1961 - 1971 by G. Edwards

It's only 10 years ago and
sometimes that appears to be a long
time ago, at other times, just yes-
terday.

| well remember the shock | had
when | stepped off the ''Convoy'"' at
Watson Lake to find an airport build
ing made of logs, to add to it the
only hotel in town the same. Then
the long cold drive up the road in
the darkness with Earl Boose mutter-
ing to himself, past Mud Hill with
telephone at the side of the road,
then the road camp with only a coup]
of lights glimmering in the dark.

Joe Reids Hill, one of the real
tough places in those days, again
with a telephone on the side of the
hill.

Mud Hill, as it was, is long
gone. Joe Reids Hill has got to be
just another hill, while the Road
Camp with its blaze of lights is
just another way to spend the tax-
payers money. The telephones were
of course, for the use of our Trans-
port truck drivers who could be In
trouble on the hills. I believe
the telephones were supplied free by
the Telephone Company, part of the
Northern Philosophy of ‘help your
fellow-man' . Somehow | feel the
road is losing its character as the
real challange is gone, it's fast
developing into just another road.
Speaking of telephones, | often spe-
nt two days just trying to get a
line out on the one line we had!

As we passed the ''Tramline"',
the buckets were on the line just as
they are today. It must have been
at least 20 below. Sno in the town
that night of November 1,1961 was
piled, oh say, 5 or 6 feet high and
looked so beautiful, pure and clean
and white. I was to find out in the
spring how it covered up the sins of
man. We didn't have street lights
like we have today, rather just a
bulb here and there, to me this just
added to the glory of nature and

gave such a warm look to each house
snuggled down In the snw.

The town ended at Hunt St. with
some unfinished houses and a hodge
podge of trailers at Its north end.
The real trailer park, also long
gone, was up that little road East
of the Catholic Church off Maloze-
mof f.

And of course the streets
weren't paved, this led to some
thrilling experiences In the spring
when it came. 1 remember one year
parking my car at the cafeteria and
walking home. I had to, the darn
thing was stuck.

No radio elther, well no radio
unless you had a good set and an
ariel, the booster station we have
today came In later. And the kid-
ding | took because |! moved [In with
a T.V. and left It sitting In the
living room. This was considered
first class stupidity as Casstar
would never never have T.V.. We
didn't have a lot of the things we
have today, skating rink, swimming
pool, ski-tow, cocktail bar, liquor
store, paved streets, T.V., even
the curling rink ended at the back
of the seats that look out onto the
ice! The champs to. beat on the ice
then were Jack Berry or Rupert
McKenzie and when Julie Caron rolled
up her sleeves, everybody stand to
one side, here comes a curler!

And the people? Well the
people have changed, back In '61
most of the residents had no chi ld-
ren or the family was grown up, in
fact children were few and far be-
tween, so no worry about baby sitters.
Pat Stevens who made up the curling
draws for many years never did plan
a game for a Saturday night because
as Pat put it ''that was party night''
and man did we have parties! Really
there was good reason for it, you
see you ordered your Ifiquor by mai
or through the main office, at least
two weeks ahead of time as you gen-
erally ordered a case, well, there
was the opportunity to have a
party - we used to say, gosh just
supposing it went bad!