c/o C. M. & S. Co. Ltd.
Yellowknife, N. W. T.
Dec. 9th /37.
Dear Mother:
It is now quite some time since the first plane came in so I should have written long ago. It actually arrived on Saturday Nov 27 at 2:05—And I had sweepstake tickets on Friday and Sunday. Two planes arrived on that day—the first carrying nothing but mail. I got about four letters and several Lifes, Posts and Couriers. One of the letters was the long waited for one from Peter—it had been addressed to Yellowstone and hence came back to him thru the dead letter office.
Strangely enough the incoming mail has brought little extra work as yet and the only work different than usual is the preparation of the Christmas bonus lists. Every married man gets a turkey and single man $2.00 in lieu of this. If you have been with the coming [sic] over a year there is another bonus of up to $50.00. If I had joined the company on June 30 I would have got $17.50 as a bonus. Only missed it by two weeks.
Our own company plane arrived the following Saturday (Dec 4th) and has been terrifically busy ever since. A typical trip is to bring in a load of meat or tractor parts etc. and then take out four or five men on the return trip. A lot of men quitting so that they can be home for Christmas although a lot more will be laid off fairly soon as the completion of the construction work approaches. Today it was almost dark when the plane came in. The particular pilot of this plane always shows up the commercial pilots and most of our own too in the hours he puts in and the weather that he flies in.
Howard Carruthers came up from Goldfields with him two days ago and he said the weather was as thick as soup and any other pilot would probably have landed. Howard came up more for a holiday than for business I think—he certainly brought the means of entertainment. He is exactly the same as Colin in the way he talks and looks much the same—but perhaps you can remember him.
Bill Jewett arrived today in his plane so as you can imagine the staff-house is overflowing especially since two of the bedrooms downstairs are used for offices. Some of the “big shots” from Trail are supposed to be in shortly.
I had my medical exam last Saturday so the report should be on the way to the head office now.
I have played quite a lot of bridge lately. Last night I was playing with the construction superintendent and his wife. It was quite an occasion as I wore a tie for the first time since July. Their house is fixed up very nicely. All the chairs were made by the carpenters here. There are no radiators in the sitting room mostly because no spares were ordered. Instead there is a flat coil of pipes concealed behind veneer which seems to be just as good and certainly adds to the appearance of the room.
The temperature is as low as it has been tonight at 28° below. The sun doesn’t rise now until ten in the morning and never gets very far above the horizon. I received a very interesting letter from Archie telling about the hunting trip—quite an adventure I gather. The pictures of the community hall were very good.
The floor-polisher sounds a good idea. They had the same thing in the residences at Varsity. However if I remember rightly you still had to put the wax on by hand.
Doug. Wilmot has just come in with a most beautiful parka trimmed with wolverine and lined with duffle cloth. He had it made in McMurray and it is a work of art. The only thing that is wrong with it is as [sic] it is too small. He is wondering whats [sic] to be done now.
With love from
Tony.