Surf Inlet
By George Moody.

For two years I drove as a motor man in a mine. Ore and waste out, steel and powder-tie in. An old cat lived in the mine; his eyes shone in the headlights of the motor. We worked hard because jobs were hard to get. Safe working rules were unheard of. My good friend was sent in alone and his head was crushed. We were sent in to clean it up before the police came. I was sick. We worked in the rubble from the blasts. A man had his leg smashed and they took him out of the mine on the top of a pile of ore. The pay was poor but jobs were hard to find. There were about 150 men on the crew and not one grey head.

The mine was on an island and faced the west. The wind blew off the open Pacific Ocean and you would have to see it to believe the rain and wind. We lived in a house that the former owner used as a guest house. We lived two to a room. I roomed with a man that was so tough, he was short but very strong. He had been a wrestler. One night when I came in I couldn't believe it, he was crying like a small boy. He had a letter from his wife in Vancouver telling him she was going to live with another man.

I was moved from the beach camp to the mine, the men were discontented and the camp was full of rumours. The war had started and the men were wondering what was coming next. We had a bull cook that was a German. Of course that was right down Jack's alley. He got his friend Bob and started looking for the bull cook. It was evening and of course raining, when they started looking. Someone told the bull cook and he ran out in the bush, no hat, no coat--he just ran. Jack went up and down the camp; he and Bob found some vanilla and they went through the camp, up one side and down the next. There was not much sleeping in the camp that night. They looked in every room, sometimes two and three times. Next day to work with a thick head.

We were on the West Coast with all of its wind and rain. There were two animals I had never seen before. One was a white deer that lived only on the West Coast. He is small and looks very much like a white-tailed deer. One of them came right into camp one evening. He didn't seem to be too afraid as he was with several other deer. I couldn't get a picture of him. There was also a small white bear in the area.

Three of the men saw one and caught it without hurting it. They wanted to sell him to a park. The men had him on a chain, He would pretend to be asleep until he thought you were close, then he would jump and try to grab you. The Government made them let it go.

The valley was narrow and the walls steep. The wall so steep that you never saw much light. We lived at the fish camp where we could load and unload the boats. A fisherman came and stayed a few days. This was unusual but he had his wife with him, there were no other women in the camp. I thought it was funny that some of the men admired the fisherman's wife for going for a row each morning. Their boat was too small to have a bathroom and she was trying to get out of sight. We had a big dog at the camp; some of the men thought it was funny to give him a steel mill ball. He would push it around until his mouth and nose were bleeding. I used to take the ball away from him, much to his displeasure.