Willard Lou Overturf

INDEX

BACKGROUND

CHILDHOOD 4/7/19

WORKING WITH DAD

DENTAL LAB

WORKING WITH HIS TOOLS 1940-59

Austin Company

Seattle Port of Embarkation

THE WOODWORKING BUSINESS

RESTAURANT BUSINESS

RETURN TO WORKING WITH HIS TOOLS

Beckstrom Electric Company

Dukes Electric Company

Sentinel Electric

Puget Electric

Northwest Electrical

Warburton Electric

HIS OWN SHOP

BIDDING 1975 1993 ESTIMATING and Design

Atkinson Bell Electric

Cochrane Electric

Warburton Electric

East of the Mountains

In December, the twelfth to be more exact of 1891 Guy Aubrey Overturf was born the son of Louis Waldo Overturf from the German Oberdorff and Ella Augusta Tabor in Darby, Montana. Ella came from New Brunswick, Canada. Her lineage goes back beyond the Mayflower to Merrie Old England. William Tabor and Augusta Ann Pickel Tabor, did not approve of her marriage this prompted her to make a success of it. Her ambition was to raise and educate her six children, even taking in boarders and roomers to make ends meet. The children were three sisters Mabel, Gladys, Stella Maria, and two brothers Earl and Joe. She wanted the three girls to be educated in art and music. She had dreams of Guy being an engineer, Earl a doctor and Joe a lawyer. The girls and Guy did take piano lessons.

She was to meet many disappointments. Due to an accident on the railway she developed cancer in one eye and lived with that affliction for fifteen years receiving love and care from her children, especially the girls. In her last days lived with her daughter, Mabel Cornish.

Earl was his mother's favorite. She kept his hair in long ringlets, dressed him as a girl and would not let his father, Lou, make him work. Guy called him Little Lord Faulteroy.

Joe had a steel plate in his head, committed suicide when he returned from fighting in World War 1, not because of the steel plate but because he and his brother were both in love with the same girl. Earl must have won.

Guy had it in mind to be a railroader. But his Dad had other ideas. He was told to get a job in the power station nearby where his Uncle Howard had some influence and if this was not to his liking he could leave home. And leave home he did at the age of seventeen. Although he hated things electrical he started reading meters and advanced to repairing them then became power station operator and lineman. He learned the electrical trade with the Missoula Power and Light Company. The power station supplied power to run the smelter which made lead for ammunition used in the First World War. At the Ritz Business College he took a course in bookkeeping, played the piano and sang in small theaters. At twenty he fell in love with Edna Marsh of Dalles, Oregon. His mother did not approve of this match and was successful in breaking it up. This left a hurt in his life. He worked variously as a steam engineer in the 1920's, maintenance at the Marcus Whitman Hotel in Walla Walla, Washington. Later he took over management of a wood yard owned by his uncle Bert Tabor who did Guy wrong by leaving the business bankrupt. Guy's life changed for the better when he met Julia Amelia Hartman father John and mother Mary Doyle Hartman of Elgin, Oregon.

Now this time Guy was not intimidated by Grandma Overturf {Ella Tabor}, who tried to break up his budding romance with Julia also, for he went ahead courageously became engaged and bought furniture for their home despite her opposition. They were married in 1 23 1915. The old gal did not approve of Julia and did mean things to her.

Grandma Mary Doyle Hartman, Julia's mother, was a nurse to everyone in Elgin including the Indians there. She was a calm sweet and caring person. She also helped prepare bodies for burial. Arlene and Clancy lived with them at one time. They once played with matches setting fire to a nearby field. Afraid of punishment they hid themselves in the attic and stayed there until they were enticed down with an offer of lemonade. No punishment.

Grandpa John Hartman was a cavalryman who fought in the Indian wars. He was also quite an artist. He was able to free hand do the lettering and inscribe beautiful scrollwork. We have a small sample, which I found and framed. It was said he was a mean man or had a mean streak in him. Of course we don't know this for a fact. It was related to the author he beat the boys with a leather strap. Maybe this is why Lila was afraid of him. Or perhaps the bad feeling came from the fact the girls were promised kewpie dolls that never materialized. Lila remembers being sent out to a field in the night on some chore after being warned against going there.

Guy and Julia's was not a good marriage. Perhaps the old gal was right for these two people were completely unsuited for each other. In later years she was known to nag him unmercifully. More of this later. Willie never understood just what the problem was for Julia was a kind and gentle person in addition to being a walking encyclopedia. It was stated she had spells where she was very hyperactive.

