21 Roy & Marg a Good Man & a Good Woman

I will always remember the day Roy came to our island from the prairies to work for my dad, and brought his good wife and two daughter’s Marilyn and Monty.  Marg was a big prairie girl well over two hundred pounds and loved to talk.  She used to come over each day, and talk my mom’s leg off.  I can still remember my mom complaining to dad about it.  I don’t blame Marg, as the island must have been quite a shock to her.  It is one thing if you are a man and have a job to go too, but to come from the civilized world and be stuck in a shake shack 24/7 would be quite a test of the spirit.

Roy and Marg with their kids lived for several years in our shake shack while Roy learned to be a logger.  I remember it was my dad who said, “Never hire a man who smokes and wears a belt.”  The first time I heard him say that was because of Earl, a young fellow, who dad paid to help with the building of our new house.  Even though Roy smoked I am not so sure but I think he probably wore a belt too. So dad hired Roy anyway as he was after all my uncles brother.  Between smokes Roy wasn’t a bad worker.

I will never forget some time later when I took Marg to the store.  I took my responsibility as a chauffer seriously and as we both got into the boat I saw that Marg was comfortably seated.  I untied and pushed off the boat.   It was a 17, foot clinker built cedar skiff with a flat bottom.  For an engine it had a 9-horse power Wisconsin that sat mid-stern and required a rope wound around a groove in the flywheel to start the engine.  Standing with my back to the gunwale of the boat I wrapped the rope around the groove in the flywheel, and pulled with all my might.  This was something I was used to doing as I had used the boat many times before to run errands for the family.  Not giving it much thought I pulled as hard as I could expecting the engine to take off on the third or fourth pull.  To my amazement and the horror of Marg, without warning the starting rope broke with such suddenness that I was thrown head over backwards into the water.  To keep myself from going completely out of the boat and into the water I kept my legs hooked over the gunwale of the boat.  So here I am feet and legs in the boat and the rest of me hanging upside down and backwards in the water.  I must say Marg and I had a good laugh.  After I ran back to the house to put on some dry cloths, we left for the store.