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00:00Here we are in Iron Pryor, Ontario!
00:06The Pryor, in beautiful Ottawa Valley, where the Ottawa River and the Madawaska River meet.
00:14About 40 minutes west of Ottawa. I'm so excited to be here, although I will admit when I first heard
00:19that we were going to a place, a 40 minute drive outside of Ottawa, I thought we were going to
00:24a Senators game.
00:26Since the 1950s, Iron Pryor has been known for its high-skilled manufacturing jobs.
00:32It was home to tech companies like Didac, making computer disks, floppy disks, remember those?
00:39To Playtex, who made Wonderbra, to perhaps most impressively, the massive Boeing plant, where precision parts were made for some
00:48of Boeing's biggest commercial airlines.
00:50So basically, if you need a part for a 747 or a 34D, Pfizer moved in and made Viagra here.
01:01Never was a small town so excited about hard times.
01:07When you grow up in a small town in Newfoundland, you see the people have a sense of humor about
01:11hard times.
01:13I turned that into a career and hit the road.
01:15Mr. Johnny Harris!
01:17Now I'm on a mission to find the funny in the places you least expected.
01:21Canada's struggling small towns.
01:23Towns that are against the ropes, but hanging in there.
01:26Still laughing in the face of adversity.
01:29This is Iron Pryor, Ontario.
01:46From Viagra to Wonderbra to Boeing, things were looking up in Iron Pryor, Ontario.
01:51However, in 2024, things took a bit of a nosedive when the aircraft plant closed its doors for the last
02:00time.
02:00For decades, it employed as many as 900 people at a time and made parts for some of the most
02:07iconic planes in the sky.
02:08The 737, the Boeing 777, even the Jumbo Jet, the 747.
02:14And I got the 411 on both the plant's heyday and its unfortunate closure.
02:21You might say I got the lowdown on Iron Pryor's all-time low from Iron Pryor's own Tom Lowe.
02:32Tom spent 36 years at the Boeing plant. He told me in the early days...
02:36I was hired at a time where the plant was expanding.
02:39Okay.
02:40So the helicopter work was a big part.
02:42You know, we'd get these large helicopters coming in at the end of their so-called life.
02:47They'd take those big Labradors and Voyager helicopters and later the Chinooks and completely rebuild them from the ground up.
02:57Nowadays in Iron Pryor, I guess you could still get a Labrador fixed.
03:00I did see an animal hospital over on Daniel Street.
03:04I had an opportunity in the early days.
03:08They were preparing the helicopter to go for a test flight and they asked me if I'd like to go.
03:12I jumped at the chance.
03:13He said it was a bit nerve-wracking. This is nothing... he said it's nothing like a commercial flight.
03:18This was one of the Chinooks.
03:19You picture a tin can with two big rotors on it.
03:22You can't hear yourself talk.
03:26And of course, it's a test flight.
03:28So they're going through maneuvers that are testing its limits, right?
03:32They're doing maneuvers that would stress the airframe, let alone Tom.
03:37Tom said the factory was a fun place to work though.
03:40He said people had a sense of humor there.
03:42There was the odd practical joke.
03:44These helicopters had the big door that opened out the back that they could load freight with.
03:49This one particular day, they flew over the local golf course.
03:52And dumped a bunch of marshmallows all over the golf.
03:57The golfer was trying to find a ball.
03:58There was a hundred white dots all over the...
04:00Apparently one of the golfers got cranky and complained, but the pilot said,
04:04Hey, you were trapped in the sand so long, we considered it a humanitarian mission.
04:10This was precision work.
04:13Anything in the aircraft industry is close tolerance.
04:16If you're drilling a hole in something, you have at the most a 30 thousandths of an inch tolerance in
04:23diameter that hole has to be.
04:24If you're off by more than 30 thousandths of an inch, it's no good.
04:29You can't use it.
04:30It's not tolerated.
04:31Close tolerance.
04:32Sounds like the...
04:33Sounds like you couldn't find a workplace with lower tolerance than that.
04:37It sort of redefines the phrase intolerable bore.
04:40Oh, did you hear?
04:41Jerry got fired.
04:42Oh, really?
04:43I like that guy.
04:44Oh, yeah.
04:44No, everybody did.
04:45But he drilled a hole that was 33 thousandths of an inch off.