Guy, the electrician, while working on a light pole using and electrician's scared strap which broke and he fell to the pavement below. Many operations later he still suffered. The couple lived for a time in Metaline Falls Oregon, Lila was born 12-3-1915 in Flora Or. Julia was sent there to live in the Dr's house as she neared her expected date of confinement. It was not known if trouble was expected or if the reason was for the doctor's convenience. At any rate Little Lila tipped the scales at a whopping 12 pounds. The infant required resuscitation done by the doctor's wife using the old hot and cold-water method.

The story is told of how Mother and Dad were working in the garden leaving Lila outdoors in a washtub, a substitute for a playpen, when a rattlesnake joined her. Mary Lou {Haggen} Mrs. Clancy Overturf related this to me. She also related that Indians were frequent visitors that drifted in and out silently like a breeze.

Guy worked next at the Northport Smelter sub station in Northport Washington. They lived on Alice Avenue where the others were born Willard Lou 4-7-19, Donald Leware 7-20-20, Arlene 2-17-23, Clarence Clancy Lamar 4-20-25. To this family the little mother taught patience and kindness. She was a good example always to her children. Willie relates she never once scolded the boys for their pranks. Often well after midnight she could be found ironing, sewing and mending their clothes of course the clothes were washed on a washboard during the day. You will have to go into an antique store to see just what a washboard is. She scrubbed black marks off the linoleum floor that were caused by the boy's boots without one word of recrimination.

During this time the country was hit by a terrible flu epidemic that killed many people. This has little to do with this story except it must of made quite an impression the young Willie for him to remember and recall it some eighty years later. Later I surmised Willie just must of remembered people talking about it for it was in1918 that the first influenza epidemic began in the eastern United States and spread to 46 states. By 1919, the year Willie was born, close to 500, 000 people died. The local undertaker was hard pressed to keep up. Dad took a job helping him out.

About the age of two Willie had the misfortune to get double bronchial pneumonia during the dead of winter. His fever climbed to 104. A neighbor, nurse midwife broke the fever by cooling him down. She did this by bundling all those in the house with coats and blankets except Willie. Then opened the house in the frigid winter weather to cool it and the patient down.

Lila the ingenuous big sister rocked the new baby in her toy cradle often giving him her thumb to suck as a pacifier. In the days of detachable celluloid collars Dad often held the collar button in his mouth while adjusting the collar. When he dropped it one time the little Willie was right there to pick it up and pop it in his own mouth and promptly began to choke on it. Mother was there immediately to begin infant Heimlich maneuvers. Even though the name Heimlich was not know at that time the mother saved the baby's life by picking him up holding him upside down and rapping his back until the guilty collar button was expelled.

Arlene said Dad sang on the stage. She remembers him singing Old Man River. Arlene also remembers never having "store bought " bread. This was a source of embarrassment for her so she shielded her home made bread sandwiches with her hands so the other kids could not see. Eating her lunch at school was rather difficult.

A move was made to Spokane where they lived until Willie was in second grade at the Hawthorne Elementary School about 1925. His future wife, Lois, went there also at that time but he did not know her until 1939. While here the family lived on the third floor above a dime store. Dad had to nail screens on the windows to keep the kids from falling out.

Dad began to take little Willie along with him about town on business. Willie remembers at being about five years eagerly anticipating going to see a Mr. Brown as this man usually had a Mr. Goodbar candy bar for him.

Guy left Spokane for work in Seattle and had been there for some time when he got word the whole family was enroute. It was up to him to hastily find living quarters and furniture which he did in the Ballard area.

Willie remembers standing on a street corner under Grandpa's big overcoat trying to keep warm while waiting for a streetcar in the wintertime. In the summertime it was the opposite. There is a picture hopefully I can get it in here, of sweet sister Lila running to get a pillow to put under her little barefoot brother's burning hot feet.

Here Willie went to the Woodland School, walking the mile and a quarter to and from. The kids walked together until one day he walked with a girl and stopped to pick flowers from someone's yard for her. Later in assembly, the principal got up to make a special announcement. The kids were scared especially Willie when Mr. Smith reported this misdeed. He let it be known this was not to be done and in no uncertain terms would it ever be tolerated again. At this school was a gardener who Willie visited with and was occasionally given a nickel or two. A small fortune, waiting to be spent off limits at a candy store across the street. In anticipation of that mouth watering wonderful black licorice Willie was lured off limits by the enticing sweet. Upon returning to school property with his enticing sweet the treasured candy was confiscated by the principal, Mr. Smith.

