much merriment rang out

It was April 1972, after working for Chuck Earl since 1964, We decided to have a go at the sign business on our own....Chuck was selling his business and of course he gave me first shot at it....but we thought maybe we could make a good living without all the debt....S was working now....the kids were in school......the financial part was much better with her income....although in hind sight, buying that business would have been a fine deal....but nevertheless that is what we decided to do.....I worked from our house...I had closed in the carport ....borrowed a few dollars , bought a good used van, new ladders, a saw, air compressor, and a few good tools and away we went.....I was pretty uptight for a while , it was an exciting time....I had lots of support from friends and others who had gone into their own business...and it worked out fine....There was no lack of work or enthusiasm and we paid back our debts quickly. We made friends with Ces and Audrey Annis at this time .....they were realtors in Chilliwack...I did sign work for him and I was over to their place a few times...we met their little dog, Jock....Jock was a Scotty dog....an independent, comical, shaggy little Scottish Terrier..... Well ,the kids fell for him in a big way....after a month or so Cecil phoned me and offered to sell him for a very reasonable amount, they were having to much trouble trying to be there for him....they figured a home with two little girls would be much better...We decided a mutt for our family would be cool.......Wow, the kids were excited when they found out......Jock and his basket moved in, and took over fairly quickly, if we did not know where he was....we knew where he had been as there was a pile of dust left from his trimmed mop like haircut . His legs looked like they were 2 inches long , like he had a motor running when he trotted about.....he loved to play "bite me" and managed to sting the hands of both Grandpas, they loved to rough house with him....... I painted "Jock" on the door of the Van...He constantly had his head stuck out in the wind, or he would look out the window.....everyone could read his name under his face...pretty cute...ha ha ....it was also cute when S was sitting on the passenger side and the "Jock" sign was under her window ....one time we were traveling on Brooks avenue, Jock had his position out the window....and he spots a cat...yep out he goes .....we were doing 50 k....the girls are shrieking ...Jock...Jock....I looked in the rear view expecting a pile of fur...nope he was running fast after the truck, his legs shifted in to super trot ..the girls said he hit the ground running....put the cat up a tree then ran after the truck all in one super Jock motion.....Airplanes and helicopters were kept out of the yard, he was good at that.... He never crapped in our yard...always someone else's. He was black as coal and managed to trip most everyone around the fire pit when we went camping....Once on a trip to Deer Lake over Harrison way..... Jock was Lost...Missing....Gone....O man....the kids were upset...we were upset......our friends were deliriously happy (Naw)...we looked high and we also looked low...but not low enough. After pretty well giving up ....(he was gone....or stolen.....or ran away.....or a eagle got him...or an animal......he was gone)........we were all sleeping in our little trailer ...there was a noise...what....under the bed...a storage area...with a little door on it......omygawd.... The girls opened the flap and this little fur ball came out, yawning and stretching....much merriment rang out in the trailer.....Jock soon woke up....... he was pulled, pushed, lifted and hugged ....he had been sleeping there for hours and hours....hey, that bit had a great ending................Jock was our pal for about 5 years.........We went on a trailer trip to the coast of California......Jock was on his best behavior.....he was so good and easy to be with.....alas, we learned why, soon after we got back home...... Jock was sick...very sick.....and soon he was gone....that's the bummer with having pets ....... but he left a great memory of that time in our lives.

ya had to be there....

