"I told [my doctor] that I was a publisher now," says 96-year-old Les Guthrie with a laugh.
Guthrie wrote down stories from his travels while working circulation for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. He told the stories to his children after work and his wife, Marjorie, suggested he write them down. In 2004 after Marjorie was diagnosed with multiple illnesses, she suggested that he get started on writing down his story.
"She said she'd like me to write them," says Guthrie. "That's what got me started. It's not edited of course. I wrote fast. I've got macular degeneration, so it's a little harder to see [what] you write so there's lots of mistakes."
The hand-written, 27-page spiral-bound book begins when Guthrie was born Oct. 5, 1918 in Swift Current. After moving to Eston in 1919, his family continued on to Saskatoon in 1925. His father was a salesman in Saskatoon prior to the stock market crash of 1929.
"This changed everything. In the Dirty '30s, there was no social aid like there is now. I used to go out and pick weeds out of people's gardens to make some bucks."
When his brother was old enough, he got a newspaper route that serviced southeast Saskatoon. Due to the size, Guthrie had to help. Due to the economic conditions at the time, there were customers who were unable to pay for the newspaper.
"So, my brother made a deal with them. He'd give them two weeks of newspaper for a dozen eggs."
He says his brother would then turn around and sell the eggs for more money than the newspaper.
"You did what you did to try to make a buck."
Eventually both Guthie and his brother were working paper routes at a time when there were 25-year-olds working routes as well. After a stipulation was made to not let anyone over 18 years old run a route, Guthrie had to quit while he was in Grade 12.
However, Guthrie stayed with the newspaper as he worked part time at the sports desk.
"I spent most of the time on the bloody telephone," he says with laugh.
Guthrie says people would phone in results of the horse races in the United States because they were so popular. He also received calls from the area outside of Saskatoon with scores and stories to put into the paper. His first assignment with the paper was covering a girls' basketball game at his school.
"I thought what in the hell am I going to do. I never played basketball, didn't even like basketball."
Guthrie decided to sit between the time keeper and the score keeper as he knew them from school. During the course of the game, they taught him about basketball and what to write about. He also frequently covered hockey and baseball, in which he did much of the game's scoring.
Then, in 1940, Guthrie enlisted in the army and completed basic training at Dundurn. He was transferred to the second battalion of the Saskatoon Light Infantry while the first battalion was in Italy. However, he never saw action overseas and was discharged in 1943.
After leaving the army, he got a job as a signal maintainer with the Canadian National Railway in Saskatoon. His job moved him to Regina three months later, learning on the job from the boss.
During a stop in Saskatoon on a visit to see his sister in 1946, he ran into the assistant circulation manager of the StarPhoenix. The manager told him about a job opportunity as a circulation representative in North Battleford. When he went to meet the circulation manager about the job, Guthrie was surprised to find out the new manager was his ex-lieutenant in the army. They were both unsure originally how this job would work as Guthrie says a deal like this had "never been done any place on the North American continent."
Guthrie and his ex-lieutenant agreed on a deal, which involved him moving to North Battleford. Part of that deal involved Guthrie transporting the afternoon edition of the paper to North Battleford.
"But, if I'd been married [at the time], I'd never have taken that job."
The job required Guthrie to buy a car. He purchased a "1936 International half-ton panel truck" to begin his 36-year career in the newspaper business. When he first started the job, none of the highways had been maintined since the 1930s due to a lack of money and then the war.
"There was no maintenance," he says. "No gravel. The highways were no good."
Due to the rubber being saved for tires that were part of the war effort, the tires were synthetic tubes that were not ideal for the winter in Saskatchewan.
"You could be driving down the roads and it's 20 below and you'd get a flat tire. It cracked. Or, you'd wake up in the morning and you'd say 'I'm lucky. I've only got one flat tire.'"
In 1947, someone Guthrie knew had a connection to Dominion Royal Tires, who were testing a new product that had a certain percentage of rubber in them. After giving a set to the north and south representatives of the company, Guthrie was given the third set. He got the tires because he spent more time on the road than the representatives. However, not everyone was so lucky.
