4 The Son of a Logger I was Soon to Be

 Starting in 1889 until it went out of business in 1959, the Union Steamship Company was the only means of travel up the BC coast other then by private ship. To get to Read Island and the logging camp where the new job was you had to take one of their steamers and that meant a day and a night on a real steamship, and you got to sleep in a real stateroom.  Dad left for Read Island immediately to see how things would work out.  The rest of the family including by now a little sister Dawna, who was eleven months younger then her big brother Bobby, stayed in a cabin at White Rock near Grandma Betts.

Because Dawna and I were only eleven months apart that really bothered my mother especially when my sister would tell everybody for one month each year, “Bobby and I are twins now, Bobby and I are twins.”  Mother always gritted her teeth and tried to make Dawna shut up but that was easier said then done.  My mom’s biggest fear was that not only did everyone now know she was having sex again, but that she was also totally lacking in self control.

After a year however it was more then my dad could take being away from Dorothy and the kids, so on his last trip to town he said, “Honey you and the kids are coming back with me,” and so the whole family set off on the next Union Steam Ship to sail under the Lions Gate Bridge.  It was kind of cool to sail under the bridge.  I can still remember looking up at the bridge and seeing all the cars traveling over it, every time we went to town during my growing up years on Read Island.

What also made it fun to travel on the steamship was that it stopped at all of the small settlements along the way.  The whistle would blow and it was a real steam whistle too. When it wailed away on arriving at each stop if you were any where on the ships deck your whole body would resonate with the sound, I swear I used to think that my fillings would come lose.  Without exaggeration I jumped so high the first time I heard it, if I hadn’t had a handrail to hang onto I would have ended up in the chuck (water).

We used to travel quite often to town at Christmas time and I will never forget all the loggers heading to town for the holidays.  After months in the bush with no women, the bright lights of Vancouver meant not only women but wine and song as well. Many were already well lit long before the bright lights of town were anywhere near.  I remember one time when a well-lit logger was passing money out to us little kids.  We thought it was OK, I can’t remember if my mom made us give it back, or not.  Most loggers ended up flat broke long before their break was up, but could hardly wait to repeat the experience on their next trip to town.

One of the Union Steamship's fleet of passenger and freight vessels
that served as a link between Read Island and Vancouver.

http://sunshinecoastmuseum.ca/exhibits/the-union-steamship-story