It was hard times during the depression. Although Dad was a good provider it was difficult when he was out of work. Many were out of work and many went hungry. Dad was concerned about having enough food for the family over the winter. He found out you could buy a 30 or 40 pound salmon from the fishermen when the fishing boats came in from Alaska for 25 cents each. These he bought in large quantities removed the heads, tails, filleted them out to salt down in barrels. The heads tail and innards were buried in the flowerbeds. You should have seen those babies grow. As needed the fish were brought in and soaked overnight in a pan in the bath tub under running water to rid them of the salt. He also stocked up on macaroni buying 25 pound boxes and tomatoes by the case. Lila told me how her mother would make a stew from the tomatoes adding flour to thicken it and it was not bad. He wired a warehouse for a farmer and took the labor out in potatoes at fifty cents a 100 pounds. They were stored in the garage. This meant the 1927 Chevy truck used in the electrical business had to be parked in the street. The following winter the going price for potatoes was $5.00 a sack. Some money was made. He did wiring for others also taking his due under the barter system.

Mother had been saving her pennies for a trinket she had long admired. She saved her carfare money by walking. It was a long steep hill from the market to the house. One day Don and Willie sitting on the steps saw her approaching laden with two heavy bags. The two ran to help her. Despite Mother's objections Don insisted on carrying the bag with the prized object. You can imagine the dismay on all their faces when he dropped the bag shattering the valuable item. Poor Mother had been saving the carfare out of the grocery money by walking the distance instead of taking the streetcar. Not a word was spoken.

Hopscotch was a favorite game. Don and Willie had a plan to GET Lila. They dug a hole filled it with water then covered it over so it would not be seen. Eleven-year-old Lila came out of the house all dressed up to take the street car down town to see Aunt Stella when the boys goaded her into trying to beat their record. Of course she bit. What a mess. Everyone scattered. The lot was empty when Dad came out of the house in search of the mischief-makers. She liked to play ball in the vacant lot next door until Dad discouraged her by saying she should not be out there playing with the boys as she was to big for that sort of thing.

. At about 8 Willie spent time on his Grandparents ranch. He remembers having a birthday party at eleven years of age a receiving a crystal set. I think this was a ham radio outfit.

The two boys Don and Willie were the Katzenjammer Twins. What one didn't think of the other one did. By crawling through a window they could play on a flat roof. If they knew of Gallileo at the time or not they devised a game of who could jump farther than an old tire rolled off the roof by the other. It was not explained to me just how they got the old tire up there in the first place. First it was Don's turn to roll the tire while Willie jumped and it was a pretty fair jump. Next it was Willie's turn. He gave that old tire a mighty send off while Don took one gigantic leap trying to prove once and for all just who was the best jumper. As it turned out he WAS the farthest jumper. He jumped too far. He jumped so far he draped his body over the clothesline knocking him self-out. Willie was scared. Scared for his brother who he tried to console by patting his inert body begging him to be all right and also scared of the wrath of Dad. This game ended when Don came to . They did have a fight once. Willie threw a carrot at Don. It missed and went through a window. This wouldn't have been so bad but Dad had recently installed this brand new window.

On an errand to the grocery store the two were beguiled by a big basket of regular size Chicklet gum. They did not notice the butcher down behind the glass meat case when they began pocketing the goodie. Imagine their surprise when he nabbed them red handed and the shame they felt when he matched them down the street to home. That and Mother's stern looks were only a prelude of what was coming but little did they know they would be ripped out of their bed - out of a sound sleep to take a beating when Dad came home from work and found out about it.

At the Seward School Miss Bocho, the singing teacher, arranged to have a talent show as a break in the routine. Willie was prevailed upon to sing. He reluctantly sang Old Black Joe this was an immediate hit. with his classmates. In the eight grades Willie was elected president of his class. Then again in the ninth grade he was elected to a second term. The teacher then was a Miss Stone, "an old maid with gray hair, older than you even." She said to him this was very unusual and gave him the prediction that he would go far in life. In high school he was in a couple of plays one teacher there asked him if he had ever considered going into dramatics. This got him thinking maybe. He had banjo lessons but later regretted not learning a more useful instrument. He told me he could also play the mandolin.

