Sanko, Richard Norman Interview

Erica Tenquist, interviewing Richard Norman Sanko who lives at Summerset village. He’ll tell you about where his family came from, and about himself; and it is the 25th of June 2018. Over to you Richard.

Hi, thanks Erica. The name Sanko first came from Croatia … it’s a Croatian name. And my Nana’s husband came out from Croatia and worked in the goldfields up Northland; and then he moved to Taranaki, and he married my Nana and they went back to Croatia – but that’s another story.

My first job when I started work, was as a nine year old; and I worked for Morrie Dunn’s motorbike shop in Hastings. And Morrie was a very good speedway rider, and I saw him ride many, many meetings out at Omahu Road. And I used to sweep the starting grid there, and my father used to show the slides on the big telly projector out there.

And what was your father’s name?

My father’s name was Edward Arthur Sanko; his short name was Ted, or Uncle. From there as a young lad I got a Dominion paper run, and my paper run was through Tomoana Works, [Freezing Works] and I used to start off in Russell Street there at the Dominion office and go to the watchman on the railway line there where I’d give him a paper; and then round to Wattie’s where I would deliver another couple of papers there; and then round to Bird’s Eye, that used to be there, and I’d deliver a couple of papers there – usually in the canteen, where they’d probably give me a sausage roll or something. And I’d go on from there to Tomoana Works, and I would give a paper to the watchman at the gate there; and then on round to the engineering shop and the carpenter’s shop where papers would be delivered. And then I’d go round to the stockyards where I’d give a paper to Jock Archibald, who was there most of his life as a stockman. From there I’d go round to the butcher’s shop over where they used to feed the Tomoana workers, and I’d either get a sausage or a piece of steak there; and then I’d go round to the wool store and deliver a paper there; and then upstairs, right up the top floor to the doctor’s office, where I put my papers down. And I’d deliver papers right round the top floor, and then the second floor and then the third floor; and then I’d go back up to the top floor and collect what papers I hadn’t delivered. And then they used to have another butcher’s shop downstairs, and there’d be another sausage or a piece of steak there for me, or a chop. So by the time I got to school I didn’t actually require breakfast, so I was well fed.

From there as a young lad, I took up golf. And I was quite happy playing golf; my father played golf, and we went and played golf most Saturdays and Sundays. In 1963 I got tied up with the committee for the Under 19 New Zealand Golf tournament, for under 19 year olds, where we had some golfers from Australia. And that was by the Hawke’s Bay Junior Golfing Society and I became president there in 1965-’66 year.

After I married and went and lived in Flaxmere where we built our first house – we were one of the very earliest residents of Flaxmere – and we had our children. And I got tied up with Kindergarten, and I was president of the Flaxmere Kindergarten from about ‘73 to ‘75; and then on to the president of the Heretaunga Kindergarten Association, where I spent quite a few years – 1980 through ‘83 – as their president.

I also was president of Riding for the Disabled out at Mary Short’s property at Pakipaki, where we had riding on Sundays for the disabled. And we used to walk around there with the horses and make sure that nobody fell off. So having a son that was disabled – he was involved in Special Olympics – and I got tied up with Kowhai Special School with their Special Olympics, and was Nelson Park manager for North Island Special Olympics. All the teams round the North Island came to that, and that was really interesting.

Did you usually go by car?

No, usually went by bus, Erica. But at Special Olympics I invited some people to do some prizegiving, and Stuart Jones was one of them. And Stuart presented some trophies or ribbons to some of these young people who were winners. And he asked me, he said, “Why do those people stand at the finishing line there?” And I said, “Well if people don’t stand there and stop these young people, they keep on running; so [chuckles] you’ve got to have somebody there to stop them.” And that amused Stuart. [Chuckle] Anyway, from there I used to go on a few school trips with Kowhai School, and they were golden years with those young people.

From there I went to president of the Hastings Golf Club. I was vice president; club captain; vice captain; and I spent fourteen years as [in] administration within that committee. So that was a really happy time for me. And from there I moved on to president of Hawke’s Bay Golf for five years, 2005-2010. And in 1989 I was manager of the Hawke’s Bay Junior golf team. That was a really interesting time because I did go away to a lot of inter-provincial tournaments; and our executive worked very well.

Did you go overseas at all with it?

No. No, I did not. I joined Community Patrols in Havelock North in the year 2005, I think it was; and I transferred to Hastings 2007. And I’ve been president since 2007 through ‘til 2017 … end of 2017. So I do four patrols a month usually, and in the past seven years …

Is that in night time or day time?

It’s both for me; and I used to look after the patrol car and managed to – with the rest of my committee – we raised enough funds to buy a new car and get it outfitted with a light bar, and shirts and uniforms, etcetera, and things that we needed as a community patrol. That’s a really interesting job; I’ve had some interesting times in that, and when things happen in real time it’s different than [from] just life. When the bell goes up. I tell you – it’s happening real quick.

