‘Snow’ not forgotten

Press, 30 May 1983, Page 5

‘Snow’ not forgotten

How many bus drivers are fondly remembered by their passengers of 30 years ago?

Mr Arthur Tindall, nicknamed “Snow,” is one of those exceptions. On Friday evening he was telephoned by an elderly woman who wished him luck in his retirement after 37 years with the Christchurch Transport Board.

He did not remember her name, only the route she used to take each morning when he ran a one-man tram on the Spreydon line for 20 years.

Those years as a one-man tram driver are the ones that Mr Tindall, aged 60, recalls best. “It was more personal,”

he said. “Once the buses started, that was the end.” His nickname from the days when he first started working for the board in 1945 as a fair-haired conductor is another thing that has stuck. , The longest serving member of the board’s traffic section, Mr Tindall said he had never had a complaint. There had been the odd accident though, once when he collided with a Tramway Board tractor and later when another bus ran into the back of his. “We like to keep it in the family,” he said. Mr Tindall has earned the reputation of a “character” at the board’s city depot where he has been super-

visor of the Town Shed for the last 10 years. Old habits are hard to break, and he expects to be waking at 4.15 a.m. for some time yet. That was the time he used to start getting ready for work so he could spend an hour reading the newspaper and cracking jokes in the cafeteria before going on duty. He and his wife, Olive, plan a trip to Australia next month and then Mr Tindall wants to start growing orchids, a hobby he was introduced to by a former bus inspector.

He intends using his special bus pass to keep in touch with former colleagues as often as possible.