Babe Sharkey - 40 years of bussing
By Shirley Osinchuk
On Saturday, October 15, Colleen and Vernon Sharkey entertained relatives, friends, customers and employees with a turkey supper with all the trimmings in the Heinsburg Hall. There were 250 to 260 well-wishers filling the hall, all of them there to celebrate 40 years of school bus service.
In 1948, Babe (only occasionally known as Vernon) started driving a school bus for his father. Four years later, his parents gave him his first bus, as a wedding present. Since then he has owned and driven buses in the Heinsburg, Fishing Lake, Frog lake and Elk Point districts. His wife Colleen has driven for the last eighteen years, fifteen of them on the Fishing Lake to Heinsburg route. They also had cattle trucks and a charter bus service for many years.
Their son Rocky and his wife Joanne are now partners, and Babe hopes they will carry on the family business, which has become a tradition.
All their immediate family were present: son Rocky and wife Joanne, and sons Jamie, Aaron and Dustin; and daughter Lora and her husband Gary Meiklejohn, and family, Tarelle, Travis and Tiana. Pat Good and family from Edmonton, and Lawrence and Olga Sharkey were also able to attend.
Babe was the MC for the evening, telling the humorous things that had happened over the years, and justly proud of the fact that there had never been any serious accidents on the bus runs.
There were several presentations of plaques to Babe and Colleen, including ones from friends, relatives, the village of Heinsburg, the County of St. Paul Board of Education, UFA, Spaid Automotive and a telegram from their niece Marlene Fuduric and family in Australia, roses from their six grandchildren, a gift from the school staff, an old wrench from an anonymous former bus driver, and a gift certificate for a night at the Fantasyland Hotel from their children.
Babe and Colleen presented plaques to two retired bus drivers, Lief Pynton and Chester Botting. A large group of drivers from over the forty years was present, with only six missing.
Grace Meger enlisted Yvonne Quickstad to sing a song she had written for the occasion, and Karak Hendriks also sang a song he had written with the help of his great grandmother, Mrs. Bertha Botting. One of Grace’s comments on Babe’s life was that one of the things that makes his eyes light up is expectant mothers along the bus route.
Babe picked up his fiddle and joined some friends and relatives on stage to play for old-time dancing, and the fun went on.
SHARKEYS CELEBRATE 40 YEARS--in the school bus business with their family (above) and friends. Below, Vernon ‘Babe’ Sharkey presents plaques of appreciation to longtime employees Chester Botting (left) and Lief Pynton, while in the photo at far left, Yvonne Quickstad and Grace Meeker entertain with an original song. A good time was had by all who congregated at Heinsburg Community Hall to celebrate the occasion.