Clancy had a coaster wagon. It was a useful item. He was sent to the local grocery store for free wooden boxes. These were used at home for kindling wood in lighting a fire for the old wood stove. One time the big boys were picking on Clancy. They took his cap and threw it up on top of a telephone pole. Willie coming down the hill saw this happen. He came tearing down the sidewalk to Clancy's defense and tackled the biggest kid of the bunch getting himself beat up for his interference.

MILO ENTERS THE SCENE

Lila, her girlfriend, and a boyfriend {I don't know whose} went out riding in the boyfriend's car when tag-a-long Willie clung to the car standing on the running boards. A running board was a step below the doors of a car that ran from front to back. Of course he was not wanted and the BF tried to shake him off. When this did not work he flat out yelled for him to get off. Willie leapt to the ground and in doing so broke his arm in two places.

Milo Van Pelt son of Roy Van Pelt was an aspiring young man in the neighborhood was sometimes hired by Dad to do a few chores. In the big house of Grandma Ella Tabor on Capitol Hill, where the family lived to cut expenses Milo visited often hoping to woo the beautiful Lila. Dad asked why Milo was always hanging around. Lila told him it was to see Willie. He accepted this and was none the wiser. The practical Grandma seized this opportunity. She had the unfortunate suitor doing many tasks around the house. One that Willie remembers best is how he worked all day long cleaning the wallpaper with pink goop stuff you rubbed on that acted like an eraser. Milo worked hard and at the end of the day was rewarded by being given an orange.

Willie and brother Don thought they would discourage the suitor or at least have some fun with him. When the romance got to the courting stage he would say good night on the sidewalk near the front door. On one occasion the two boys thought it was fun to whiz on him from their vantage point at an upstairs window. Willie did not remember any recriminations from this behavior. Maybe he preferred not to. Perhaps Milo came to think he needed an ally at any rate he took Willie to the movies. He bought a pipe for Willie so they could smoke in the balcony where smoking was allowed. Willie skipped school for this adventure. He was in 7th grade.

Grandma Tabor, Guy's mother had large house on Capitol Hill The family lived with her for a time. She had a large Spartan console radio, which she allowed the kids to use until Don broke a knob. At this she had it moved upstairs and the kids did not hear it anymore.

Willie remembers working at lawn mowing until he had seventy-five cents saved. With this huge sum he earned enough to buy a good pair of slacks. The first time he had an occasion to wear them he found that the taller brother, Don had let them down so he could wear them.

At Edmonds Willie, Don and Milo, were fishing from a dock when a cabin cruiser tied up along side the ferry dock using a gangplank to go topside. A woman coming ashore had the misfortune of dropping her purse in the drink while trying to maintain her balance in walking the plank. Her husband or man friend tried in vain to retrieve the purse using a pike pole but only succeeded in opening it and spilling the contents. The woman greatly distressed wailed about her job being in jeopardy. It seems the keys to the beauty shop were lost in the deep. It was her responsibility to open the shop and how could she manage this without the keys' The man seeing the boys watching offered them five dollars if they could bring them up. Wow, a fortune for sure. Willie, the most gallant of the three or the neediest, knew he could retrieve the desired objects. With confidence he entered the water dove down and came up under the dock tearing his shorts. Down he went again. Despite the laughter he heard when he came up he went down again not knowing his bare butt was exposed for all the world and God to see. The laughter only made him more determined. When at last he succeeded in bringing the keys up he learned what the laughter was all about. His embarrassment was assuaged when the man true to his word handed over the five dollars. The three dined royally on hamburgers, soda pop and ice cream. All that for just five dollars! He could of tacked on an entertainment charge.

One fourth of July Willie and Don blew up Milo's mailbox with a giant firecracker. At this same celebration Willie leaned against a post that unfortunately was not nailed down. These posts were on the porch in support of the roof. All at once the post gave way sending Willie a sprawling and the roof sagging. A good laugh was had by all. All except Milo.

WORKING WITH DAD

About the age of seven Willie worked for his Dad. The little kid he worked vacations and Saturdays even though sometimes he did not want to. "The experience he gained was invaluable" At the price of his childhood'''''''''''

They had the wiring job on the Twin Teepees, a Seattle landmark that was torn down the summer of 2001.These were two cone shaped buildings joined in the center. On the outside were long narrow wooden artifices that were made to resemble poles. They carried the bright neon lights in each ridge on the outside and all the electrical wiring to the transformers on the inside. The holes on the outside were just 14 inches square, to small for Dad or his electrician to get through. Willie was just small enough to be pushed through these openings and to crawl up the inside these things with the necessary materials to do the wiring and connecting. He thinks he was 10 or 11 years old then. This is a vivid memory for him as this winter was extremely cold. It was Christmas vacation and cold enough for Green Lake to freeze over. He missed going skating with all the other kids. They had the kind of skates that clamped on to the shoes. An old model T Ford pulled kids all over the lake. He asked Dad for permission to go with the kids but this request was denied. "Dad was from the old school and would not hear of it. He said with four other kids at home to feed and clothe he could not afford to let Willie go. I just grew up with that situation and just accepted it." Willie worked with Dad and an electrician named Lee on this project.