04:49That's an intolerable bore.
04:52In 2005, Boeing sold the plant to arm prior aerospace.
04:56And they were making the same parts for the same planes.
04:59But now Boeing could also tender those contracts to other plants in other places.
05:05Boeing, they want higher quality for a lower cost.
05:08They told us, you know, if you can't do that, then we'll just go to give the work across seas
05:14or give it to whoever can do it for the price that we want.
05:16We had a sister plant built in Mexico.
05:19Chihuahua, Mexico.
05:20Big manufacturing town with lots of cheap labor.
05:23We've lost a lot of automotive work there.
05:26You know, it sucks.
05:28You wouldn't think Chihuahua would take such a big bite out of the industry.
05:37Tom said working for Boeing was a really big deal.
05:41Great wages.
05:42Great people.
05:43Great work.
05:44Benefits.
05:45You know, it was just the place that most people in the area wanted to work.
05:52And doing great work that the workers were proud of.
05:54Important precision work.
05:57Which makes me wonder, if Arnbrior Aerospace can make a 20-foot cargo door to exactly fit a curved fuselage
06:05so perfectly it remains airtight at altitude, who's making the headphone jack in the seat?
06:26I met somebody who grew up on a firm and who took the pageantry of agricultural fairs and crossed it
06:34with the drama of drag shows.
06:37I went to have a chat with Will Raffi, a.k.a. Holly Cowell.
06:45Using drag to give farm life some flavor and flair, I call that ranch cross dressing.
06:52Will is Arnbrior's first drag performer and has to be the first farmer slash drag queen I've ever met.
07:01I grew up with the beef club, horse club, sheep club, showing all the animals.
07:05It was kind of my first exposure to pageantry.
07:07It's no surprise, then, that Will's stage name, his drag persona, is Holly Cowell.
07:14Creating my name, nothing was sticking, nothing felt right.
07:16My friend Caitlin and I, we were just driving, like, firing names out.
07:20And then I said, holy cow, I can't think of anything.
07:23And then we kind of looked at each other and was like, holy cow, Holly Cowell.
07:28The comedy gods dropped one in your lap there.
07:30Thankfully.
07:31And there's a bovine theme in a lot of the outfits.
07:35The branding is strong.
07:36Yeah.
07:36I go for more of, like, a country aesthetic, but also there will be some udders.
07:41Listen, if you grew up with cows, milk it.
07:45And if the cows get hungry, feed them hay, girl.
07:51I started watching Canada's Drag Race and hearing their stories about growing up not having the right words to, like,
07:58describe themselves or, like, not having a community in their small towns.
08:02Growing up, I didn't have words to really describe myself.
08:05This area, as much as I love it, is growing up was very much don't ask, don't tell.
08:10Yeah.
08:11Friends and I went to Ottawa and went to our first drag show.
08:15And I was like, whoa.
08:17Give it up for Holly Cowell.
08:20A couple months later, stepping on stage in my own heels and my own busted wig, just decided I was
08:25going to run with it.
08:26So Will started performing drag at first in Ottawa, but then got to know some other queens, and they started
08:32bringing it to smaller towns.
08:34And just as importantly, people came out.
08:37To the shows, I mean.
08:39People came...
08:40To support the show.
08:42People were supportive, is what Will was telling me.
08:45I asked Will about the actual prep for the show.
08:48The makeup process is pretty extensive and usually takes, like, two to three hours.
08:57We're going to start with the eyes.
08:58Okay.
08:59So you want to grab a makeup brush.
09:00I got a tutorial in makeup, but I did it.
09:03Will gave me pointers as I went.
09:06We want to do some pink.
09:08So you can start out here.
09:09Okay.
09:10And go aim up.
09:11We're doing this out by the burn, by the way.
09:14We're doing this...
09:16This is not...
09:17This is not...
09:18I don't know if I did it for you.
09:19The eyes, I had this, like, hot pink stuff.
09:22I'm thinking liner.
09:24Oh, my God.
09:25I look like the Joker.
09:27Or, like...
09:29I'm trying to put on the eyeliner straight, but nothing about this is very straight.
09:34For the eyes, the look I was going for was smoky, but I think they turned out alarming.
09:41And then, of course, the hardest part of drag is trying to dance in high heels.
09:46Oh, my God.
09:47You can't be serious.
