Area loses its ‘character’
The Exeter Times Advocate
October 19, 1967
“Most communities have a well-known “character” within their midst, but there are few which could boast of having a more colourful one than Bill Gossman, who died last week in South Huron Hospital. With very few exceptions, there was no person better known throughout this district than Bill, as he was always part “of the scene” at community events and in latter years at most of the Santa Claus parades in area communities.
Bill was a man who enjoyed life and on occasions brought some enjoyment to other people, as he always had a new joke or riddle to share with those who had the time. Bill’s name appeared in this newspaper frequently. He was always finding something “unusual” in his garden or along the road in his travels and he often dropped in to report on a weekend outing at which time he had been interviewed on TV or radio in some spot.
He was a man who enjoyed life and he travelled widely and saw more of Canada and the United States than most of us will ever see. Many of those trips were taken
in vintage automobiles that few of us would trust to take us across the street and the jaunts were financed as he went, either by sharpening scissors and knives or by selling raffle tickets. He often had tickets for more than a dozen draws and the success of many of those draws for community and service groups throughout the area was a direct result of his salesmanship.
While working in Grand Bend in 1962, we did an interview with Bill and parts of that story are reprinted below, as a final tribute to the area’s most colourful personality.
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‘On Wednesday afternoon, Police Constable Harold Doupe came walking out from his coffee break at the Dawn Tavern when he met Dashwood’s bearded Bill Gossman walking along the street. “Just on my way down the street to see the horse with the wooden leg,” Bill reported to the young officer.
“The what?” came the reply. “The horse with the wooden leg,” Bill stated again. “Where is it?” came the serious question from the OPP constable. “Down on the merry-go-round,” Bill quipped with his usual hearty laugh. The incident was just one that has been repeated many times throughout the district and even to the Canadian West and as far south as Florida- in fact, just where Bill Gossman happens to be at any particular time. At present, Bill is on the “beard-growing circuit” and just recently walked off with top prize for the shaggiest beard in a centennial celebration in Yale Michigan. There is little doubt that the judges made any mistake, because Bill hasn’t had a shave or a haircut since fall and hasn’t even bothered to trim his whiskers in that time. However, when he does hit out for some contest, his wife curls his shoulder-length hair into a neat roll to put under his hat. It’s just one of the hats that has provided Bill with one of his other riddles that has provoked people for being so foolish. “Know where I got this hat?” Bill will question. And, when the reply comes that the person doesn’t, Bill quickly replies, “right here on top of my head.”
Bill was born 70 years ago in Dashwood (although he answered that he was born in bed) where his father was in the dry goods and grocery business. One of 15 children, Bill reports he got only as far as “the second book” in school: “We didn’t have to go to school in those days unless we wanted to,” he reported, “and I didn’t want to.”
However, he did point out that boys in those days who lived at home were expected to give their parents all their earnings until they were 21 years old. “We got our clothes and lodging and a bit of spending money, “he stated, pointing out he was working for sums as low as 25 cents a day. He recalled “the good old days” when he was a youngster and he and some of the other boys were given 25 cents to go to the Zurich fair and they walked both ways, ”it cost 10 cents to go in and we had plenty of fun and still had enough money left over to take some candy home with us,” he said.
When he turned 21, Bill struck off on his own and went to London where he was employed in a cigar box factory owned by Sir Adam Beck. He also did gardening for the noted London Industrialist. Bill, from German stock, recalled once that he offered to make Beck some sauerkraut and he cooked it himself because the cooks didn’t know how. “They almost chased me out of the house”, he reported, “but Sir Adam really enjoyed it, and the cooks even ended up cleaning up the rest of it.”
Bill then moved to Grand Bend where he sold vegetables and operated booths for close to 30 years. “I was a big shot down here at one time,” he quipped. When he sold vegetables, his call as he went from house to house was: “Potatoes-Limburger cheese and kittens.” He explained that he started selling kittens to the campers and he picked up about five cents for each one. However, he upped his price to 10 cents each when the market would allow, but gave a discount for quantity buying, offering the pets at two for 15 cents.
The Dashwood jokester operated a hot dog and hamburger booth on the main street, and was one of the first sidewalk concessions in the resort. He operated booths in other parts of town and also had a six-table pool room in the present site of Mrs. Ravelle’s gift shoppe.
After his years in Grand Bend, Bill returned to London where he worked out as a handyman and gardener, but his home in Broughdale burned down and he moved to his present abode in Dashwood. He gained his livelihood by growing Dutch onion sets and peddling fish. “When I drove up people always used to ask if the fish were running,” he stated, “so I finally painted legs on the fish on the side of my truck.”
