George T. Bluett

50th Anniversary cheers Sept.1998

written October 26, 1992 by GT Bluett

THE GEORGE TRACY BLUETT STORY

I never knew whether I was born in the hospital or at home and I always forget to ask Emily, but according to my birth certificate it must have been at home because it reads as follows:

Birthplace: Sec.1,Tp.30 Rge. 20, W.30 Saskatchewan, so I assume that is the legal description of our farm which was 9 miles north of Brock. Em has told me that I was a big disappointment to her as she wanted a baby sister. Em was 14 years old when I was born.

I don't remember too much about farm life, as we left the farm when I was 8 or 9 years of age.

A few things that come to mind: In the spring of the year we had to ride horseback to school as the roads were in terrible shape. I of course had to ride old Darkey as he was the tamest. I forget which one Art rode but Bob rode the bronco, which was a pretty lively horse. Well this one day I raised hell because I wanted to ride the bronco, so Bob let me. We only got about a mile from the farm when the bronco decided he wasn't going to school with a novice rider, so he took the bit in his mouth and headed for home.There was no way that I could stop him, he went right into the barn and into his stall with me holding on for dear life and Bob racing behind to catch us; needless to say, there were a few words exchanged and back to old Darky.

By the way the name of our school was Dinehurst, all by its self in the middle of bald prairie 2.5 miles from our farm.

I don't remember, but I have been told that every one attended the dances and when us kids got tired we were covered up in the cloakroom with the coats until our parents were ready to go home.

I have a vivid recollection of a huge twister, a twister was a windstorm that travelled in a circular motion and in the centre, which was called the eye of the twister, there was a fantastic suction. This twister was so strong it actually lifted my Uncle Cecil Ham's implement shed off it's foundation and smashed it out in the field, and none of the machinery that was in the shed got damaged.

Anyway Bob, Art and I were on our way home from school in the buggy being pulled by Darky and we were less that 1/2 mile from home when we saw this big moving wall of dust. Dick saw us coming, ran across the field to meet us, unhitched Darky and let him go, picked me up and ran for the house. We were very lucky, as there were a lot of flying stones. When it was over the dust inside the house must have been at least 1/2 inch thick over everything.

The only other thing that comes to mind is our Saturday night trips to Brock in the model T. This was a big deal and when we got home Mother would give us sardines and catsup on soda crackers, I still like sardines.

According to calculations I had my appendix operation in November of 1935, I had the red measles at the time and Doctor Black didn't want to put me in the hospital. I guess he waited too long because my appendix ruptured and he drove mother & me to Kindersly hospital and I was operated on, that was November 22 1935.

Well I guess things got pretty scary for quite a while as Mother stayed in the room with me, there was so much poison, anyway a new drug had been developed and they rushed some of it from Winnipeg and started me on it. We discovered afterwards that it was sulpha and it worked. I finally got out of bed on December 22, had to learn how to walk again, I believe that I got home for Christmas.

But I not sure; I do remember that the Nurses had a Xmas stocking at the end of my bed which was a stocking for leg casts, and it was full, in fact the monopoly set that we still have was in that stocking and I believe that it was given to me by my classmates at Dinehurst school.

The next episode was our big move from the farm north to the big town of Carruthers, I say big because there were 3 elevators, 3 Churches, an elementary and high school, a telephone exchange, two hardware stores. Reta's Dad owned one along with the lumberyard,

There was another grocery store besides Dad's. The train came once a week (every Thursday) that was the big day of the week and all the farmers would come to town for their mail and groceries. I forgot to mention that there was also a pool hall, which was over the livery stable. When the farmers came to town in the winter they had to put their horses in the livery stable, as it was too cold to leave them stand outside.

We played hockey on real ice out in the open, we did have boards around the rink, but when it snowed it sure took a lot of time to shovel off all the snow. I don,t think that I am stretching the truth when I say that before spring arrived there was at least 15-20 foot banks around the rink. Never the less we had fun and Dad was always a big supporter of sports. We were always allowed the use of the truck to take us to hockey games when we played against other teams.

