Robert ‘Rob’ Huntington
Rob is a worldly person, a man dedicated to discovering new adventures and helping others throughout his journey of discovery. He was adopted as a baby and grew up spending all his summers on Manitoulin Island, the home of his adoptive mother, Rhea Matheson, her family and all her ancestors. Calgary was his last home base, but he loves the Island and is hoping to retire here in the future. “I have returned to Ontario after 47 years in Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.”
Rob was born on October 25, 1957, in Toronto and he was chosen by Alexander and Rhea Huntington to be their son. At about 14 weeks of age, on Valentine’s Day, 1958, he came home to his adoptive parents who were living in Port Credit. A sister, Jane, was also adopted later. His maternal grandparents are Norman and Bertha (Morden) Matheson of Silver Water. Bertha was the local telephone operator in Silver Water for over 40 years. Grandmother’s ring was ‘long-short-long,’ and you had to go through her to go off the island. Rob’s maternal great-grandparents are William and Margaret (Price) Morden of Silverwater. Paternal grandparents are Norman Matheson and Elizabeth Ainslie. Norman was the lighthouse keeper at Cape Roberts near Elizabeth Bay.
“My father Alex Huntington came to the island after the second world war in the 1940s. He cut timber in the bush near Cook’s dock and that’s how he met my mother in Silver Water. They married in 1954 in Silver Water and moved to the Toronto area soon after. “I grew up in Port Credit, playing with cousins and local friends. My ‘sociable’ parents were always hosting or attending gatherings. There was a big grass ditch in the front yard. In the winter we could skate and play ice hockey on the Cooksville Creek across the street.”
Rob attended Lynwood Public School in Port Credit, “I had a crush on Mrs. McCracken, my Grade 2 teacher,” Rob adds smiling. “My report card indicated I had a short attention span, and I would be a much better student if I were not so easily distracted. Dad had his own business, Hoover Vacuums, sales, and service, and he fixed other vacuums too. I got remarkably close to my dad and learned so much from him. Every summer we headed north to Manitoulin, spending all of July and August there. During the week, dad would go back to work at his business in Toronto.”
“We stayed at Harvey Hutton’s cottage until 1962, when our cottage was built with family help. Ours was the last building on ‘cottage row’ on Silver Lake and it still is. When dad was building the cement patio, I asked if we could sign our names. He said ‘no.’ What about a hand or footprint? Again, I got a ‘no.’ When he was busy mixing the concrete, I put my handprint in the soft concrete, but I smoothed it over before he got back. Soon after, when he left again, I secretly put both feet into the concrete, but I only got one smoothed over before he came back. I ran and hid under pillows in the loft. I was only five, but I was afraid he would be really angry. I was expecting a loud ‘Robert Alexander.’ My mother finally found me at supper time and promised there would be no spanking. Sometime later, as an adult, I was told I had undiagnosed ADHD and was an attention seeker.”
“In 1965 we had a family reunion at our own cottage. Dad’s brother George Huntington came from Sacramento. He had married a girl named Anita and had moved to California. Bob Edmonds married dad’s sister Janet, and they were living in Niagara Falls. We all had a wonderful time visiting and catching up with each other at Silver Lake. My mom’s sister, Anne, and her husband Murray Hopkins, from Owen Sound, Audrey, and Howard Harper, from Silver Water, Matt and Olie Matheson of Gore Bay, our grandparents, aunts and uncles of Gore Bay, Durham, and Owen Sound. Late August, our family would return to Port Credit to get ready for school.”
“Sadly, my beloved dad died of a heart attack, at age 45, in June of 1969. I was 12. It was so hard on all of us, and I was left wishing I could have spent more time with him. Mom tried to run his business but was not successful and she sold it in less than a year. Later, she met another man and decided to move to Vancouver with him. I was 14 and I did not want to move to Vancouver, so I stayed behind, but I had to go into foster care.”
“I went to several families over the next two years, starting in April 1972. I was in grade nine. The first home was close to my high school. Pete Martin #77, who played for the Toronto Argonauts, was my gym teacher and wrestling coach. He helped me. My family was breaking up at the time and it was a challenging time for me. Pete took me to some Argonaut practices in his Volkswagen Bug. That was incredibly special for me. After that I was placed in Pointe Au Baril. After summer I was sent to a family in Brampton. They were deeply religious and insisted I go to church, but I refused to go. They complained to Children’s Aid who took me to court. I was declared ‘unmanageable’ and sent to an Ontario Training School, a reform school.”
Rob attended Grade 10 in this institution and found it quite easy, but with his small stature, he was subjected to abuse from older boys, both sexual and physical in nature.
