77 Don’t Forget the Baby

The summer Sandy and I spent in Puyallup was a very busy summer. It was the only time that we lived near Sandy’s grandparents and a bunch of other family members, some of whom operated a custom cannery. As canning fruit and vegetable was part of both our family traditions we were able to inexpensively put up many cans for the coming winter.



The summer of ’62 was when the Columbus Day Storm swept in from the Pacific raising havoc in the Northwest, with wind speeds as high as 179 mph at Cape Blanco on the Oregon coast. Damage estimates after the storm ran as high as $3-5 billion if changed into 2002 currency.

Why Sandy and I waited until the height of the storm to run down to the local Piggly Wiggly super market to get emergency supplies I will never know, as the radio had been sending out bulletins for quite some time about how terrible the storm was and to be prepared for the worst. So wouldn’t you know, it was while we were in line at the check out that the lights went out. It feels strange when the cash registers and lights quite working and you are left standing there in the dark with no way to pay. I honestly don’t remember how we finally settled with the super market, but I do remember buying the candles and getting home safely.

It was shortly after this that I received the phone call from my dad about the job bucking tree with George Egolf at GMG Logging. The next few days were busy ones as we were packing up in preparation to leave Puyallup, and begin a new chapter in the life of Bob and Sandy Betts, this time as a logger family in the rain forests of BC with our brand new baby.

The packing was done, the boxes were stowed in the trailer, the keys had been taken back to the landlord and we were climbing into the car when Sandy exclaims, “Where’s the baby?” I said what baby?” And she said, “Our baby, the one we just brought home from the hospital a few days ago.” “Oh! That baby! So off I went to the landlord and sheepishly asked him for the house keys to make the family complete.

When the realization of what we had just about done hit me, my knee went weak. After looking everywhere I finally found the baby, sitting calmly in her little pumpkin seat on the table in the kitchen, quite unconcerned. Here she sat looking trustfully up at me with her innocent blue eyes. What trust babies have, if she had only known how irresponsible her parents had been she would have been shaking in terror.