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.