“Currently, I am part of two class action lawsuits that are presently in litigation, and we are waiting for the results. The CBC produced a documentary, ‘Born Bad.’ I am waiting to hear the results of these cases. I attended Grade 11 in a regular school and found it more difficult. It was 1973 and I was 15. I was out of reform school, staying with a family in Owen Sound and ready to get back to a normal routine. I got only three of six credits that year at West Hill Secondary School. I took some easier courses next, to get my diploma. I needed English, and although it was my favourite subject, I was told I didn’t get it. Six months later, I spoke with someone at the school and was told I had forgotten something, my diploma! I rushed over and picked it up.”
“I was almost 18 and was now on my own. The government paid me $50 a week. I started working in a local factory, Canadian Pittsburg Industries, where we made sheet glass. I was an off bearer at the end of the conveyor belt.” After a year, Rob heard about working on ships from a buddy whose brother was a ship keeper, a person who stays on the ship in the winter and keeps the boiler going. “I began to learn more about ships for possible future employment.”
“In the spring of 1976, I moved to Niagara Falls. My aunt Janet, dad’s sister, was there. Her husband Bob was my mother’s cousin. They lived close to the Welland Canal.” Rob started construction work for a short while, helping to pour the concrete observation decks at the base of the falls. “The Seafarer’s International Union, SIU, was nearby, and I could visit frequently to look for work. Eventually the SIU took note of me and sent me to work on a ship in May of 1976.”
“My first ship was the John A. France of the Meisner Steamship Company. We left Thorold, and as a deck hand, I had to help clean the vast cargo holds, 40 ft wide and deep and 60 ft long. The ship was 730 ft. long. We would pick up grain in Thunder Bay and head for Montreal or Quebec where it would be reloaded into ocean-going ships. Then we would head for the mouth of the St. Lawrence to pick up iron ore for the American steel mills of Cleveland, Detroit, and Gary, Indiana in the States. Then it was back to Thunder Bay, cleaning the ship all the way. The powerful hose had to be held by two men. Grain needed a clean cargo hold. ”
“I recall a celebration on July 4, 1976, for the bicentennial celebrations in Canada and the USA. People were tossing beer cans up to us on the ship. Later that year, I was working on the Richelieu, belonging to Paul Martin’s Canada Steamship Line. The Olympics were on that summer of 1976 and our ship was left in Montreal for 16 days to be painted. I stayed on the ship and each day I would leave to see interesting Olympic events. I really enjoyed Quebec’s attractions. That winter I went home to Owen Sound.”
“Next year, after shipping out, my friend mentioned that his brother was in Edmonton and there was lots of work. The two of us jumped on a plane, landed in Edmonton, and went to the local employment agency. They told me there was a company there that hires SIU members. I went to Northern Transportation Co. Ltd and was told I would be sent to a ship on the Mackenzie River to work between Hay River and Tuktoyaktuk, in the Northwest Territories. I flew out of the Municipal Airport in Edmonton to Hay River in June of 1977, and I was a deckhand for four months. I loved this job. We carried goods and supplies to communities along the Mackenzie. The north was so beautiful, with vast spaces, remoteness, and wildlife. Once, in the river delta we saw thousands of snow geese. It looked like a white tornado coming out of the sky, landing and spreading all over the ground.”
“That winter I came back to Edmonton and learned Spanish so I could enjoy a three-months adventure in Colombia in South America, in January of 1978.” On the plane to Columbia, Rob met a successful businessman who invited him to stay with his family in Santa Marta. “I accepted his offer and stayed at his home with his family. He took his son and me along for his monthly check of his plantations and the people running them. We travelled up a nearby mountain to see his coffee and banana plantations. At the end of the road, high up the mountain, the truck was abandoned, and burros took us up the rest of the way. I was hanging out with Juan Valdez.”
“The area was very green, cooler than the towns below and very lush. It took five days to see all the plantations, check progress, make payments and bring small gifts. The farmers were invited to meet the ‘Gringo,’ me. I tried out a bit of my Spanish, but I didn’t understand much of the lingo. We were offered licorice-flavored liquor in a bottle that was passed around. After two bottles were drained, I became an ‘amigo.’ I was also shown their machetes, which they used on their farms. They gifted me with one, but I had to give it up at the airport before the plane ride home. At the end of my adventure, I came back to Edmonton.”
“I got my bar-tending certificate and was temporarily working in the bars in Edmonton. One time when the Oilers beat the Canadians in a hockey game in 1981, I met Wayne Gretzky and Vicky in the elevator in an Edmonton condominium,” Rob continues. “I also met Cindy, an interesting young lady. We travelled to the Caribbean in 1980 for three months, visiting eight islands by sailboat. In January 1982, we both moved to Victoria, British Columbia. In time, we found we had conflicting views and schedules. I was working for the Canadian Coast Guard as a steward, 28 days on the job followed by 28 days off. Cindy was working from nine to five for the government of British Columbia in Victoria.”
