A Windsorite who remembers the construction of the Ambassador Bridge and the Windsor Detroit Tunnel has been honoured by the city's mayor.
Ovil Lesperance was born on January 25th, 1915 and played golf up until last year.
Mayor Drew Dilkens presented the longtime Spitfires fan with an official Memorial Cup Championship cap from this year and a certificate noting his age.
102-year-old Ovil Lesperance laughs with Mayor Drew Dilkens (by AM800's Peter Langille)
He remembers a neighbor asked him to go to the Chicago World Fair in the early 1930's.
"We hitchhiked from Detroit to Chicago, we walked all night and got there in the morning." recalls Lesperance. "One of the rides we had, the guy had a gun on the floor beside him but we go to Chicago and rented a room and went to one of the shows and saw Amos and Andy)
He spent a bit of time working in Detroit, admitting he did it on "the sly."
Lesperance says he was just starting at Assumption when they began construction of the Ambassador Bridge and he watched the tunnel being built.
1930 Assumption yearbook photo of Ovil Lesperance (by AM800's Peter Langille)
"I remember when they used to float down the big tubes for the tunnel, from Ojibway." He says "they were buitl there in Ojibway and they floated them down the river and they sunk 'em for the tunnel"
Lesperance lives in a house he built in 1949 that back onto the Roseland Golf Course.
He remembers watching Sammy Davis Junior and Elglebert Humperdink play on the course at the 15th hole.
Lesperance drove bus for many years and retired in 1965.
He still goes out to breakfact with a group of friends every Thursday and says he drinks a bit of red wine every day.