Hang on for Pushmobiles!

The three pictures from the Pushmobile Races come courtesy of Verna and John Olenick. I might guess this one is from the 1940's looking at the skirt length of the spectators. 
Notice the cheering fans on the roof of the Guthrie-Bulloch Insurance building to the north of the bank!
  My hope today in writing about the exploits of Restonites from almost a century ago is that some family member googling their ancestor stumbles across this story online. I have found a few of my own connections that way and it makes you realize what a small world and big internet we have.

Pushmobile races were once an eagerly anticipated event in Reston in the early days. Youngsters built homemade soap box push cars and raced them on Fourth Street. If you’ve seen Reston Main Street, you know it’s as flat as tabletop so a strong pusher was key and gravity was not much help. Basics of each go cart were a seat, a steering system, and a pushing handle. After that other embellishments were up to the creators. Vehicles were often given names too.

The Trails Along the Pipestone 1981 history book on page 516 gives lots of details from a May 1929 story in the Winnipeg Free Press. Picture yourself on the south end of Main Street either as one of the group of thirteen excited pairs of competitors or one of the  450 spectators waiting for the starting signal.  Starters for the dusty race were Dave Anderson, the railway’s station master, and Jock Scougall (or maybe it was Jack Scholes) the mail clerk on the Peanut. Judges intently watching the finish line at the far end were Presbyterian church Reverend Robert Harvey, Jack McMurchy, Thomas Albert (T. A.) Bulloch and school teacher Harold Stinson.  I wonder if the race ended at Second Avenue or if it went up to the RM office corner on Third. One block would have been plenty long enough on the gravel street. 

Among the winners that day in 1929 were Reg Guthrie (1915-2002).  Reg was a nephew of T.A. and Ellen Bulloch who raised him after the death of his parents Jack and Maude.  They lived in the cement block house at 221 1st street.  A neighbour two houses over was his pusher,  Bert Mutter (1918 - 1991).  Bert was a son of Thomas and Margaret and lived in the red brick house at 114 2nd Avenue. Thomas Mutter was the agent at the Lake of the Woods elevator for over 2 decades and after a time in WW2, Bert did the same until it was destroyed by fire in 1950. Two more pushmobile winners that day were Ken (1920 - 1985) and Lew (1922 - 1997) Watt, sons of Hillview farmers William and Annabelle Watt.

The picture above looks like the Dads' Heat and #17 was able to race to the lead with the driver casually smoking his cigarette! Looks like he needed both hands to steer the car.  I am guessing this picture was taken in the late 1940's or early 50's but my readers may have better guesses.   

The big winner of the day in 1929 was a car named “I’m Alone” driven by 13 year old Bruce Hunter and pushed by Teddy Smith. Bruce was the son of Dr.Hugh and Nellie Hunter and went on to be a doctor himself in Brandon in the 60’s and 70’s. I found the photo of Bruce from a University of Manitoba yearbook from online ancestry tree of user lmmcrafts.

Pusher Edwin Earle Smith , known as Teddy, was son of Albert and Eliza Smith. A.E. Smith was an involved Reston citizen who ran the Meat Market and Eliza was a well liked and respected community nurse. Teddy went on to University of Manitoba (presumably with his buddy Bruce Hunter) and later trained with the Royal Air Force. He sustained serious injuries in an airplane crash in 1941 and spent over a year in hospital with a broken back. E.E. re-enlisted and was tragically killed over Burma, India in August of 1943 at age 28.  A sad ending to my research of the boys from 1929, I'm sorry to say.

 

Races continued through the years and it seems this one started at the corner of Fourth Sreet and Second Avenue and headed south.  The Red Rocket with the white round headlights and the number 711 had been identified as belonging to Sandy and Raymond White, sons of Max and Ida (Bigney) White in about 1950. The man pushing the baby stroller on the far end, I hope was a starter or else that baby had better hang on! Thanks to my readers who hung on this story to the end.  I'd love to hear from you at ssimms@escape.ca