AlmaguinNews.com - Leigh's Service celebrates 50 years

EMSDALE - There have been a few bumps in the road, or more appropriately shifts in the highway, but Leigh’s Service is celebrating its 50 year in business.

Horace Leigh, known as Bud, founded Leigh’s Service in 1958.

Leigh, who will be 90 in October, was a member of the 48 Highlanders that liberated Holland in the second World War. He has returned to Holland for the 50 and 60 anniversaries of V-Day and was touched by the attention that the veterans received from the people of Holland.

“Every soldier’s marker is attended by a child,” said Leigh, explaining that the youth are taught not to forget.

He served in Europe as part of the Canadian Occupational Forces (COF) from 1943 to 1946. His return home was delayed because, as a part of the COF there was still work to be done once the war was over, including redeployment of the prisoners of war.

“We had to sort out the prisoners,” said Leigh. “If they had anything to do with the Nazis they would go one way. If they were regular conscript they went home.”

He smiled when he said that by the time he had returned home the conscripted soldiers had taken all the glory.

Shortly upon returning he began selecting property along Hwy. 11.

Leigh has an association with the car service industry that goes back to his roots. His father, William (Billy) Leigh, opened Leigh’s Esso in Scotia in 1929 when Leigh was 10 years old.

The original garage in Scotia still stands but, according to Leigh, it is now a residence.

“It was a service station and a store,” said Leigh. “Hwy. 592 came through and the bridge went in in 1931 and there was the old Booth railroad that was heading into Algonquin Park. It’s a trail now. It was before my time, but we were split up.”

The relocation of the highway prompted another move.

“I spent some time looking for a spot,” said Leigh.

The ever-changing roadway prompted another move when Hwy. 11 opened in 1958. “We returned from overseas in ’56,” he said, explaining they had been doing some travelling. “We started looking for a new place to build and settled here in ’58, still as Leigh’s Esso.”

The operation expanded over the years with the addition of a restaurant with an apartment upstairs.

“We lived in the restaurant for a while there,” said Leigh. “We had a lot of staff, too. My wife sometimes worked in the kitchen. There were the mechanics and people working in the restaurant.”

A house was added to the structure a few years later.

They ran the business under the Esso banner and continued to sell Esso products until 2001.

“The highway is basically where the garage used to be,” said Leigh, explaining they were forced to relocate once again in Sept. 2001. They had the luxury of continuing the operation as the new site was built.

“They just smashed it down,” said Leigh of the old location. The gas pumps, restaurant and house are gone now, but the garage with the Leigh’s Service sign has held true to its customers.

Leigh said the cost of operating the pumps had escalated over the years. “Things are changing. We had gas pumps and everything, but everything is going electronic.”

“I remember when gas was 25 cents a gallon, not a litre, a gallon,” he said. The one thing that hasn’t changed is Leigh’s loyalty to the area.

This sense of community transferred into the level of service that Leigh provided to his customers.

His daughter-in-law, Jennifer Leigh, told the story of the day when one of the neighbours, a customer, had locked her car key inside the car.

It had been pouring rain and Horace had worked at trying to free a key from a locked car of a neighbour, and customer, for an hour. When the customer asked what she owed him in payment, he said it would be $1.

“She said, ‘From that point on I knew he was an honest man,’” said Jennifer.

“I haven’t moved very far. I started in Scotia almost 90 years ago. I don’t think there’s any better place than here. As long as you’ve got a job,” said Horace.

He says he doesn’t know what retirement is. His son Jim runs the business now, but Horace said he still liked to go out as a sidekick with the wreckers.

“I don’t know what (retirement) is. You never retire,” said Horace. “I have enough work to do at home. It keeps me busy.”