Remembering mother and father

Remembering mother and father

 

 

I received an e-mail from my eldest daughter, Kathy. She had been reading my blog and had some suggestions. Why don't you go back to the beginning and pull from all that experience, along with some hindsight, tells us what you learned through the years? My other children, Karen, and Kirby, agreed that they knew very little about my early life. The work I had chosen in the airline industry, which entailed a great deal of domestic and European travel. My early life events that came about because of my own family circumstances, had much to do with any advice I may have given my children as they grew up.

Both my parents were born in England. My mother was born in Stratford on Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace) in 1898, and my father was born in Bedfordshire, in 1880. My father emigrated to Canada in 1909 and my mother in 1913. They met and married in Prince Rupert, Canada, on February 21, 1918. I was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on December 5, 1926. I had a sister, Vera who was born on January 19, 1919.

My mother had three sisters and a brother. Her father, my grandfather, immigrated to Canada around 1910. He was an architect and brick maker, who arrived in Vancouver with plans to build a house, get settled, and then bring the rest of the family over. As fear of war escalated in Europe, he decided to send for my mother and one sister to come over, as soon as possible. War broke out before he was able to bring my Grandmother and the rest of the family to join him. Grandmother ended up spending the war working in a munitions plant in England. The long awaited family reunion happened at the end of World War I, in 1918/19.

My father was a master carpenter, who built our Vancouver home by himself. He was employed by B. C. Packers, a large fishing and canning company. He was in charge of building a number of whaling stations up the coast of British Columbia. Unfortunately, my parent's marriage was not destined to last. The twenty year age difference and the long separations while my dad was involved with building the stations, led to a separation in 1930.

It was the height of the depression. My dad was only able to find sporadic jobs but he did try to send us a few dollars from time to time. My memories of those years were often of going to bed hungry. I remember seeing bread lines every day with people in the hundreds hoping to get something to eat. There were young men trying to sell apples on street corners for a few pennies. Many times the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) would come along and confiscate their apples and money. Fortunately, my mother was able to get a job making boxes in a factory, for about twenty cents per hour. She once told me that if it were not for my sister and me, she would have ended it all. It was not a time that you want to remember.

As time went on, things did improve. My mother was able to get some financial help from the small town where we lived. After a couple of years, my dad was recalled to B. C. Packers when they started building again. He would come for a visit with my sister and me every so often and was providing financial help to us. He often told me stories of building the whaling stations up the coast. Most of the workers in his crew were Chinese and Indians from tribes in the area. The area was mostly wilderness in those years; supplies had to be brought in via Company boats that only came every few weeks. He had a few other workers, mostly Irish, Scotch, and Canadian, not many though, as few wanted to face that wilderness existence. Most workers had very little past building experience. This led to many arguments as my father tried to teach such a varied group. He told me of the time a few Chinese workers chased him over the roof tops with knives, because he would yell at them about their shoddy work. He told us that some of the Indians would get hold of hair tonic, or other product that had alcohol in it, get drunk, then run off into the woods and not come back for several days at a time.

In1932, I started public school, and my sister, who was eight years older than I, graduated from high school. She enrolled in a secretarial school and learned to use shorthand. My sister was very good at what she liked to do. She also studied elocution and won a gold medal in high school for one of her Shakespeare's presentations. I believe it was for her rendition of "A midnight's summer dream". After graduation from the secretarial school she was able to get a job as a court reporter, taking down the testimony at local trials. Later, during the war, she was selected to go to Washington D. C. and worked for the British Government as Secretary to the Air Chief Vice Marshall of Great Britain. Later in life, she used her special skills to become the secretary to the Chief Supreme Court Judge, in Providence, Rhode Island.

In 1937/38 most people were very concerned over what was going on in Europe. The great fear was that the world was once again going to be plunged into war with Germany. Most Canadians had close ties to England, many had relatives there. In the next blog, Canada declares War…

Meet my children

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Meet my children

 

 

Although I used to think that I was the "advisor in chief" to my children, it seems that advice is a two way street. As a matter of fact, the older I get the more advice I receive. It's important to mention that coming from my side or theirs, it is always given from love and thoughtfulness.

