My Story - Robin Imbeault

PhiGéo

MY STORY
(PART 1)

Robin Imbeault

(version française http://phigeo.blogspot.com/2012/01/phigeo-robin-imbeault-mon-histoire.html)


I was born on X-Mass day December 25, 1943 in Val d’Or, Quebec in my parent’s house on 16th Street across from the Lefebvre Hotel. I know that we moved into a small house that my parents purchased on 17th Street when I was about 2 years old. The house was a two room shack that my dad repaired and added on some rooms as time went by, the family grew and they could afford to do it.



Robin - 1949

 One of my earlier recollections is when my parents decided to add a basement, one bed room and a bath room to the Kitchen, living room and the three bedroom that were already part of the house. The first floor was one living room in the front part of the house, one very small bathroom (toilet and sink), and the kitchen, the second floor had two small bedroom in the front part of the house and one slightly bigger room in the back with the trap door to the stairs.

In 1955 we poured the cement for the 4 walls of what would eventually become the basement and the construction went on for a long time until we had added one bed room and one small storage room on the upstairs floor, one nice and complete bathroom downstairs and a nice large entrance in the rear part of the house. The tiny bathroom became the access to the basement. Over the next year or so was spent digging the space for the basement, I remember that the ground was extremely hard and had to be broken up with a pick before we could shovel it and then shove it out through the small windows in the basement walls so it could be picked up again and loaded in the trailer and then taken to a dumping area at the end of the street.


I started school at St-Saviour elementary in 1949. I had to repeat grade 2 because my marks were not very good at all. Then in 1953 my sister Rejeanne and I were sent to a boarding school in Notre-Dame-Des-Anges just a few miles from Quebec City. My conduct was not very good and the Nuns would have preferred for me to stay home after the X-Mass break, they even sent my parents a letter asking them to send me to another school for the rest of the school year but my parents insisted that I finish the year since they had already paid for my boarding there.

The following year they sent me to another boarding school this time in St-Hyacinthe near Montreal I completed the year there and the following year I stayed home and went to the local school Mgr. Desmarais to complete grade 6-7-8 and part of grade 9. At that time I decided that I knew all there was to know and refused to go back to school and even finish the school year. So I actually did not finish grade 9 at school. From then on I just kept going downhill until mid 1961 when I ended up in serious trouble with the law. I will not go into details at this time but the next 4 years were kind of rough for me and my parents.



Sometime in mid 1965 I met Mary who lived next door to my Mom and Dad on 10th street in Val d’Or, Quebec. My parents had moved there from 17th street I think in 1963 or 1964. Mary and I have been together since then. Our first official meeting happened on August 22, 1965 and we were married on January 8th, 1966 at the Ukrainian Church in Val d’Or. We had a reception at the Polish Hall where there was at least 100 invited guests.



We rented a small apartment on 11th street where we had to share the bathroom with the other tenants in the house, but the rent was cheap. I was working in Quevillon at the time as a housing clerk for Atco Services Ltd. I quit that job shortly after I got married because I wanted to spend as much time with my new wife as I could. So I came home and started looking for a job in town, I was lucky that my Dad was working at the mine (Manitou Barvue Mines) and had a very good reputation so they hired me within two weeks after I had quit my first job at Atco Services. I stayed at that mine for 5 years until they decided to shut down because apparently they had ran out of reserve so they layed off most of the work force but then they decided to continue operation for another few years after that. I had already found another job and had no intention of going back there I was working for Victorien Sylvestre Quebec Land Surveyor and I wanted to learn the trade and decided to stay there instead of going back to the mine and risk getting layed off again within a year or so.

Robin's painting - 1962

As it turned out I worked for Sylvestre for about 2 and half year and from there I went to work for another Quebec Land Surveyor in St-Jean d’Hyberville (Now called St-Jean sur Richelieu) where I stayed another 2 years or so. From there I had to move back to Val d’Or where I found a job with another Quebec Land Surveyor I can’t remember his name. But it did not last very long he told me one day without warning that my services were no longer needed.


