Cool all day but sunny.
Bowled and finished the class of new bowlers. Rode my bike up to the barbershop and now I look better.
Phoned Andy, Steve and Jim - Steve (no one) home.
Going to be around freezing tonight.

Here is another little thing - maybe a repeat.


My father died just before his sixtieth birthday, at that time my mother was fifty-four. She grieved  but never faltered, making her way quietly, wisely and alone. Later not so much alone as she choose to live near us and in retrospect it was a repeat of my grandmother’s life as she followed my parents to different communities. Neither of them demanding anything but just being close and available if needed for body or spirit.

One little happening I recall was when we lived at Wilson Creek on the “Sunshine Coast” ,  I had graduated from high school the year before.  Mom worked in the drug store at Sechelt. One day she came quite upset, apparently when she was carrying out her duties a salesman who made rounds to the various pharmacies came in and after a bit had her show him where some of his supplies were shelved. She led him to whatever products he was looking for. The spot was down one of the aisles near the back , Mom told Dad that he made a “pass” at her. (I hink a “pass” in todays terminology would be called grope), Mom was only five feet tall she was left handed and she decked him(to the floor) with a left hook to the stomach. For a second Dad got upset then he started to laugh and in a moment they were both laughing. She had reported the incident to her boss and as far as I know that was one store never visited again by that salesman.

As I mentioned earlier, all the years when I was a child Mom never worked out of our home, she did train herself (on my Dad and me) how to cut hair. She charged 35cents per cut at Pender Harbour but when we moved to Port Hardy she bumped it up to 50 cents but through in a cup of coffee after the cut.. In the beginning she used hand clippers then my great Uncle gave her an electric clipper. My neck is still grateful for that modern convenience.
When I was fifteen she got a job at the lone grocery store at Port Hardy as a clerk but she was always home by the time school was out. It is a pity that in today’s world more mothers can’t afford to be there when the kids come home from school.
As I have related in other stories we moved a lot during my childhood. As a result she became one of the world’s foremost experts on packing. We didn’t have a lot, but what we had was important to us, the government (employer) back then took no part in moving problems, on a coup[le of occasions my Dad had gone ahead to his new posting so it fell on Mom to get it all done. No moving vans, a pick-up truck  - maybe. Often only a wheelbarrow was the vehicle of necessity.
She could pack objects within objects, build a crate, tie up boxes and move the stuff to a dock. Our belongings were usually moved by steam boat, and maybe moved from boat to boat. Seldom was anything ever broken and nothing ever lost although sometimes a piece would stray for awhile.
Some of the ornaments that were dear to Mom still reside in our house today.