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BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO, OCTOBER 27, 1976 Given a few million years, a drop of water can wear a hole right through a good-sized rock, as collector Art Baker of Bowmanville indicates. Mr. Baker, a retired landscape architect and gardener, has spent over 50 years gathering together his collection of special stones and rocks -- a natural enough hobby for This tail and strangely shaped rock once served someone who grew up in the rugged countryside of Cornwall, England. as an anchor stone for an Indian war vessel sAnother of his exceptional stones is a meteorite found years a go at the Munday property which struck the earth at such a tremendous force that it J . » eson Tires OW n r blasted a hole "deep enough to put a complete team of horses and wagon in it," according to Mr. Baker. omI.tes43 Years AtKing. St. Location 'ing St. West won't be quite the same without the familiar face of Frank àmieson in the tire shop at Silver St. But the 43 year career that he has had repairing tires for local residents has not drawn to a close completely. Although Mr. Jamieson has announced that he is retiring he has also decided to stay on for a while to help the new owners take over the business. \ by Shawn Marshall A familiar looking shop on King St. West has undergone a change of ownership which will probably affect a great number of Bowmanville tire buyers. This week, Frank Jamieson, owner of Jamieson Tires on the corner of King St. and Silver St. sold the shop to two local men, Roger Cochrane and Vernon McGill. But all those who have come to depend on Mr. Jamieson's service will still have access to his knowledge of tires even after his retirement from the business. Whether tires have become a life-long interest to him or he bas chosen not to desert the many customers he bas acquired over 43 years, the merchant will remain for some time at the shop to serve in an advisory capacity for the new owners. It obviously is more difficult than it appears to leave behind a business that has almost become a land mark in the town. When the shop opened in by Liz Armstrong You may have thought that the recent 'pet-rock' craze was just a passing fancy, like hula boops, saddle shoes and skate- boards. Not for Art Baker. For the past 56 years, he's been a serious collector. of rocks, though they're not the pint- sized variety that were all the rage last year. In fact, Mr. Baker estimates that he has well over 10 tons of carefully selected stones in his garden 1918 there were 52 vehicles sharing the muddy roads with a large number of horses and buggies. But that was. before his time and it was not until 1933 that Mr. Jamieson became direct- ly involved in the tire repair shop. Before settling down he tried his hands as a clerk in a local hardware store for $12 a week, with the Dominion grocery chain at $2 a day and finally at General Motors at 59 cents an hour. Soon after the GM job he began working for his father, Herb Jamieson, learning the business inside out and pre- paring to take it over which he did after his father's death in 1938. Sihce then the shop has gone through tough times and survived. "I know what it's like to count the coppers in the till," he said. Like so many people who have come through the dep- ression, Mr. Jamieson said it left a deep impression and is something that he will always remember. He recommends building a business on service rather than the profit motive. There was one experience he had with a young couple returning from their honey- moon whose money supply had been drained and who needed tires to make the trip home. The woman offered her wedding ring as collateral until they were able to raise the money to pay him back. Refusing to take the ring but insisting that they take the tires, he received a letter from them with the money enclosed three days later. "Feel for the other fella and you'll get a lot more back," he maintains. Larger companies which have offered cheaper tires at reduced prices have often made the market competitive for him but Jamieson Tires maintained a policy of offer- ing the best tires available for the most reasonable prices. The secret of doing a good business is realizing that "they try them all once, then they come back for quality." During the Second World War rubber was scarce be- cause Germany had taken over the plantations where it on Wellington Street--too many to count. is huge collection has not only captured the interest of neighborhood kids and pass- ing motorists, but also geolo- gists from the University of Toronto, who have visited Mr. Baker and explained the origin and history of many of the rocks he's gathered over the years. Time and again, people have offered to buy some of his most unusual ones. A tourist from Arizona was was grown. Although it was a difficult period for selling tires, repairs were in great demand because the federal government had outlawed buying tires without a permit from the War Time Prices and Trade Board. The year after, the legislation was lifted and Canadians once again were free to buy tires, his profits dropped in comparison to the two years before when he had $3500 worth of tires but which he was next to prohibited from selling. One of his achievements he still recalls was when a Toronto Star reporter on the way to Kingston needed bis tires changed in a hurry. In his fastest recorded time, he took both tires off and put two new ones on by hand in two minutes. "That's as fast as I've ever seen it done in my life," the amazed driver remarked. Retirement. he