Gord Johnson, a well-known bus tour guide, is enjoying his time in semi-retirement but is still thrilled to talk about Moose Jaw’s heritage whenever clients call to book tours.
Johnson, 76, has been giving tours of Moose Jaw and 15 Wing Airbase for more than 20 years now after retiring from a 30-year teaching career.
However, the wheels on his bus haven’t rolled ’round and ’round as much during the past two years. Instead, he has been relaxing and spending time with his wife while taking tours elsewhere. Semi-retirement has treated him well while he and his wife have weathered the COVID-19 storm.
Despite his status as a semi-retiree, Johnson still offers a few tours — all by appointment — to a few clients who regularly bring small groups to The Friendly City every year.
“(I) can’t retire totally because it’s sort of in the blood,” he chuckled recently, noting he feels gratified that his clients still call for tours. “I’ll take on maybe some special ones, but that’s about it.”
Johnson has made some changes to his bus tours to ensure he protects his health and the health of others. This includes asking tourists at the front to move back, recommending that guests wear masks, and wearing a mask himself.
“Customers are still pretty good. They still wear masks if asked,” he said, noting a bus tour he took in Edmonton last year checked passengers’ temperatures and had an air purification system.
For many years, Johnson offered tours of the airbase, where he talked about its history and that of the Snowbirds. However, that won’t happen this year since the base is still locked down because of the pandemic. So, his focus will be on Moose Jaw.
But that’s OK, he said, since many people enjoy learning about the community’s history, especially through its murals. They also enjoy visiting the Tourism Moose Jaw booth and hearing about the stories there.
“One of the things people really enjoy too is that, with our heritage that we have, they say, ‘Hey, this is really quite exciting to come to this community,’” Johnson continued. “Because a lot of other cities in Western Canada, they were tearing down a lot of their old buildings (decades ago). And it was like Moose Jaw was bypassed in terms of tearing down and building new places.
“So we have that really rich collection of buildings right now. And you can appreciate that a person first coming to Moose Jaw to see what we do have. They’re quite enchanted. It’s like taking them back in time.”
Johnson recalled giving a tour to an Edmonton woman who wanted to celebrate her 90th birthday by visiting Moose Jaw. She brought 30 family members to The Friendly City, and afterward, told Johnson this place was one of the best she had ever visited.
“I was quite taken by that. It sort of (brought) a tear to your eye,” he said.
Johnson added that it’s the intrinsic joy, excitement and enthusiasm of showing people around Moose Jaw and talking about its history that he enjoys the most. After all, talking about history is in his wheelhouse, considering he taught history, social studies, and geography as an educator.
To book a tour, call Gord at 306-692-0072.
