Retiree Wraps 139,620 Tinfoil Wrappers Into a Ball (Tinfoil Hat Alert)

The National Post ^ | February 8, 2003 | Richard Foot

[Loyalist]

CREDIT: Paul Darrow, National Post

Stanley Jollymore lights up a cigarette, preparing another addition to his sphere.

(Tinfoil Wrapper Ball)

BRULE POINT, N.S. - Stanley Jollymore has accomplished many fine things in his 90 years on the planet. He has tended a lovely seaside farm overlooking the Northumberland Strait, been elected county councillor, risen to the rank of superintendent with Nova Scotia's highways department, and been a faithful husband to his wife and loving father to his children.

But it is Mr. Jollymore's oddball obsession with flimsy shards of tinfoil for which he is a famous figure in his community today. For 19 years he has been collecting and carefully moulding tinfoil cigarette wrappers into a large, lustrous, silver ball.

The object of his labour is a strange but beautiful thing to behold: bigger than a bowling ball, smoother than polished marble and, at 40 kilograms, heavier than an iron cannonball. It is an object without utility or clear purpose, built to amuse Mr. Jollymore in his retirement and to entertain the curious who come to peek at his creation.

A smoker for 70 years, Mr. Jollymore sits at his kitchen table puffing on a Matinee and pondering the orb in front of him, as if he can't quite understand why it's there.

"I don't think there's too many of these around the country," he says.

Asked if he talks to it, Mr. Jollymore says no. Is he proud of it? The old man chuckles. "I've never really thought about it," he replies.

Certainly it has made him a beloved celebrity in Brule Point, and in the nearby town of Tatamagouche, where dozens of fans keep Mr. Jollymore well supplied with cigarette wrappers. Like silent partners in a peculiar scheme, they egg him on to build the ball bigger and bigger, layer upon layer.

Each day, Mr. Jollymore makes his rounds, stopping first to see his wife at the Willow Lodge Nursing Home, where the staff put tinfoil papers for him in a special box at the reception desk. From there, he picks up more tinfoil from the waitresses at the Chowder House restaurant, and from the doughnut makers at Tim Hortons.

"Stan's been doing this for so long, it's become a novelty in the community," says Shelley LeFresne, who works at the Willow Lodge home.

"It's so odd -- how these little foils of paper could be turned into something so heavy -- it's quite a phenomenal thing."

The ball contains 139,620 tinfoil wrappers in total, each addition carefully noted in the frayed pages of a log book. Mr. Jollymore says he intends to quit at 140,000.

"What amazes me is that it stays so perfectly circular," he says, rubbing his hands around it.

Mr. Jollymore comes from a wealthy and well-known family on Nova Scotia's north shore. His son Dale, a retired construction contractor, built almost every Tim Hortons outlet in the Maritimes. His nephew is Ron Joyce, the Tatamagouche native who co-founded the Tim Hortons empire.

Yet it is Mr. Jollymore's shining sphere, more than his family connections, that captivates his fans.

"We're all really proud of him," says Ms. LeFresne. "Everybody's interested in his silver ball."

The project started in March, 1984. Cooped-up indoors during a severe winter storm, Mr. Jollymore started rolling cigarette liners into a tiny ball.

"Once I started I just kept right on rolling," he says. "It was just something to pass the time."

The tinfoil on each wrapper is separated from its paper backing over low heat on the stove.

Then each piece is meticulously laid down and rubbed with a rolling pin and a plywood stick, each worn with age.

Mr. Jollymore has made smaller balls for friends. One of them sits on display at Forbes Brothers furniture store in nearby Denmark, N.S., with a simple plaque that says, "To Bob, From Stan."

© Copyright 2003 National Post

[Loyalist]

I can see the need for a tinfoil hat. But of what use is a tinfoil ball?

[luckymom]

My dear friend Sharen's father died recently in Hope, British Columbia. I went to her home here in Washington, and she had a doorstop that looked like a beautiful silver bowling ball. I asked her about it, and her dad had made it exactly the same way as this fellow. When her father quit smoking years ago, the townsfolk would supply him with the foil liners to keep him going. It really is beautiful, and as the article says- is SO perfectly round!

[PokeyJoe]

[badfreeper]

PING for the smoker list?

I know an 88 pound foil ball made from cigarette wrappers isn't exactly what the smoker list is for, but I figured a 90 year old man who has been smoking for 70 years deserved a BUMP!

[strela]

From there, he picks up more tinfoil from the waitresses at the Chowder House restaurant, and from the doughnut makers at Tim Hortons.

Ummmm ... Tim Hortonsssss ...

[Straight Vermonter]

Art Bell fan club?

[PokeyJoe]

Not really. But if it's late and I'm working, I do listen sometimes if something fun is on. =)

[B4Ranch]

Was her Dad a Newfie too?

[EastCoast]

As a kid during WWII, we saved all foil wrappers and pressed them into a somewhat large ball. Then we boiled the ball, I think to make it heavier. When it got to the large ball stage and, as requested, we turned it over to the war effort for their use.