Sunday, June 01
My day off so I went up to see Bill Free. He was going to go over to Fitz and as I had nothing wise to do took him over, got back about 23:00.
Tuesday, June 03
There was nothing doing yesterday. I went across with Free again and got some supplies that he brought in for me. We brought another fellow back with us. I don't know who he was. Today was a holiday. Joe was going to be around all day as he sold his car to Pearson and is going to overhaul it. I went to Fitz this afternoon and made $5 taking passenger over. There was to be a dance there so I asked Kay and Mrs Coutoure if they wanted to go over. They did, so I took them along. Harriet was ready to go and I took her along as well. We stopped at the Halfway for a minute and Bill Johnson was ready to go so he came along. We got in about 22:00. There was a big crowd there as the Echo was in. Several there were a little worse for liquor. Browne was on of them and caused a scene. The APP there took him in hand however and jugged him for the time being then laid some charges against him. Pretty good for the RCMP reputation here. We were among the last to leave. It was about 02:45. Harriet went back with Middleton and I brought Kays' husband back with us in her place. He is going to work in Smith for the rest of the summer. We arrived at home at…………..
Wednesday, June 04
…….04:20 and as it was my morning on Meteors, I lit a fire and sat around till 05:30 then cleared them and went to bed till 12:30. I was on the set all afternoon and the traffic was real heavy and X bad. Had to relay Meteors and rush traffic to and from Simpson and Edmonton. I got thru at 19:20 and right after supper I went over to the Halfway. I stayed around there till 22:00 and came home and wrote a letter to Nona. I went to bed at 01:00.
Monday, June 16
Time flies by so fast that it is almost impossible to keep UTD with this job of daily entering up the diary. However, I have made a list of the more important events that have happened since the fourth and will try to put them all down. The order may not be according to their dates but they all happened during that period. Traffic has ben constantly increasing and so has the static. Col. Cornwall came in a week ago and has gone on to Norman for the summer. I believe most of his work will take him on to Bear Lake. He is still with the DOMEX and says that the outlook for the country has never been better. The Distributor arrived at Smith on the 15 and is loading for Aklavik. they will get away sooner this year than ever before. They expect to get away on the 21. They make it a few days earlier every year. Jim Darwish arrived on the 16 from Rae and reports that the ice is still solid on the Lake. He had to hunt around thru the channels to get thru. He was on the lookout for a bear skin or two for me , one a brown and one a grizzly, but told me that there wasn't one in this spring that he considered worth carting down to me. I overhauled my Elto and finished it on the 16 and after supper Joe and I took it out to try it out. We borrowed the RCMP canoe as my own boat is still at the Halfway. Mr RR MacLeod, the bank manager at McMurray came on the last boat and is spending a week here. He was out to see us at the station.Some of our stores came on the 13 and the balance came on the 15. On the 14, I painted the engine room and the battery room.
Tuesday, June 17
On the Key all AM. During the afternoon I sent most of the time cleaning up the warehouses and around the engine room. I cleaned all the tools and put them in their places. We heard that the AD Sigs was coming up for inspection. He is flying all the way. Flo Cooper had a baby daughter early this morning but it only lived 3 hours. Chas was out at Sucker Creek and Punch flew out and got him. After supper I took Bill Johnson on to Fitz. Gene and Louis were here and I dropped them off at the Halfway. It was 00:30 when I got back to Smith so I stopped and had a cup of coffee and a piece of pie at Lanouettes and talked to Kay until 01:30 then went home. While I was at Fitz I met R. Walton, who is piloting a small Curtiss 2 passenger Robing. It is a dandy small machine. He showed me over it and explained it to me.
Wednesday, June 18
I was on the PM shift today and the static was real heavy. I didn't get thruout until 19:00. Joe kept supper for me though. We eat supper every day at Lanouettes now as the new gang will be here any time and we are closing out the mess account until they get here. The DA Thomas arrived at Fitz this afternoon. It has been up on the Peace River. They took all the fittings out of her so that when she went over the rapids at the Vermillion Shutes and was wrecked, they would save all they could. They made it fine. Not a board broken but practically all the windows on the lower deck were broken in. She is nearly twice the size of the Athabasca River. They are going to remove all the machinery and build a new boat for the lower river work and put in the machinery from the DA Thomas. The lumber from her is to be used in building a new wharf at Fitz. After supper went over to see it and took Kay, Mrs Coutoure, Harriet and Joe. Coming back we brought Leger, the Commercial Airways agent from Fitz. We got back at midnight.
Thursday, June 19
On the Key the AM. Business heavy and static nil. It started raining yesterday and has been at it all day today. The mail did not arrive but Sherlock is here form the North and is going on to Edmonton in the morning so I am going to get my mail up tonight. I had to clean out the gas line on the car today, it was getting plugged.
Saturday, June 28
Time I was bringing this UTD again I guess. Business still increasing at the station and so is the static. L/Cpl. Plunkett arrived at Smith on the 20. There were 7 of them altogether. The others all went on down river. I brought four of them over in the bus. Stevenson was delayed owing to an operation for appendicitis but will be here presently. Frank Conibear has been to Rae but returned this AM so I guess they will be going out in a week or two at the most. I hope so as my stuff is about ready now to move . I hope to go this next Echo ( Monday or Tuesday). I went over to Fitz the other day with Bill Johnson to see the new HBC boat the "Pelly River". It is a twin screw diesel powered boat and the finest on the river now. She has the same engines ( F.M. 70 hp) as the Slave River on the lower river but is far better installed. Roads across the Portage are very good at present. I went over last night in 40 minutes. We were all invited over to Mories for supper. Mrs Ryan came home on the 20. She is looking far better than she was before she went away. Max Finkelstein and JW Campbell were on the boat of the 20th. They were here only a short time. The Distributor pulled out on the 21st at 18:00 on her first trip down river. Joe Lanouette is on a bender again and Mrs Coutoure went home with a headache ( although it quit long enough for her to go to Fitz and dance till 03:30 AM) and Kay has been trying to keep things going alone. Cooking for 40 too. She was out of bread and as I was going for a ride, I went back over to Fitz and got ten loaves from Ed and brought them back to her. I got home at 00:30 and Joe, Cecil and I played 3 games of Solo. I went broke twice and Cecil went broke the last time.
Sunday, June 29
I slept till 12:30 today then got up and worked on the car most of the day. I went to the Halfway this afternoon to get a bolt that came off the transmission. I had hunted all over town and couldn't get on to fit. It was on the rear axle truss rods where they fasten to the Universal joint.