pretty funny

ATTENTION: ALL BORDER PATROL AGENTS...

Be on the lookout for a 1951 Chevy, red with white top - thought to be transporting illegal immigrants!

flat earth character

this ol house

click pix to enlarge

We lived in this house .... in 1943-44-45 .......I don't think there has been anything done to since then....anyway, I reconstructed it to what I think it may have looked like when my family lived in it so long ago......it is all cedar shingles and as you can see kinda yellow.......I can remember standing behind that picket fence and discussing the exciting end of the war with my neghbourhood friend, Gary Hogg........We were 7 tears old. There really was a pretty Lillac tree in front. When Mr. Weeden( a local realtor) came to collect the monthly rent, mom would have 13 dollars cash ready for him....I thought that was pretty reasonable....I suggested that to mum and she said that it was plenty. Dad mechaniced in a Plymouth dealership up the block....Johnson Palmer Motors.....the post office is there now.....I think about him coming home for lunch at noon and always a lie down for 15 minutes before heading back to work....there was a whistle blown at 12 noon ...the source was Valley Laundy at Mary st. and Wellington ave. ... Dad often kept a few chickens in a pen right behind the garage...not many regulations then....the house is right behind the post office on Fletcher st.....The garage was used to store sawdust...the fuel of preference in those days......I thought I would find a picture of a sawdust burner, to give an idea to the youngsters what that is about....hey, I could not find one anywhere....I reckon they were only popular in our area...sooo I have illustrated the thing.......a hopper is fastened to the side of the stove ....then sawdust gravity feeds into the burn box...yup it was a chore to fill the sawdust pails and keep a couple handy.....dad would lift em and pour it into the hopper ..it's a cool way to use all that sawdust that was produced by local mills.....people used them until 1957 when the natural gas pipeline came through to the south....

hardehar

we were really dirty guys..... 2

today is a rerun from Jan.30/08

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ya..why not...I'm allowed......

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Growing up in Chilliwack....... 1958

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We all needed work...all four of us.....Don McFarlane, Billy K, Don Reimer and I.....It was April 1958.....we decided to head out to Alberta or Saskatchewan...and see if we could find work on a pipeline somewhere out there....It was a tough goodbye for Bill...he was already married and S and I had been going steady for about 8 months and that was not easy either. Anyway we head out ....Bill has a really nice car...a 56 ford fairlane....so dependable travel was not a problem.....we had an old guitar and sort of sang our way back to Alberta......We stayed in cheapo motels and chased around southern Alberta with a little success...Pincer Creek, Drayton.......a few days work is all we could muster and we kept on hitting sites until we landed jobs in Estevan Saskatchewan....Billy worked with a bending machine.....Don Mcfarlane had a job on the doping crew....Don drove a little tractor and pulled a welder...I was a welders helper and ended up working on that same machine ...Hey ...that was pretty cool.....We were doing fine ......we stayed at a boarding house that belonged to a great lady...Mrs. Yonner.....She supported herself and her daughter by taking in about 8 or 10 guys and feeding us and doing our laundry....that was part of the deal.....She was a great old gal ( about 45)...and looked after her charges with the best care she could muster under those conditions.....We had beds in the basement...a bed and a dresser kind of partitioned off with sheets on wires...it was great......the food was unbelievable...what we missed in fancy was made up in the cooking.....breakfast and supper was something to behold....supper was a loaded table of roast beef...a turkey ...all the veggies...oh ya we had it made in that department....She also made lunches for everyone and always had something washed and clean for us.....the ironing was like a mountain of clothes piled up into a endless corner , that's what she did in her spare time.....there was one bathroom and the water was running steady......the guys hollering out their number for who was next.....the tub water turned the color of mud...it was so windy and dusty ....we were really dirty guys.....The car could be washed and the next morning a film of thick brown dust all over and inside it.......the dust got in everywhere.....but still all in all...we made the best of it and had a pretty good time living there..... I think it was 70 dollars a month.......I dunno what got into Don Riemer and I....It got really windy......we had been going to work for about a week and sent home because it was to windy to work....even though we started at 2 in the morning to try and beat the weather. Anyway....we screwed up......after missing work for a week and not getting paid any show up time...we get all huffy and are gonna go to Ontario...there is work out there...ya sure.....The guys tried to persuade us to stay but being a couple of stoops we say , yup were goin to Ontario....So we hop a bus and away we go.....all we accomplished was to burn up our reserve money and have a long boring bus ride....thanks to Don's sense of humor we didn't go bonkers....We visited and stayed at Don's brothers place in Toronto...and my sister's in Petawawa, that was a good thing , but.....we tried hitchhiking to find Pipeline work but it was hopeless..and then we bussed.......finding a friendly jobsite was also hopeless.......it seemed like no one was interested in hiring anyone...you had to be connected...Gawd it was a terrible place.....we were used to the warm attitude of the west...that was a cultural shock to be in that people cold country....I could not get out fast enough....who needed that......So....we hop a bus with our tail between our legs and head home......It took about a month to cross Canada...that's what it seemed like......then after we got back to Chilliwack....Don gets a call..like right away...come back to Toronto ....there is a job for you....(Don's brother contacting Don)....I remember seeing him off and pitying him that long bus trip again...anyway...he went back for about a year.......he worked at Continental Can ltd...The Estivan job petterd out in a few weeks and Don M and Billy came home...A flooky thing happened on the bus about the Regina area......A gal got on and sat in the front...I knew I had seen her somewhere and it dawned on me...Mirah, her name is Mirah.....I went up and sat with her and she was surprised and puzzled about who is this that was being so forward......I said, hey......... remember...Chilliwack....pause..."Oh the 3 Chilliwacks".......so we shook hands began to talk....Anyway....Mirah was just heading to Vancouver after a trip completely around the world that she started in December 1956........Myself and 2 other Chilliwack boys (Mervin and Pete) were on our way to New Zealand and met her on the Oronsay (ship) when it departed Vancouver......She was travelling with another Gal (already back in Van.) We had all become part of a group that hung out together for over 2 weeks on board ship........We had made many contacts through that great bunch group and used them in our travels.

