Larsons

Pat Larson was down in Brisbane at the Prince Charles hospital after a heart attack, and Rich and Natasha came down and stayed with Lee and Joan for a few days. Michael and Jay also came over from Canada. Sadly I missed taking photos but it was lovely to see them all again after so many years - even if it was less than ideal circumstances. Pat is back in Townsville and the boys have gone home to Canada. Rich sent a lovely note to Lee and Joan and included a few memories which are here:-

"I was thinking lately (back in the day) – as our Michael would say ‘back in the day Dad’. Back in 1939 when I was 11 years old. My mother had a lump on her breast and my parents were worried about it. Auntie Ruth was her sister and they wrote back and forth. I guess there were phones in those days, but I don’t ever remember them using one. Anyway if it wasn’t for Ruth and Gordon we probably wouldn’t have gone to Merritt BC. We lived with them till Lee was born, then they went back to Alberta for a few years. When Uncle Don came home from the war (1946 or 1947) the Walkers got a team of horses and a truck and started logging. Wendall and I and Vern and I had our first job in the bush pulling and crosscut saw. We felled the trees and cut them into logs.

Gordon drove the team skidding the logs. Don drove the truck and Grandad Walker drove the team when they crow hauled the logs onto the truck. Auntie Ruth did the cooking and us kids had a fair appetite after pulling the saw all day.

If it wasn’t for Auntie Ruth writing to me I would never have gone to Australia. I worked with Lee and Wayne fencing for the first three years in Australia and we used to stay with Ruth and Gordon in between jobs. Then when I struck out on my own I still came back and stayed with them between jobs. I was there when Patricia came over to visit Auntie Ruth. Patricia and I started going out together and we were married a few months later.

Gordon got me a few jobs on the trains, going out west, picking up cattle and looking after them till we got back to the meatworks. There was always plenty to eat at Ruth and Gordons. I think we kept them poor but I never drew a hungry breath as long as I was at their place."