I was a heavy drinker in those days and still would fight at the drop of a hat. I was going up for another assault charge, in a long line of assaults. I took time off from work to deal with my issues. I quit drinking and got help from a government program. I had one-on-one counselling and joined AA. Quitting drinking was pretty hard.
When my court date came up, i was convicted of assault, and as the judge slammed the graval, he said, ” I sentnce you to 2 years, less a day”. As he said those words, I was thinking, shit, two years were going to be hard. judge anthony Sarrich waited a minute before continuing, by saying. ” You have quit drinking and cleaned your act up, so I am going to suspend your sentence. I will put theses conditions on you, No drinking for two years and you must continue your treatment with the government program. You must also keep going to AA for the two years.
Bills had piled up while I was going through all this, and I needed to work again. The Forest Service said they had something coming up in the fall. Then another outfit on Gilford Island offered me a job cooking in camp. The camp was about 20 km inland from Scot Cove. I had never been a camp cook before, but having been on the other side for years, I knew what to do. I was a pretty good cook; I even cooked all our meals at home. It was for one 15-day shift. Gina came in with me. The camp had a modern cookhouse and wash/shower rooms, but our cabins were wall tents. They had plywood floors and walls with the tents set up over them. They had proper beds, and each had a wood stove. The camp was being sold, and we would be doing an inventory as well.
We had a full-size diesel generator and full power in all the cabins. I would turn off this power at 9 pm and fire it up around 4:30 to get things ready in the cook shack. My wife, Gina, was a beautiful young lady of 20 years, and the boys all wanted to talk with her. I have never seen such a group of loggers act so politely in all my days. My wife gave them all haircuts, and they came to supper each night in their go-to town clothes. Hair slicked back, and fingernails and necks scrubbed of dirt.
Halfway through our shift, one of my deep freezers gave up the ghost. We were a long way from town, and this freezer was full of food that would go bad before I could get a new one in. We took a drive down to Scott Cove and put the word out. I was surprised when a man said he had one at his float house, but it was across the cove, and we would need a boat to pick it up. The only boat that I could locate was a 16-foot Boston Whaler owned by a local First Nations lad who guided the tourists that visited the bay during the summer months. The freezer was a full-size unit.
So off me and the young feller head across the bay to bring it back. We tied the boat tightly to the dock with some rubber bumpers between. We then very carefully and slowly slid it across the boat sideways. He worked from the back of the boat, and I from the front. When we got it loaded, it was hanging over each side by a foot or more, and we had about an inch of freeboard. It was a slow trip across, but the water was like glass, and we made it. The were were waiting to unload it as I and the young feller held the boat steady to the dock. Then it was just a matter of getting it into the truck, back to camp and installed in the cook shack. Sometimes things just work out.
One morning, Gina and I were sitting at a table in the cook shack, relaxing. We had just finished cleaning up the morning mess from the boys, and Gina had helped me make six pies for the crew that were on the counter, cooling. We were sitting right beside a window, having a coffee. There was a wild thunderstorm going on, and we were watching it. Then all of a sudden, we were blinded by a bright flash that filled the room. Then almost instantly, the trailer shook from the thunderous boom that followed. Lightning had hit the ground right side of the window. I found it very exciting, but Gina was terrified. Did you know that if lightning hits sand, it will form beautiful glass sculptures? At the time, I did not know this. I wish I did, as the whole area was sand.
When the shift was over and it was time to leave Gilford Island, all the boys begged Gina and me to stay on, but one shift of cooking was enough for me, and besides, I think all the boys were falling in love with my wife. We headed back to town with a check in hand.