In the winter of 1934, my father was unemployed and flat broke. It was the middle of the Great Depression. Economic activity had ground to a halt and there were no jobs.
So, he borrowed $150 from my grandmother and set up a hotdog stand at the corner of Dundas Street and Wharncliffe Road in London, Ontario where I grew up.
He called it the Three Little Pigs “Pentry,” after the popular Disney cartoon.
He sold hot dogs, hamburgers, a drink called OrangeKool, and a wonderful basket of goodies known as “Chicken Pickin’s.” It was the first themed restaurant in town, and it became a popular hangout for students from the nearby University of Western Ontario
In the spring of 1937, the Thames River overflowed its banks and flooded the entire neighbourhood where Dad’s business was located. When the waters receded and The Pigs re-opened, Dad painted a line on the wall to indicate the high-water mark. It’s a Mexican restaurant now, but the line is still there, 83 years later.
Two years after that,the Second World War started, and young men at the university enlisted in large numbers. Business tailed off, so Dad branched out into catering meals for weddings and other occasions. It didn’t make him rich, but it paid the bills until the war was over. And the Three Little Pigs remained as popular as ever.
Summer, 1950, saw Londoners gripped with fear as the great polio epidemic swept the city. Business slowed again because families with young children were afraid to congregate, at a restaurant or anywhere else.
Dad sent Chicken Pickin’s baskets every week to the staff at the local children’s hospital. The gesture turned the Three Little Pigs Pentry into a community institution, and the business lunch trade boomed.
My purpose in telling you this is to point out that Canadians have survived hard times before. Life, as author Hugh MacLennan once said, is “just one damned thing after another.”
The current crisis is unquestionably the worst of our lifetime. Businesses here in Okotoks are justifiably worried about whether they will survive. But if I could offer a word of advice it would be this: remember that you’re not alone. The entire community is behind you and will support you any way it can.
So look for new ways to operate, perhaps by bartering goods and services or even temporarily shifting your focus to an area more suited to the situation. Ideas you considered impractical in the past may now be realistic because others will go out of their way to help you. Don’t hesitate to ask them.
Your business is an important part of the fabric of this community, and this is an opportunity to embrace the role and persevere, no matter how long it takes.
The situation may be bleak, but it won’t last forever. And when it is over, life will go on.
