Me and bikes

When we lived in Regina and I was about 4 or 5 I was given a small red two wheeler.  At first it had training wheels on it.  The most remarkable thing about it was that it had a front wheel hand brake that was activated by an all metal mechanism (no cable).  I don’t think that I have ever seen one like that since.
When we lived in Calgary at 808 22nd Ave NW bikes were very important to me.  In those days young people had a great deal of independence.  I can remember riding my bike out to the airport with Martin Hornberger.  That was a long trip.  As I remember it was called McCall Field in those days and I remember riding up to a hanger that had a DC3 parked in it which had ESSO markings on it.  I told the maintenance guys that were working on it that my Dad flew in that plane quite a bit.  They said; “would you like to go inside it”?  We did and I can still remember the experience.
We also rode our bikes from home to the Calgary Aquarium which was an even longer trip.
We would often ride over to the gulley . . . which was north of our home where at one time we dug tunnels into the soft dirt where the ground had been eroded by the creek. At the creek there was a large cement culvert that was about 5 ft in diameter an maybe 100 ft long.  George Oldershaw was there and he had a pack of cigarettes that he wanted us to try.  I remember holding a lit cigarette in my hand and feeling very uncomfortable.  That was the only time that I ever did that.
I had a bike that was only one speed.  One day I decided to paint it and the paint that I had was green.  I was somewhat disappointed to find that when you paint a bike by hand . . . it doesn’t look much better than when you started . . . in fact it looks worse.  When I convinced my folks that I really needed a 3 speed bike we looked in the paper to find a used one for sale.  We bought a black Raleigh 3 speed that was a significant upgrade. ($35.00)  When I started delivering papers I put “wing handlebars” on it because that was how you mounted the sack of papers so that I could access the papers easily without stopping the bike.

This is a picture that shows the type of handle bars that I had . . . but the bike is very different . . . my bike was long before the banana seats came into style.
My bike was just like the one in the picture below . . . only without the baskets on the back.

I had my paper rout for many years.  I would need to ride over to the shack to pick up my papers.  In the shack there were counters made of plywood where we would roll the papers and stuff them in our bags.  Then we would go back to our area and deliver them by riding down the sidewalk and throwing the papers to the front porch.  We did not use plastic bags . . .  (which would have been a good idea).  In those days the only way you got paid was to go to each house, knock on the door and get cash or check.  It was difficult because you would have to pay the paper (Calgary Harold) at the end of the month wither you had collected from your customers or not, and it was always hard to get those last few customers to pay.  The good thing about doing personal collections was that the people got to know you and at Christmas time they would always give you a pretty good tip.
At the end of my paper route days I used my car to go pick up the papers and then my bike to deliver them.

Working for Imperial Oil Canada

During my last year of university at BYU I was working full time as a teller at First Security Bank on University Avenue.  They would have offered me a full time permanent position as a management trainee but I did not feel that I wanted to live in Utah.  I applied with several companies in Alberta.  Royal Bank sent me an offer and Imperial Oil as well.  I accepted the offer from Imperial Oil and we traveled to Edmonton to start my career.  ESSO which was the marketing name of Imperial Oil had a beautiful new high rise office building and I had an office with a view that overlooked the beautiful North Saskatchewan River Valley.  I remember the first day that I went to work they held a briefing for about 10 of us in an impressive theatre like room.  We learned about the history of the company and a few things that I already knew since my dad had worked for Imperial as a Land Manager for his entire career.  They took us for a tour of the building and all of the departments.  At one point we were shown the brand new facsimile machine which had just been installed in Edmonton and Calgary.  The device was about as big as a full size Xerox copier and the operator phoned the Calgary office to have them demonstrate the amazing technology buy sending us a fax.

I knew how to type because I had taken a typing class in high school and I had actually taken a portable typewriter with me on my mission.  (very unusual . . . I never met anyone else who did that) so it was a little hard to get used to for me to learn that anytime I wanted to send correspondence to someone I had to write it out or dictate it onto tape, and take it to the typing department where a professional would type it for me. 

I worked in the commercial department as a supervisor of about 12 bulk agency offices.  The agents operated our bulk distribution facilities which sold fuel and lubricants to farmers and oil rigs and other bulk customers.  Virtually all small towns across Canada would have at least one bulk dealership and some would have one for each of the mayor oil companies.

