Cleaning up in Conception Bay South: Meet the man behind the broom
Robert Squires is a man on a mission.
Since moving to Conception Bay South last year from Ontario, he's begun an usual hobby: he's the broom man of Fowler's Road.
If you've driven that stretch of road in Chamberlains lately you probably saw him — broom in hand, another strapped to his back — sweeping.
He sweeps the sides of the road. He sweeps parking lots. He even sweeps people's driveways, all free of charge.
"It takes time to gather up all that dust and keep pushing it ahead of you," he told the St. John's Morning Show, as he swept the side of the road. "Then the traffic coming, they'll see the dust and they'll say, 'There's Bob again.'"
It would be odd if you regularly travelled that stretch of road and not see Squires. Most days he spends three hours — some days as much as eight hours — pushing a broom around.
Pretty impressive, for a 72-year-old.
Likes to keep busy
"Sometimes I'm here three times a day, if it's not too hot, because I'm just itching to get outside."
Squires has always liked to be busy, since the time he was a young kid.
And people have noticed. Squires said many wave back at him or wiggle their nose or eyebrow, or give him the "Newfoundland nod" as they drive by.
"A lot of ladies wave," he said.
"If I see it's a lady driver, and with my cowboy hat, when she gets closer, I'll take my cowboy hat off and just like the cowboys, they tip their hat to the ladies, like 'Howdy, Ma'am,' I'll do it like that, eh."
"Some of them will laugh. I don't see them waving their fist at me. They are laughing and waving."
Shirley is one of the people who regularly sees Squires as she drives by. In the past year, she's gotten to know him from his sweeping and often stops to chat.
"He amazes me. As I drive by I actually watch people slowing down and smiling at him," she said. "To see the helping hand he gives to everybody, I mean it's unbelievable. I've never seen anybody like this before."
"You don't have to be a singer or an artist to have talent. I think [he] does wonderful and that's what it's all about."
For Squires, it was just something that needed to be done. Something that keeps him busy and his body fit. Plus, nobody else was doing it.
"I don't see Newfoundland men doing what I'm doing, eh. Or it would have been clean before I come down here, eh."
And tomorrow, nothing will change.
"It keeps getting dirty," he said. "We can leave here today, we're going to come back here tomorrow, we're going to find some more pebbles and gravel in here. It keeps on getting dirty and, well, I got to do something or I'll get fat and lazy."
Squires said he plans to keep sweeping until he can't sweep anymore.
"I just shovel like this for my own satisfaction to make it a little bit neater, a little bit nicer looking."