I should mention that it really wasn't out of the ordinary to have a sleigh load of people going to a dance in another district school which maybe 10 or 15 miles away. Sometimes it got pretty cold, and we would have to run behind the sleigh to keep warm.

In those first years that we were at Carruthers, it was just at the end of the depression and everyone was quite hard up, but still very proud and would not accept charity from anyone. The Municipality employed farmers to work on the roads they were paid with vouchers, which were redeemable at the store for groceries. Everyone could honestly say they had worked for that, and it wasn't like accepting charity.

We had a ski hill back behind the school, I am telling you this hill was huge in our minds (it wasn’t till I went back there years later that I realized that this hill was pretty darn small). Any way that is where we learned to ski, some of us were fortunate enough to have ski harness but nothing like today. It is a wonder that we didn't break our legs or necks.

As soon as the bell went at lunchtime we were out the door with our lunch in our hands and onto our skis over to the ski hill for a hour of skiing. We quite often got into a little trouble for being late for class, but I guess that is not to different from today.

I just have to mention our experiences in the spring of the year. Some may not relate to the terminology but I will endeavour to explain as I go along.

In the spring the weather would start to warm up and the snow would start to melt and in the hollows a slough (pond) would develop and during the night when the temperature dropped, ice would form, sometimes if it happened to stay cold enough this ice would get quite thick but as things warmed up the ice would get thinner and that is when the fun began. If you ran on this ice and kept moving it was fine but you dare not stop once you got started or you would sink. This was called running on rubber ice. As you can visualize it was most unlikely that you did not have wet feet when you returned to class after lunch.

1939 World War #2

Bob joined the Air force, I have forgotten what year Art joined the army. Dick tried to join the army but was rejected and of course I was too young.

Dad organized a target range and everyone practised shooting, we look back now and think that things like that could not happen, but don’t forget that communications were not like they are today and we did not know if we were going to be attacked.

With so many of the men away at war, there was a great shortage of manpower, and that is what forced many of us at a very young age to attempt to fill the shoes of our brothers. At the age of 14 I had a special drivers permit from the RCMP, as Dad needed me to drive the truck hauling grain. Also Dick was a Livestock buyer for Swifts and we had to haul pigs and cattle.

I could go on for hours telling stories of the many things that happened during my growing up time of life. I guess the best way to summarize it is to say, it was great, it was fun, it was a learning experience, But as true as it is today - NEVER LOOK BACK ALWAYS LOOK TO THE FUTURE, IT HAS SO MUCH TO OFFER.

On with the rest of my history: The war finally ended, Bob returned and Dick had moved to Cutknife where he had a Case machinery business. Bob went to work for Bowman Brothers in Saskatoon.

Art was married by this time and was working in North Battleford for the CNR. Bob got married and then decided that he should go into business with Dad and they bought the store in Keatley from Charlie Archibald.

I remember very plainly the day I was supposed to leave Carruthers to take a truckload of belongings to Keatley.

The Scottish Cooperative Elevator burned down, and I got the contract from the Insurance Company to haul the burned grain away.

Finally I arrived in Keatley and of course Verna & Bob had been there for some time as had Dad & Mother. Anyway shortly after I arrived there was a dance at the neighbouring town of Richard, which Bob & Verna were going too and of course I wanted to go as well, but needed a partner. It just happened that Ethel came to town to gas up her Father's car and I just happened to be available to fill her car with gas. In so doing we struck up a conversation and I asked if she would like to go to the dance in Richard with me along with proper chaperons namely Bob & Verna, and what do you know she accepted. From this moment of writing this history that was 46 years ago and the start of many dates, many dances, many tears, many thrills. Oh I forgot I was not supposed to get too sentimental and supposed stick to history.

At any rate we were married on September 30 1948, bought our bus tickets and came to Vancouver. Ethel had been in Vancouver the winter of 1947 and stayed with the Archibalds. She had it all figured out that we could stay with the Archibalds and she also knew that she would have no difficulty in getting a job. I didn't know what I was going to do, but young & full of ambition, I didn’t think for one moment that we would starve.