My territory ran from the outskirts of Edmonton west along the Yellow-head highway to Hinton.  I was responsible to hire and fire agent for the company.  I would advertise in the papers if we needed to hire someone and then I would set up interviews and make a decision.  Usually this was a process that was within my level of competency but I never had to replace the big agents like the one in Hinton who serviced a large mine and who would have made 10 or 20 times the amount of money that I was making.

Imperial gave me the use of a company car.  It was awesome  . . . a 3 year old Plymouth Satellite which had an optional V8 engine.  They let you use the car for personal use without paying anything for the gas.  I loved to drive and it was my responsibility to be on the road visiting my agents quite a bit of the time.  The country west of Edmonton is absolutely beautiful as it leads through the foothills and up into the mountains to Jasper.

Once when we needed to consider expanding our facility in Hinton my boss Gaven Hamilton decided he would like to come with me to visit the agency so he ordered the company plane and we were flown up to Hinton to have our meeting and then back the same day.  Imperial was a great company to work for.

So why would I leave?

My posting to the Edmonton territory was temporary.  It was just to complete my training.  I gradually learned from talking to the other executives that each of them would love to have my territory so they could live in Edmonton.  Most of them were living in small towns across western Canada and I could see that I would likely get transferred to a place like Grand Prairie or Flin Flon Manitoba.  This possibility or likelihood weighed heavy on our minds and when I reached out to see what was available another offer came up immediately.

Building the Crescent Road Chapel

At the time the Crescent Road Chapel was being built the Church used a Building Construction Manager who was a qualified professional serving as a volunteer like a mission president and "Work Missionaries" who were called on missions, along with local volunteers to reduce the cost of building new buildings.

Fundraising:

The local congregations received assignments for "Building Funds".  One of the best fund raising projects was the Booth at the Calgary Stampede.  I remember working on painting it before it was set up, then setting it up, and then working at it during the Stampede.  I remember peeling potatoes for hours.  At the booth we sold hamburgers, french fries, corn on the cob, and pie and ice cream. I also remember that there was a "barker" who used a PA system to invite passers buy into the booth.  It had a covered area that would seat about 60 people and during a busy time you would need about 20 people to run the booth.

I also have fond memories of the Relief Society Bazars that were held.  At one bazar they were auctioning off a pony.  They also auctioned helicopter rides in one of Bullock's helicopters, and Dad paid $5.00 for me to take a ride.

They also put on many plays and musicals.  I remember my mother asking me if I wanted to be in the show called "Promised Valley".  I said no.  A few weeks later my folks came home from a practice and said "we got you a spot in the show" . . . what! . ... how could you do that . . . you know I didn't want to be in that.  I was in it all right.  I was one of the family that had 8 sons . . . all with red hair.  They dyed our hair red for a week which was a bit strange at school but then they decided that red was not good enough . . . it needed to be orange.  I can remember my teacher at school calling me up before the class to explain about the production that I was in.  Of course . . . it was really fun to be in the show and it was the beginning of many opportunities that I had and loved.

I was in Oklahoma, and Music Man and I also acted in the play "It begins with balloons"  In that play I actually had a leading roll.  At one point in the play I was embracing a girl and I was supposed to be ready to kiss her when her father comes into the room and interrupts us.  On the night of the actual play the person who was playing the part of the father (my uncle Harold) was watching the play from the back door of the gym at the point when he was supposed to be interrupting.  When he realized that he was supposed to be on stage then he ran down the hall and up the stairs but it made for a rather awkward situation on stage and the audience had a great laugh at our expense.

Building the Church:

I can remember being in priesthood meetings where they would ask for volunteers to work each night and then all day Saturday.  I would see my Dad raise his hand and quickly realize that he was volunteering me along with him.  At first I can remember feeling .. . Oh no . . . not again, but I really enjoyed working with my Dad and I enjoyed working with all the other brethren in the priesthood.

Dad and I took a brick laying course from brother Axel Johansen who was from South Africa.  They rented an empty warehouse and each Sat morning for about 8 weeks we would put up a Hollow Concrete Block wall and then take it down again.  Dad was a full fledged brick layer by the end but I was just a helper who laboured along side.

