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.