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From the Smoky Lake Signal, August 13, 1980. Smoky Lake Tom Boy Opening August 20 The ambition to won your own business is a powerful motivator. It's taken the new Tomboy Store owner, Walter DeSilva, from the sunny shores of Bermuda where he was raised, to the often icy Smoky Lake area, to satisfy that ambition. The key between the topical land of leisure and this hardworking Ukrainian area is Mrs. DeSilva, nee Babiuk. She was born and raised in Smoky Lake, then at 18 Lena headed East to Toronto for a job with Bell Telephone. After two years in Toronto, a year back in Edmonton with AGT and 6 months back in Toronto as a typist secretary for an insurance company, she was ready to see more of the world. When a friend sent her an application form for a job in Bermuda, she took the next boat south. The job was in accounts payable and accounts receivable department for the 465 room Castle Harbour Hotel. Rich Americans arrived daily by boat. The Queen Elizabeth II docked on her run from England to Australia. The cruise ships Staten Dan and the Volen Dan unloaded from New York every week. Walter DeSilva, who she married two years later, worked in the Hotel. Walter was born in Bermuda. His father was the official photograher at the Castle Harbour Hotel. For Walter that meant taking candid shots of tourists, and having the prints ready the next morning for them to view, and possibly buy. It meant long hours in nightclubs flashing the camera and more long hours developing and printing in the dark room. It wasn't the life for a new husband. Yet his next job in the tourist oriented island at least had plenty of sunshine. He became manager of Evans Marine outfit water front boat rentals and the Hawkins Island catering run. Until noon he'd work in a bathing suit renting and repairing sail boats and teaching scuba diving. At noon he'd pack up a lunch for up to 480 tourists and head off in a launch to Hawkins Island where he'd get the 9 ft long wood fueled barbecue going to feed them. Three huge boat loads of touring tourists would drop in per day during the hour long meal time. In the afternoon it was back to sail boats. He quit that job. Getting ahead sent him driving around the island selling candies, drugs and nuts for a wholesale company. But when his old boss invited him back for a different kind of management job he jumped. From the boat rental business his boss had expanded into travel, insurance and shipping. As shipping manager, Walter was the island's contact with the great cruise ships that stopped. Cunnardish Franconia, the P and O Lines, the American Lines. Whenever they stopped it was Walter's job to be on the tender that sailed out to the big ships that anchor in the harbour, and bring whatever supplies the passengers or crew had radioed ahead for. Everything from 11 tons of lettuce to russian cigarettes for the captain was typical. As a place to work it was great. The job was challenging, the experience rewarding, but with a wife and 4 year old son, Bermuda just wasn't a place to raise a family and build a future. In the summer of 1968 he emigrated to Canada. For the first 7 months in Niagara Falls he earned top wages as a welder in a General Motors car frame assembly plant. Then the whole shift of workers was laid off as business for the big car dealers slumped. For one day, and the only day in his working life, Walter was unemployed. By Monday morning he had answered the only ad in the paper and gotten the job. Then came the promotions and transfers. From loan officer for Pacific Finance in St. Catherines to assistant manager in Niagara Falls, to manager in St. Catherins. Then a switch to the Royal Bank because he felt there was more future in banking than in a finance industry. From Weiland to Hamilton to Edmonton and finally Loans Manager at the main branch. By 1977 the moves every three years and the urge to own something of his own got to him. After many visits to his wife's home town they bought Boychuk's store in Smoky Lake. Friends and relatives, the Slemkos, Babiuks, Sorokans and Dubetz pitched in and in a two week period repainted the store, recarpeted it, installed new fixtures. As the number 2 store in town they worked hard. After 10 months of living in the back, the DeSilva's moved out, rented a house and built a cooler in the old living room. In the bedrooms they stored supplies. Renovating the old warehouse into a meat cutting room meant he could offer his customers more fresh meat. But he couldn't find a butcher. For a day and half the sales manager of Wstern Grocer Luke Webbink taught him how to cut, wrap and tenderize meat. It was enough. The store's volume of business doubled. By July of 79 the DeSilva's were ready for the next gamble. From the 1926 sq. ft. Lucky Dollar store to building a 6000 sq ft Tom Boy store. His contractor Art Arnold was 67 and dying of cancer when he bid on the land between the town hall and the liquor store for the DeSilvas. He never lived to see the building completed. He died last Tuesday. One of the projects he did design and live to see complete was the Edmonton and Calgary Jubilee auditoriums. Smoky's new Tom Boy store will hold 30 tons of food. 48 feet of show case freezers will display ice cream, meats and frozen foods. Another 72 feet to hold display cases will hold fresh meats, dairy products and produce. The 1400 ft of store shelves will make it the largest grocery in Smoky Lake. In front will be 3 check out counters, in the back 4 walk in coolers. From the husband and wife team and one staff member in the first store to 8 full time and 1 part time in the new store is quite a change. Included in the full time will be Walter's brother-in-law Les Pearson from Bermuda who will manage the new store and his wife Connie who will work in the accounts with Lena. By August 20 Smoky Lake's new Tom Boy store should be open, complete with ribbon cutting ceremony at 9 a.m. to gas barbecue, hamper and gift voucher give-aways and free coffee and donuts during the first 4 days of opening sales. It's a long way for a barefoot Bermuda boy to go. Return to the
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