Dave Drummond

Sometime shortly after 1978 when I moved my law office from 74 Mill Street (R. A. Jamieson, QC's original office on the second floor) I wanted to take the Goldie & McCulloch safe which had been there for what I suspect was most of Mr. Jamieson's 54 year practice (from about 1921 - 1976). Reportedly the safe had been meticulously and torturously manoeuvred at less than a careering pace up the ancient interior wooden stairs (complete with 90° turn near the top) from the street to the office by Freddie Larose.

"The Goldie & McCulloch Company Ltd. was a Canadian steam engine manufacturer based in Galt,  Ontario. The company also manufactured woodworking machinery, industrial safes, French Burr millstones, Boilers, Turbine Water Wheels, Bark Mills and a variety of Tannery machines."

The safe was massive.  Even moving it on its large steel wheels was unthinkable. The thought of propelling it back down the stairs and across the street to my new office at 77 Little Bridge Street was beyond imagination. Nonetheless after but a moment's hesitation I called Dave Drummond of Drummond Bros House Movers and asked them to address this Olympic conundrum.  Dave and his brother Gib (Gilmour) Drummond had been in business since before my arrival in Almonte in 1976.  Besides it wasn't as though I knew many others who were so aptly suited to undertake this singular task.

Dealing with Dave Drummond was a project never to be taken whimsically. Dave made a point of doing everything possible to accentuate the drama of the situation - often to the point of cultivating a positive fear of the outcome. He had a thespian's skill at insinuating the proceedings with histrionics. Fortunately for me in those sensitive circumstances I had the advantage of prior acquaintance with Dave.  I trusted him as one trusts one's surgeon - that enviable acquiescence to the undisputed combination of superior knowledge and esoteric ability.

"Moving houses and raising buildings has been a Drummond Family business for three generations. Davey's Grandfather started the business in 1956, and his father and his father’s twin brother took it over in 1970."

Davey Drummond
© DrummonD House Movers 2019

Typical of those who willingly mock their own capacity, Dave's performance was not only surgical but utterly enhancing! In addition to choreographing the removal of the safe as though it were a small hall table out of the second floor window through skilfully arranged scaffolding and finally mysteriously into my new law office, he thoughtfully secured the floor structure of my heritage office by installing steel supports in the stone basement beneath the final resting place of this ponderous fireproof cabinet.

Many years later I received an unexpected telephone call from a former classmate of mine from undergraduate days at Glendon Hall.  She was in London, Ontario. After the usual conviviality she informed me that she was on the board of trustees of a charity involved with the removal of an ancient stone building. The contractor was none other than Dave Drummond! She gleefully echoed all the customary humour and forbidding compositions which Dave routinely visited upon such an exploit and his unwitting clients.

Dave has what I can confidently assume is a manifest appetite for the delight of life. Nothing is without its delectation for him; and he always succeeds to impart to others not only the extraordinary benefit of his dexterity but the uplifting sense of his personal magnanimity.