Willie told of being dropped off at a project of Dads that required electrical lines to be run under a cathouse. Not what you might think but a place where the owners had many cats that used the dirt floor under the building as their own private litter box. It was extremely odiferous and lacking ventilation. With only room for a small boy to crawl in under the floor he set to work rewiring the place. He had to crawl in a small opening at one end. At the other was a small opening where the pale light filtered through. He made for this light pressing his face to the grill sucking the clean air deeply into his lungs. Sparing himself some of this disagreeable work he took a shortcut by putting in the cable every which way. The B X cable straight and symmetrical in the basement and should have been that way in the unexcavated part. Supposed to be in straight lines attached to the floor joists. At the end of the day Dad picked him up and asked how it went. Willie answered," Just fine". The next morning he was driven to the same location. Willie's eye wide in wonderment was told to pull all the previous day's work as it was like cobwebs. Now he must to do it over and do it right. A hard lesson was learned. He never made the mistake again. Dad had instilled in him the importance of doing a thing precisely proper and in order. This was in the 1930's. He is still very precise in all his projects. When I remarked about his neat small printing his reply was they were all taught to print alike in estimating. A company could be identified by the style used.

Charley, Dad's cousin, was a sawyer. Charley, his son-in-law Loren, and Dad each owned five acres of timberland of second growth fir in a fifteen acre parcel about seventeen miles from Seattle. Willie was sent to work clearing the land with them. His job was to haul a cable about 50 feet and hook it around a stump. One man ran a donkey engine in this case a Mack truck engine mounted on skids used to pull out the stumps. When this was completed his job was tail saw. The long logs were to be cut up of a size for firewood. This meant taking each cut piece of second growth fir from the saw and heaving it onto a pile. A truck was hired to haul the wood to town for $1.25 a cord.

Willard slept in a tent and ate the meager food cooked by Nellie, Loren's wife. He never quite got enough to eat and often went to bed hungry. At one lunch time he made so bold as to take a second hamburger got his hand slapped for the effort and severely reprimanded. It seems the meat was needed for the next meal. He did earn wages here but they were turned over to his Dad. While here he walked to town. Most days to the mail box a half-mile away. One day he got a package in the mail from Walla Walla. He hiked half way home and saved the surprise until he got to a favorite place, a small pool. Here he sat on a log in peace and solitude to open his package and found his mother had made him a pair of pants from some other no longer needed garment. He could not control his tears.

Mr. Peterson a drawbridge tender at the Ballard Bridge also owned property here. He came up from Seattle weekends to do what he could. He was a congenial fellow who liked to visit. When Willie saw Peterson's lantern glowing in the evening he would hike over there glad for the diversion. It happened that Peterson was having his wood sawed for firewood also by this crew. He promised to pay Willie 25 cents a cord for his work. Wow! This toted up to be a fortune for a young boy as Peterson had 18 cords of wood. Willie did his arithmetic and was eagerly looking for the reward. Time marched on. Willie began to wonder when he would get the money. Hesitant to ask for it he finally got the courage. Imagine his dismay when Peterson told him that he had given Willie's wages to Loren. He had the courage to question Loren about it and the reply he got was, "Your eating here, aren't you'" Willie did not eat there again but hiked to Milo and Lila's. I asked Willie if he ever told his Dad about this. He said he didn't remember. But I don't think he did for fear Dad would of taken it anyway. Willie has said he is not telling this for anyone to feel sorry for him but in the telling it has found relief and solace.

Milo and Lila married June 14, 1934 at the Green Lake Methodist Church of Seattle. It was hard times Milo and Lila did not have anything. They were living on a shack on Dad's end of the property I asked how they could afford to feed a growing boy Willie replied they lived on garden produce eating a lot of potatoes and vegetables. He remembers ruining Milo's hat with juice one day after he and Lila had been berrying. Milo at that time was working for WPA. WPA= Works Progress Administration, a program initiated by FDR for the benefit of a hungry nation.

