There is a massive difference between people who buy a lifestyle and the people who had to forge one out of pure survival.
When you look at The Buffalo Bandit, you are looking at a brand built on a premium, rebellious aesthetic. But the grit behind this brand wasn't learned in a business school, although i did attend a business college for 3 years in my 20's. It was learned in the freezing winter of the early 90s, looking at the smoke stacks of the Petro-Canada refinery on Southdown Rd in Mississauga, Ontario from the front seat of a parked car. I called this my home for awhile.
I was 16 years old. Because of a severe, undiagnosed brain injury from a massive accident a year prior, my life had completely unhinged. I lost a career path I loved, got kicked out of my parents home, I got a criminal charge, numerous POA (Provincial Offences Act) charges, I was drinking a lot and doing a lot of things that I shouldn't have been. I had no idea what was wrong with me, I would drink and make a fool of my self, couldn't control my thoughts, my feelings, and I had even less control over my emotions. The things I was doing, the way I was acting, it would test the limits of, and rock the foundations of every relationship I had.
When I sit back and think now about all that has happened over the past 37 years I can't help but feel guilty for still being here and being able to write this when so many people I've known are gone. I did way more than my share of stupid shit, living on the edge of a knife was an understatement. But I didn't crawled back home, I didn't fold, and I didn't let the demons suck the last breath from me. I have to admitt, they did steal the better part of my life and have cost me everything I have ever held dear, but I am still here, and I am one hell of a soldier now.
For nearly ten months, that refinery lot was my home. It wasn't so bad really. There were truck shops that is part of the refinery but they were independantly owned truck repair businesses. Well one of them was owned by my uncle's friend Tony.
My Uncle was a long haul truck driver and when he was in town he would park his truck at this shop. He wasnt around very much so when I had no place to live he said I cold sleep in his car and use it when he was gone. I had a sleeping bag and I could plug a heater into the the outlets in the fence that the trucks used for their block heaters. And inside the shop was a shower I could use, I just couldnt use it at night and after lunch time on Saturdays.
I did some work at the shop when they needed me and they actually got me a full time job just down the street driving a shunt truck for Allwaste Tank Cleaning.
I slept in the car for probably 6 months or so but even though it was a big car, a 1979 Ford LTD, I wanted more space. So saved as much as I could , and bought a van with a bed in it. That van wasn't just transportation; it was a fortress. It was proof that no matter how far you fall through the cracks of the medical or social systems, you can build your own way out.
The van I bought was a 1982 Dodge 150 short box and it was an extremely rare 4 on the floor. She was very basic, no power steering, no power brakes, definately no AC or power windows and locks, and she wasn't super pretty. But she was home for awhile and I got plenty of use out of it. Unfortunately instead of keeping it, because it was a rare one, I scrapped it after an issue with the cops in 1993. But that is a later story.
Eventually, the system caught up in the form of a paper avalanche—POA charges, court dates, and fines piling up like there was no tomorrow. When you are young, broke, and dealing with a brain injury that you don't even know you have, the legal system doesn't offer a hand; it offers a hammer.
But survival teaches you how to handle the hammer.
The Buffalo Bandit is for the outsiders. It’s for the people who know what it feels like to look at a warm house from the frozen glass of a parked car. It’s for the survivors who rolled the truck, took the hits, found refuge in the unexpected kindness of good people who treated them like family, and refused to let a broken system dictate their end game.
We don't cut corners. We build from the spec book. Because when you’ve slept at the refinery, you know exactly what it takes to build a foundation that nothing can burn down.
In the next Justice Ledger post I going to start telling how the legal machine tried to eat me whole. The Bandits legal story is long with many twists and turns. So many things that I personally would've never thought could happen did.
Some of the things I am going to share with you over the coming months you might think aren't possible, especially in Canada. But trust me, I am going to show you how little you know about the Canadian Justice system. I'm going to show you what one simple mistake made when dealing with the courts can do to your life.
Until next time keep charging into the storm.
The Bandit
ADDRESS
Box 1039
Palmerston, Ontario N0G 2P0
EMAIL ADDRESS
customerservice@thebuffalobandit.com
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