09:48I went to town and I got these for you.
09:50Will gave me a pair of black, shiny, six-inch heel boots straight out of...
09:58Not arm prior.
09:59I mean...
10:03So, step one, we're going to want to do a little walk.
10:08A little seductive walk.
10:11Also, I've got some terrain to deal with here.
10:13Less of the shoulder, more of like a...
10:16You're, like, kind of security guard with heels right now.
10:20Hey!
10:21Okay, there we are.
10:22There we are.
10:22Will showed me some moves.
10:25Kind of like this.
10:28The classic windmill, the drag queen, like...
10:31And then there was his friend Kimmy Couture's combo, the Ottawa eight count.
10:36We were doing this...
10:37We're on a tractor path, and I'm in six-inch heels.
10:40I'm teetering around.
10:42Like, I either look like a drag queen that just came out of the club, or a deer that just
10:47came out of the womb.
11:02When I first heard of the Ottawa Valley Strikers, I was thinking picket, not cricket.
11:08But I met a local couple who helped me realize cricket is wicked.
11:14Gaggenpal Bassin and Avni Bell.
11:21Gaggenpal told me cricket is not new to Armprior or the Ottawa Valley.
11:25Some records that he found at the museum show that there were clubs here.
11:30There was a league playing here as far back as the 1850s.
11:34He said it fizzled out then around 1950.
11:37Although I think maybe what happened, if I know anything about cricket, which I think I do...
11:42Maybe they started in 1850, and then 1950 they reached the halftime break.
11:50Avni and Gaggenpal moved to Armprior just a couple of years ago.
11:53He was in the no-frills, and there was another gentleman, another South Asian guy.
11:57He approached me, like, do you play cricket? I said, yes.
12:00He said, like, we are playing behind the school, join us.
12:03And that is, well, that's racial profiling, but I'll let it go this time.
12:07Or maybe you just have very intuitive people at your grocery stores.
12:11Actually, I was at the Metro, and a young woman spotted me and came up, and she was like,
12:14do you cut your own hair? I was like, yes, I do.
12:19How did you know?
12:21They were playing pick-up games with locals in the area, and more and more people joined, and finally they
12:28had enough regulars that they decided to put together an actual team and join the league.
12:33The first order of business was to decide on a name.
12:36So we brought two, three names as a poll.
12:40Gaggenpal voted for the Armprior Lions. Avni decided she didn't like that one.
12:45So I changed it to Ottawa Valley Strikers.
12:47Is that right? What did you think of that, Gaggenpal, that she went and changed your vote?
12:51Yeah, a big boss can do anything.
12:53The boss, she's the boss.
12:55Okay.
12:57Ottawa Valley Strikers won, that became the name, and then she picked the colors and designed the team jersey.
13:03Now, she's not a player, so she doesn't wear the jersey, but I think she wears the pants.
13:11Avni helps out the team in all kinds of ways.
13:14I am their water girl. I am the DJ. I am also the videographer and the photographer.
13:19Yes, yes.
13:19Is that right?
13:20I am their social media handler as well.
13:22Social media handler, yes, yes, yes.
13:23She even holds on to all the players' phones and keys, which is good, because you don't want the men
13:29losing their phones and keys.
13:30They're on the field losing cricket.
13:34We have a new team, right?
13:35And we lose, like, straight eight games, right?
13:41But the ninth game, which we won, there was a huge celebration.
13:44He said they were dancing around on the field for a half an hour when they got that win.
13:48And he said it's because they've been losing for so long that finally, you know, the victory was that much
13:57sweeter.
13:58As a Leafs fan, I'll have to take his word for it. I don't know.
14:02They play in this league, but then they also have rec games, pick-up games, just to get other people
14:07in the community involved to teach them cricket and to teach it to kids.
14:11Kids of all ages, these rec games, they'll have players from the age of 15 to over 60, which means
14:18the pre-game warm-up includes everything from TikTok dances to blood pressure checks.
14:24So we'll use this ball, okay?
14:26Okay.
14:27Gag and Paul showed me how to bowl.
14:30Try to rotate the arm fully.
14:32Let's target near the foots.
14:34Okay.
14:34I'll try a little run-up.
14:36100%.
14:40That's a good try.
14:41Oh, no.
14:46I tried it, but I wasn't too good at it because with Will, I'd already windmilled my shoulder.
