Man, 80, takes snowstorm sitting down
Twitterverse admires homeowner’s invention
Angelo Kokkinos, 80, spent his life working in the restaurant business, but clearly has the spirit of an inventor. And on Wednesday, everyone was jealous.
As the city spent its early-morning hours clearing away the 25 centimetres of snow that fell overnight, there was Kokkinos enjoying himself as he cleared his driveway — on a homemade riding snowblower.
A picture of him on the contraption that was tweeted by the Citizen started a flood of Twitter admiration.
“Genius!” said more than one person. “Fantastic idea!” said another. “I have a new hero.” “I NEED THIS.” Kokkinos, who grew up in Greece but has made Ottawa home for 47 years, has never heard of Twitter. But he is very happy about the seat, which he made two years ago in his garage. The widower, who for many years owned Patty’s Pancake House in Billings Bridge, said operating the heavy snowblower the normal way had become difficult because of his heart trouble.
It took a bit of tinkering, he said. At the first attempt, he didn’t get the wheels right. “At the beginning, I put small wheels,” he said. “And small wheels can’t go in the snow.”
To Canadian Tire he went for some bigger ones. Ever since, it’s been all happiness for him when the snow comes.
“You saw me,” he said of Wednesday morning. “I was there for two hours and I’m happy. I’m not tired at all.”
Some Citizen readers wanted to know, though, how he can turn. Does the seat pivot relative to the blower. “Of course!” Kokkinos replied. This isn’t his first time as an inventor. Niece Martha Kokkinos remembers his unique take on the Greek tradition of roasting a lamb in the backyard for Easter. While everyone else they knew would turn the spit over the fire with a hand crank, her uncle rigged up a motor to turn his for him.
“He’s always in his garage doing something,” she said. “I think he should have been an engineer.”