Once the building got underway there was lots for me to do.  A lot of the work was very manual.  We had to move gravel in wheelbarrows all over the place.  I can also remember positioning the rebar in the forms before the concrete was poured.

The trusses that formed the roof over the chapel were fabricated on a huge jig built in the cultural hall.  I can remember that we had probably 80+ people working at the same time pounding huge nails into joints that connected the 2 X 12 lumber using thick plywood.  We had to put one nail in each square inch of plywood at all of the joints.  It was a lot of work but it was also a lot of fun.  There was a great spirit of brotherhood and purpose when we served together on those projects.  In the end Dad was one of the most dependable volunteers and I loved to go with him whenever I could.

At that time I enjoyed working with the full time "Building Missionaries" who were called to serve on the site rather than serving a proselytizing mission.  They were great guys to work with. . . they would spend time each day studying the gospel and then learn trades during the day as they worked on the building.

I was attending the Crescent Heights High School at the time that the roof trusses were being erected.
Since it was only a block away from the school I went over to the building site to watch the huge crane that had been brought in to do the work.  I was standing on the cement floor on the area above the overflow of the chapel.  After they had about 6 trusses in place tacked together with 2 X 4s there was a terrible accident.  The temporary braces on the trusses gave way and all 6 of them fell over into the area that would become the chapel.  Brother Smith J. Richards who was a member of our bishopric had been on top of the trusses and he fell and was severely injured.

Gradually the Church discontinued the member involvement in building construction.

The window and the sledge hammer

I think that I was about 14 when the Church decided it was time to replace the Crescent Road Chapel in Calgary.  Some people were surprised that it was to be torn down and rebuilt rather than just added on to.  The Church bought a large home that was just north of the chapel so that they would have more land to build a larger building and provide parking etc.  I remember that volunteers started removing anything from the building that could be sold.  We took out the benches and the light fixtures and some doors etc while we were still using the building for seminary.

One night during the time that we were salvaging things from the building Martin and Lloyd and I rode our bikes over to the building and went inside.  We got in through the Bishop's office window which was at ground level.  There were no lights in the building because the electricity was off.  It was very exciting to wander around and we eventually made our way to a door upstairs that lead to the attic.  That was a place that we had never been before so we poked around up there and made our way to a round window at the end of the attic under the gable.  I remember that we pushed the window out and we grabbed it so that it would not fall but after we were finished looking outside we had no way of putting the window back in place so we eventually had to let go of it and let if fall to the ground.  It was a very nice round stained glass window so we were a little concerned that we might get in trouble for destroying it.  I don't think that we mentioned the incident for a few years.

Contractors were employed to demolish the house that the church bought on the adjacent property.  They completed the house one day and the next day was the last day of seminary.  It was a beautiful spring morning and for some reason that I do not recall Martin and I were standing (uncharacteristically) on the grass outside the basement window of our seminary class while the class was still in session.  The large basement windows were made of small opaque squares set in a grid of white wooden frames so the people in the class could not see us and we could not see them.

A young construction worker came walking up to us and we started a conversation.  He brought his sledge hammer with him and he was bragging about how fast they had demolished the house.  Then just to show off . . . he swung his sledge hammer back and said "today we start on this Church".  He sent the hammer crashing through the window breaking the glass and several of the wooden frames as well.  To his great surprise and horror when he looked into the window he could see that there was a class going on.  He dropped his hammer and simply ran down the street as fast as he could go.

Martin and I were shocked because the class members could now see us and would logically conclude that we had either done it or put the young contractor up to it. 

We just started laughing . . . and we have laughed many times since as we have told that story.

Cameras we owned

When I was a teenager I got a Polaroid One Step camera. It was a real novelty as you were able to take a picture and then watch it develop right before your eyes. Film was quite expensive even though it was just Black and White, and quality was very poor.

In High School I became interested in photography and I purchased all the supplies necessary to develop black and white film in a dark-room. (I used our bathroom and taped over all the places that would have let light in.) I also bought an enlarger which I used to print my own photos.

Since the chemicals were sensitive to light I used to keep them in a brown one gallon A&W Root Beer glass jug.

When I went to university the first year my Dad let me take his 35 mm camera. It looked like the one in this picture and it had a leather case. It was not a Single Lens Reflex camera. It had a view finder. At BYU Mary and I took another class in photography and we spent some quality time in a darkroom on campus . . . developing film and printing pictures. Unfortunately Dad’s camera was stolen so it never made it home from college.

