Mooch Delgreco adds to the story here

Hi Gary,

I came across this January 1968 article, which may be of Capreol’s first Zamboni. Any chance you could locate a better quality photo of the ice-shaver or perhaps some trivia? Did the Capreol Zamboni have a nickname? (similar to Old Betsy or Bullet Nosed Betty). Has there ever been any celebrity Capreol Zamboni drivers?

Happy Fishing,
Patrick

(Ok folks. Do you have astory about Capreol's first 'Zamboni'? Send it to us

CAPREOL – The Capreol Community Arena has received a mechanical ice shaver from the Womens Auxiliary to the Arena Board. Mrs. Rita Hawreluk, wife of Mike Hawreluk,
brakeman and president of the W.A. (second from left) presents the ice shaver to Don Nelson, financial secretary of the Board and manager of National Steel’s Moose Mountain Mine here.

Looking on is the executive of the W.A. Left to right: Mrs. Bev. Smart, wife of Jim Smart, brakeman; Mrs. Lil Vaillancourt, wife of Edgar Vaillancourt, conductor; Mrs. Rita Lennox, wife of Ralph Lennox, locomotive
engineer; and Mrs. Carol Constantin, wife of Ray Constantin, office assistant.

Nelson said: “We are most happy to receive this piece of equipment. It means that we will be able to have more ice time, and more ice time means more productive time for the Arena and more community participation in Arena activities. Because of the Auxiliary’s efforts,” he said, “It has not been necessary for us to approach Town Council for financial assistance and that makes Auxiliary members VIP’s in Capreol. The W.A. has also made a sizeable donation towards the new artificial ice plant. Bev. Smart, treasurer of the W.A. says their membership now stands at 82 which numbers should be substantially increased before they start on their next project.

(A father’s five year old son was attending his first NHL hockey game. He was so mesmerized that he wouldn't budge from his seat even during intermission, watching the activity while the ice was cleaned.

At the end of the game, he exclaimed, "I know what I want to be when I grow up!"

The father envisioned him on the ice in another 15 years, starring with the Toronto
Maple Leafs.

He was brought back to earth when the son continued, "I want to be a Zamboni driver!" )

Mooch Delgreco adds to the story

The article brought back a lot of memories.

I was on the Arena Commission during those years and I recall when I was Chairman of the artificial ice fund raising committee (in.... I think 1963) when we raised $ 60,000 to install artificial ice. This was installed mostly by volunteers, men and women, which saved an awful lot of money. Sometime after the ice was installed, the women's auxiliary gave us a cheque in 1968, I think it was for around $3,000, to purchase an attachment that would go on the back of a Ford tractor for the purpose of cleaning and flooding the ice. We then required a tractor to hold the cleaning and flooding attachment.

I can't recall where we got the money to purchase the Ford tractor.... I think it was Town Council, but I do recall obtaining authority to purchase the Tractor for the Arena and Jack Stewart and I going to a Ford tractor dealer in Chelmsford and making a deal to purchase the tractor to hold the ice resurfer. The Ford tractor, you can see a little of it in the background of the photo, was an ordinary farm tractor with hydraulics to lift and lower the new ice resurfer.

We had hired the late Walter Arlt as our Arena Manager previously and of course he became a quick learner as to how to operate of the new ice resurfer machine.

The ice resurfer was not a ''Zamboni'' as such. Zamboni was an America Company, I believe, in California. Shortly after we started using the new machine, the Capreol Arena Commission ......, and I recall this very well,.... received a law suit from the lawyers representing the Zamboni Company, suing us for infringement of the Zamboni patent. You can imagine how upset we were when this happened. We didn't have any idea that the mere purchase of a tractor and an attachment would be an infringement of anybody's patent. There were several other arenas in Canada who were faced with the same law suit. Anyhow, to make a long story short, after a long period of time and legal advice, we settled for a payment of $1,000.00 to Zamboni and the law suite was settled and dropped. We were prepared to fight the law suite but we were given advice against going that route by our legal council because of cost and the strong possibility of losing the court case. So we settled.

I thought you might been interested in a little additional history about the '' Zamboni ''