Rob McCosh and his crew from the Louisberg Pipelines have been tearing up and replacing the sidewalk on Bridge Street since I arrived. I see them each morning on my walk into town. They suggested that I write my phone number in the wet cement and that’s how we got talking. Rob is a story teller he comes from Miramichi where he says that there is a long tradition of storytelling for entertainment. He’s told me some good ones while the rest of his crew was working… I said I hoped he was the boss otherwise they’ll think he’s lazy. By the end of the conversation, I had gotten his phone number.
Rob told me he used to drive salt trucks in Toronto in the winters and would come back to work on the roads in New Brunswick in the summer. He commented on the two different paces of life, Toronto being all about rushing around, but he said that after the summer season he was tired of waiting for the little old ladies to cross the street and get out of the way and was ready to go back to a faster place.
He’s a big fan of Garrison Keillor and the Prairie Home Companion radio show. He likes the way that his monologues animate elements of everyday life. After listening to Rob talk for the last couple of mornings I get the same feeling from him.
