ODDS’N’SODS — New beginnings

Work was hard to find in 1936.

I lost the job I had in Rouyn, Que., (I worked in the kitchen of the Elwyn Hotel, but was fired for smoking the boss’s cigars) and was looking for work at some of the area’s mines. My brother, Duncan, found a job at the Aldermac copper mine in Arntfield, which is near Rouyn. I rustled all the mines in the area, and even trekked out to the Beatty mine, which was having problems with mud draining into the workings. There was nothing available.

Seeing my predicament, my aunt Agnes insisted that I move to their log cabin out in Glenwood, and I spent the Christmas of 1936 with them. After the New Year, when I was flat broke, I wrote to my dad for money so I could return home to Glengarry Cty., in eastern Ontario.

He was good enough to send a money order for $35, but I decided to head out to look for work of some kind. Armed with the money, I left my aunt’s on a cold, dark January morning and caught a ride east on a flatbed truck.

I was dropped off at the end of the road, and a little fellow and I headed east on foot, toward Val d’Or, not knowing much else about what lay ahead.

After 25 miles or so, we spotted what we later learned was the Bouscadillac headframe of the Graham Bousquet mine, near the town of Cadillac. We walked past the Thompson Cadillac mine to the bright lights of the O’Brien gold mine.

The security guard on the gate there advised us to go back to the Thompson mine where, he said, we’d have a better chance of getting a place for the night. Sure enough, I met some boys from back home, brothers Ranald and George Dan McDonald, who arranged accommodation for me for the night. In the morning I had a hearty breakfast with Ranald and his wife, who had a little home near the mine. They told me of some boys from Glengarry Cty. down the road at the Bouscadillac. I was told that the chances of getting work there were much better, especially for someone like me with no experience in mining.

After about a week in camp (I was spending my precious road-stake on bunk and board at the rate of $1.25 per day), I landed a job on the top deck pulling cars of muck off the cage. My partner was Alex Graham. I did this until I became an embarrassed casualty a few weeks later. On the slippery deck, my right foot slid under the flange of the muck car as we were pulling it off the cage. I broke my big toe and was off work and on compensation for 10 days.

It was my first mining job, and I returned to it just as soon as I was able.

— the author, a retired miner, resides in Hedley, B.C.