Good old friends
What a very pleasant surprise to have had two of my very good old time friends drop in for a visit Herb Gerow who had not been back to Burns Lake for 18 years. Herb was well known here.
Also Chief Albert Gerow another very good friend who I have known and respected for many years. Herb drove truck for Sheardowns store while they were in business. Although the visit was too short we covered lots of ground. Herb now makes his home in Chilliwack. The Gerow family are one of our pioneer families and were one of the first families we met when we came to Burns Lake now over 60 years ago.
Thanks Johnny Johnson for your nice visit last week. We go back a long way so we always have something to talk about. They were good old days so it’s nice to be able to remember those times.
I turned 91
August 24 was a special day for me. One thing it was my 91 year. My dad used to tell me how many times they didn’t expect me to last the night but low and behold I was still alive. As a kid I was called little Hugh as I was almost a dwarf but I fooled them all.
A big thanks to the staff and the cook who made me a lovely cake. You are all so very kind at the Tweedsmuir House and I love you all for it. Also to my family and the visitors who dropped into my room and the phone calls. Even from Saskatchewan they remembered me. Thank you all so much. A special thanks to my good friend Pastor Herb Larsen.
Another very special guy from our old stomping ground in Saskatchewan, Ian VanMeter and we could talk all day and night about those old prairie days. Ian had some news that my readers will enjoy I’m sure.
On the 16 of this month there was called a Ranch Rodeo held in Vanderhoof. The Double Box Ranch of Ootsa Lake entered a team of three horses and three riders they won second place with cheers from their Southside supporters.
The team mates were Jan VanMeter, Tyler Flemming and Temwisha Baldwin. Calcuta Auction and other team members raised $1100 to improve their grounds. They are hoping this will be an ongoing thing. There were four events; wild cow milking, cow smuggling relay races, and wild cow riding. The Double Box Ranch from Ootsa Lake are behind this event and for more particulars please phone this ranch at 250-694-3302.
By all reports it was a lot of fun and a crowd pleaser. Hoping to have one on the Southside. P.S. for Ken Rose good news he won grand champion reserve bull.
Dear diary
My brother Peter and his wife Madeleine live in Oliver, B.C. and we keep close contact with each other. It seems as he was going through some old papers he came across our father’s last diary dated Oct. 11, 1967. I have started to read it but it also brings back memories of many things that I had forgotten, maybe things I would like to forget. dad was in the hospital and mother finished the last page. I could tell that mother was very upset by her writing. I just don’t think at the present at least I will finish it off.
I was just a little boy when the first Model ‘T’ Ford came into Evesham. Jack Campbell was the salesman and you could have any colour you wanted as long as it was black. They had a canvas roof and half doors with a latch to keep it shut.
This was 1927 or just around that year. Our dad got one and he was one proud guy. He was a superb horseman but he took to driving like a duck to water. Lots of old horseman had some real problems. We had a great friend who got a Ford ‘T’ and he got his daughter to teach him to drive.
He got rattled and forgot how to stop it, as it was already over the ditch and through the barbed wire fence. You could hear him shouting “Whoa.” He still thought he was driving horses. The only damage was about a half mile of fence.
When it was cold the best way to start the ‘T’ was jack up the back wheel. Our friends started their ‘T’ and left it running while they dressed for church and when they came out to go the car had gone away up the field. One of the boys caught a saddle horse and ran the Ford down. That was the talk of the district.
The gas pedal was a lever on the steering column and the spark control was on the opposite side. The wheels were wooden spoke and a brute to have to change a tire.
Later on that year a guy came around selling a drive pulley that would bolt onto the rear hub when you took the wheel off. Jack up the hind wheel and you could run a buzz saw or grain cleaner, just a handy thing.
In later years we got a Model ‘A’ Ford and we got a drive pulley for sawing wood and running the seed cleaner. There were lots of farmers using the old Ford for lots of odd jobs. They are history now.
I guess it’s time I closed our for another week.
P.S.
It seems that this summer we have had our share of thunder and lightning storms, sure keep you on your toes. I saw a little poem in an old note book and I will pass it on. So here goes. The thunder roared, the lightning crashed, heaven and earth were a shaking. The little pig stuck up his tail and ran to save his bacon. The end.
Correction
Last week I forgot to say that it was the neighbour’s barn that flipped over in the wind that had the calf tied to it.
Always remember god loves you very much and so do I