So for the Hastings Business Association I’ve been Father Christmas in Hastings City for the last four years; this gives me a lot of joy and satisfaction to see the youngsters’ eyes light up when they see me and ask me if I’m real and all the rest of it. It does become quite humorous. But mums and dads seem to walk out very happy and they thank me very much usually, on their exit. So that’s about it from me – I’ve been a volunteer in the community for a lot of years and it’s given me a lot of pleasure; so thanks very much.

Yeah – but what else? You can’t stop there Richard, you’ve got to now tell me about where you went to school, and where you worked.

Okay. All right, well here we go again. I first went to school at Mahora School, and then when Frimley School was built down Pakowhai Road there, I went there; and then from there, on to Raureka School. At Raureka School I managed to win an award, which was the ‘Best Influence’, in 1957. From there I went on to Hastings Intermediate School, and I was there for two years and then on to Hastings Boy’s High School. And I did two years secondary, and my father said to me, “Son”, he said, “if you were ever going to learn anything we would’ve seen something happen by now.” He said, “Out to the workforce for you.” And I said, “That’s a bit hard, Dad – I just topped the class in history.” But anyway, that was the end of that; so out I went to work. And I worked first with Poppelwell’s in Hastings, and then I went and … because I’d started golf now, so I was lookin’ for a job that gave me a lot of day time free; so I started at West End Bakery. And we used to start at three o’clock in the morning and work through till about eleven o’clock, and then I’d go home and have a wash and shower, and might have a nod; and somebody’d pick me up and I’d go to golf all afternoon. And that would happen Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and I’d also play golf Saturday and Sunday as well. Thursday was the only day I couldn’t go to golf, because we’d finish at ten o’clock and I would go home to sleep the afternoon; start again at seven o’clock that night and work through till seven, half past seven the next morning. And at Easter time it used to be a little bit longer than that, because that was a big bake.

So after the bakery I started work for my father’s firm which was Townrow & Sanko [Limited] – we were radiator specialists in Hastings and Napier. And I was there for some forty-eight years, in which time I also bought the business from my father and I was a partner with Peter Townrow in that business. That business is still going today, in 2018, so – it was first established in 1949. And that was established in a little building that Mills Brothers used to have on Nelson Street; and from Nelson Street we moved to [the] corner [of] Southland Road and Heretaunga Street, where we had two shops on the frontage and the radiator shop used to be at the back.

Did you actually make the radiators?

Yes we did; we re-cored them, but we didn’t actually make the core. But then we rebuilt all the tanks and the side frames and we’d panelbeat all the accident damage that was happening in cars in those days. So we got most of the work in Hastings and Napier from the panelbeaters and the garages, and so it was a very successful business. But that industry has changed a little bit. During those years in business it was our trade, and we got certificates as radiator specialists. so we would do anything at our shop, from D9 Caterpillars to Kenworth trucks, down through to cars. The only one I can ever remember that we turned away was in Napier, when we had a locomotive radiator come in and we couldn’t even get it through the door. [Chuckle] … actually made me smile a bit … they came round with a truck, and then another crane came around and they were going to lift it off the truck with a crane; and we couldn’t even get it in the door and there was only two of us working there, and they’re huge things. So they needed to go to Auckland to get serviced.

Did you find any with asbestos at all?

No. No, I didn’t do the engines, only the radiators, Erica.

Who did the marketing or the managing or the accounts?

Okay – well my dearly beloved wife did the accounts for Townrow & Sanko and we were with Corbin & Esam in those days. Selwyn Cushing started off there, and in fact we were Selwyn’s first client when he became a fully-fledged accountant, and I see Selwyn today quite often down at the Coffee Club at Summerset. So that’s been an interesting association.

There have been some interesting things happen with Townrow & Sanko during their forty-eight years that I was with them. One was a cheque … we got a cheque in the mail and there was a note attached to it. And it said, ‘Dear Townrow & Sanko, Please find enclosed an open cheque. I can remember you doing a D2 radiator for me, and I can’t for the life of me think if I’ve ever paid you. Please fill in the correct amount. Kind regards, Sir Tom Lowry.’

Another interesting episode that happened – we also received another letter in the mail, and it went like this: ‘Dear Townrow & Sanko, As I write this letter I am a guest of Her Majesty in the prison at Napier. Some years ago you did a job for me and upon my release I will be in to see you to fix the account up.’ This particular letter was handwritten … really, really nice; and so a few weeks later this particular gentleman came in, he settled up his account and two weeks later he came in with his mother’s radiator. And he said, “Do you mind if I take two or three weeks to pay it off?” And we were re-coring it and it was something like about $300; and we said, “With your credit record, of course we can.”