Nikon L35AF2 (1985) This is the last 35 mm camera that we used. We used it for taking most of the pictures that we have in our many photo binders. We purchased film that cost about $5.00 per roll of 36 pictures. After we completed a roll of film (which was often so long after you started using the roll that you forgot what was on it) we then sent the film away in the mail to a low cost processing plant somewhere along ways away. We would then wait for 3 weeks and get back our photographs printed on 3X4 inch photo paper only to find that some of the pictures were out of focus or they cut off someone’s head etc. It would cost about 20 cents per picture to get them developed and about $2.00 per roll to send them away. If we wanted them sooner we would take them to Costco, or London Drugs because they had their own processing labs, but it was more expensive than sending them away. If it was Costco we would have to go back there after about 3 or 4 days and look through tons of orders to see if ours was done yet. If it was not done . . . all you could do is go back the next day to check again. We took a lot more pictures than most of the people we knew.

For many years Mary earned money by taking pictures of house for Atkinson & Terry Insurance. In the early years she used a Polaroid camera like this one. She would put Mike or Brian in the car and plan out a route that would get about 20 houses. She would travel all over the Lower Mainland and she became very good at it.

Eventually the polaroid camera gave way to the digital camera. This Fujifilm FinePix 2600 camera (2001) originally cost about $250.00. It featured a 3X auto-focus lens and the ability to record short video clips (although without sound). It had a 2.1 megapixel optical sensor, and 16MB of storage. That was enough storage for 20 to 30 pictures depending on the image size. It actually took better pictures than we were getting with the polaroid and it was much more cost effective.

Our next camera was this Canon PowerShot S50. It was a 5 mega pixel camera. In 2003 it cost about $600.00. It could do movie clips (including audio) at 15fps, max 3 min.

Our next camera was a Nikon Coolpix P7000. It cost about $500.00 in 2010 and had a 10 MP sensor with a 7X zoom lens.

Nikon Coolpix S640 (2009) 12.2 Megapixels, ultra-fast start-up and 5X wide-angle Zoom. This camera was nice because it was easy to carry it in your pocket. It did not have a view finder but rather a 2.7 inch display on the back that you look at to frame the picture.

The camera that I bought in 2014 is the first DSLR that I have owned. Nikon D3100. It is an entry level SLR with 14.2 megapixels and it can capture full HD movies. (1920x1080)

The only lens that I have at this point is a AF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR. The camera was actually released in 2010 and cost about $550.00 At this time all of our children have much better cameras than this but this one seems to meet my interest level and I take a lot of pictures but many of them are taken on my phone or my GoPro.

GoPro Hero 3+ Silver edition This little camera cost about $400. It takes 1080p movies at 30 or 60 fps or 720p movies at 120 fps. It is easy to carry around and has accessories so you can attach it almost anywhere.

As of Jul 2018 I take most of my pictures on my cell phone. I probably take 100 pictures per month but that is because we use our cell phones to take pictures of products in a store so we can remember the price or damage to things that we want to show someone else, or documents that we want to keep a digital record of, or meals that we are eating, or the deer in our yard, or many other things that we would never have used a camera for in the days before cell phones.

Cars that Mom and Dad had

My Dad’s Cars When I was born my parents had a 1947 Dodge like the one in this picture. (their’s was green). Dad started work with Royalite Oil Company which was later acquired by Imperial Oil. His entire working life was in the Oil industry as a “Land Manager”, buying and selling properties, and maintaining leases.

The next car that I remember was their 1957 Dodge Custom Royal which is featured in this picture with a bunch of people standing in front of it. They would be Dad’s mother, Janet, Mom in the car, me and Grandpa Walton and Bryce.

I never drove this car but this is the car I learned to drive on because I would stand up behind the driver’s seat and watch everything that Dad did.

The next car was a 1960 Dodge Polara. Yes it had large fins on the back just for style. Ours was dark brown. This is the first car that I actually drove.

Dad’s next car was a 1965 Dodge Polara 4 door hardtop. (ours was red) This is the car that I took my first road trip on my own. Dad asked me to drive down to Taber to pick up Mom. I remember it being an awesome time as I loved to drive and I appreciated the confidence that Dad had in me.

