with the big
mustache and
black cowboy
hat, along with
son Doyle (on
chuckwagon),
posed for this
promotional
photo back in
the 1980s.
“I think the intangibles — the things he
did beyond competing made him great as
a man, maybe more so than his record on
the track,” Melville says.
During the latter part of Mullaney’s
chuckwagon career, sons Deryle and
Doyle started driving the big wagons. It
was old age that forced the driver out
of racing, and into the barber’s chair. He
settled in Okotoks because it was cowboy
country and all of his chuckwagon buddies were here.
Even in retirement, Mullaney continues to keep his strong hands
busy. He plays old-time country songs with a small band, Pete’s
Fiddle Music, playing at various western themed dances and events
to the tune of a couple of hundred bookings a year. And he can’t
imagine any better place to be based out of than Okotoks.
“When I came here in 1973, there was 400 people in this town,” Mullaney says. “There was nothing on the south side of the river at all.”
The times, they are a changin’ — and Pete Mullaney’s been
here through it all. OL
A Pete with
bandmates
Audrey
and Wayne
Horsman in the
barbershop at
Heritage Park
Historical Village
in Calgary.