Let me introduce my children. Kathryn Rae (Kathy) is the oldest, but not by much. Our children came pretty close together. Karen Ann (Karen) was next in line, the middle child. Last, but not least came Raymond Kirby, (Kirby). So there you have it, Kathy, Karen and Kirby. Kathy was born in Miami, Florida, Karen and Kirby in Hartford Connecticut. I have to say that I cannot see where geography played any difference in their personality. I assumed that if one is raised in the South, or in the North, there would be notable differences. In their case, considering we moved frequently as a family, place of birth is really not much noticeable. I honestly believe that children who have to cope with moving from one place to another frequently develop certain skills that other children who live their entire childhood in one place, do not. I'm sure there will be some disagreement on theories such as this.

To get back to the subject, advice is the result of experiences and observations accumulated over the years. To give you a brief resume, I was born in Vancouver, Canada. I attended a private boarding school for boys, served in the Canadian Army 1944-45. I would say that I learned a great deal while growing up, going to school, and serving in the Army. The advice I would later pass on to my children is the importance of education and how important it is to follow regulations. After a few hours of peeling potatoes, washing dishes or serving guard duty in 20 below zero while getting basic training on the Canadian prairies, you learn to shape up fast. I was happy to take my discharge from the Army, in late 1945.

In 1946 I Joined United Airlines in San Francisco, California. I was hired as a reservations agent and sent to Chicago for training. United, at that time, was operating the Douglas DC-3 21 passenger aircraft. Not too many people were flying in those days. Later, as Douglas DC-4 aircraft came out of use by the Air Force and into commercial airline use, they were configured to carry 44 passengers. I can recall standing at the San Francisco airport with some other employees looking at what seemed to be a gigantic airplane and wondering where in the world we were ever going to find 44 people who wanted to go to the same place, at the same time. The advice I would give my children is to never under estimate technology. Keep up with the times and observe what is happening around you. Who would have thought aircraft would be flying with 500 passengers?

After almost two years with United Air Lines, I was loaned by them to Eastern Airlines, in Miami Florida. Back in those days, most travel by air was East to West or North to South. United was a "California to New York and points in between" airline. In the winter, flying between New York and California with stops enroute was subject to some pretty harsh weather conditions. I once took three days to fly from San Francisco to Chicago. Eastern Air Lines, on the other hand, flew a route that took people from the cold North to sunny Florida. United and Eastern worked out an agreement that when United was busy in the summertime, Eastern who was almost empty in the summer months (who wanted to go to Florida in summer?) would loan employees to United. In winter, when Eastern was flying with full aircraft, United loaned employees to Eastern. It was a great idea until one of the airlines was not always able to get their employees to come back home.

My advice to my children is to take advantage of opportunities, analyze them carefully, listen to their gut instincts and forge ahead. You never know where these opportunities will lead. They lead me to Miami.

 

 

 

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A Column in Infancy

As Maurice Chevalier often sang, “Thank goodness for little girls“. I was blessed with two lovely girls. I was also blessed with a son who I‘m sure will, as time goes on, may just show up in this blog from time to time.

When it was suggested that I create a blog called “Advice to my daughters” I had to stop and think about the advice I may have given them. Both have become successful business people and looking back, they got there on their own and, I am sure, would have, advice from me or not. Having said that, I hope you’ll forgive me if I write about advice, experiences, perhaps what I learned over the years and things that we did and learned together. To write about advice alone, could become pretty boring to the reader.

I believe the most important advice everyone should have is to develop a strong work ethic. Very few people will be successful in life if they are not willing to work for it. I was fortunate to work for Eastern Air Lines for many years. Capt. Eddy Rickenbacker, the World War 1 flying ace and founder and President of Eastern, was a great example of work ethic. Capt. Eddy came from a very poor family and little education. As a young man he applied for a job in a Detroit automobile factory. He was turned down for lack of experience. Walking through the factory he saw how dirty the floors were. He found a broom and started to sweep the floor. To make a long story short, he got the job and later on founded the Rickenbacker automobile. As they say, you know the rest of the story. He passed away in 1973 but the aviation industry of today has much to thank him for.