Dad Water Skiing
Kathryn was too young to water ski, but loved the water. She would wear a big orange life jacket and stay in the water all day if she was allowed to. She was always adventurous and many times set off across the dam and had to be chased down and hauled into the boat from halfway across. Luckily she was not run over by other boats as the dam was often crowded.
Kathryn in her favourite activity
Dad never did anything by halves, and took his hobby very seriously. They built a dock for the boat which they would take in and out of the water every year, and drive carefully home. They had to get a special permit to transport the ski jump and dock along the highway to Lampman and back to the dam every spring and fall, beginning at 5:00am. They built a special hangar for it out at the airport.
Transporting the Dock in early Spring
Diving off the Dock
The Dock
They took up ski jumping and built a wooden ski jump which they would fly over. It was on this that Dad damaged his knee in a bad fall.
Brian Bowers on the jump
They bought a kite, under which they would hang, holding on and flying 40 feet above the ground at the end of the tow rope.
The Kite
The dam was heated by the water released from the power plant, so it never completely froze over. By about February or March there was enough open water to launch the boat. Dad, Lorne and Brian bought wet suits and started skiing as soon as the boat could be launched.
Dad in wetsuit
Getting ready to ski in early spring
A cold day for skiing
After a day of water skiing we would often stop at the Estevan A&W for supper. Thinking back, I realize the staff there must have dreaded seeing us pull up. They had car hops back then who came to the car to take our order, and brought it to the car. We would have a car full of kids and be towing a huge boat. We must have taken up three parking spots. Then everyone would order: “A Teenburger without pickles” “A Mamaburger with cheese” A Mamaburger with no Cheese” “Onion Rings, no wait, French fries” As I said, they must have hated us.
A & W
This is not the Estevan A & W, but one Dad must have seen on his travels. It gives you the idea.
If there was a James Bond movie playing at the drive in we would head from the A&W across the highway to the drive in theatre with the boat in tow and a car full of kids and pull in and watch the movie.
Because Dad was on call, he had to find a way to stay in touch with the hospital. He purchased two way radios, and had a base set at the house, and radios in the car and boat. If he was needed, a nurse would come over to the house and call him on the radio (no one locked their doors then). Then he would have to race back, sometimes with an RCMP escort. We had a great tall antenna on the house. I remember it being struck by lightning during summer storms, once blowing up the TV set.
The Waughs became close friends. Bob and Ellen Waugh had I think 8 or 9 children. They were a very athletic and active family. Unfortunately misfortune struck the family. Two of the children, Mary Jane and Ricky, became paralyzed from the waist down; Mary Jane in a car accident and Ricky in a snowmobile accident. Mary Jane became involved in wheelchair basketball. Their oldest daughter was engaged to be married to Brian Bowers after he and his wife Anne divorced. Unfortunately, Brian and his son Paul were killed in a plane accident in northern BC before the wedding occurred. This started a long and very conflictual fight over Brian’s estate between Anne and the Waugh family. It was very sad, as they had all been such good friends.
Ellen Waugh and one of the kids
Ann and Paul Bowers
After Brian Bowers left Lampman and moved to Northern British Columbia a doctor named Dr. Alkatib took over the practice. He was not popular. Mom found him particularly rude. She invited him for supper one day after he had come down to assist Dad in an operation. Mom had prepared steak. When he came in he rather insultingly asked “Is that pig?” He was not married when he came, but arranged a marriage with a woman from back home. Mom used to joke about the arranged marriage and started a running joke with Dad in which he would ask for his camels back that he had paid for her. One year for Christmas Mom presented Dad with two ornamental camels. The people of Lampman tried to befriend Mrs. Alkatib as she was young and alone in a foreign country. Dr Alkatib would not allow her to socialize with anyone or to leave the house without him.
The flying adventure started in about 1966. Dad travelled to Regina and took lessons and obtained a private pilot license. Then he purchased a little two seater Cessna 140. He flew this out of the Lampman airport. Bob Waugh and Brian Bowers were also pilots, and they had fun together. I remember one flight with Dad when the engine stalled about 20 feet off the ground. We hit the ground very hard.
The Cessna
Then he bought a Piper Commanche 180. This was his favourite plane. He went all over North America in this plane. Mom and Dad loved the freedom flying their own plane gave them. They also enjoyed the way they were treated in airports. They stopped at little airports and flying clubs, and met people in the local hanger. Everyone was interested in where they were from, and willing to chat. They could walk straight out to the plane, gas up and take off. No waiting in lines, being processed like cattle, or waiting on schedules. They were at the mercy of the weather, though, and often delayed by storm fronts, but did not really mind.