The Stash

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Special Edition

class 55

souper service

new mouse

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wash those dirty words out

Grama Scales came to visit Chilliwack in 1947 ...I was 9 years old...we lived in a big house on School Street..on a big lot with fruit trees of all kinds ... It had an upstairs and a basement that we could raft around in when it rained a lot....It was right where Shoppers Drug Mart is now...that whole area (Southgate) was a motel..a big spacious place.... lots of trees and individual units spaced far apart...with huge grassy area in the middle...and our lot was butted up against it...A really neat house ..2 small bedrooms upstairs and the funnest attic room ever...it was real attiky ..big unpainted room.... had a window...and an area in it like a stage or a small room within a room but the floor was 3 feet higher on that part...it was a mixed up fun room.... and we played in there a lot..Faye was 15 then ..and had a record player..a wind up..but it was portable like a little suitcase...Frank Sinatra was king then and she had lots of neat records...She taught me some how to dance and jive ...but mostly by watching her and her friends ...I thought those big teenagers were so cool...anyway...back to Grama...she was so really religious.....no movies ...no makeup..I didn't wear that anyway...but my sister didn't either when she was around...Mum stuck up for us when Grama Scales came down too hard...(A little tension in the air between mum and Grama Scales) ....one time I was on the sidewalk near the back porch riding my wagon..and I mumbled gawd dam about something.....how her ears picked that up...GARY SCALES....oh gees....Come UP here....This is what we do to little boys who take the Lords name in vain...whoa....and she put a bar of soap in my mouth..we'll just give it a good scrubbing and wash those dirty words out.....I looked up at her as I was getting worked over..wow... that's one scary lady ...when she was in full frown, her eyes were black and beady and her eyebrows slanted over them the mean pointy down way....foooey...gack...it is awful...yuck,..
ptooie, ptooie, I pulled my wagon to the front gate and looked back to see her still glaring at me....gawd if she didn't like to fish she would be hopeless.
Then I went across the street to Jack McDermids house and told him my tale of woe.

stuff

swimmin hole

People keep parking at back the of the Cafe

grandaughters birthday today

happy birthday jill

www.beddowtree.com/sheridan/lake.htm

Hey ...Sheridan Lake 8 pm today...Sat. 17...the ice has gone...just a skim of slush in the middle ...good luck tomorrow to you Sheridan fishers ...

she needed it to look pretty

This is Sheridan Lake yesterday.......
It is near 100 mi. House but up about another 2,000 ft....the ice is coming off fast now....

Wow what a day...the first real hot one this year....I see its only for a few days then back cool again until next week...oh well...... I reckon a pattern like that is good for the Fraser runnofff....we don't need a flood threat on our hands....that is always something to look at this time of year....I have friends heading up country to go fishing.....the last lakes in the Caribou should be ice free on Sunday by the looks of the reports....

Gutair Hero 3 Generations

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Grand Pacific Hotel ....Suva, Fiji

That grand "old lady" of Suva, Fiji, the Grand Pacific Hotel, had provided accommodation for many years for travellers who appreciated the fine service offered. Sadly, this once grand hotel has now become a vacant derelict building. In this respect, it is most pleasing to hear that the Grand Pacific Hotel has now been handed back to the Fiji government with the aim of restoring her to her former glory!

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The Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva, Fiji

This pix was taken on the way home to Chilliwack..Pete stayed on in New Zealand .. so it was Mervin and I and a bunch of friends we met on the crossing...they were all going to Vancouver....Some were Canadians returning and others Aussies and Kiwis starting an adventure to Canada etc.....as you can tell the Australian gal seems kind of popular...We were at a large Hotel in Fiji....Merv and I have caps on...Mac ...the guy yawning is a returning Canadian......The fellow sittiing at the back had a name so long we just called him Tota.....He lives right there in Suva, Fiji . He boarded our ship 6 months earlier and joined up with us on our way To New Zealand...It was a flook that he returned to Suva on our ship home.....When we arrived in Auckland, in one of the first few days we were all walking in a small park on what seemed to us a nice summer day...it was about 75 degrees ...Tota was freezing ...he could not climatize right away....being from humid Fiji I reckon....anyway he went back to our digs and climbed into bed to keep warm....Tota hung with us a week or so then disappeared until the trip home...I think he went working on a sheep farm.
baaa

