Sunday, May 31, 2009
Southpass Ride
Jim and Nathan came up on Tuesday night to go for a motorcycle outing on Wednesday. We knew that we would be busy so they didn’t arrive until about 11:00 PM and then we visited for an hour before going to bed.We did the “South Pass” road which is a nice ride in the US south of Abbotsford. The whole day turned out to be a 200km trip.
We stopped at the temple to check on the construction. It was an very nice day and we had a good visit.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Backyard Projects
Saturday was a beautiful day for outside projects. David's goal was to paint the trailer as it was in pretty bad shape. I had planned to to grocery shopping and do rhubarb pies. Well, I ended up helping him paint and then doing other projects. It was so nice to be outside working on things together. We also went for a little motorcycle ride and walk in the woods. I did get some shopping done, but not the pies. 
We can't plant vegetables into our ground in the backyard because of the cedar trees. They cause the soil to be too acidic. So David put together a little planter that we don't have to bend down to weed. We may need a step ladder to pick the tomotoes though. We hope they are that productive! Another tomato plant in this large pot. We also planted some flowers in pots for the front door and the back patio.
Since we had the black paint out we decided to paint the bench that had weathered. We think it looks a lot better. It needs another coat though.
We were both so tired at the end of the day, but it was very enjoyable and productive. The weather was perfect!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Las Vegas Trip
At our plane change in Oakland on route to Las Vegas, I called Lisa for an update on her impending delivery. Here I am receiving the good news of Baby Matthew's birth.
Mike and Brian "paper, rock, scissored" to see who got the bed and who got the roll-away...Mike lost.
Waiting outside the temple for the bride and groom.
The Polley family minus David who was still at his final game....and met us at the restaurant for the luncheon. then the twins were picked up and brought back to the temple for their first time to do baptisms. Busy day!!
Sunday afternoon we took flowers to Mom and Dad's grave for Mother's Day and Birthday. They were both on that same day!
We enjoyed a Mother's Day celebration in our hotel room where I was given the wonderful 2008 Walton Family Albumn from my kids. Thank you again, I love it!
Tom's reception was held in Polley's newly landscaped backyard. It is a lovely place for hosting a party!Sunday, September 27, 1970
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 16, 1970
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.
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.
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