Did you have one in both towns – one in Napier and one in Hastings?

Yes we did. We had one in both towns and each shop had three people working for them.

Erica’s just asked me when did I fit in the golf when I started working for Townrow & Sanko; mostly at the weekends, although when I became a partner I used to sneak in on Thursday afternoon as well. But anyway, those times are gone now and I’m retired; and I happily go out on a Saturday morning and sometimes I come home happy, and sometimes I don’t.

Pat and I were very fortunate to have three children; our oldest was Michael Sanko and our second child was Sean Sanko and our third child was Blair Sanko. My son, Michael, lives in Havelock North and he has three children; he’s married to Carolyn. Their children’s names are Harrison; the second son is named Jack; and their daughter is Charlotte. Michael is in Havelock North and he works for Hawk Packaging which is part of the Combes Group, so he’s the controlling accountant out there.

And my middle son, Sean, is in Melbourne, and they have a child – he’s married to Rochelle – and they have a young son who’s five years old. And Sean works for JB Were as a director of private wealth. So yes, both my sons have very good jobs.

Erica’s asked me to talk about collecting money on the Dominion run through Tomoana Works. Well yeah, that was a bit of a hassle at times, because some of these guys’d say, “Yeah, I’ll pay you on Saturday”, or “I’ll pay you next week.” So I used to have an envelope back at the Dominion office that – I’d come back and Mr Clark would count out the money, and if I was short he’d say, “Well you owe me $3, or 8/6d [eight and sixpence] or whatever it might be”; and then when I was over that would cancel that out. And then if I was over again then I might have a little bit of a drawing from out of the envelope, but it always had to be counted and come up square. So sometimes I was over and sometimes I was under; but anyway, one or two of them probably pulled the wool over my eyes, but then I was only a young fellow – I was only about eleven.

There are some funny things that happen; life is sometimes full of funny things, is my experience. But one day when I was Father Christmas in town I had three really nice ladies from Summerset, and they’d all be the wrong side of seventy. And they came, and I said, “Hello!” And they said, “How are you?” And I said, “I’m fine, how are you?” And this particular woman, I won’t name her, wanted to sit on my knee; so she sat on my knee and they took photos and that. And from there all three of them sat on my knee, and out they went and they came back to Summerset. And they were in the hairdressing salon, and one of them told one of the other clients that they’d been in to see Father Christmas and they’d sat on Father Christmas’s knee; and one of the ladies knew that I was Father Christmas, and they [she] said, “Oh! Have you now? Well do you realise you sat on Richard Sanko’s knee?” And they said, “Never!” [Chuckles] So there was quite a laugh around the village here that some of the girls had been sittin’ on my knee. Anyway, my wife didn’t complain, so that’s a win.

Erica wants to talk to me about auctioneering. Well through my lifetime I’ve been to a few auctions; and somebody asked me at Summerset would I be an auctioneer – they were having a fundraiser, and they asked me would I be auctioneer. I said, “Sure, I’ll be auctioneer.” I’ve never done it before, but if you’ve got a bit of a gift of the gab you can usually get away with it. And so I’d make most of the ladies laugh with some of the comments I came out with and so on; and so I’ve done two or three … it might be three now that I’ve done, and all of them successful, so … happy to do it.

Erica’s just asked me if there’s anything I might’ve liked to’ve done in my life. And I can remember many years ago, there used to be a horse trainer in Hastings called Jack Ryan; and Jack was the trainer of ‘Even Stevens’ that was owned by Jim Wattie. And Jack always said to me when they came down for a few drinks at our house, ‘cause we just lived down the road in Lascelles Street, he said, “Richard, you should be a policeman”, because I was a reasonably tall and heavyset chap with quite big shoulders. So that’s one of the only regrets – I would’ve liked to’ve been a policeman, and that’s probably why I do a lot of work with the Police now, and community patrol. But however, other than that, if I was ever good enough I would’ve loved to’ve been a pro golfer. But unfortunately I never got to the standards required for that, although I did have many many interesting years caddying for the likes of Stuart Jones; Ian McDonald in particular, who became a New Zealand representative; Frank Gordon, and John Dorreen once or twice. These were the golden years of Hawke’s Bay golf, and I was very fortunate to see a lot of it unfold, ‘specially with the Easter tournament at Waiohiki and the Hastings Open … were very good tournaments to watch. And the Freyberg Rosebowl of course, it was at Waiohiki in 1973, I think it was, where I caddied for Ian McDonald who is now a member of a Wellington Golf Club, and he played for Wellington. But Pixie and I … was his nickname, Pixie … we had many walks along many, many fairways watching some excellent golf, so I was very privileged.

Thank you very much.