Catching up with old friends

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/04/2020 (1475 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In October 2016, we profiled Garry Peters, an ex-minister who, at the time, was performing a job widely believed to have gone the way of the dodo.

“Whenever I tell somebody what I do for a living, that I’m a milkman, their immediate response is, ‘People still do that?’” Peters said in the wee hours of the morning while negotiating his refrigerated step-van through the streets of Fort Richmond, where he was dropping off milk, butter and assorted other dairy products to some of his 150 residential customers.

Well, not only do Free Press readers have a long memory in reference to that story — to this day, we continue to receive messages asking how to get in touch with “that milkman guy you wrote about” — so do our bosses. Last Friday, we were the recipient of a late-night email from a Free Press editor carrying the subject line, “How busy is the milkman right now?”

To answer that question: very. In other words, yes, the milkman still cometh!

“As a matter of fact, I’ve been going crazy all day answering emails from new customers. Just yesterday a lady called to order eight, four-litre jugs of milk plus eggs,” Peters said when reached at home earlier in the week. “At first I was concerned when I lost all my daycares, schools and small offices due to COVID-19. But as soon as people started going to the grocery store and noticing the dairy cases were either empty or close to it, they started getting in touch through my website (www.winnipegmilkdelivery.com) asking me to sign them up.”

“I still enjoy what I do… When something bad like this happens, people seem really appreciative there are still a few guys like me out there, doing what we can to make life a little easier for everybody else.”– Garry Peters

Currently, Peters, who became an independent contractor for Dairyland Canada in 2002, works two days… er nights a week. In addition to milk — soy and almond milk included — he also delivers sour cream, juice, yogurt and cheese, depositing individual orders inside camping coolers homeowners leave on their doorstep for that express purpose.

“I still enjoy what I do. Not only does it pay the bills but it gives me a bit of exercise,” he continued. “Plus, when something bad like this happens, people seem really appreciative there are still a few guys like me out there, doing what we can to make life a little easier for everybody else.”

We hear it all the time in this business; it must be so great to sit down with interesting people such as Peters week in, week out, learning about their life or livelihood. It is fun, there’s no doubt about that. But the downside of that is as much as we might enjoy a person’s company while interviewing them for a newspaper story, rarely do we get the chance to chat with them again after the article runs. It’s always, “OK, on to next week’s subject.”

On that note, and given these uncertain times, this week we decided to reach out to people we’ve met in the past to get a sense of how they’re dealing with the coronavirus crisis. And at the same time, to catch up a bit. Here are some of their stories.

 

BETH GRUBERT

(In March 2018, we interviewed Beth Grubert, owner of Osborne Village dessert emporium Baked Expectations, which was celebrating its 35th anniversary.)

Beth Grubert knew she had a decision to make.

On March 9, a week before many Winnipeg restaurants began going from dine-in to delivery and take-out only, Grubert’s brother, a restaurateur in Toronto, closed his business due to COVID-19.

“We were about a week behind (Toronto), but after I started to notice things going sideways that Saturday (March 14) and Sunday (March 15), I knew I was going to be faced with the same scenario as him,” Grubert says when reached at home. “I spoke to my staff the day before St. Patrick’s Day, figuring the longer I could keep people employed I would, as long as nobody felt uncomfortable or compromised coming to work. Because if that turned out to be the case, we just wouldn’t proceed.”

Since then, Grubert’s “skeleton crew” has made her cry on a near-daily basis because of an initiative they adopted on their own. If a dessert order comes in through Door Dash, and they have the time, they’ve been writing personal notes to customers inside individual cake boxes — messages such as, “We hope this makes you feel better,” and “Baked with love, thanks for continuing to support us.”

“It’s just the cutest thing,” Grubert says, adding staff often dress the notes up with illustrated hearts and rainbows. “The other night we ran out of lemon cheesecake and when the people working couldn’t get in touch with the woman who ordered a slice to tell her they were sending her a different piece of cake instead and crediting her account, they wrote inside the box how sorry they were and that they hoped she enjoyed what they’d chosen for her.