"There was always people having flat tires on the road. The gravel roads were horrible. I changed lots of people's flat tires on the road. There's always someone that had trouble. It was amazing in the winter time how many people would go out on the road with summer clothes on."
He writes about one incident in his book. One day, a car was stuck in the middle of the road on a "real cold day." When the man stepped out of his car, he was wearing only summer clothes. After dressing appropriately for the weather, Guthrie stepped out of his car to talk to the man. Guthrie was offered $50 for the coat, but he turned down the offer.
Guthrie writes, "When I turned him down, he said, 'I want that coat. Here is my wallet. I do not know how much is in it, but take it and give me that coat.' That deal was not accepted."
"I couldn't get over that," says Guthrie about the man.
He also writes about the time he stopped for a man and his sick wife who were stuck on the road. Guthrie volunteered to drive the woman to Saskatoon himself, but she was unable to lie down in his coupe. In order to fix the situation, as cars weren't stopping to help, Guthrie blocked the highway with his own car. The next car that came along was forced to stop. Guthrie told the driver what happened and the wife was soon on her way to Saskatoon.
During this time, Guthrie had two pictures published in the paper. After talking to the editor about using his pictures in the paper, Guthrie purchased a Zeiss Bellows camera. He took a course in creative photography to learn technique. In his home in North Battleford, Guthrie built a dark room in the basement. When the paper purchased a new enlarger, he acquired their old one to enlarge his prints to 11x14.
"All of my newspaper stuff is over in the archives. 'The Les Guthrie Collection,' they called it."
Photography turned into a part of his job and a hobby for Guthrie as he learned more about the discipline on the job. In 1959, Guthrie covered Queen Elizabeth II's Royal Tour.
"I was sent out to Biggar because they stayed in Biggar overnight. The train came in over half an hour after the sun went down. We weren't allowed to use flash bulbs because when she was in Victoria, a flash bulb exploded in her face."
In 1966, Guthrie retired from the road after 1,450,000 miles and no accidents or traffic violations. He became the paper's bureau agent for North Battleford.
"I had 2,000 customers and four paperboys in this town and that's a lot of book work. Every paper has to be charged to somebody every day."
After retiring from the road, he continued to take pictures, supplying photos to the Canadian Press, Time Magazine and Toronto Telegram for various events. One event for the Canadian Press was the national high school boys' curling championships held in North Battleford. It was his first time taking pictures of curling and he had to experiment during the opening ceremonies. Due to a lack of light, nothing turned out. When he was asked why, he told the Canadian Press he wasn't allowed on the ice. That soon changed.
"I was the only camera guy on the ice," he says.
Guthrie adds, "I went up to report to the Canadian Press guy and he was all smiles. 'That's the best curling pictures I've ever seen.' So away we went. Him and I got along real good."
The pictures he took were sent to the Canadian Press then forwarded across the country as each region wanted to know how their team was doing.
In 1982, he retired fully from the StarPhoenix. He started working with negatives of his kids that he took to finish off rolls of film.
"I got all set up, got all my chemicals and everything I wanted, but I couldn't find the paper I was used to working because times change. I got going and didn't like and got allergic to the chemicals."
Guthrie tried working with rubber gloves to develop some pictures, but decided instead to pack it up and sell his equipment. His dark room is now an office with keepsakes from his career. The walls in his basement are covered in photos he took and processed over the years, showcasing nature from all across the country. Some of those photos were part of a gallery show.
After he retired, Guthrie became more involved in the Battlefords. He served on the executive of the Navy League of Canada, the swimming association and the speed skating association. He was a hockey coach for seven years and was the coach and manager of the speed skating club for five years.
Guthrie continues to garden. He canned tomatoes from his garden up until last year. It is one of the hobbies listed at the end of his book, which he lists as a footnote. It was tacked on the end because those footnotes were important to him and his wife. However, in his train-of-thought writing style, the didn't come up until the end.
"I had to keep writing," Guthrie says. "Cause if you stop, you can forget."
