fishermen

othergus is a good guy.....sometimes we just cant get enuf of him.....

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associate flat earther

flat earth and associates update

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flatearth president

big aint it?

Flat Earther Mel Mceachren with a lunker from Sheridan Lake......the Rainbow trout is 15/12 lb.......and the largest one known of this year (2009) from the lake....it also rates with largest of all time.......not sure where exactly but probably in the top ten....that is one big trout......

the way grama does

This little guy is the grandson of good friends of ours.....grampa sent me a few pictures taken on one of their weekly outings to our surrounding countryside ......

I thought this one was very special and I would like to share it with whoever happens to tune into this blog of mine...it is not staged or photo shopped like most of my pictures....

He is taking in the surroundings the way grama does it because that obviously is the way to really learn stuff.....

rerun from jan 2008

Something was biting my leg

Growing up in Chilliwack............1955

Don Reimer and I sat in front left two rows in social studies class in grade 12...I found everything he did immensely funny and he felt the same way.....Mr. Foubileer was our teacher...I always thought he was kind of like a robot......a robot with egg on his tie.....he always had egg on his tie.. ..we used to howl about that....we could see what he had for breakfast.....and in a brown suit......it was hard to be serious in that class....and Fooby did not seem to notice.....just teach the lesson ...gaze out intothe class.....like he had done a thousand times......needless to say our marks were not great......That is where we came to the idea to start the car hoppers club.....After school we always went to the Twin Peaks...that was part of a tradition established long before we were in grade 12......and kept up with every senior grade following....at 3:45 school was out......into the parking lot....Don had a 33 ford and my car was a 33 Chevrolet....they were both painted blue.....Don's dad had painted them both...I guess he had lots of blue, they both looked great........people would pile in till there was no more room.......we thought that a ride had to be worth something so we hatched out an idea for the Car Hoppers Club...we made cards up to that effect.....Honorary member.... etc.....it would appreciated if holder would contribute 10 cents towards the gas for a ride in this can... ....well the idea was great....but the results sucked...it worked at first but membership quickly dwindled......so we just had to whine and hope someone would cough up once in a while........the cafe was packed after school....kind of like "Happy Days".....the Wurlitzer could be played from the booths at the song selector.....5 cents for a song....6 for a quarter.....the selector had double sided pages that could be turned to look at the selections.....This was pre Elvis Presley times.......Johnny Ray was big with..... Little white cloud that cried.....and..... It's Cherry pink in apple blossom time....Silhouettes in the shade ......16 Tons.....Mr. Sandman.....we jived to big band music......the new music explosion came in 1956 when Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis , Johnny Cash and the Everly Brothers.... a whole bunch of people livened things up a little........anyway.......The Twin Peaks....coffee or a coke was 10 cents.....We usually didn't buy much more than that.....I guess money was tight...we could eat at home for free......we carried loose leaf binders in high school...our school world was kept in there...the subjects sectioned off..........Girls packed a Seagram's whiskey bag for their personal stuff if they could get one......it is a purple felt bag with yellow trim drawstrings......long plaid wrap around skirts with a huge silver safety pin in them were in style........also bobby sox and saddle shoes. If she was wearing a ring on a necklace she was "going steady". Guys wore trousers or jeans.....white corduroy pants were popular, V neck sweaters.......lots of plaid shirts. Guys wore shoes....runners were for Gym.On night in the fall, Mervin borrowed his dad's car and he drove Russ and I to a basketball game ....we decided to go out for a smoke.....to the corridor between the high school and the Gym....It was one of those pitch black nights, you really could not see your hand in front of your face........We had been out for about 5 minutes.......I guess there was no tell tale burning butts by then and I was standing , minding my business waiting for these two guys to go back to the game.......all of a sudden something was biting my leg.....geez.....It was burning.......I slapped at it....a couple of times and "hey"...it was Mervin......he was standing 2 inches away from me and he was peeing all over my leg.....Hey....!#$%^#* look..*^%$!# at.....all ........over me ....O man..........Mervin had no idea.....but he caught on fast....and of course it was the funniest thing he had ever done....Russ was roaring.....oh gawd ...I guess it was funny....but I was not laughing .........I went and sat in it the car and waited ...after the game they came to the car with tears in their eyes......then they went to the Twin Peaks......I sulked and waited patiently in the car..... fuming ... ...then finally a ride home to a bath and clean pants......they thought that was pretty funny........they still do.

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

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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

go figure