Driving Dad's truck was an adventure for Willie. I think most teen-age drivers and at the risk of being sexist boys, especially, are a dangerous weapon. He thinks he may have wrecked three or four of Dad's trucks. Gas was cheap five or sometimes six gallons for a dollar. Willie and his buddies would pool their resources collecting enough nickels and dimes to buy it.

Once he was sent upcountry for a load of stove wood. His friends took delight in lightening the load by throwing it off littering the road along the way. It was hard for Willie to remember just how many trucks he wrecked. He does remember Dad rubbing his old bald head saying," I'd rather raise ten girls than one boy'.

One accident involved Willie driving the truck down the highway when a guy came on from a side road without stopping and hit them broadside. Another time he and Don cleaned out the truck to pick up Shirley and two or three others to go roller-skating. This time they pulled out of a blind intersection where they couldn't see and ran smack dab into a bus and the whole front end was ripped off.

Up at Woodland Park on a rainy wet slippery street, Willie driving a truck of Dad's slipped sideways into the curb breaking a tie rod. Willie took a pipe hicky and was using it to straighten the rod when two policemen drove up to investigate just what it was they were doing. After the explanation given they looked at each other and smiled got in their patrol car and drove off. They did tell Dad. Everything turned out fine. A pipe hicky was a tool used to bend conduit pipe.

He remembered once when Don wore a new white suit and veering off the road unto to a muddy field. This vehicle had wooden floorboards with cracks so wide you could see the ground underneath. Mud came flying through which ruined the white suit. I wouldn't have thought that very funny.

Willie once talked Don into buying a sedan delivery then thought later it was a stupid buy even though it was a pretty thing-blue with yellow wire wheels.

"Milo turned in a 1927 convertible. When I saw it setting in the used car lot I knew I wanted it. I went in and talked to the used car dealer one day while driving Dad's truck. He said," I see you are in the electrical business. I need a one-horse power motor for my pump at home. I'll trade you for it. It just happened a refrigeration company Dad worked for had one. I traded for Dad's jackplane for it. A jackplane is a tool about 18 inches long used to plane doors. I didn't tell Dad until many tears later. I told him after I was married. He said I looked and looked for that thing. This was how I got the car" He had a 1925 Touring Car while in high school.

Dad and Mother stayed together until the kids were bigger but after Lila and Milo married Mother went to Walla Walla presumably to care for her sick mother taking Don, Arlene, and Clancy with her. Lila said this move came about because the Grandma had to move from the big house they could no longer afford. Leaving the fourteen year-old Willie with his Dad. Willie was devastated but was given to understand he was left behind to help Dad in the electrical business.

While working with Dad and his other electricians at Arden Farms we had just completed hooking up three air conditioners when Dad told me to go put covers on some of the boxes, which I proceeded to do. Unfortunately "I put my elbow in one of the pressure switches and 480 Volts burned off my elbow cap. I could see the bone". He could not remember the treatment or the doctor.

At work with Dad installing refrigeration in a supermarket a money sack from under the counter disappeared one night. Willie, the kid, was accused and an immediate search was initiated. The bag was found in the refrigeration men's things,

Lila and Milo now were living in a police captain's house rent-free, if this was the General Motors, playhouse, which was delivered there by truck, is not known at this time. One place was known as Hague's place. Don and Willie were invited out for a weekend with instructions to bring some food. Willie brought milk taken from someone's porch. They had a good time staying up all night to play Monopoly. Monopoly was a board game then and is still played today.

With Mother gone from the home Dad had a woman named Olive move in. Olive Smith was an English woman who lived nearby with her English husband. She did not get along with her husband. Guy said her husband was worthless. Olive was from a prominent family. Her father was a postmaster in London and brothers were doctors. Guy was infatuated with her. Willie suspects that something funny was going on before the family separated. Dad told him Olive made up for years in his unhappy marriage.

While working in the logging camp he decided to take his next time off to walk to town. About a 17 mile hike would take him to see a girl he liked. He went home first only to find himself locked out. He knew Dad and Olive were upstairs and could not figure out why they wouldn't come to the door and let him in. He went around back and crawled through a washroom window. Falling to the floor he looked up to see his furious father. This time Dad threw him some money and told him to go to the show.

Olive saw what a great help Willie was to his Dad and wanted Guy to pay him something. She suggested fifty cent