In the summer of 1969 I was employed by Pillsbury Canada limited at their flour mill in Calgary Alberta I have attached a picture its the building to the left of all the railway tracks which are part of CPR's Alyth yard. I started out as a warehouseman loading boxcars for $1.30 an hour after two years of playing human forklift I was promoted to position up in the flour mill where I worked as a sifter operator this job paid a little bit better and it gave me an opportunity to learn a new trade as an apprentice Miller. And besides that we got to wear real cool white cotton uniforms instead of coveralls. The job of a sifter operator involved shift work looking after the machinery on the top four floors of this 10-floor building, and as a bonus for a train Nut like me we had great view of the train yard from the upper floors. One of our duties was to load feed car’s with bran and shorts, which are byproducts of milling white flour. To do this I had to go down to the ground floor of the mill and go out onto the front-loading dock and place a spout in a boxcar to blow feed into each end of the car until it was full with 40 tons of bran or shorts.

One sunny summer day just after pay day I was down on the front dock setting up another feed car when a gentleman came up to me and asked me some questions about where to find a certain building as he was looking for employment. He told me a sad story of about being out of work and down on his luck, and not having eaten in a while. I remarked that was a real shame, he then said to me would I be interested in buying a nice wristwatch noting the one I was wearing looked pretty shabby. He pulled out of his pocket a beautiful wristwatch and let me look at it. WOW was I impressed it had a dazzling blue metallic dial that was inscribed "Kormilton specially electronically timed" and a brilliant gold band that sparkled in the sunlight. I asked him how much he wanted for the watch he said he would let it go for $30, I said would you take $20 he said yes so I bought the watch. Boy was I proud of that watch, all my co-workers admired it. Anyways after about two weeks of working in the dusty environment my watch, like the bags of flour we produced, packed it in. It was then I learned when I took it to a local watchmaker that I had been conned and the watch wasn't worth two bits. Oh well live and learn, the next watch I bought was a Hamilton and it was a pocket watch but that's another story.

Larry Buchan
(Buchaneer)

IHC member #28

Larry,

We should come up with an area just for you to tell your stories. You have an amazing talent for making every facet of life interesting!

This morning I slept in later than usual. When I came downstairs my wife Debbie and our 8-year-old daughter Ann were at the computer checking out our new IHC Discussion Site. They were reading all the things we talk about and marvelling over all the pictures. For more than an hour they toured everything we have put together so far. Our little Ann was so excited to see your Canadian 24-hour dials, the unusual watches and clocks and even the railroad trains we have on display. Together they read aloud most every post.

It was then I realized we are not only doing something worthwhile here, we're doing it the right way. We will never have to be concerned about who in the family might be looking over what we are engaging in here, because every post is interesting, the conversation is clean and uplifting. In fact there is truly something for everyone to enjoy.

It's because of people like you Larry, people who contribute so freely and keep this a friendly place that we can be confident the IHC will succeed.

Keep spinning those great stories, and we'll all have just that much more to enjoy!

Best Wishes,

Lindell V. Riddle, Interim President
NAWCC Internet Horology Chapter

nawcc-ihc@adelphia.net

Phone: (440) 461-0167