Dad had a reputation for buying cars. When he left the house he asked Mom if she had any preference and she said “buy any car you want as long as it’s red” Dad came back a few hours later with a new red car. That is so different from the way that I buy cars. I look and compare and study for a long time before I buy a car.

This is a 1970 Mercury Marquis Brougham 4 door hard top (Ours was red) Dad bought it in Taber from Uncle Lou Conrad’s ford Dealership.

After this Dad had another Ford . . . I think it was a Grand Torino brougham but I am not exactly sure.

While I was away from home Dad also bought a Volvo 144. I was shocked because it was so different than what he had driven before, and it was a car that I thought very highly of. He didn’t like it however and sold it within a year of buying it.

I think that I have lost track of which cars came next but when they were living in White Rock BC they bought a new 1990 Plymouth Acclaim. He also bought a used Lincoln Town Car that he had for a few months at the same time as his Plymouth.

They also had a Nissan Altima:

The last car they had was a “Red” Toyota Camry

My next car . . . Envoy Epic

My next car was an 1964 Envoy Epic

My friend Martin Hornberger had a Vauxhall Viva which was the exact same car only with a different name. This was a fun car. At the same time our friend Lloyd Nielson had a VW beetle. In this car I took my mother on a trip to Burley Idaho to visit her sister Alene Burgie. On that trip the muffler fell off so it was quite loud and then on the way home the engine seized up when we were a few miles south of the boarder. Uncle Lou Conrad who owned a Ford Dealership (Superior Motors) in Taber drove down with his tow-truck and picked up the car. Taking that car on the trip was an expensive way to save on gas. I used this car until I went to BYU. My first year at BYU I did not have a car.

On my mission in California I drove 1969 Rambler American 2 door sedan with no radio. This was the last year that the car was made and even though they were “New” cars they had “no comeliness” and their main feature was that they fostered humility. I am just kidding . . . I was very fortunate because for my entire mission I had a car and was never posted to a bicycle area. This car was advertised with seat belts and head rests.

The picture above was taken in front of Sister Soaper’s home in Napa. She was a wonderful old sister who rented out a back room to the missionaries. I can remember that she was very hard of hearing and if we entered the house and she didn’t see us it would give her a terrible start when she actually did. There were many times that we would back out of the room and try to make a lot of noise so that we didn’t scare her to death.

The next cars that we got in our mission were the bran-new AMC Hornets. They had an MSRP of $1,994.00 They were a step up from the old Ramblers but they were still very austere and economical.

When I came home from my mission and went back to BYU for the second year, thanks to my parents I was able to buy a car. I had a budget of $400.00. The first car that caught my eye was a 1963 Chevy Impala 2 door hardtop with a 327 cu in engine and a 4 speed manual transmission. It had a modified muffler system with glass pack pipes and it made a very distinctive rumble. I took about 4 weeks and looked at maybe 20 other cars before I decided to buy the first one that I looked at. I had it narrowed down to the Chevy or a Plymouth Barracuda.

I loved this car . . . even though it was about 10 years old when I bought it. It had a full bench seat in the front and each side would move forward to allow people into the back seat. I had this car when I was dating Mary. The shifter was on the floor and she would sit right next to me. I would put my arm around her and she would shift while we were driving. The car had a great heater and we spent quite a bit of time in it talking about life and families and stuff like that. It made enough noise that when I drove up the back alley to the parking area behind Mary’s house she would know that I was there.

After we were engaged Mary’s folks came up from Las Vegas for a visit to meet me and check things out. After we had said good by we were both driving away Mary’s parents in their car and Mary and I in mine. Her Dad flashed his lights and pulled me over. He said I just wanted to let you know that when you get married we plan to give you our car. (I have always thought of it as a sort of package deal.)

Fos and Reva’s 1966 Pontiac Bonneville 2-door hardtop.

Fos liked nice cars. This one would have cost about $3,750 in 1966. In that year the average car cost 2,650.00 the average household income was 6,900.00, the average home cost 14,200.00 and a gallon of gas cost $.32. This car got 16 mpg on a good day. The engine was a 6.4 L (389 cu in)V8 that produced 325 HP When you look at it 32 cents per gallon seems like very cheap gas but wait. If gas cost us the same amount in comparison to the value of our house then gas would cost $18.03 per gallon. . . but it only costs $2.09 at Costo in the USA today.