HEY.....the music stopped

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1957

Pete was 18 and Merv and I both 19....We were on our way to New Zealand .....a few days out of Vancouver and let the Chips fall where they may.....Little did Pete know he would live there for 27 years...
New years had just passed...Mervin had his passport stolen from his jacket at a club in San Francisco on New Years Eve....It was called the Monkey Inn.....people carved their names in the wall with a screwdriver.... San Francisco was the first port of call of the Orient Lines "Oronsay" a big time passenger boat from the stock of "The Orient Line"...I think there was about 4 or 5 ocean liners ....There was tourist class and first class fares on the Ship..tourist class was smaller and at the back of the boat, it had a small pool and a fair amount of deck room for games and laying around in the sun....not as swank as the accomodation of today but we thought it was wonderful.You could lean on the back rail and stare into that beautiful Pacific Ocean as the props stirred up a turquoise , blue and white wake to be seen as far back as the edge of the earth ..The second port was Honolulu.....that port was tremendously tourist trendy...there was at least 7 hotels on Waikiki beach......a hundred people were milling around but that was okay there was lots of grassy parks and nice lawn areas between the hotels....there were major stores like Woolworths and ....umm I remember Woolworths ... I bought a shirt there.....they took any country's money.We used the pound sterling on the English liner,Hawaii was not a state then. We rented a 54 chevrolete convertible...drove all over...swam in waves as big as a house...dive into them or expect a pounding....I learned that in a hurry......a hotel bar that evening...It was first time I had watercress....it was good.......Mervin bought a bottle of the most gawd awful drink....Sake.... Honolulu was beautiful...but we thought it was crowded (If only we had any notion it would get so popular)...the weather was perfect...hey, we had just left a crappy winter drive with our folks to Vancouver... bye mum, bye dad........ Okay off to Suva, Fiji.....
Its getting hot...whew...the rooms were to hot to sleep in..air was pumped in at outside temperature....so they gave us deck cots...set em up anywhere.....we usually went out on the side promenade decks.....we had formed an amazing group of friends by then and it was party night every night......sleep seemed like a good idea at the end of a long singing and drinking session, so out we go to the deck....I grabbed a cot and put my stuff underneath it and quickly went to sleep....wotta life....I woke up to the sound of sailors....hey let's go...we are washing the deck.....I looked ...yeah they were...ok, I will take this cot into the bar, right here through this door.....ahhh that's better....back to wonderful sleep.......later there is commotion around ....I wake up and realize the scene ..oh, okay...another morning, hmm .....where is the lavatory...BOING it hits me....my wallet..comb...where is it ...oh gawd,.... I left em on the deck...those sailors....jeez those underpaid sailors....I just bought that comb......now I feel sick...everything in my world is in that wallet....52 bucks and travelers cheques....what to do.....panic.....okay for a while anyway......so we talk it over ..what?......the cheques.....I don't know ...you will get the travelers cheques back....I think...I hope...it will take a long while?...I did not know but I knew I was broke ......I asked ranky sailors and tried the lost and found, I stewed and fretted...finally that evening I left the party and made my way to the sailors area.....hey, they were having a party...right in the pointy part of the ship........there was a lot of sailors...dancing..yeah...some had on wigs and lipstick...that looks like fun...the band was some guitars, ukuleles and a drum made from a tub.....they sounded pretty good...they looked pretty good ..haha....I was away above them...I climbed on the railings and ropes.....I could see everyone down there......I yelled out.....HEY.....the music stopped ...I had their attention.......then I went into a have pity story.....It's all I own in the world .....I'm so screwed......I told them all where I was and at what time it happened ,how would they feel if they were miles from home and ...they were miles from home...and Broke...I gave it my best.....and then I was done...If that does not work...why would it...just pick up the wallet ..pull the cash...throw it overboard........hmmm......anyway....back to our party ....we three were called the Chilliwacks.....I think it sounded to Kiwis and Aussies like the Maori language....Except for a few Scots and an Englishman, our new friends were returning Aussies and Kiwis....everyone was 5 or 6 years older than us.......that did not matter.
The next morning , I go to the pursers office as I had many times by now,...Wots up today?...........Is this yours...ohh.... WOW...I take it and slowly open the wallet......yep my travelers cheques are there...oh man.....450 dollars.....I'm not broke.....okay the 52 bucks are gone but my personal stuff is also intact......what a feeling........I cash a cheque and pay back the few bucks I owe.....ok, let's get on with this journey.....It took 16 days on board ship.....we were well looked after...good meals and entertainment every night or we made our own.....the group of people we hung out with were a terrific bunch...and we all became closely knit....many raved about that crossing as the best one they were ever on.....yep, that left memories burnt in our minds...we still talk about it.Many connections were made on that Oronsay crossing ...
The stolen passport in Sanfrasisco led to other adventures in New Zealand as Wellington was the home of the Canadian Council and Merv had to go there to get things straightened out. After reaching Auckland that was first on his to do list. Okay, I joined up and we decided to hitch hike to Wellington...that was about six hundred miles... its not that far?...yes it is if you take the east coast route like we did. Peter stayed in Auckland and went to work.

