Volume 13 Number 2 January 26, 1983

Spikeman No Pac-Man

Talented Smithy: When there is a farewell gathering you can be sure to see one of "Slim" Johnson's figurines on display. The blacksmith makes the items out of railway spikes and scrap metal.

The blacksmith shop at Moose Jaw has a curious by-product a uniquely designed item called Spikeman. No, it's not the Car Shop's answer to that ubiquitous little video being, Pac-Man.

It's a little railroad man, made out of railway spikes, and it emerges whenever someone at Moose Jaw is being honored, usually at a farewell event.

"It doesn't take very long to make one," said "Slim" Johnson, one of the local blacksmiths who twists and bends hot rail spikes into shape. "I can put one together in 15 or 20 minutes."

DIFFERENT SITUATIONS

What Mr. Johnson does is determined by the occupation of the person being honoured. It may be a figure of a carman with an oil can and pulling hook, it may depict someone from the running trades, or it may sit behind a desk.

At one farewell, not long ago, it was a wrecking foreman manning an auxiliary crane.