Roy Robinson (passed March 14th, 2022)

I first met Roy together with his wife Donna at the Schmidtsville Restaurant in Wellesley. Sherry was introducing me to her parents for the first time. I still remember his old expression, "You don't say?" Roy always liked old-fashion-style restaurants with meat and potatoes and other vegetables. He also enjoined At The Crossroads Family Restaurant, which is now. unfortunately, closed.

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I got to know Roy reasonably well, but I always thought I'd have more time to get to know him and learn from him. Roy was clever and a wealth of knowledge about anything mechanical that might appear on a farm, and it was a delight to get him to talk about that knowledge base: once I got him talking, it was fascinating to listen, to the point of causing an autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR). I learned a lot about trucks and tractors, and he was careful to explain many of the finer points. My father worked on the car bodies, and thus had less mechanical experience.

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When I was there and he was working on a vehicle, I always tried to help. I don't think I got in the way: I think my dad taught me enough to at least not do the wrong thing in the shop. He always had any tool he needed, but it might be buried away somewhere. All sorts of relics were located throughout the garage.

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He also helped around the house, and he was a teacher. When he did anything in our house, I watched, as I wasn't sure how to do, for example, plumbing. I recall that in our older home, plumbing usually required some sort of solder, and so I was concerned as to whether or not I was qualified to do such work, but after watching Roy, I understood that industry standardization has made plumbing much more accessible to the average person, so when we purchased our new kitchen faucet in 2020, I just installed it and it hasn't leaked since. I also learned to use a chain saw, and also learned how to sharpen one. I guess I could have watched this on YouTube, but experience is better than visualization.

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My dad taught me to change most of the pedestrian components of a car (oil, filters, light bulbs) and to keep all the fluids topped up, but Roy usually changed the brakes and I always watched and helped. He usually had me doing a lot of the work, and it was fun learning. I guess I'll be changing the brakes on my own the next time. I already change the tyres each fall and spring, so this won't be much more work every few years. I should point out, however, we always took the car to Roy's place when it came time to change the oil as he had a hoist.

 

Roy loved Massey-Ferguson, and that was in contrast with, or perhaps because of, his father's adoption of John Deere. He had more tractors in his garage than you'd ever need, and he carefully restored each one. He was always willing to talk about the various components, and explain how they work. One aspect he appreciated had to do with the three-point hitch, and perhaps the fact Massey-Ferguson was the first to control this electronically.

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I recall one long discussion on single-piston tractors. He discussed some of the advantages, the necessity of a relatively large flywheel, and I recall in that discussion there was a thread on starting specific engines with a shotgun shell (I assume without the shot). Again, a fascinating topic, and he was thoroughly knowledgeable on the subject matter.

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On time, I believe I was able to talk him out of investing in a free energy machine someone claimed to be creating. In short, any time there is movement of matter, including electrons, there is friction, and this converts some of the energy into thermal energy, which is vibrations in the atoms that make up the device. This heat cannot be recovered and is lost, and therefore it is impossible to create a perpetual motion machine, for any movement must produce heat, and that heat is energy that is taken out of the system. However, to some lay inventor who may not understand the science, it may seem possible to significantly reduce the friction in a system (by having a large enough fly wheel, the right amount of grease, etc.) that it might not seem impossible that one may be able to not only get to a zero-energy state, but get to the point of being able to produce free energy from the system. Some people who believe this are simply true believers, while others are confidence tricksters, or conmen, but in either case, they end up begging their friends and associates and friends of friends and associates for money, saying that with just another small investment, "we'll get over that peak." It will never happen, but just like telling a true believer that the Abrahamic god does not exist or the Earth is not flat, its very difficult to convince some true-believers otherwise. Fortunately, Roy listened, and I understand he did not eventually waste his money on someone else's impossible dream or con.

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I understand he could be a prankster and mischievous, but one character he did not have was bullshitting. There were no exaggerations or hyperbole, or perhaps I just didn't notice. He worked very hard all his life, and like my dad, he worked throughout his retirement, fixing other people's cars and trucks and tractors in his shop. He was worth listening to on any mechanical topic you could get him to discuss, and I'll dearly miss those conversations.

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Roy was a member of the Petersburg Optimist Club. From this, I remember going to Breakfast-in-the-Park. Roy was in charge of making toast. I guess we didn't go as often as we should have, but c'est la vie. Every Father's Day, they also had a car show. There, I got to see some really nice old cars, including the car we had: the Ford LTD Country Squire, with the same light green and the fake wood paneling and the checkerboard in the back seat. As usual, I've never been interested in the hot-rodded vehicles, but rather I was more appreciative of the nicely restored ones. The Optimist Club also used to hold, before COVID, a Valentine's Day dinner.

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Roy was born north of what is now Luther Marsh Wildlife Management Area, on Concession Road 10, just east of Monck, a cross-road town so small, it doesn't even have its own Wikipedia page; perhaps that should be remedied. The property was bought up by the province so now all that is left of that farm are the memories of Roy's brothers who survive him. We really should write some of that down for his grand children and descendants.

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Roy and Donna were very careful with COVID, and it's so frustrating as we were coming out of this pandemic that he suddenly passes away. He deserved to live a lot longer.

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