I'm glad we don't have to deal with these....

----------------------------------------------------


I was uptown today and I could not help noticing some kids on their bikes....It was a great day for a change, real shirtsleeve stuff....but the bikes ...they are sure neat looking but they have no back fender...or front fender ....what is that about?....when we were kids we would not go without fenders...jeez, we rode our bikes everywhere...all over this little town and beyond...but weedeabin a mess.....it rains here ...a lot...do they only ride em when the weather is nice...I guess so...huh.....I can see myself going home day after day with my back and frontside soaked and dirty....nope....they must ride on good days...

a bit cool this May

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jeez what a crappy spring.....the ice is just now off some of the interior fishing lakes and still solid on the Cariboo lakes. yipes...well, hopefully the fishing will be good...

nice pix huh

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I took this picture yesterday, about 5 miles from busy Chilliwack......only one of the many reasons I like living here.



The Reason I put this following blurb in once in a while is because the search engines will find the blog a bit easier...it keys on place names....yup

Chilliwack, British Columbia is a city of 70,000 located 60 miles inland from Vancouver, in the Fraser valley on the banks of that same famous salmon river. Snow capped mountains, the Vedder River and Cultus Lake are some of a few things that enhance this rural agricltural area......less expensive housing and outdoor activities as well as proximity to the city contribute to this areas fast growth.....yadda yadda yadda

todays gag

then finally we bust through

The sign business was very different before 1985.....the days of hand lettering.....it was only the odd duck that learned this trade....A town the size off Chilliwack only required a few sign painters....certainly not like most trades....electricians, carpenters etc...anyway......when I watched my friend ,Chuck Earl, painting signs it facinated me, and I decided that is what I would like to do...I had knocked around since high school and it was high time to get with it....there was no room for work at Chuck Earls Sign Shop on Nowell st.....Chuck already had an apprentice ...Joey Barris....and he was a good one....Joey eventually went on to good things in California....Joey's artistic ability is where he shone....Have you heard of photographic memory...well...he had one for painting pictures or scenery or whatever.....it is an amazing thing......whatever he saw ...he could reproduce ....the work was beautiful...and he used anything he thought that would work as a medium........even Chuck was in line to get paintings Joe would give away........Chuck told me he did very well in California ...his talent must have taken him far.......When Joe left ....Chuck struggled for a while without any help, then he offered me a job.....that's where we fit in the picture. After working in Vancouver since 1960... we moved back to Chilliwack in December of 64 and we still live at the same location in 2008....that's about 44 tears.......oh man....back in the country again...that was great...I did not like living in the city...but you gotta do what ya gotta do...I am happy the doin was in Chilliwack....What a change....work only a mile away...not 40 minutes...the country is only across the road...we are on one of the last town roads , on the other side is farmland, all in the agriculture land reserve...cows lived over there...our street was gravel and ended in a cherry orchard. It was very quiet compared to now, as it becomes Airport road and is a main route outskirting town..... .......We rented until 1969.....the owners came around and put a for sale sign on the house....yipes .....panic....now what..... look for a house and try and buy one....so we did......look....for a house.....at first we never even thought about this one....but after looking at homes for a while, and getting educated.....this seemed like an okay deal....so....we talked to the owners and agreed that if they do not sell it .......we will make an offer at the end of the listing......next, we sweat through pontential buyers that were invited in to see the house.....please don't buy it ....nothing works ...it leaks....there is rats....naw....we did not do that, but finally it came off listing and they took our offer......whew.......now somehow we gotta get through 140 dollars a month for a while....
in a short time we knew all our neighbors (only houses on the west side in those days) .........hey, a pretty good group.......A lot of people in and out of those houses over the years...and some of them were part of our lives.

