ALBERT

JAN 29 1941 --- FEB 25 2007

West Quesnel

I don’t remember when I first met Albert, but it must have been in 1950 in West Quesnel. West Quesnel was the rougher side of town and riverfront was the worst and Brotherstone cabins were the worst of the worst and that is where we ended up when we moved there. Albert lived about 6 houses away so he was not far from the worst of the worst.

I remember one day we were up stairs at Albert’s with the Scofield brothers. I had gone down to the kitchen for something, maybe a cookie, when I noticed Bill and Daisy driving up. Now it was OK for me to be there but not the Scofields so I hollered up stairs "Albert, your mom and dad are coming in". There was a lot of commotion and Albert came running down and opened the back door which was at the bottom of the stairs, I thought that was weird as it was just a back door, no landing, no railing and no stairs. The brothers came running down the stairs and out the door. There is a board walk about 10 ft. below the door that runs across the back of the house and right turns to an outhouse which was always muddy, luckily they missed the board walk and the outhouse and landed in the mud. Well maybe not so luckily as I often wondered if they had dug a hole under the outhouse.

As I mentioned earlier it was OK for me to be there as I was indoctrinated into the faimly by Donna. She held out her hand one day and said " smell this", so I did and she broke a capsule of ammonia under my nose. I guess if you lived, then you were part of the family.

What I remember the most about the Eccles house was the prayer meetings. Boy! were they loud and I heard that after 3 or 4 calls the cops stopped coming around. When Albert and I got into trouble the punishment was having to go to the prayer meeting. Man, did we go to a lot of prayer meetings. At these prayer meetings everyone had to lead in prayer and we stayed on our knees until we did. I was always the last and the shortest.

CRUISING

When I was about 15 I had an argument with dad and stormed out of the house and jumped into my car. It was a 39 Nash that dad had given me to fix up when he got a new one. I usually drove the car around a circle that I had made on the property up 6 mile road, but this time I was really mad and drove down the hill to Albert’s house. I didn’t have a license or insurance so I was reluctant to go cruising around town as Albert had suggested. Anyway we headed for town. Now to get there you had to cross the old Fraser River Bridge, which now had lights to control traffic. At one time it was two way but that was OK for small cars but when 2 trucks met in the middle one of them had to back off with all the cars having to backup behind it. When we got in the uphill lineup for the bridge I had to keep my foot on the brake as the emergency brake didn’t work and I didn’t want to shut off the engine in that lineup in case it didn’t start again. There is usually a long wait for the light so I turned off my lights to save the battery as the generator wasn’t so great. The light changed and we followed the line up across the bridge looking forward to cruising. As we were coming off the bridge at the other end I noticed a cop standing next to his cruiser in the line up to get on and he was signaling me over. I panicked and keep on going pretending that I didn’t notice him. He yelled at me to turn my lights on, I did and watched in the rear view mirror to see if he was going to run after us. He didn’t but I saw in the mirror that we had Murphy (Murphys Law) in the back seat. I’m sure it was Albert who introduced me to Murphy. Albert, I said, that was too close and we were going home without doing any cruising. In order to get into the line up on this side of the bridge we had to go up and around a block and down on front street. As we were coming down hill to the end of the line up I stepped on the brake to slow down and there was nothing. Now I could either go left into the traffic or right onto the boulevard. I chose right and hoped that it would slow me down enough to get stopped. I pumped and pumped but still no brakes and we were rolling alongside all the cars in the line. After it seemed like hours I was able to get some response on the brakes and finally came to a stop in front of a signpost. I looked up at the signpost it said ' NO PARKING', I looked over at Albert and he was laughing, I looked into the rearview mirror and Murphy was laughing, I looked to my left and saw the cop now sitting in his car and he was not laughing. Just then the light turned green and the lineup started moving, the cop either had to stop the lineup to get us or let us go and join the cars on the bridge. He did the later and we joined the end of the lineup and followed at a great distance. It seems that when I was holding the brake down on the other side of the bridge I pushed all the brake fluid out a leak in the line. I dropped Albert and Murphy off at his place and drove home. I was grounded for a year.

