CHAPTER 2

The Trip

In the late fall of 1914, our personal belongings were packed away and the farm leased for a year to Will and Annie Leitch. Annie was Charlie Clarke's sister. We stayed with Uncle Fred and Aunt Addie over Christmas and then left for the West Coast for an extended trip. We traveled by train (the main line of the Grand Trunk Pacific passed thru Spy Hill), by day coach, and carrying our own lunch box to Prince Rupert, B.C., then by steam ship to Vancouver. There, we boarded a smaller boat which took us to Texada Island, landing at Vananda late in the evening. We were met by Uncle Herb with a horse and cart. I shared the cart with the luggage, the others walked. Right then I made my acquaintance with a corduroy road, logs laid crosswise on the road, close together through the low swampy parts of the road. It was very dark except for Uncle Herb's "bug" for a lantern. It was made from a syrup pail; turned on its side, the bail turned from the top to the bottom of the can for a handle, holes punched in the bottom, the lid left off and a candle set inside. There was no wind to blow out the light as we were passing through a heavy stand of very tall fir trees.

We arrived shortly after the birth of the sixth child of the family, named Ida Nay. The other children were, Vicky, Art, Clara (who was my age), Lyman, and Winnie. We stayed there for about two months. I had my eighth birthday there and also my first school experience, in a little one-room school. There was a vast difference between there and the prairies. The island was rocky and heavily wooded with huge firs and other evergreen trees. We children played house and school on top of the great stumps of trees left by the saw-mill crews. Some fruits, mainly apples were grown, but the main attraction of the island was the rumors of gold to be found there. Several small mines were operated, none successfully. Uncle Herb was always a patsy for a get-rich-quick scheme.

When we left the island, we stopped in Vancouver for a few days where Daddy met an old school boy friend from Markdale, Ontario. He drove us around Vancouver on a sight-seeing tour, my first auto ride. There I also had my first ride on a street car.

We went by train to Puyallup, Washington, near Tacoma where we stayed in the home of Daddy's Uncle Henry and Aunt Eliza Green, and their granddaughter Isabel Hasset. We also visited with great Aunt Maria (Green) and Uncle Dave Doyle. The abundance of flowering trees, roses and other flowers were almost an unbelievable sight after the prairie living.

An outstanding event of that spring was a trip to Mt. Rainier by sight-seeing bus, with the Greens, Doyles, and their families.

In early summer, we went to Spokane by train to spend a month with Mother's Aunt Mary Carter, a spinster, and her two bachelor brothers, William and Willis, for whom she kept house. Another exciting time was going down the street from the Carter home to the fire station. They were trying out their first motor driven fire engine but were also still using the horse drawn fire equipment. The horses on duty were in stalls back of the fire wagons which were facing the street with harness suspended over where the horses would be to pull the wagon. The horses were bridled. When the siren blew, the doors in front of the horses opened and they ran to their proper places. The firemen came running while some found places on the wagon The others pulled down the harness already hitched to the wagon and in very short time the few buckles of the harness were fastened and all eager to go.

We went back to Puyallup where we moved into a berry pickers' cabin on Uncle Dave's place and the three of us picked raspberries thru the season. I still remember getting my card punched out and being paid off with three Silver dollars. While we were there in the berry field, the Liberty Bell, on tour, passed by on a rail road flat car and we all rushed over to the tracks to watch and pick up leaflets tossed out by the guards. I still have mine, stained a bit from the berry juice that was still on my fingers from the picking.

After raspberry season was over, in mid-August, we went back to Vancouver by train; over to Texada Island for a brief visit with the Carter family and then back to Vancouver where we boarded the Canadian Pacific train for home. We made a stop in Calgary, Alberta where we spent several days. Daddy was considering moving there and setting up a shoe shop but nothing came of it and we continued on home. While we were in the West, we saw soldiers marching in the streets. They were in training for service in France in World War I.