So I had to take a job in a Collection Agency in town where I stayed until I got another job in a Local Mine (Sigma Mine) where I worked as a underground surveyor for about one year. They decided to cut back then because the price of gold had taken a plunge so I was one of the first one to get the lay off notice. From there I went to work at James Bay but again it did not last very long to tell the truth I don’t even know what I was supposed to be doing up there anyway, All I did during the 57 days that I was there is just sit in the office and look out the window, I answered the few phone calls that we got and that’s about it. Then Mary and the kids were caught in the middle of a bank robbery in Val d’Or and there was some shooting, one of the bank robber was shot dead on the spot, so Mary and the kids were a bit shook up and so was my Mom when they managed to get me on the phone to let me know what had happened. So I quit that job and came home the next day.

Mary and Robin - 1965

I had sent quite a few resume everywhere I thought I’d have a chance for a job and sure enough I was lucky that a few days after I got home I got a call from a Company in Western Canada that were interested in my qualifications. They conducted a quick interview on the phone and told me to go for a medical as soon as possible and have the doctor send them a report, if I pass the physical I had the job.

So I went for the physical with Dr. Mercier and had him send them the report. They called back within a day or two and told me that they would send me the plane tickets for me and my family. They wanted me to get up there as soon as possible. So we left Val d’Or on December the 8th 1976 with Edmonton, Alberta as our destination where I was to go into their head office for another interview before heading up north to Uranium City, Saskatchewan. They had told me on the phone that I would have a company house and I did not need to bring my car up there since the town was so small I did not need transportation. So the next day we got on the company plane (a DC4) and flew north-east to Uranium City Saskatchewan.

We actually landed in Eldorado the mine town site just barely ¼ of a mile from the mine itself. The temperature in UC that morning was something like -58F and a very strong wind. I actually did not even wanted to get off the plane, I wanted to go back home right there and there, but they told me that the flight back to Edmonton was booked solid and I would have to wait at least until Monday to fly back If that’s what I really wanted.

We got off the plane and walked into the terminal at that small private airport. The place was right in the middle of a major make over and the power was not hooked up neither was the water. So I wanted to go back even more then.

But fortunately the human resource man that met with us at the airport took us to our temporary residence, as he said that our permanent home in the town of Uranium City was not ready yet. Our temporary residence was a double wide house trailer (brand new apparently) all furnished and equipped with everything that we may needed. He told us that he would give us an hour or so to get our bearing and then he would come back and pick us up to take us into the town of UC so we could pick up whatever grocery that we found missing in the cupboard and fridge as well as show us our future home in town.

We were not really impressed with the town either, very small and older and very small homes. Then he showed us our future home. It looked like it had been build rather recently and looked pretty good, nice big yard and butting a small lake at the rear of the lot. Then we went to the company grocery store in town, he told us that it used to be reserved for the company employees only but it had been changed a couple years ago to serve everybody in town. From there he took us to The Bay store, a general store as well as a grocery store. He showed us the hardware store, the drug store, the hotel, the bank, the restaurant, the post office etc. He also explained that I was entitle to so many free flight on the company plane to Edmonton with my family as well as some special pass for visitors that may want to come up to UC to visit with us.

I started to work on the Monday, first of course I had to go through the initiation and some training as a (contract engineer) actually my job was to keep track of the work done by the miners underground and calculate the bonus according to a very detailed list of the different task and their value in points from which the bonus was calculated. My job also included a regular underground inspection of the different work areas and investigation when necessary if cheating was suspected etc.

I think that Mary and the kids adapted to our new home fairly quickly even though we were right in the middle of a bitter cold winter. Also the kids had to get adjusted to a new school and new friends etc. I’m sure it was not easy for them either. But after the end of the following summer all seemed to be settled down and things got easier for everybody.

