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Welcome to the Walter Harlos story2
Walter Harlos (bottom centre and top) unloading brick using hand pads for protection1960
Claybank Brick Plant Site
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WALTER HARLOS STORYI was born in 1930 at Spring Valley, Saskatchewan to William and Charlotte Harlos. At the age of 13, I started working for farmers in the area. I worked 8 - 10 hours a day, picking stones, shovelling wheat, cleaning barns, all for $3 per day.
My brother Gottfried lived in the town of Bayard some four miles from the Brick Plant. I knew the money was better at the Plant so I put in an application for employment. On April 9, 1951 I started at the Plant for an hourly wage of $1.05. When I picked up my first pay cheque I thought I was fairly wealthy. In order to get to work each day I rode on horseback to Bayard and then caught a ride with my brother to work.
As a new employee at the Plant I did all sorts of jobs, jobs most new guys had to do. After a time I started 'wheeling' with Eric Nieswandt, John Miller and Elmer Ziola. Wheeling meant that you loaded fired brick on homemade wheelbarrow and delivered it to either the Stock Shed or directly to the waiting train cars for shipment.
The men at the Plant had some interesting talents, John Miller could roll a cigarette faster than anyone I have ever known, I would light a match for my own cigarette and John would ask me to save the light and before it burnt down John would have his cigarette rolled.
I wheeled most of the time I was at the Plant but I did do a bit of firing too. Although I and most of the men at the Plant could do any job as needed I never had the opportunity to work in the Office. When I first started at the Plant I saw many workers come in via the train, they would get a taste of the hard work and would leave with the next train out. In the early 50's the average work week was 44 hours which included ½ day on Saturday, I saw it go to a 42 hour week and then we would work an extra ½ hour a day so we wouldn't have to work on Saturday and finally a 40 hour week was implemented. In 1956, I married Agnes Leitner and moved to my Dad's farm one mile from Spring Valley. We had three sons, Kelly, Daryl and Neil. Getting to work from the Spring Valley area proved to be an experience, especially in winter. Roads may well have been non-existent, I drove through ditches, fields and continually shovelled snow and then when I finally got to the Plant for work I had to shovel more snow there. My first Forman, Charlie Arthur, told me "I want you here, rain or shine" so I always tried. One of the hardest jobs we did was unloading a hot kiln in the summer. There were roughly 200 ton of brick in one kiln and three of us could wheel that out in three days. A man would sweat so much that even though the outside temperature was around 90 F when you wheeled your load of brick out of the kiln you shivered and felt cold. It didn't matter how hot or how much you sweated you just kept on working. The work at the Brick Plant was hard physical labour, sweltering in the summer and freezing in the winter. Even through these adverse working conditions I enjoyed working there, enjoyed the company and friendship, the fun and games with my co-workers.
I witnessed many changes at the Plant, building of the kilns, the introduction of an outside supply of electricity in 1953 (Sask Power) and natural gas installation in the 1960's. The biggest change for me was the purchase of a fork lift and a shrink wrap machine. Before we got the fork lift truck it would take two men four hours to load a train car full of brick by hand but with the fork lift it only took one man one hour.
I always thought I would go to Alberta to find work, but the wages at the Plant were as good as anywhere in those days and my family lived here, so I stayed. I worked at the Plant for 38 years and I can say that they were very good years.
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Walter Harlos, Gary Kirilenko and Elmer Ziola at the Brick Plant Christmas party held in a Kiln.1970
Claybank Brick Plant Site
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Rebuilding Kiln dome in 1980, L to R: Walter Harlos, R. Bahr, and H. Pavel.1980
Claybank Brick Plant Site
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L to R: Ansel Grosnick and Walter Harlos repairing Kiln dome in 19761976
Claybank Brick Plant Site
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