Despite it being a busy time in their lives, an oilfield operator and an archaeologist stepped into ownership of Virden’s King Street car wash. On July 21, Dan Roberts and Alicia Gooden took possession of the business.
While many will recognize Roberts as a Virdenite, his wife is not from Brandon. Gooden says, “I am originally from Brandon, but I've lived in Canada, Korea, and England, and spent years overseas living and backpacking. Dan has lived in Virden his whole life but has gone on some overseas adventures with me over the years.”
The deal on the car wash was finalized in the midst of her busy “field season”. At that time, Gooden, President of the Manitoba Archaeological Society, was digging up the past at the recent Gainsborough Creek Olson project. So, they quietly took ownership.
However, they are planning an event to celebrate their car wash re-opening, in due course.
Roberts grew up helping his father in the oil field, and his mom with her local businesses. After high school graduation, he stuck with the oil field and has been an operator for more than ten years, but he's always had his eye out for a business opportunity.
“We saw the carwash for sale late last year (2020),” says Gooden. They began to toss around the idea as a business that would fit in with their current work.
“It was a long, stressful process, but we're excited and proud to own a little piece of Virden and to invest ourselves into the community even more,” she says. “Dan is still able to work as an operator (he can run back and forth from the field to the carwash if mechanical or client issues occur), and I am still able to work as an archaeologist and sessional instructor at Brandon University (and of course do the carwash accounting from home).”
As it turns out, Virden is a great place for an archaeologist to live.
Gooden explains, “This is due to the geographic 'pulling away' of the Laurentian Glacier about 12,500 years ago - it moved in a north-easterly direction, leaving the southwest corner of what is now Manitoba open for habitation earlier than other areas. Living in Virden makes it a lot easier to travel back and forth to all the sites in the area.”
