BACK HOME
Mr. Fife came after me right away. I worked for Fife for a while (Chapleau Electric Light and Power Company...forerunner to Ontario Hydro in Chapleau).
Then I got a job with the CPR in 1950. I worked on steam engines and diesels, both. Old Fife was mad as hell. He offered jobs…he offered me his own job. "I'm not going to live forever", he said, "You'll be able to take me place after". Clyde (Mr. Fife’s son) was working at the relay office then. He quit that and went with Chapleau Electric...came back to work with his father. Fife threw me out of our house. He was real mean then, (Mom and Dad’s home was part of a 4-plex that was situated where Chapleau Groves Department Store is today, next to the post office, which was owned by Mr. Fife) . Mr. Fife's office was also part of the complex).
MARRIAGE
I met your mother in about 1946. We married in 1948. Going up the isle of the church on his wedding day...That was the longest walk in my life?
Wedding Day December 8 1948
Mom & Dad's first home after they were married. Stiuated where Chapleau Grove's Department Store now stands.
I worked with the CPR from 1950 to I974, (in the maintenance shops as electrician). I worked for Sheppard & Morse for 15-16 years, part-time. I used to work at the CPR I2 to 8, come home to have breakfast and then go to work at Sheppard & Morse, 9 o'clock to 5 o'clock. Kathy was just a little girl, when. I went out there. (Kathy Halliday, youngest daughter of Bob &- Oueenie Halliday, mom's cousin, who lived out at Sheppard & Morse). (Mel) Fizzell was the boss. He wanted me to wire the diesel station. "I haven't done any of that", t told him. "Oh, you'll be able to do it. Come on out", he said. I wired the station up and I was there ever since. That was my first job with them. I wired all the houses for hydro out there too. (The Sheppard & Morse townsite was a favourite place for many Corston-Jardine family events and dad took me there with him many times. Today the townsite is almost completely gone and is mostly unrecognizable from it rather idyllic former days).
In 1974 the (CPR) shops closed. I worked out at Sheppard & Morse. They (the CPR) wanted me to be "Maintainer" at Sudbury. I went down to Sudbury and was talking to Stan Lloyd. He was Foreman at Sudbury. He said, "You're crazy to come here. You'll work 7-days a week, 24-hours a day. It's not worth it. You're crazy to come here". So, I went back home and worked for Sheppard & Morse then. In Sudbury I'd have to work with the diesels 24-hours a day and then every two weeks I'd have to go to the Sault to maintain the yard engine there.
"To hell with it"