“We separated and went our own ways. I am a Scorpio, I like to be solo, go where I want when I want. I’m the last wandering Hedonist,” Rob adds smiling. “I worked as a houseman for the Empress Hotel from 1982-1985, supporting the housekeepers, ensuring they had all necessary items to do their jobs. Next, I moved from Victoria to the mainland and began to work as a commercial salmon fisherman. I worked on the Old Spice, a freezer trawler. We could stay out for two weeks at a time. A year later, I was picking apples in Kelowna. For the next two winters, I bartended on the ski hill at Big White Ski Resort.”
“The following two summers found me bartending in the Yukon and working with the Diamond Drilling Company doing gold exploration. We got core samples and the ‘rock sniffers’ (geologists) would determine the quality of the samples. After that I came back to Big White for the winter and in the spring of 1990, I moved to Calgary, where I have spent most of the last 34 years. In 1991, I took a rig course so I could work in the oil industry. I spent the next two years on the rigs in Northern BC and Alberta working for various companies including ‘Nabors’ Drilling. I also worked for the Calgary Board of Education in the mail room and for the Calgary Stampede as beer vendor.”
“I was happy when I won tickets to a Gordon Lightfoot concert. I loved Gordon’s music, especially the ‘Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.’ Gord signed my discharge book at the concert. Sadly, that book was destroyed in a Calgary flood in 2013. Rob landed a role as an extra in a Jackie Chan movie called ‘Shang Hai Noon’ filmed in about 1998 in Calgary. He played the part of an Irish carpenter. His reddish hair and chin stubble helped with this role, along with the Irish cap and the wooden toolbox he carried.
What is an important event in your life? “My father’s death at home was a terribly traumatizing event. After that, it was gaining my independence at 17 years of age.”
Favourite school memory? “In 1973, I won second place in wrestling for my weight class for SOSSA, Southern Ontario Secondary School Association, for athletics. I also had a strong relationship with a Big Brother, Lloyd Lamour of Mississauga. I have learned a lot over the years, but I am a ‘jack of all trades, and master of none,’ as they say.”
Favourite season? “Summers. I had the most fun during my summers growing up on Manitoulin.” Favourite book? ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’
Favourite movie? “12 Angry Men’ with Henry Fonda featuring debates during a murder trial.” Favourite collections? “I have almost every issue of ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine, about 50 years’ worth, about 1,400 magazines. I also have 600 vinyl records.”
Favourite adventures? “I love being a world traveller. I like to sit down with the local folk, eat their food and listen to their stories. My favourite memories, however, have always been coming here to the Island. I can still recall running Canada Day races in Silverwater with Michael Addison.”
Favourite radio or television show? “CKUA in Alberta for the radio and ‘Soap’ a funny sitcom of the 1970s.”
What would you still like to do? “Be part of a crew on a sailboat crossing the ocean.”
Is there a skill you still want to learn? “Learning more about sailing and navigation.”
What are your strengths? “Photography, camping, hiking, and working as a deckhand. All my life, I felt anxious while swimming in deep water. I preferred to be on top of the water on a ship or small craft. Since ‘Jaws’ the movie I think about the theme song when I am swimming in deep water. Other interests are supporting live music and friends who are musicians in Calgary.”
Something you are proud of? “My mother, her parents and her ancestors all lived in Silver Water and are buried there. I also knew Levi Wabegijig, a friend of my father’s. I had innocently asked him to make me a bow and arrow as an eight-year-old child. He had carved me a bow and two blunt arrows. I still have the bow.”
If you could go back in time, is there something you would change? “The early death of my father. He was a good role model, and he loved Manitoulin too.”
People who inspired you? “My dad, mom, aunts, and uncles were all good role models. I have connections with many families on Manitoulin, the Hazzards, the Wismers, the Hopkins, Pickards, including of course, the Mathesons, Harpers, Prices, McDonalds, Ainslies and the Mordons. Linda Anne Harper-Porter is a cousin in Gore Bay. The Tricks owned the local gas station. Duke Kane was the mail delivery person in Silver Water. I had made many friendships coming to the Island every summer from 1958 to 1971.” Even today, Rob is meeting new cousins weekly on Facebook.
Health wise, Rob is dealing with COPD from early living with his cigarette-smoking dad who always kept the car windows closed and years later, from bartending. “Especially in the 1980s when smoking was allowed.”
“I love the spirituality of Manitoulin. It’s a magical, infectious state. Manitoulin has always been my special place: the beauty, the mystery, the history, the spirituality, the uniqueness, and the connection to Native culture . I have travelled to many locations and seen other aspects of culture, like the totem poles in British Columbia, but this island has always been at the top of my list. There is no other place like it to compare with. It is a separate entity. My recipe for joy, warmth, and happiness, is ‘come to Manitoulin.’ For me, this is God’s greatest creation.”