Gas $ .32	This is what the price of gas would be: $18.30
Average House in US $14,200.00 in 1966	Ave house price . . lower mainland $ 812,400 in Nov of 2016

Or expressed another way . . . if the price of houses went up the same as the cost of gas then a house should be worth 92,743 not $812,400. Our gas is really cheap now compared to housing.

When we left Provo and moved up to Edmonton we pulled a trailer that was loaned to us by Terry Wolsey. When we think back on it now we laugh because we put so much stuff in that trailer that we bent the axil (sorry Terry). As we were driving through Idaho we hit a bump and the weld that held the trailer hitch to the back bumper broke. The hitch swung down and dragged along the ground until we could get the car stopped. It was problematic but the stuff that we brought back was mostly junk, like the old green sofa that we had purchased for $5.00 and the stack of bricks that I had used to make a book shelf.

Our next car was a 1970 Toyota Corona

This is a picture taken when we lived in Edmonton. Lisa was expecting Scott at the time.

My First Cars

1959 Hillman Minx like the one I had

Driving

I was interested in cars from a very young age. Before seat belts were invented I used to stand up in the back behind my Dad and watch everything that he did. I knew what every knob and lever was for and I wanted to drive so bad that I could hardly wait. Dad would let me sit on his lap and steer the car. Then when I was 14 and we were out on a pheasant hunting trip together he let me drive for the first time. After that he would let me take the car out of the garage which was in the back alley and drive it around to the front when we were ready to go to church or something. The first time that I drove the car in the city was when Dad and I were working at the Church (building the crescent road chapel) He remembered that Mom needed the car to go get her hair done. He didn’t want to leave what he was doing so he said here David . . . take the key and drive the car home so your mother can use it. I think that was the best day of my life, to that point.

My first car

I was looking at cars all the time but nothing had been discussed in our home about buying another car (that I can remember) Certainly Dad and I had never looked at cars before this. One night I told him that there was a car for sale advertised in the paper for $450.00. To my amazement he said OK lets go look at it. By the time we got to the place in south Calgary it was almost dark but we looked at the car and within a few minutes I heard my dad say to the owner “Will you take $400.00 for it?” The owner said yes and that was it. We had a second car. Technically it was a 2^nd car for the family, but it had a standard transmission and my Mother never drove it once. I can’t remember my Dad ever driving it either.

The car was a 1959 Hillman Minx with a 4 cylinder 1.5 liter engine and 54 horsepower. It had a standard transmission with a four speed gear shift on the column. All gears were synchromesh except first. The shift pattern was very different from any American or German cars. I think 1^st was back and up, 2^nd back and down, 3^rd forward and up and 4^th forward and down. I had so much fun in that car. Mostly I guess it was the freedom to explore all over Calgary and beyond. I used to use the car to go pick up my papers from the shack. I would bring the papers home, roll them with an elastic band and then deliver them on my bike. In those days we would ride along on the sidewalk and throw the newspaper onto the porch. A perfect throw would be to hit the door and drop on the mat in front. In those days we had to collect payment once per month from each of our customers by knocking on their door and receiving cash. If we didn’t get paid that was our problem, but I don’t remember not being paid, what I remember is that everyone gave a tip to the paper boy at Christmas and it was great.

When I had this car my Dad employer (Imperial Oil) had a competition to see how many credit cards they go get signed up in a certain time period. I guess the pressure was on Dad so he signed me up for an ESSO credit card and made it clear that I was the one to pay the bill. This was great. None of my friends had credit cards and I can remember it would cost $3.50 - $4.00 to fill up the car and the bill at the end of the month would be $12.00.

My next car was a huge 1955 Dodge Custom Royal with a big engine and no power steering. We bought from Frank Pitcher who was our Stake patriarch. It was three-tone yellow, white and green. Notice the push button gear selector to the left side of the wheel. You pushed a button to select drive or reverse etc. I had this car when I was attending William Aberhart high school and I can remember sitting in my last class before lunch looking out at my car parked along the road wishing I could start it remotely so it could be warmed up when I got in it to drive home for lunch. This car was great for dates and driving friends around but the cost for gas was much higher than the Hillman and we didn’t have it long before we got my next car.