14:52I'd already done the...
14:54And then I wanted to try batting for cricket, but I had already seen their ace bowler, Kartik.
15:01It made me nervous.
15:03They were like, okay, well, for you, we won't use a cricket ball.
15:07Cricket ball is very hard.
15:08They said, for you, we'll use a tennis ball.
15:10And I was like, I got a better idea.
15:13Do you have a marshmallow?
15:17Oh!
15:19Oh!
15:22Oh!
15:23Oh, no!
15:31Let's do it.
15:34Whether it's an old-growth forest in the grove, which is always under threat from development,
15:39or the wood lanes of the bowling alley, an empire knows a thing or two about preserving pine.
15:45So, I went over to Steelheads & Strikes and I talked with a couple who managed to spare the alley
15:51from the gutter,
15:52Alicia and Matthew Ott.
15:57tell me a little bit about the history i mean yeah it's the oldest bowling center that's still
16:01operating in canada so i know there's older bowling alleys but they're closed down now we're
16:05not the first but we are the oldest still operating the previous owner was in a position
16:10where they had to sell and that's when matt and alicia they decided to jump in and and keep the
16:16lanes alive i've seen you know every drive-in theater every bowling alley everything like this
16:21just closes it disappears and we just said you know what we've got a chance to step up and and
16:27keep this little hub for the community matt and alicia they got a lot of help from the community
16:32we had people pre-booking birthday parties for 2025 2026 arm prior flooring they're like pay us when you
16:38can sullivan's was like pay us when you can and with all that help matt and alicia were able to
16:44to to
16:45bring the place into the 21st century or at least the mid-20th century
16:51they still use the world war ii era pin setting and ball return machines it is one of the weirdest
16:58ball returns these ones are half a catapult little kids will be like help because there are five pin
17:04balls just coming flying down the lane honest to god the balls of this town
17:11some balls are getting bowled on the cricket pitch bowling balls are pitched across the alley some balls
17:17are on the golf course getting confused for marshmallows and some balls are duct taped and tucked
17:23away for later when i went over there they were having an event called pin boy day you used to
17:36have
17:37pin setters so you'd actually have pin boys who would be actually physically resetting up the pins
17:42that's how old this bowling alley is even the pins are like i've fallen and i can't get up
17:53it also turned out that will had an organized event also a full-on drag show
18:03will came out as holly cow and holly had this call and response thing she's like what time is it
18:12what time is it it's milking time like everybody knew it everybody like not two percent not half and
18:23half the whole crowd they were all turned up she introduced the other queens extra beirut from season
18:32three of canada's drag race kimmy couture there was a drag king bj stroker i couldn't believe his name
18:41was bj stroker now i got to change all my username and passwords will had asked me if i wanted
18:48to perform
18:48i said no i i couldn't i couldn't possibly but i knew a sassy and gorgeous gal who would show
18:55up
18:55all right make some noise for stella standing
19:04bringing these shows to small towns means so much to young people who might be confused or have
19:09the kinds of hard questions about their own identity that many of us most of us never had to deal
19:16with
19:16and for those young people to see this talent out there strutting their stuff and more importantly
19:22to see you guys go out and support it that's got to make life easier for young people down the
19:28road
19:28even if that road is a tractor path and they're wearing six inch heels
19:42the era of aerospace came to an end boeing cut costs and pennies got pinched a decision workers
19:50here are considered to be off off by at least 30 thousandths of an inch
19:58but you landed on your wheels and on your feet in six inch heels as arm priors population climbs you
20:06can go see some cricket you don't even need a ticket just two or maybe three days of free time
20:17you saved the bowling alley i know just like you'll save the grove with these things arm priors showed
20:23a lot of compete and when i suggest folks visit your town i'll tell them how you can be found
20:29where the ottawa river and the mattawaska meet thanks for coming out everybody
20:36thanks so much we love you our empire we'll see you again take care
20:47the uh the drag uh drag queens and uh what what goes on there i didn't know anything about that
20:54at all
20:55i feel great i feel like we're on the right path
21:02oh my god all right all right here we go
21:07i was excited to see what i was going to learn about armbriar so i was surprised there was a
21:10couple things i had no idea we had cricket and also about the bowling alley that we have the oldest
21:15in
21:15canada yes
21:22hey there we go there we go
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