BIRD SHOT

Albert and I were doing some target practice at our place on 6 mile road. We had an old 22 single shot and were shooting at some cans. Albert asked, "what are these funny looking shells" and I told him that it was ‘bird shot’ and couldn’t hurt a fly. As I was walking away to set up the cans again I felt this awful sting at the back of my neck and heard the shot. I knew what had happened, Murphy had talked Albert shooting me in the back with the ‘bird shot’. I had on a leather jacket and cowboy hat so the only place that was not protected was the back of my neck. I hollered and grabbed the back of my head and went down, I lay there as still as I could. I heard Albert say, " You said it wouldn’t hurt a fly" and laughed, then "Louie stop fooling around", then "Louie get up" and all the time he is walking closer. "Lou, come on, quit messing around" "Rocky you OK" then "Dave, Dave" as he rolled me over. I couldn’t hold my breath any longer and started to laugh, "Louie you bum" were back to Louie again and he kicks me.

HIXON

There was a shooting range out back of Taylor’s place at Hixon and Albert and I were setting up our rifles. I had a 303 and Alert had a 30-30-lever action, I don’t know what Murphy had. I remember that I was lying on the ground sighting on the target when I heard Albert working the lever on his gun and I knew he was trying to distract me from my shot. He ejected the shell and closed the lever and the gun went off. It felt like an earthquake and sounded like a bomb, I looked around and saw Albert frozen on the spot with all the blood drained from his face as he looked down at his gun pointed at my back. He had missed me by a couple of inches. He would have had to bury me there as who would believe that he had shot me in the back by accident, twice. I’m sure I heard Murphy laughing.

STRATHNAVOR

On our way to the ranch / sawmill out somewhere in the forest of Strathnavor. Why we were heading out there in the dead of winter and in the dead of night, I don’t remember, but we must have thought it was important. We didn’t have cars in those days so it was hitchhiking or the bus, at this time of night it had to be the bus. We caught the northbound bus around 9:30 PM and it was about an hour ride. I had fallen asleep and was wakened up and dragged off the bus by Albert. I looked around and saw nothing," Albert, where in the heck are we " I asked, he answered " It’s a short cut, so I got the bus driver to drop us off here ". There was absolutey nothing but black, no side road, no lights, no signs, just snow banks. I don’t think it was Albert that stopped the bus, it was Murphy. "Albert where is this short cut?" From across the road in the dark I heard him " I think is was over here somewhere. " "Great, when was the last time you used it?" " Uh, last summer." I joined him at a 6-ft. high snow bank and looked over, there was nothing but snow. "Last summer eh, figures " I had to lead all the way as there was about 3 to 4 ft. of snow and a ‘5ft something’ person was not going to get very far. Now, we were cool dudes, right, so there was no parkas, no snow boots and probably no gloves. I had on cowboy boots, jeans, leather jacket and cowboy hat; Albert was probably dressed the same. By the time we arrived at Bert’s or Rubs it was near 4 am and they wouldn’t answer the door or didn’t want to. So we built a fire out in the yard to get warm and dried out. It was a ‘white man fire’ (white man make big fire and stand far back, Indian make small fire and stand close) and I took off my boots to get them closer to dry out. A little later Albert says " what did you put in the fire, it smells bad " I told him " just wood " I looked around and saw smoke coming out my boots. I think Murphy pushed them too close. Burnt bottoms but they were warm. White man fire, Indian boots.