Bill later gave this up and took a job as a flagman with Brennan Construction Company, but this was marred by an injury when he tripped and fell on his head. He spent six weeks at each of the two London hospitals and then six more at the Compensation Board’s hospital in Toronto. However, his accident didn’t change him at all and he had the hospital in a tizzy one day when he reported he spotted a bed bug in his room mate’s watch. “He got in between the ticks,” Bill reported to the doctor who was almost ready to start a major extermination job on the entire floor.
Following his release from hospital, Bill started into “sales,” selling raffle tickets throughout Western Ontario. He carried a clipboard and customers could have their pick of up to a dozen tickets that ranged from cars, boats, animals and money. His best selling job was for the Strathroy Lions and he reports selling 800 books one year. Bill received 25 cents a book for selling most of the tickets and reported his returns “were not bad.”
He also had fair success in buying tickets, winning a bedroom suite in Thedford, a toaster in Zurich, and an extensive supply of groceries in Clinton. The jovial gentleman has also travelled extensively, making one round trip to Florida in a Model T Ford about 15 years ago.
Three years ago, he hitchhiked to Victoria, B.C. On both occasions he started out with very little cash in his pocket, paying his way by sharpening scissors for housewives whenever he needed some spending money. “They didn’t have scissor sharpeners out West,” he reported, explaining how his eight-pound machine proved to be so invaluable.
Bill’s other long trip was during the First World War when he went overseas to England with the 96th Regiment. It was here that he proposed to his wife, although she was still in Canada at her home in Breslau, near Kitchener. Although he had only met her once before going overseas, Bill proposed in a letter and was accepted, but when he returned home he didn’t even recognize his fiancé, because she had changed so much in his absence.
“She wrote once and said we were going to raise chickens and geese and something else,” Bill reports, “and that something else was children, and we raised 10.” “I don’t know how many grandchildren,” Bill stated when asked, “but there’s quite a few.”
One of the several rumours surrounding Bill is that he actually motored all the way from Florida with no motor in his car. “Thats not true” he reports, “but I made it from Wingham to Exeter one day without my motor running.” He explained that a tie-rod was broken and he kept asking passing motorists for a push to the nearest gas station. However, when he got there he waited until they had gone and then he would shove the car down the road himself and start the same request again.
Due to the fact that Bill carries the nickname “Banker”, many people feel he is quite well off financially. However, to dispel that, Bill points out. “when you raise 10 kids you don’t have much left to be rich with.”
In explaining his nick-name, Bill reported he used to work in a private bank in Dashwood owned by Joe Snell. “I swept the floors when I was a kid and Joe gave me that name” he stated. However, while he may not be rich by monetary standards, all who meet him know he’s had a “rich life” and one that has been lived by the use of his wits to provoke people who can’t think fast enough to know they freeze water to make ice in Florida, or that they’ve never really seen a sausage hanging up in a butcher shop, because as Bill explains, “they hang down.’”
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“William Gossman (1891-1967) and his wife, Mabel Geiger (1895-1979), purchased the E.Pt. of Lot 33, SB [Hay Township] from Gottleib Fischer and built a home and candy store here. Bill was a veteran of World War I and a unique businessman. He grew and then sold vegetables in Grand Bend and also operated hot-dog and hamburger stands. he sharpened scissors with his portable grinder in a Model T Ford car, which he cranked by hand, and also made his way through western Canada, sharpening scissors for people along the way. Bill was recognized by everyone near and far with his distinctive bushy white beard. He would don a Santa suit at Christmastime and was hired by large department stores in London.
William and Mabel Gossman sold their farm to Edward Willert in 1938 and the farm is now owned by Edward’s son John. The Gossmans and their children moved to Dashwood, where they spent their remaining years. The couple are buried in the Calvary United Church Cemetery on the Goshen Line. Their children are: Garnet, who married Margaret McAllister, and lives in Windsor; Delores, who married James Cornford, and lives in London; Leonard, who married Claire Gaynor, and lives in Dashwood; Jean (d. 1988), who married Herman Fleming and lived in Kitchener; Sherwood married Rhea Schantz and lives in Kitchener; Clara lives in London; Harry (d. 1985); Kenneth married Joan Dantzer and they reside in Plattsville; Martha married Noel McLaren, and they live in Blair, Nebraska; Shirley married Victor Watson, and they live in Edmonton.”
extracted from “Hay Township Highlights: 150 years of Diversified Progress, 1846 – 1996”, published by the Hay Township Book Committee under the auspices of Hay Township Council, Alice Gibb ed.; pg. 431 ISBN : 0-919939-43-0