Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 05/99) - If water is the great purifier, then delivering water has proven to be a great tonic for Wayne Brown.

"I've been working since I was 14," said Brown, now 42, "and I can honestly say that this is probably the best job I've ever had."

For nearly five years Brown has hauled H2O to residential and commercial customers along Old Airport Road and in Kam Lake, Old Town and Latham Island for WB Water Services.

Making a final pit-stop at Pump House No. 4 on Saturday morning, Brown was clearly in a good mood.

"Do you want me to sing or dance?" he asked, smiling behind his beard and sunglasses. It was easy to see he did like his job, a fondness he put down to the fluidity, or at least flexibility, of his typical work day. Rising before dawn and working without a coffee or lunch break, Brown said that on such early days, drivers can finish well before the winter sun sets.

"You're out by yourself, and you can start early and get done early, and then I have the afternoon to do what I want to do," he said. "We can go ice-fishing or hunting or just out Ski-Dooing."

And Brown said that sharing his love for the outdoors with his two sons is another reason the water business is good. Working up to seven days a week in the winter months, he said delivery service shifts slow to approximately 18 hours a week during the summer months -- when surface pipes are open to supply water to Old Town and Latham Island.

"One of the reasons I took the job was because I had to take a month off in the summer, and the boys are out of school then, so a month off means we can go fishing or boating or camping."

And while Brown may like his work, what do his clients think of it?

"We have some customers who will give us Christmas cards or chocolates," he said.

If there are any drawbacks to the business, Brown said it involves waking up at 4 a.m., and the close-calls caused by drivers who cut in front of him and his truck -- weighing some 13,500 kilograms when it's full of water.

"They all figure we're professional truck drivers and can stop on a dime, but we can't," he said.