hopes will give him additional time for hunting and fishing and per- haps a more lengthy vacation in Florida this year. But with bis ties to the old shop still strong, it could be quite a while before Frank Jamieson pulls out of the business entirely. Acquires New Property The Ganaraska Region Con- servation Authority bas pur- chased new property in the former Clarke Township and the facilities will likely be used by groups such as Scouts and Guides and by skiers and snowmobilers. Although the transfer of the property took place October lst, plans for the future use of the camp are still being made. It is expected, however, that the land will be used for recreation and educational purposes. The new Ganaraska proper- ty consists of the Cold Springs camp which is located north- east of Kendal on the Hope Township border and the Town of Newcastle boundary. The property was purchased by the conservation authority from the Ministry of Govern- ment Services for one dollar. It has been used by the Ministry of Correctional Ser- vices until last year. It would take several strong fellows to lift this huge rock out of the shrubbery in front of Mr. Baker's home on Wellington Street, and that's exactly what a group of Hallowe'en pranksters used to do for fun several years ago -- that is until Mr. Baker got his not-so-sweet revenge. An Arizona tourist also had his eye on this piece, and even offered to send a truck up from his home state to fetch it. Mr. Baker didn't sell. especially impressed with Mr. Baker's largest piece, a rug- ged giant of a stone which looks something like a pre- historie dinosaur. The man even offered to send a truck up from the southwestern States to fetch his prize, but Mr. Baker ultimately decided that he didn't want to part with it. Natural Sculpture It would probably be more accurate to describe Mr. Baker's collection as 'found art' --many of his pieces are unique stone sculptures which represent an abstract form of a real object. Among many others, you can find an admiral's hat, a table tennis bat, an old-fashioned plough share, a polar bear and a fox. One of the focal points of Mr. Baker's immaculately land- scaped garden is a replica of the Himalayas -- a rockery built of dozens of special stones. The effect is realistic because Mr. Baker bas paid close attention to detail. Toward the top of the model, he has placed a series of predominantly white rocks, representing the snow-capped peaks of the mountain range. Though most of Mr. Baker's collection can be found in his garden, two rare pieces are kept inside the house. On a shelf in his living room, there's a small chunk of the Taj Mahal, India's world famous tourist attraction. The date inscribed on the marble chip is 1916, a reminder of Mr. Baker's tour of duty with the British army during the First World War. Beside it is a piece of petrified wood from Drumhel- ler, Alberta, which started off his Canadian collection in 1921. The year 'before, Mr. Baker had emigrated from Cornwall, England to pursue his career as a landscape architect and gardener. Lots of Patience Hunting rocks sounds like it requires just as much patience as fishing. Some- times Mr. Baker would go looking for weeks at a stretch and still come home empty- handed. Then he'd strike it rich, finding two or three good ones on a lucky day. Mr. Baker contends that he'd know when he was' near a special rock. "In certain areas, I can almost smell them when they're close by, he says. Though some of his pieces come from faraway places, most were found in the southern Ontario region, mainly in the area east of Bowmanville toward Port Granby and Cobourg along the lakeshore. And many were too heavy for one man to carry alone, so he'd leave them, make a note of the location and come back later with a crew of men to retrieve them. Which brings us to the tale of the huge stone that sits in amongst the shrubbery in front of Mr. Baker's house. As the story goes, about 20 years ago, a group of young Bow- manville lads would play an annual Hallowe'en prank on Mr. Baker. Well past dark, they'd sneak up to the house, drag the huge rock out of the shrubbery, heave it across the lawn and then deposit it in the middle of the street. They got away with the trick for years before Mr. Baker finally gained his revenge. He visited a local dairy farm and filled a pail with (shall we say) fresh cow fertilizer and plastered the rock from top to bottom with the stuff. Then he turned out the lights and waited for the intruders by his living room window. Event- ually the fellows arrived, crept up to the house, grabbed the rock and heaved it away as usual. Evidently they weren't nearly as adept as Mr. Baker at sniffing out rocks . Mysteriously, when tbe fol- lowing Hallowe'en rolled around, tbe giant rock stayed put. A collection of more than 10 tons of rock sounds as if it might be too stark to appear attractive, but Mr. Baker has blended his collection into a beautifully landscaped garden which contains a wide variety of flowers, shrubs and trees. In fact, the setting is so lovely that wedding parties often request using the garden as a backdrop for photos. The stone pictured above contains two intersecting streaks of white mineral which gives it the appearance of a perfect cross. It doesn't take much imagination to see the resemblance between this rock and an admiral's hat, just one example of the many stones in his collection which resemble real life objects. In addition to sculptures, Mr. Baker's pieces represent a good slice of geological history. SECTION TWOHis Li etime Hobby.. Collecting Rocks