c/o C. M. & S. Co. Ltd.
Yellowknife, N. W. T.
March 26, 1938
Dear Mother:
Your last letter posted on Sunday or Monday arrived on Thursday as you suspected it might. I am afraid I have missed the outgoing mail plane but I can send it out with Page tomorrow morning. If the weather here is any indication of what it is like in McMurray I don’t think we can expect more than two more Thursday mail planes. It is about forty-five today. Skiing has not improved as I hoped it would and I think all the snow will go before it does improve.
We are beginning to sign on men again—not for the mine but to work on our claims in the bush. However we are taking on very few before break up—perhaps because we do not have enough food to support a large force in the field—and as a result there is an unemployment situation over town. This is because so many men are coming in by plane on the of chance of getting a job instead of making sure before they come in. I don’t know where all of them stay—certainly the Corona Inn (Pete Racine’s hotel) could not accommodate all of them.
There is considerable rivalry between the hotel and the restaurant which makes a good story. The hotel brought in a very attractive young waitress not long ago. One day the MAS radio operator brought her over to Con to meet the doctor and his wife. Unfortunately they kept her until after eleven when she was supposed to be home sharp at 10:30 so she was promptly fired. However the restaurant with much greater fore sight promptly hired her and the restaurant business immediately jumped some 400%. So now the hotel has brought in two more waitresses bout it is conjecturable whether quantity will rival quality.
On Mar. 14 I wired my bank to buy some C. M. & S. stock. The stock was then at 56 which seemed all one could hope for as it as been around 62 since Christmas and was up to 80 last spring. Anyway I asked them to buy at 56 which they did but they didn’t buy till Wednesday when the stock was even lower so I don’t feel they did their best for me. However I feel bound to win on this deal. You will be able to follow my fortune in the Province.
Page gave us another exhibition of stunting yesterday. He took Tudor with him who egged him on and the poor old Fairchild did everything it could. They went up pretty high and nose dived to gain speed and then did three loops in a row. This was the high point in the entertainment but the low swoops over us were more exciting. My picture os the swooping on the staffhouse interprets very poorly how it really looked to us.
The Edmonton Bulletin says we are going to have a theatre in here by the end of August. I don’t believe that I have missed picture shows very much but as soon as I see them again I will probably realise that I have. The pictures that Eric took of me writing a letter and listening to the radio were not very successful as despite three floodlights they were very dark.
One of our office staff has left and so for a little while I will have enough to do to keep me busy. It is very slack in the office at present and Eric says he might be going out over breakup. A new man for the office is supposed to arrive next week so that he will be well broken in to the routine by the time the summer rush starts.
With love from
Tony.