The second winter was another snow blaster.....the road was drifting in fast and by morning would surely be plugged.....well, the power was on so we could be comfortable anyway...I got up early this day, because I could hear Shelly was up...she was two years old...I go in the kitchen and she is sitting on the counter, smiling happily and devouring a bottle of baby aspirins....they are all but gone...o man......Shirley is up...how many were in th...lots..oh.....the road is plugged ...We gotta get her to the hospital....jees the road,.....I know...I'll go see if Roy can get us through......so I slog over to Roy's place...at least the storm quit.......He was up...I told him...and he ran to his Jeep....what wonderful words..Jeep....I ran back and Shirley had Shelley wrapped up , Roy was getting the Jeep out....He stopped out front and I jumped in with my bundle.....Okay let's go...We get to the corner....this is a mess...can we make it...hang on...and Roy rammed the Jeep....j...e...e...p.....who the hell had a jeep......well....Roy did....... he rammed into the drifted opening in the road...there were walls on each side eight feet high and it had partially filled in the opening ...every time he took another whack at it we made ground then finally we bust through.....oh ya........It was not long to Emergency then...it was never long to anywhere with him........the Doctors gave her some kind of formula to make her throw up...Shelley wasn't having that.....she just sat on the bed ...looked at me and went.... tooie....tooie...tooie....It wasn't going to happen, so they did the stomach pump thing . Okay...that worked.....settle down......thanks Roy....o boy...I phoned a much relieved Shirley......The doc said....... hey, we just have to do that...not knowing how many she took...her tolerance.....just don't know....but ....anyway.....we came through another tense time and one of lifes many surprises...

Bush told em about the pie

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He's back

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He comes in occasionally for a piece of Barbs pie and
to get advice from the flat earth coffee group.Landing Airforce One is tricky tho.

"Charlie's comin"

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haha

Beautiful British Columbia

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Sometimes the bears are a bit of a problem...he probably alarmed them when they were feeding on a moose or maybe they smell the shrimp bait he is using.