“She wrote back saying, ‘This is unbelievable, you people are beyond spectacular,’ and I agree wholeheartedly.”

 

RAY GIGUERE

(In August 2019, we hooked up with Ray Giguere, owner of Argy’s Records and Entertainment Shop, which opened in 1982 across from Glenlawn Collegiate, and moved to its current location at 1604 St. Mary’s Rd. in 1989.)

Besides sports leagues, theatre seasons and music festivals, another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic is Record Store Day, an annual event started in 2008 and held on the third Saturday in April to “celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store.”

“It’s always a day I have circled on the calendar because I do practically a month’s worth of business in the space of a few hours,” says Ray Giguere, listing limited edition releases by the likes of Fleetwood Mac and the Doors as albums customers had started asking about. “There’s talk of moving it to June or the fall but because it always coincided with my anniversary sale as well, it definitely won’t have the same impact as it typically did.”

Earlier this week, the province announced new measures, declaring only businesses offering essential services would be able to welcome customers through their doors until April 14. And while Giguere will argue music is an essential service — OK, maybe not disco — he is willing to abide by the rules, and kill time by filling online orders he fields from around the globe. (Better, on a daily basis he’s begun posting videos on his Facebook and Instagram pages of him combing through his shelves in alphabetical order: Abba, ABC, AC-DC, Bryan Adams, Aerosmith…)

“The other day I got a call from a guy in Ottawa who was looking for a Triumph compilation,” he says, adding “before things got serious,” he was cheekily offering rolls of toilet paper in exchange for used record collections. “There’s also a guy in town who’s getting tired of listening to Spotify every day, and wants to throw on some good, old-fashioned vinyl. I’m not too sure about delivery but if I can get what he wants over to him — classic stuff like Journey and Rage Against the Machine — I might consider it, just to get out of the store for five minutes.”

 

KATE FERRIS

(In August 2013, we profiled the Ukulele Club of Winnipeg, one of whose members, Kate Ferris, is a multi-instrumentalist who has conducted ukulele workshops in every corner of the province, from Teulon to Thompson.)

The last time we checked in on the Ukulele Club of Winnipeg, the group numbered just over 100 members and was hooking up for a monthly jam session at Casa Grande Pizzeria on Sargent Avenue. What a difference seven years makes.

“Yeah, we’re close to 600 members these days, and we outgrew Casa Grande a while back, moving over to a banquet space at the Viscount Gort for our monthly get-togethers,” says Kate Ferris, one of the group’s original members, when reached at home near Winnipeg Beach.

In the ensuing years, the Winnipeg group has also inspired other players around the province, Ferris says. There are currently ukulele clubs in Brandon, Carman, Portage la Prairie and The Pas. There’s even one in Thompson dubbed Ukes with Toques, she says with a chuckle.

In a normal world, Ferris would be splitting her time between strumming Tiptoe Through the Tulips alongside fellow club members and teaching her legion of students, some of whom have been studying with her for close to a decade.

“I’ve been thinking about entering the world of film by teaching online, but a lot of my students are retired or close to retirement age and not all of them have access to computers,” she says. “So it remains to be seen whether that will work or not. In the meantime I’m going to keep working on my own playing. It’s all I can do to stay ahead of some of my students, they’re so talented.”

Ferris mentions you don’t have to be a member of the Ukulele Club of Winnipeg to “attend” live concerts the group is presenting through its Facebook site. Already, world-renowned players such as Jake Shimabukuro and Lil’ Rev have performed online and there’s plenty more on tap, she says.

“On April 11, Craig Chee and Sarah Maisel, who were supposed to come to Winnipeg in the fall for our prairie jamboree, which we’ve since pushed back a year, will be presenting what they’re calling a ukulele mini folk festival,” Ferris says. “It will run for six hours and feature all these incredible players from around the world. I’m really looking forward to that one because without a great deal of travel and money, you would never be able to see that level of talent, all at once.”

