The Life and Times
of Bob and Eddy Hayes - Part 3
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Above: Bob's
truck in the background, behind a dog team. |
Baby Karen and I
arrived in Whitehorse by plane in late April. We tried to settle into a
routine but it was very different in Whitehorse - everything was alien to me. Bob was
soon driving a passenger bus between Whitehorse and Dawson Creek. He was away eight days and
home two and on those days he had reports to do and maintenance on his bus.
He didn't have a lot of time with Karen and I.
We lived in a
little house in an area known as Whisky Flats. A few of the people who
worked for B.Y.N. lived close by and they were neighborly. However, I didn’t
know quite what to make of them when they would ask me over before 10 in the
morning and politely ask if they could pour me a drink. I didn't even
drink coffee but would ask for water or milk. They certainly laughed at
me.
When summer came,
it really was the land of the midnight sun. The sun really did go down at
midnight and was up again at 1 A.M. How very different it was. I
took in a young lady as a boarder and that helped as I had a routine of meals
then, and washing and cleaning. The young lady worked at the bank and it
was her first time away from home in Vancouver.
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Above: Karen
and I on a fairly mild January day. Karen is wearing her red
snowsuit that Auntie Jean sent her for Christmas. Note in the
background the oil barrels we used for fuel, and the diapers on the
line. There were no dryers in those days. Washing and
drying were hard work. |
By September it
was getting colder and the nights were getting longer and I was about to deliver
our second child. I was in
the hospital and Bob came to see me before he left that morning for Dawson
Creek. He had to leave and I was feeling very much alone. One of the
neighbors was looking after Karen for me and the doctor was to induce labor that
day. That evening Bob walked into the room and said he had quit his job driving the bus and had taken a job with the Post
Office! I was so delighted and by the next day, September 27th
1949, Gail Irene was born. Everything was great. Here we were, the four of
us in our little house. Times were great - but not for long. The
Post Office forgot to tell Bob he wouldn't get northern living allowance and, of
course, without that we couldn't manage.
We
tried our best by renting out a bedroom to a couple
with the American Army. However, the heating bills were so unbelievably high that it
didn’t make very much difference. So, Bob bought a little white truck and delivered bread from a bakery and milk
from a couple of entrepreneurs who made
"whole milk" from skim milk powder and unsalted butter - very good. Bob
made his deliveries in the morning and continued working at the Post Office from
3 P.M. to 11 P.M.
One very frosty
day, Bob was running late with his deliveries and didn’t have time to get truck
over to the Ernie Loriety Garage. One of the fellows offered to drive the
truck to the garage for storage over night. However, Loriety had two
garages and the fellow left it at the wrong one. Next morning Bob hiked to
the garage and no truck. After a few inquiries he located the truck at the
other garage. The people at the other garage hadn’t known about it so it
had not been put inside. Bob discovered the block had been frozen by the
50 below temperature over night. He borrowed a car to make that day's
deliveries. Later that day, two men approached Bob and told him they could find
a good second hand motor and they would install it for a price. He came up
with the money and they proceeded to repair the truck. That Saturday night
two policemen were at our door to inform us our truck was impounded as these two
nice fellows had stolen the motor from an American Army compound!
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| Above: The
little white delivery truck. Bob holding Gail and Karen in
front. Whitehorse, Yukon, 1949. |
This was a
setback ... so Bob phoned Greyhound and asked if he could come back to Calgary.
They said, Yes, and the sooner the better. We quickly sold furniture and
took the babies' cribs and high chairs to the hospital to help pay the bills
there. There was no hospitalization plan so bills were high. Bob
made inquiries for transportation to leave the Yukon. We found a taxi
company that wanted their old vehicles driven to Edmonton. That sounded
good to us.
We loaded the
old taxi with our remaining belongings, bundled up our babies and left for
home. We had a rough trip with several flat tires. We drove all day and all
night and then another day and arrived in Ft. St. John in the evening. Bob’s friends there
were happy to put us up overnight. Our wee girls were so good the whole
trip. On we went over those gravel roads, just shaken by the washboard roads. We arrived in Edmonton and took a Greyhound to
Calgary. It was so nice to be back on paved roads again.
We look back at
that year in Whitehorse as the year we grew up. I realize I have written a
lot about that year but trust me - it made a very memorable impression on me. I
will never forget it.
For more photos of our northern
adventure - click
here
Bob gets into the oil business in the next
segment. ... continue