The Commanche
Mom loved exploring with Dad but hated flying and particularly landing. In all the time she flew with Dad she never watched a landing and would always keep her eyes closed. She used to wear a medallion named “Flying Woman”, a soapstone carving she bought once on a visit to see me when I was living up North. She never flew without it.
Flying Woman
In 1968 they took their first trip to the Caribbean. I was fortunate to go along. It was quite an adventure. No one Dad knew had flown that far before, especially over water. There were months of preparation as Dad poured over maps and planned the route. Finally in November we set off. It was a grand trip. We flew down through the States to Florida. Everywhere we went people were amazed at how far we had come and what we were planning to do.
We landed in a little place called Eufalia Alabama and went into town for lunch. The waitress came to get our order and said “Y’all waint Griets weeth thaht” We were amazed; I don’t think we believed people really spoke like that until then. The people there were equally taken with our clipped Canadian accents, which sounded very strange to them. When we got to Florida we drove through groves of orange trees. We kept looking at the houses, wondering what was wrong. Then it hit us, none of the houses had chimneys.
We flew across the ocean from Florida to the Bahamas. The colour of the ocean as we flew over it was so amazing; shades of turquoise green and blue; with the white coral sand atolls.
Flying over the Caribbean
We flew down the Bahamas Out Islands chain, stopping at little hotels and guest houses along the way. This was the way to travel. We would call the hotel on the radio, land, and someone would drive out to the little airport to meet us, and take us to the hotel. The owner would sometimes greet us with a rum punch, and we were treated more like one of the family than guests. One of the hotels was an old plantation house. The food was always fresh and local. We ate a lot of seafood. We loved red snapper and grouper.
Dad and I could not figure out how to get the coconuts down from the tree. We were determined, and successful
First trip to the Bahamas
On the way back across the ocean we ran into bad weather. We were being forced out over the Gulf of Mexico by a storm front that was closing in. It was pretty scary and Dad was quite worried. Finally there was a break in the clouds and he flew into it and below us was a small airstrip. He landed quickly and we waited out the storm. Later he said he got smarter and did not take off if the weather was even a little bit “dicy”. This often led to them being delayed on returning from their holiday, but Dad felt it was better to be safe. He did not succumb to “get there itis”, as he called it. The airports in the little Caribbean islands were not always as well developed as in other places, and there were many adventures. Dad used to tell of one place where the upkeep of the runway was done by a goat kept on the field to keep the grass short. He had to “buzz” the field to chase the goat off before landing.
That first trip gave them a taste of life in the Caribbean and they resolved to retire there. They went down for a month every November from then on until they moved there. One of their favourite places was a place called Stella Maris. They became good friends with the owners of the hotel there.
Stella Maris
Dad learned to scuba dive, and loved diving down to the coral reefs. He built a special water proof housing named “Alphonse” for his camera so he could take pictures under water. Kathryn remembers that in the building of it they both got woozy from the glue. He also learned to develop colour pictures so he could develop his own pictures down there (remember Dad never liked buying something if he thought he could do it himself?). Colour developing is trickier than black and white, and the water temperature has to be very precise. Mom would sit beside him in the hotel bathroom, with a thermometer in the bucket, adjusting the temperature of the water with ice cubes. Other of the children went down to the Caribbean with them. Kathryn loved scuba diving. She remembers Dad not being very impressed with her when she chased a barracuda, and another time when she dived deeper and deeper and he had to dive down deeper than was safe to get her. Kathryn always was adventurous.
Barracuda
Kathryn and her Grouper. She made a pet of it and wouldn't eat Grouper after this.
Dad and Mum loved living and working in Bienfait; but it was exhausting for Dad. He was the only doctor in town, and as long as he was in town, he was on call. He worked long hours, often getting called out several times in the night and then having to go to the hospital early the next day to operate. The only break he got was when they left town, but he couldn’t leave too often as he had to ask Brian Bowers (and later Dr Alkatib) to cover for him. He reciprocated for Brian, in Lampman. After 5 years, he felt he had to give it up, and secured a position as part of a 3 doctor practice in Weyburn.
The people of Bienfait were very sorry to see them go. They threw a huge party for them at the Legion Hall, and the whole town came. There was a dinner and dancing and speeches, and lovely farewell gifts. Mum and Dad were truly touched.
The Farewell.
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