 

BILL FUGLER

(In September 2016, we caught up with Bill Fugler, a Winnipegger whose goal in life was to walk every street in Winnipeg. Really.)

Every so often, Bill Fugler finds himself in a social setting, engaged in a conversation that goes something like this: a person will ask him what he was up to that day and he’ll tell them he went for a long, three-hour walk in a part of town he’d never been to before. At which point the person he’s speaking with replies, “Oh, that sounds like this guy I read about in the paper one day.”

“I go, ‘Yeah, that was about me,’ and they say, ‘No, no, no, that story was about some nut who’s trying to walk every street in Winnipeg,’” Fugler says with a chuckle. “‘I know; I’m that nut,’ I tell them.”

Fugler began his city-wide journey in 2012, after suffering a ventral hernia. Following his physician’s advice, he began going for daily strolls to aid his recovery. Bored with traipsing up and down the same streets day after day, he decided to see how many different routes he could take. He hasn’t looked back since.

“If I had to put a number on it, I’d say I’m about 80 per cent done, and that I’ve got another two years to go, not counting any new streets or bays that might get built in the meantime,” he says, 30 minutes after getting home from a stroll through south St. Vital, his latest target area. “To date I’ve worn out four pairs of shoes. I’ve actually considered giving Skechers a call, to tell them how much I enjoy their product and how I have the perfect endorsement story for them.”

On average, Fugler, the former owner of the Neighborhood Bookstore and Café, gets out for a walk five days or nights a week. The same as before, he highlights whatever new ground he’s covered in a dog-eared Sherlock’s Map of Winnipeg guide, so as not to retrace his steps. And while he’s generally gone for walks by himself these last eight years, that routine has changed a bit lately, due to world events.

“What I’m doing in the midst of this COVID thing, when lots of people are completely stressed out, is telling friends or family, ‘C’mon, let’s go for a walk,’” he says. “There was an article I read a long time ago that stated at about the 20-minute mark of a walk, whatever’s on your mind begins to drop off. So if I’m talking to somebody and they seem anxious or upset by what’s going on around us, I say, ‘Put yer shoes on, I’ll be at your house in 10 minutes, we’re going for a walk.’ ”

 

SCOTT SCHRIEMER

(In August 2019, we chatted with Scott Schriemer whose father Wietze, nicknamed Vic, opened Vic’s Fruit Market in Fort Garry in 1957.)

Not only has Scott Schriemer been able to retain the entire Vic’s Fruit Market staff during the coronavirus pandemic, he’s added five new faces to the fold.

Schriemer, a married father of seven, says now that all his children are home from university, college or school, the five eldest have been reporting for work every afternoon, after studying at home in the morning.

“They’ve really come in handy because after everything with the virus started we introduced online shopping for the first time, where customers can go to our Facebook page and send in their grocery orders,” Schriemer says, standing near his well-stocked produce section. “We’ve heard that it’s taking some of the bigger stores four or five days to fill (online) orders, but so far, knock on wood, we’ve been able to keep up, offering next-day service at the very latest.”

Schriemer has been spotting a lot of new faces at his boutique grocery store (1038 Pembina Hwy.) during the last few weeks. Part of the reason for that, he guesses, is that people are becoming wary of shopping at larger outlets and are hoping to avoid large crowds. As well, more and more Winnipeggers seem to be making a conscious effort to support local businesses such as his during these trying times, he says.

If there’s one good thing that can come out of “all this,” it’s the renewed sense of family he along with many others are feeling, he says.

“From a personal perspective, not a business perspective, I think this is a very good opportunity for families to reconnect a bit,” he says, balling an apron in his hands. “My wife is so happy to have the kids at home, and to be able to talk to each of them individually on a daily basis, versus rushing around, taking one here and the other one there, without ever really catching up.

“So it’s nice to have the time to talk with your kids or spouse about what’s really important in life, that being one’s health and one’s relationship with loved ones.”

David Sanderson writes about Winnipeg businesses and restaurants.

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca