Halifax fixture Bud the Spud retires streetside french fry truck

HALIFAX - Bud and Nancy True have slung their last fry.
The region's best known chip truck entrepreneurs have decided to retire after 32 years of selling fresh-cut french fries to everyone from the everyday office joe or jill to former prime minister Jean Chretien.
After peeling their last potatoes in November, the Halifax couple made the decision to put the Spring Garden Road fast-food fixture Bud the Spud up for sale.
"I'm a french fry lover," Bud, 67, said Wednesday, standing beside the signature chip truck tucked inside a garage behind their St. Margarets Bay Road home.
"This isn't beer, this is fries," he said, laughing, gesturing to his tummy.
The Trues attribute their success to years of hard work and to the P.E.I potatoes that came every year from Dawson Produce Ltd. The combination made Bud the Spud a household name.
"He's provided us with the right potatoes we need every year," said Bud, referring to Dawson's owner, David.
The Trues moved here from Ottawa in the late `70s. Bud quit his job at Revenue Canada and Nancy left her post as a secretary for the Canadian Yachting Association to come east.
His cousin had a chip truck business in northern Ontario and Bud decided to go into the same trade because he loved the starchy treat. But after making "billions" of fries, they grew weary of working seven days a week. The last few years, it's dwindled to a mere six. They want to travel and take it easy.
"Personally, I feel very good about it," Bud said as he surveyed the shiny truck, their second since opening.
"This didn't happen easily. We've been going back and forth, the two of us, for at least the last three years. Should we, shouldn't we? It finally . . . became time," Bud said. "We've done our thing. It's been really good to us."
"We're getting older," said Nancy. "I don't want to work six days a week any more."
The retirement became official in January when they let a tender deadline come and go for their popular spot outside the regional library on Spring Garden Road.