For over 40 years, a Cochrane family has made it their business – and a Christmas tradition – to answer the bell for their neighbours on Dec. 25.
This year was no different.
The list of the select few who have to work (or at least be on call) during Christmas – firefighters, doctors, nurses, paramedics, police and some gas station attendants – also includes the owners and staff of Big Hill Towing.
Owner Jackie Richards said it’s become a tradition of sorts, being available to anyone who calls for help – even if it’s not necessarily for a battery boost or a tow.
When her six-year-old son Hudson was asked to bring something to his Grade 1 class that represented a family Christmas tradition, it eventually became clear they didn’t have any special family heirlooms.
After a family discussion, they decided the one constant Christmas memory was that they were “a towing family” who would always be there for others. So, Hudson brought some old photos dating back to when his great grandfather Red started Red’s Towing, operating in the 1940s and 1950s in Calgary.
“We’ve been a towing company working on Christmas Day since the 1940s,” Richards said.
Her memories of Christmases past include a call that she went on with her husband Randy to Bragg Creek during a surprise storm about 10 years ago. It was blowing snow and very cold, and was unusually dark outside at 3 p.m. The conditions were so bad, even the company tow trucks were getting stuck.
After a long and exhausting Christmas Day of pulling vehicles out of snow drifts, they got a call around 10 p.m. from a stranded Bragg Creek woman in need of gas.
After getting her on her way, they assessed the situation.
“By that point, to drive back to Cochrane was going to take so long, and my husband was exhausted, so we just parked in the Bragg Creek mall parking lot and slept there,” she said.
“It’s no big deal to for us to sleep in the truck.”
Founded in 1977 as Big Hill Towing by her father Jack, the company now has 14 trucks and about 10 drivers.
Jack Richards died earlier this year. Jackie talks fondly about her dad’s proficiency in rescuing vehicles, including pulling a car out of the Bow River at the junction of Highway 22 during a 2005 flood. First responders needed to determine whether the driver was alive or not.
It turned out they were all too late. But Richards recalls how her father, at the age of 70, did what no other rescue vehicles could do.
And a fourth generation of skilled towers is apparently in training. Hudson has accompanied his dad on calls, including one where a logging truck overturned, and he got to see how the controls worked on the wrecker.
He has, by Richards’ estimate, “about a hundred” toy tow trucks, and is a big fan (along with dad) of the TV rescue series Highway Thru Hell.
“Him and his dad sit there and they just love it,” Richards said. “He just loves towing.”
Randy is the recovery driver, so if a semi-trailer or other large vehicle goes off the highway and requires specialized knowledge, he is likely to respond.
Driver Matt Strickland earned his Christmas bonus this year when he was called out to pick up a car and tow it to a dealership for repairs so the young couple that owned it could get to the airport in time to fly to Ontario and open presents with their family.
Big Hill Towing has deep roots in Cochrane. Jackie was the 1991 class valedictorian at Cochrane High School. She and her sister Gabrielle both started their ringette careers in Cochrane. Jackie went on to be inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the Team Canada West, who won the Ringette World Championships in Helsinki, Finland in 1992.
Big Hill Towing also provided free towing to move the Passive Solar Roller — Cultivate Cochrane’s Mobile Education Greenhouse, moving it from site to site this past summer.
When the teepee that has been seen at various locations around town needs to be moved, they load the poles up and move it, at no charge.
And they are supporters of the annual Show Your Ride for Brandon show-and-shine event, which marks the tragic highway accident that took the life of 17-year-old Brandon Thomas, who was hit by an impaired driver in 2012. Big Hill Towing was called out to the scene of the accident in 2012.
Exposure to tragedy is all too common for tow truck operators. Their website says the company is dedicated to “keep raising the volume” on the prevalence of impaired driving.
Richards said the Thomas’s are like family to her. She is both proud and humble when describing her company’s dedication to community.
They’ve been answering the phone on Christmas Day for tows for four decades. But answering the towing bell is just part of it.
A human being has answered the phone every day since Big Hill was formed in 1977, something Richards called a “fun fact.”
She also takes pride in the fact that her family tradition of availability means that people know they have somewhere to call if they need – anything.
She said her family and staff are used to doing what they do.
“We’re quite a humble group, we’re just workers,” Richards said.
“I believe, I hope, that if anybody in Cochrane has a problem on Christmas Day – or any day – they can call us and they will get a human being, a community member, who cares about their experience.
“And we will do whatever we can to help them.”
That’s their holiday tradition.
