Normally, they would be picked up in a folded, salted and dry state, tied into neat square bundles and tagged individually. At that time the Russian's would send in a ship to the docks in Montreal, to pick up a shipload of hides for export. At this time they were trying to get this load down east before the deadline. So when we showed up for the load, it was in such a rush that it was loaded GREEN. Which means that they were off the animals back within the hour.( producing and loading directly) The hides were still draining, slop & blood and were not even salted. (That is what they mean by green hides.)
It was in the middle of August and the temperature on the prairies was in the 90's. The load had to be loaded for axle weight, for going through the United States. We had no sliding axles at that time, so it had to be done by hand, then run over a scale till it came out correct. We started across the praries,(2 drivers running double)In the extreme heat. About 3 or 4 hrs. down the line, there was a car tailgating our trailer. Without a cloud in the sky for over 100 mi. I could see in my mirrors, that he was running with the windshield wipers on, and starting to swerve a little erratically. He quickly pulled off and I went down the road for about another 5 or 6 mi. then pulled over also. My curiosity getting the best of me. I was a little, but not totally supprised, that the blood and liquid crap was running out of the back doors. I had to run for my life, so it seemed at the time, it was not only draining liquid, but was also being devoured by a MILLION (or more) horse flies. The biggest I had ever seen. A giant swarm. I jumped back into the cab, closing the window and taking off down the road, trying to out run the flies. Remember, in the 50,s air conditioning did not exist. It must have been well over 100 F. in the cab.
We crossed over to the US at Noyes, Minnesota. Having the load sealed in bond on the Canadian side first.( with the flies catching up and attacking the customs officers we were promptly told to get the hell out of there. A day later we were travelling the US highway route # 2, east bound. We came around the corner at POWERS MICHIGAN scale shack. They were open for business, and they loved nothing better than to nail the Canadians for any fines that they could scrape up. Well I pulled ahead onto the scale and weighed the steering axle, then pulled the drive axle on. he stopped there and called me inside. Showing me that I was 2,000 lbs. to heavy on the front. In the meantime, a herd of horse flies caught up to the load. Being on the scale and the shack window wide open, with crap still dripping out on the ground.(on the scale) He said he would give us a break, if we could move the freight back to a legal position, he would let us go. He also knew that we did not have any sliders and that the load was customs sealed in bond,and could not enter the trailer.
Well the load being so greasy and slippery, that when we made a panic stop, the load shifted forward, and made our weight illegal. I pulled off the scale and drove like hell in revers, then slammed on the brakes, slowly shifting the load back again. Then pull back on the scale for a reweigh. After dripping all over the scale and reweighing 3 times, to which I was almost legal again. The stink and the flies were attaching the shack and the scale man so badly, that he chased us out of there and in no uncertain terms, told us what he thought of us, and would be looking forward to an excuse to throw us in jail at a future undisclosed date. So away we went , followed by the biggest herd of flies I had ever seen. The Canadian customs at Sarnia Ontario, gave us the fastest clearance I ever had. I have never seen a government man move that fast in my life.The next few weeks, I made sure that it was my turn in the bunk and out of sight, when we went over the POWERS MI. scale.
Bill Weatherstone