr. Gibson, I don't think you're cut out for school.' He said, 'I'd strongly suggest you go out and find yourself a job.'"
While that wasn't the impetus for leaving school, Gibson dropped out in Grade 11 and went to work at the Canadian
Forest Products mill. He left school, went to the mill, went for the required medical tests and started work the same day.
"Jobs then were a dime a dozen," he said. "There were lots of good jobs around - not like now."
G ibson, who had hair down to his waist, had a bit of a personality clash with a foreman who was bald. He quit his job and decided to go back to school.
"My mom wanted me in the worst way to get my Grade 12," he explained.
"I went back to school, got my Grade 12. I was in 11/12 when I packed it in. I went back for my mom."
Gibson graduated from high school and collected unemployment insurance.
"My mom just hated it, the fact I was on unemployment, partying with my buddies, had hair down to my waist. My mom didn't like my long hair. I was pretty laid back, never really got into any trouble, just partied."
After returning home from a weekend of partying in Penticton, Gibson learned the City of New Westminster had called and he had a job interview.
"I went for my first interview, and I had hair down to my waist," he said. "The interview went pretty well."
The interviewer told his then brother-in-law that "he has to do something about that hair," so Gibson went to the barbershop and had his waist-length hair cut to the middle of his back. He went for a second interview and once again heard "he has to do something about that hair" to be hired.
"I went for my third hair cut, and I got a real McCoy haircut. I went and seen him, bang, you're hired. The rest is history.
I have been there since then," he said. "After I got through the interview, I grew all my hair back again."
again." G ibson's long hair hasn been an issue on the job for many years, so he generally only gets trims to keep it from getting too scraggly.
"It's sort of been like this forever. Except this one time I was sitting in the Fireside Pub, and it was really quite long. I had an appointment next door to get a trim. The girl behind the bar, when I finished my beer and got up to go over there, she phoned over there and said, 'Gord really wants a really nice haircut, but he's just won't say it to you guys'," he said. "I went over there and they just scalped me. They gave me a haircut right up above my ears. I knew it would grow back, but I wasn't too happy when I came out of there."
G ibson's retirement plans include swimming at Canada Games Pool (now that he won't be walking the beat five days a week) and spending more time with his grandchildren.
"Once the end of April comes around, I plan on spending as much time as I can across the line at my sister's place," he said of her lakeside home in Bellingham. "I fish, row around the lake in the boat. I don't do a lot of fishing out of the boat, I prefer fishing from shore or off the dock. I'm closer to the fridge."
While Gibson has enjoyed a lengthy career with the city, he's getting some good-natured ribbing about retirement from his sister, Bev Halliday.
"It seems to be longevity in our family. Our dad worked the same job for over 50 years - 50 years and three months, he used to brag. I worked for 47 years at J. K. Cooper Ltd.," she said. "I said you are going to have to stay at the city."
Gibson had no desire to keep working to top his father and sister's work records.
"It's been a good job," he said. "I'm glad I'm done, but I can't complain."
