THE REAL HISTORY OF ALL
TERRAIN CHARLEY’S
My father’s family was from the
Northumberland, Scottish borders area of
Frequently I would walk over to Poole’s
and look at the new Harleys and talk to the owner Percy Poole and sometimes he
would let me watch the mechanics work from a distance and to me it became a
place to dream, I got to know some of the mechanics, some of the Harley
drivers and once in awhile someone would let me sit on their motorcycle and I
would dream of riding a motorcycle and someday working at or owning a
motorcycle shop.
I bought my first motorcycle in the
spring of 1968, a 1968 650 Triumph Bonneville from the Hamilton
Mountain Triumph dealership owned by Larry Bastedo, Larry is now a
Director of the Steel City Riders http://www.steelcityriders.ca/pb/wp_0be90a34/wp_0be90a34.html
and other members of his family have been
involved with running the CMA.
In the fall of 1968 I purchased a 1943
45 cubic inch Harley Davidson basket case and over the next year and a half I
built that into a running motorcycle, pictures of that bike are on the www.atvtires.ca website, see Charley’s Choppers.
In 1976 I ordered and bought a
brand new 1977 Harley Davidson Superglide from Dave’s Cycle in Woodstock
New Brunswick and drove that until I was poisoned on my job in 1981
fixing construction equipment. The company I was working for was running heavy
construction equipment indoors and I was working and breathing the diesel fumes
5 days a week for one year. My doctor said that I had to quit the mechanic job
because it was harmful to my health, I did quit the job and I argued with a
Workers Compensation doctor who said that I couldn’t get sick from exposure to
diesel fumes and I talked to lawyers who were supposed to represent me and
fight my case with Workers Compensation but the only person who received any
money was the lawyer. This nonsense went on for a few years until I realized
that Workers Compensation was stone walling me and everyone else who had a
claim that was a little out of the ordinary. I ended up in bed for most of the
next 2 years because I suffered from a severe lack of energy, I had
allergies to seventy percent of the food that I was accustomed to eating,
allergies to cigarette and cigar smoke plus sinus congestion that would not go
away, severe allergies to perfume, aftershave lotion, body lotions, hair
sprays, soaps, hair shampoo, household cleaning supplies, dust, carpets, house
plants because of the mold in the soil, dyes in new clothing, petroleum
products, gasoline, diesel fuel, diesel and gasoline fumes and constant
migraine headaches when I had never had a migraine headache in my life, mental
confusion and lots of intestinal gas and heart burn so bad I thought I was
having the big one, this
also made it almost impossible to socialize or go to parties because I could
stink out a room if I ate food that most normal people take for granted, I also had muscle spasms that would pop some of my spine
discs out and leave me frozen in pain, no one knew anything about Environmental
illness and that I was Environmentally ill. Finally in 1982 with no money
coming in I had to sell my Harley but I didn’t want to go without a motorcycle
so I bought a 1972 Norton Commando to drive around on, I kept the Norton for a
few months and then I sold it because I needed money for essentials like food
and rent. In 1983 when my health gradually
began to get a little better I borrowed some money from a friend and I
started Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Magazine covering motorcycle events on the
East Coast and then through my new contacts in the motorcycle business I
started to wholesale Pirelli and Michelin motorcycle tires to dealers
throughout the Maritimes. Rolling Thunder motorcycle magazine lasted until 1985
and I found that during the three years of producing the magazine it kept
getting harder each year to talk businesses into supporting a motorcycle
magazine that was being produced in the Maritimes especially since I had no
background in the magazine business or in the motorcycle business. In 1985 my
physical health was not good and I had to lie down every two hours to rest so
working for someone else full time was out of the question.
I had traveled to many different Honda,
Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki dealerships over those three years that I ran the
magazine and I had noticed the explosive growth in ATV sales so I made the
decision in the spring of 1985 to open All Terrain Charley's, it started as an
ATV and motorcycle repair shop, six months later I signed up as a Polaris ATV
dealership and sold Polaris ATV’s for 10 years. I also sold ATV, motorcycle and
snowmobile parts and accessories but the largest percentage of my business was
the sale of ATV and motorcycle tires.
In 1998 I was admitted into a
special Environmental
Health Hospital run by Dalhousie University in Waverley Nova Scotia
and for the last ten years I have been a guinea pig in an experimental program of treatments for people
who are environmentally ill. I am allergic to some antibiotics and I would get
mysterious infections after some of the treatments but I have gradually
returned to a good state of health for an old geezer and for that I am
thankful.
This special Environmental Hospital was
set up because hundreds of doctors, nurses and other hospital staff had become
environmentally ill from breathing harmful hospital exhaust fumes in the then
new Camp Hill Hospital. When they built the Camp Hill Hospital someone had
screwed up big time and had designed the hospital with the exhaust vent for the
hospital right next to the air intake, shortly after the new hospital opened
most of the staff got very sick. The Workers Compensation sent the same doctor
that had talked to me to investigate the hospital situation to see if there was
a problem and determine if all these hospital workers had a legitimate claim. She
determined that there was no problem with the hospital and did not take the
time to investigate enough to find out about the hospitals air exhaust and
intake and this was only brought to light after they sent a new person to
investigate the situation. To my knowledge out of the hundreds who worked at
that hospital and got sick only one person ever received any Workers
Compensation.
In the year 2000 I set up a USA
business website www.atvtires.com and
then a Canadian website www.atvtires.ca and for over seven and a half years these two
websites generated orders from all over North America and I shipped tires and
motorcycle parts all over the USA and Canada.
My wife and I joined the Dartmouth
Volksmarch hiking club 10 years ago and we have travelled to many
provinces, states in the USA and European countries to hike.
I have been in the Freemasons for 19
years and I have served as the Master of my Lodge and for 2006-2007 I was
the District Deputy Grand Master for First Halifax County, I have also been a
Shriner since 1995 and I have visited the Shrine Hospital in Montreal, I was
the Grand Representative of Michigan in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
January 2006 to January 2008 for the Order of the Eastern Star and my wife was
the Grand Representative of Texas in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island 2004
to 2006 for the Order of the Eastern Star.
I retired in early November 2007 and I
plan on touring Canada and the USA.
I would like to thank all my customers and friends
who for over 22 years either came into the store or sent me e-mails to offer
their support or to shoot the breeze, some of them even bought some stuff and
some trusted me to repair their motorcycle or ATV. For all those years it was
my pleasure to serve the motorcycle community and in my eyes it was my
customers that made my dream come true.
NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS
KEEP YOUR DREAMS ALIVE
Your
health is the most important thing you have, take care of it.