rural gags

like he was going to pounce

.....Wow I have not written diddly in the way of stories for about a year ...maybe a little less.....I think the last one was about 1943 or 45 when my friend Gary Hogg and I took our collected bottles to sell.....no.... not the last story but that was the time the story took place.....anyway.....I can't find it but its back there somewhere...so this is kind of continued..........Gary and I had sold our pop bottles to Kenny at the Orchard Park then towed the wagon and dog up to the Marshal Wells hardware beside the old post office.....there we unloaded our whiskey bottles for 1 cent each.......we crossed the Young rd. corner ...Barber Drugs to Langley Greenhouses then up Wellington ave.....then jaywalked Wellington avenue at the Blue Star Cafe.........we had change in our pockets and Spencer's Department Store as our destination to do a little shopping........(Spencer's was later Eaton's and now a bowling alley )Spencer's ...wow...a big place ....we left the wagon and Tippy at the door and went into this amazing store...that was always a thrill........the first thing was to gawk at the change boxes zipping around on tracks...very cool...they sent the customers money up somewhere..... to make change I guess....I don't think there were any tills at the checkout counters....the money was sent off from the clerks in these little tin boxes that zipped away with a clatter and then zipped back to complete the transaction.....well, this delighted the kids ...it was like a minature railroad...that was always a main attraction when we went to Spencer's.....I can't remember exactly what it was all about , except the tilling must have all been done upstairs......It can't have been a very convenient way of doing business but it sure was entertaining......I wonder if anyone reading this remembers that....or was it our imagination....anyway, yup ...the huge magazine section at the front of the store (we were little kids ...it looked huge) was our main destination...they had comic books ...well .....all kinds of magazines and books....galore.....a great selection...comics were 10 cents each....they also sold what we called big little books.....I think they were about two bits.....big little books were neat.....about 4 x 5 inches and 1 1/2 inches thick....hard covered , with black and white copy ...... 1 frame comics or print per page .....quite often a 1 inch square character in the top corner of each page would generate a "movie" when the pages were flipped......very cool......but expensive......kind of different characters were featured like Don Winslow of the Navy and others not featured in the regular comics....I guess my favorite comics were Superman or Captain Marvel and his brother Captain Marvel Jr...and sister Mary Marvel.....the bad guy was usually Dr. Savanna.......After hanging around and being told 5 times to not read the comics we picked out a couple and happily paid for them at a counter with little tin boxes buzzing about...then we went out front ...grabbed the wagon and my dog and headed for 5 corners...crossed from Cunningham Drug store to the bank then across to Hipwell's Drugs and east a half block to the 15 cent store (Woolworths)......a great place to browse....they had a great toy section .....plastic soldiers and fighter planes were a great seller ...and yo yos .....and marbles .....wow ...all kinds of stuff......the floorwalker watched us like a hawk..... man I can remember him so clearly ...one scary dude ....his hands behind his back ...kind of bent forward like he was going to pounce...those steely eyes penetrating our every move...ain't nobody gonna pinch a plastic soldier on his watch.... the black oiled floors stand out in my memory...and the name of the manager is there somewhere but I can't dredge it up right now.......I remember the displays being just at my eye level and hard to see without going tiptoes...... I wanted a green Spitfire but I did not have the fifteen cents to buy it, neither did Gary...oh well...maybe next time I will skip the comic. After daydreaming about the toys for a while we left ...crossed Yale at the post Office then cut between it and the Progress office to the back alley ...from there it was 10 stone throws to our homes on Fletcher Street..... Our playground was within 2 blocks of Five Corners....where Gary lived is now the Post Office parking lot......our old house is still there ...barely....it was a neat little place but just sat there for 63 years and maybe the grass was cut occassionly ......

lazytoday