At any rate when we got here Doreen Archibald's boyfriend, Ken Josephson, and I struck it off. We decided that we should earn some money and we saw an ad for salespeople to sell books, so we proceeded to find out what it was all about. Well we got suckered into buying $10.00 worth of books that we had to go out and sell and if we sold them at the price stated we would make the princely sum of $10.00 profit which we would allow us to come back and buy another set of books.

Since the book selling episode did not pan out too well I decided that maybe I should get serious about earning some money and the Hudson Bay were hiring Xmas help, I applied and was hired too help move furniture too make room for Toyland and Santa, I was then transferred to Men’s wear and sold shirts, pyjamas etc. I believe that I was earning the princely sum of $35.00 per week.

I then decided that in order to earn more money, I had better learn something, so I went to night school and studied accounting.

To earn extra money I assisted an accountant doing books on the weekend for a set of Butcher shops, then in 1951 I decided that maybe someone would hire me as an accountant or to least as a clerk in accounting that I could work my way up. This was a test in endurance, but finally I got a job with Fleck Bros Ltd. as a price clerk, and after a year or so at that I was transferred to the accounting department as assistant accountant. Three or four years later, the Assistant General Manager wanted me to transfer to the Insulation Contracting Division as an estimator and cost control clerk. These were exiting times as I got to travel around to the various construction sites for a young fellow, this was big stuff, a great learning experience.

After several years in the Insulation Contracting Division, it was decided that we should attempt to direct our attention to the Insulation distribution business, as at that time there were more & more independent Contractors appearing on the scene, so I was selected to go out and see if it could sell to these independent contractors. This was a tough deal as it meant selling to contractors who were bidding on the same jobs as our contracting division was bidding on. Anyway to make a long story short, I was successful and finally to the point that it was decided that, Fleck should divest itself from Contracting and concentrate on distribution and sales.

I was finally made Manager of the Insulation Division and moved the operation from 110 Alexander Street to 1000 Parker St. in order to provide better service to our customers and also have a rail siding for incoming carloads of materials. This lasted for several years and rents got too high and not enough space so we rented a 30,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Lakecity. That was a big move, but all was well and business continued to grow; then our General Manager decided that the Refrigeration Division should also move to Lakecity under my Managership. Then came the change, our General Manager retired and the new General Manager never saw eye to eye with me and finally in November 1985, he decided that he did not need my services any longer and I was given the golden hand shake.

That is a summary of my work history. Since retirement I have had a great time doing things for other people, especially my daughters I have always liked woodwork, and when we built our new house I made sure that I had a good workshop.

We stayed with the Archibald's in there upstairs semi suite until the spring, when we had an opportunity to house sit for neighbors of Archibald's, so we moved kitty corner from Archibald's( the south west corner of 27th and Ontario, I believe we stayed there until the fall, (our first child started her life with us at this house).

We were very fortunate, and we found a basement suite at 29th & Windsor (south east corner) it was above grade basement suite and the house was on a double lot, so that there was a big yard, I drove by there not too long ago and another house has been built on the corner.

One of the conditions of renting this suite at a real cheap rent was that Ethel would do the house work for Mrs. Smith as she was not well. I used to help Mr. Smith with the garden and yard work.

This is where we really started our family life and had to buy furniture with little or no money, Ethel took in sewing from Rose Maria Reid (Manufacturers of swim wear)

We had just two rooms, the kitchen dining room, and a living room, so we had a hide-a-bed chesterfield in the living room. Finally we got tired of sleeping on that so I made a wall bed, which worked, wonderful.

Our Doctor was at 25th & Main so Ethel would push our daughter in the baby carrage all the way over there a distance of at least 12 long blocks, then later she would pull our daughter in the wagon.

We stayed with the Smith's until June 1952, when we bought our first house at 4880 Ross Street. This was what was known as a war time house, these houses were built for returning service men and were subsidized by the government which allowed a reasonable purchase price with real low payments at 4.5 % interest.

This house came on the market, and Charlie Archibald Jr. was selling real-estate in the summer break from teaching. And found it for us and we borrowed money from Mr. Smith for the down payment.

We paid $5500 for it with $1500 cash to mortgage. This meant that we had $32 mortgage payment plus $100 to Mr. Smith monthly.