1955 Dodge Custom Royal (mine was yellow, green and white . . . just like the picture)

David . . . I worked as a window washer

King George School . . . we washed the windows on many schools like this

Banff Springs Hotel . . . we would travel to Banff to wash the windows in the public areas of this hotel

Palliser Hotel Calgary1965 Plymouth Station wagon like the one owned by my Uncle Harold Walton

Currie Barracks Calgary where we had a contract to wash the windows

I worked as a window washer. I started when I was about 14 and worked until I went to BYU.

The first work that I did for my uncle Harold was to was his car. He came over on a Saturday morning to pick up my Dad to go golfing. I was too young to golf but he asked me to wash his car and I did the very best job that I could do. He paid me well and this was the beginning of a long working relationship with Harold. I learned how to wash windows and use ladders and my friend Martin and I worked for him on Saturdays and over the summers for several years. He had a contract to do all of the schools in Calgary. Many of them were the old sandstone buildings like the one in the picture. We would climb the ladder to the 3^rd floor and stand on the ledge to wash the window. Then without moving the ladder we would move over to the next window, wash it and then the third window and the forth and then make our way back to the ladder and climb down. This was considered skillful and efficient window washing since we didn’t have to climb up and down the ladder 4 times. We also used a swing stage for higher buildings. It had steel cables that were secured on the roof and then an electric motor that you used to raise and lower it. I remember doing the windows on tall buildings downtown and having to put methyl hydrate into the water so that it would not freeze when we were washing the windows. One time Martin and I were washing the windows on a school that had some steel beams that extended about a foot away from the wall. (they were just for decoration) When we took the swing stage up we had to push against the wall to move the swing stage away from the wall in order to get past the steal beams. On the way down we forgot about the beams so all of a sudden the swing stage tipped violently and once we realized what was happening we rushed to the switch and turned it to up. Unfortunately because the electric motor was still running it did not reverse directions it just continued to go down. Before we got it stopped the swing stage was hanging at a drastic slant snagged on the steel beam with the steel cables both slack carrying no weight. Once we turned the switch to off and let the motor stop we were able to turn it back to up and regain safe operation. It was a very memorable experience for me.

We washed the windows of the Palliser Hotel in Calgary. Instead of using ladders or a swing stage we would go to each room and open the window stand on the ledge to wash it and then climb back in. On the 11^th floor there was a one foot ledge around the building so we would wash one window and then carefully move to the next window (with our bucket of water and our squeegee) and so on then we would make our way back to the original window where we would go inside the building again. Safety ropes had not been invented at that time I guess.

One of our favorite jobs was doing the Banff Springs Hotel. We would all ride up with Harold in his brand new 1965 Plymouth station wagon and he would make arrangements for us to have lunch in the huge dining hall where all the hotel staff ate. This was a real treat. I also remember that Harold trusted me to drive his new car which was very impressive to me.

We also had the contract to wash all the windows at Currie Barracks (Canadian Forces Base Calgary) This was a job that took about a month and we spent many long hours working on our own. This base had been a flight training school during the 2^nd world war so they had several old wooden aircraft hangers that no longer held aircraft. One day when we had completed one building we needed to cross the parade square with our ladders and buckets etc so we just walked across. When we got to the other side there was a military guy there who was angry with us because apparently your not supposed to walk across a parade square. When he found out we were civilian contractors he was even more upset and he warned us that we were likely to be fired. We didn’t get fired. The best thing about working at the base was that we were able to eat at the mess hall. This was a new experience for me as you could have as much as you wanted of whatever they had and they had lots. I was embarrassed because when I asked the cook for eggs he asked me how I wanted them. I had never been asked how I wanted my eggs before . . . my mom just cooked them and gave them to me. I quickly learned to say “Over easy” thanks.

One interesting thing about working for Uncle Harold was that he liked to pay us in front of other people while we were at church. He would make a big fuss about it and say . . . how much do I owe you David? (he knew how much he owed us as he kept very good records) and then he would pull out a big roll of bills from his pocket and peal off 34 bucks or something. We liked this too as I remember because he paid us well and we made more money than any of our friends.

For many years he had the contract to wash the windows on the Eatons store in downtown Calgary. During the summer we would go there at the beginning of each day and wash the windows before the store opened.