PEACHLAND

It was September and it was chilly. Albert and Pauline were staying in one of the RV camp in their trailer and Marg and I were staying on the Endeavor ( 21-ft. sailboat ). Albert and I had been out sailing and fishing when a storm came rushing down the lake. It had chased us off the lake the day before and now it was treating to do it again, but this time we were well over on the other side and could not get across in time. We tucked into a small cove and anchored to wait out the storm, as it had only lasted a couple of hours the day before. All of a sudden the wind changed and it bore down on us causing the anchor to drag. We had to get out of there, as there was a rock wall behind us and no shore. Firing up our huge 3.5hp motor and headed out into the waves. It was a long struggle as the waves were 3 to 5 ft. high and 30 plus winds. The boat would shoot up the wave and balance there before crashing down the other side with the motor roaring out of the water. I don’t remember how many hours it took us to cross, but with the waves, wind and dragging Murphy along it seems like forever. Just as we were approaching a dock that was protected enough to tie up to Murphy came aboard. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this white fish swimming away from the back of the boat and the motor revving up and realized that the fish was our propeller. I only thing to do then was to get the sail up and start sailing before we were blown back across the lake. We figured that the storm would blow itself out in a few hours as it did yesterday. So we settled down for some fun sailing. We just sailed up and down the lake in these huge waves and wind like we were in our right minds. Meanwhile on the shore Marg couldn’t understand why we were still out in this storm and was following along driving back and forth on the shore. The breaking spray from the waves were hitting half way up the main and getting me soaked. Albert was huddled down below the cowling trying to keep dry and warm. At one point I could see a huge wave coming at us and called to Albert "take a look at that" and pointed out the side, just as he looked up the wave came over and caught him hard and knocked him over. I was hoping that it would catch Murphy as well and take him over the side but it didn’t. As the water was warmer than the air it was not to bad at the beginning but we soon became hypothermic and had to get to shore. My plan was to sail up wind from behind the dock and then drop the sail and crank up the keel and rudder, and throw a line to all the people on the dock with Marg. The angle was good, the speed was good, but getting the sails down and everything was too much and we didn’t make it. I hollered at Albert to get ready to jump over as we neared the shore to keep the boat off the rocks. If we jumped too soon the water would be too deep and if were jumped to late the boat would be on the rocks. I sat on the side and jump at the right moment and hollerd at Albert to jump. As I was in the water trying to hold the boat off in these large waves I noticed I was alone. Looking up I could see Albert sitting on the edge doing something in the boat and I was having a hard job holding the boat. Albert finally jumped over and helped me with one hand, in the other were his boots. "I had to save my cowboy boots," he said. Marg, by this time had waded out and got the line and with the help of the others on the dock, was able to pull the boat to safely. So, barefooted and one-handed Albert had helped save the day. Murphy had stayed onboard.

LAST RIDE

Albert and Pauline were visiting us on Fox Mountain one summer when someone suggested a horse ride. It might have been Heather but I think it was Murphy. Albert had one of our regular horses and there was one more rider on one of our horses, it may have been Murphy. I got the new horse; it had just been bought at auction. I was having trouble keeping him under control so that I was behind most of the time, Albert and Murphy got ahead and my horse decided that it wanted to catch up and the fastest way was to get rid of me. At a full gallop he bucked me strait up and all I saw was the ground coming up at me. The next thing I saw was the sky as my foot was caught in the stirrup and it had flipped me on my back. The wind was knocked out of me and it seemed like eternity before I could breathe again. Albert and Murphy didn’t know what happened till my horse went galloping by with no rider. They came back to find out what happened. They found me still on the ground trying to get my breath back. When Albert got off his horse to help me, his horse took off and Murphy left on his. We found Albert’s horse caught in some barbwire but it had the sense to just stand there until someone freed it. There were a few cuts on the horse’s leg, so we both walked home, but I limped, as I had broken my big toe in the stirrup. Since then I have not been on a horse.

LAST SAIL

Summer of 2006 Albert, Pauline and Jessie came to Pender Harbour for a few days. We went out for a 2-day sail, as Jessie had never been on a sailboat before. We had a great 2-day sail and were doing a little fishing on the way home off the east side of Texada Island. Albert and I were going to take the dogs ashore for a potty stop, but changed our mind at the last moment and started to raise the dinghy when Murphy got upset and blew up another storm. Before we could get the boat buttoned up we were in wind and wave. Only Murphy could get a storm to come down a mountain and winds go from 0 to 30 kn. in a few minutes. Marg was hanging on to the enclosure to keep it from blowing away. Poor Jessie, she was behind the wheel with eyes the size of baseballs when the wind blew the boat from side to side. This time we didn’t lose the prop and Marg didn’t have to drive the shore. The storm lasted half an hour and then let us go. The two worst storms I’ve been in have been with Albert and Murphy.

There are many more stories, like spitting, peeing, firecracker guns, Mels Buick and others but Murphy didn’t play a large role in them.

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Albert, we are really going to miss you. You brought a whole new meaning to the word ‘adventure’ and I am the better for it, although at the time I might not have thought so.

Your love for Pauline, your kids, grandkids, family, (Lady) Marg and I will always be felt and remembered.

Goodbye Albert, I hope your next adventure will be the greatest.

I know when we are out sailing and heeled way over, I’ll look up and see you hanging on with one hand and holding Lady with the other.

Love

Louie

PS. Could you take Murphy with you?