kind of a grumpy lookin sort

Early December, 1964..............I really wanted to get back to the rural life and gladly took a job with my friend and Mentor Chuck Earl, who owned a small sign business in Chilliwack. Things were out of hand for him ...he was just to busy and he need help...That fit into my plans just fine as I had 4 years working and learning hand lettering in Vancouver as an apprentice etc. I was happy working in Vancouver but not living there....you can take the boy out of the country but you can't take.....yeah I reckon that was true with me.....I thank Shirley for agreeing to us moving and raising our babies in Chilliwack as she was okay with the city as a home.
We were busy, busy moving to our rented house on Broadway st. in Chilliwack......I wave to a guy one empty lot over, and I can see he is looking us over carefully and I am sure he is wondering what in heck his new neighbors would be like.......I was in the carport eyeballing him back and I called over hello , he was at his vehicle doing something.....He had a hunting cap on and a 4 wheel drive Jeep....hmm...he may like to fish, that would be cool....kind of a grumpy lookin sort tho...after I knew him a few days he said he was going to put up a fence with blades on it to keep my kids out.......He never did that but he had a couple of dogs in a fenced kennel that warned off intruders... As it turned out Roy Huband liked to fish.... plenty.....he was also a director on the Fish and game club that I was soon to join.....he told me about this lake fishing that he liked to do .....fly fishing ...I did not know much about that.....I never had the opportunity and was strictly a fan of river fishing at that time.......anyway we get settled in and make it through a brutal January, we were busy raising a family, getting on with the new job . When May first rolled around Roy headed for some lake near Kamloops.....after being away a weekend in mid May he called me over to look at some trout he had caught...okay...great...let's have a look...jeez, he had a cardboard box with a whack of brute trout in it....my eyeballs klanked around .....wow, where did you get those.....Tunkwa lake....Tunka Lake?.....where, what ,how......so he told me about it...oh, how he told me about it......O man...you get em on a fly...a halfback...wot's that ...a good fly......yeah...it was pretty good this week....I guess....you want to go next week?...Oh hell no....It could not come fast enough....Shirley and I decided we could afford it...money was so tight.... go for a couple of days...Roy had a little tent trailer and apparently it was parked at the lake so the price was affordable....split the gas......take some food.....I got no flies...I got nuthin ....Spin and glows, spinners, floats and salmon eggs...I got that ....nope no good...I can get an outfit together for you....great....and flies and a boat...hey........music to my ears....the weekend came.....away we go in the Jeep...I learned how to get to Cash Creek in 57 minutes....naw...not that fast...but pretty fast........We get to the lake, the trailer is parked out on a spit right across from and near the fishing resort.....he has this camping spot all to himself....it was great, the weather was great...life is good.....We went to see Grant Sommer, the resort owner...my first meeting of many with a really likable man......it was interesting listening to the banter back and forth , the latest fishing news ....you shooda been here last week....Roy was.....fooled him that time. The digs were not the Hilton, but.....that little trailer and the food was just the way I liked it. The next morning.... oh boy...let's go...how do ya do this?.....well most of the fishing was done by the slow boat row and wind drift, dragging a fly on a light monofilament line ....that can very productive. We stopped and flung flies around a bit but could not stay at it without someone taking a hook in the nose......and besides that the fish were off...off....oh so off....
We were skunked...unbelievable.....I was wondering if he really was at this lake last week.....he musta bought em...hhmmmmm.......we were so skunked.....nobody caught anything....oh yeah...one ..we seen one fish.........5 boats went to that spot.....a miller moth? you got a miller moth...naw...something white.... try this......forget it...so we did....to tough...so back home early on Sunday....that's fishing.....but thanks to Roy I was shown Tunkwa lake ....little did I know then how many, many times I would be out on that pond....It is a fine fly fishing lake with lots of nooks and crannies and the Rainbow trout certainly can test ones patience and smarts...also as crowded as it gets, one can find a place to fish with hope in their soul.
In 1965 Roy and Jerry built a cabin on the lake ...they built it out of used 4'x8' 3/8" plywood . The Chilliwack Golf Driving Range(Cherry Motors location) was dismantelled and a great supply of building material was at hand....very reasonably priced......with a deal on rough lumber they packed the stuff up there and chainsawed together the best fishing cabin one could hope to have. A room with a bed and bunks on each end and a bigger room in the middle .... that had to be heaven on earth...they put in a propane fridge and the cookstove provided cozy heat to frozen fishers when the weather was bad.
There was a shed on one end and the outhouse was a telephone booth. I cannot believe I don't have a photo...
The Cabin was there until a few years ago....now a big house stands on the location ......for many years I looked forward to the first of May...opening day ......to a 4 or 5 day stay at the Cabin with Roy , Jerry and other pals....my... what great times ...Tunkwa lake has a special place burned in this old guys memory.