We actually spent 5 years up there until the Mine management decided to close up the mine after more than 40 years in operations. So we had to move again and start all over again.

While living in Uranium City we made some pretty good friends with whom we have kept in touch ever since. My best friend up there the first couple years that we spend up there was Peter Wilson, we met through the local CB club and became very good friends. One day he came to my house to tell me that he had decided to move out of UC and try his luck down south. He had saved up enough money to go back to school in Saskatoon as a Power Engineer and he asked me if I could drive him to the airport. I don’t remember for sure if that happened a few days before he was to leave town or just the day before it’s just kind of fogged up in my memory. 



I was very upset by his leaving town because it was actually the first time since my school days back in Val d’Or that I had made a good friend and now he was leaving. He had been raised in that town so I can imagine that it was not easy for him either. He had got married in UC a couple years before we met but him and his wife did not make a very good go out of it and they separated I think shortly before I even met him. After he left UC was not the same place for me any more and it took me a while to get back down to business and make new friends. By the time we left Saskatchewan both Mary and I had made friends with about three couples with whom we had things in common.




One couple was the Kusmic, Fred and Ardele and their 6 kids plus their 3 or 4 foster child. Next was the Eaket, Roy and Carroll and their 5 or 6 kids and then the Husack, Jack and Pauline and their 5 kids even though at least one (the oldest I presume) had left town already and made a life with his wife and kids somewhere in BC. We are still in more or less regular contact with all of them though it’s not what you would call a very close relationship.

The Kusmic for example live in Edson, Alberta where we also lived for 16 years, all that time we did not keep very close because of their occupations with their foster kids and all and the fact that they are very religious and belong to a born again kind of church.

Mary, Robin, Sonya and Robby - 1977

The Eakets who moved from UC to Ontario and then to Nova Scotia where they still live. The Husack actually were the last ones of our group to move out of UC, they went to Kindersley, Saskatchewan where they are retired now, we have been keeping in touch with them by sending them a X-Mass card and the like. We actually stopped at their place a couple times during all those years for some very short visits.

The only one that I have been really keeping in touch with especially over the last 5 or 6 years is Peter who live now in Calgary with his new wife of about 20 years, he is actually been retired for a few years already but his wife is still working but seriously thinking of retiring soon as well. One of the main reason we are still keeping in touch is because of our affection for motorcycles. We actually went on vacation to BC on more than one occasion where we met and spent at least one week at a Campground in Penticton and spent our days riding our motorcycles.

Last summer we did not meet with them first because of my health problems and beside they had planned a long trip to the east coast, we had discussed going with them for at least a portion of the trip but because I was still working at the time I was limited as to the amount of time I could take at one time. They had planned for a two months trip and they did it, they seem to have enjoyed every minutes of it, Peter has been sending me pictures they took all the way through their traveling with a short description of each photo. I recognized a lot of the places they visited since we had been in these different area over the past few years when we lived in Quebec and then during some of our vacation trips while living either up in UC or later in Yellowknife.

When we left UC in the middle of April 1982 Mary and Sonya got on a plane in UC and landed in Saskatoon where they rented a motel and waited for Robby and me, we were driving our ½ ton Pick up truck pulling a trailer carrying our boat. Once we got to North Battleford I found that we had done a lot of damage to the boat during the trip on the ice road and then the 100 miles or so of winter road so I decided to go ahead with an idea that had been brewing in my mind for some time of trading the boat for camper that could be mounted on the back of my pickup truck. So that’s what we did, we made the deal in North Battleford at Hunter Sport with the understanding that we were going to come back the next day to pick up our camper and sign the papers etc. That’s what we did the next day and then back for another day at the motel in Saskatoon and the day after that we got on the road with a goal of reaching Val d’Or, Quebec in about 3 or 4 days and using our new\old camper to sleep etc.

We got on the highway the next day but soon found out that our plain Jane, 1981 ½ ton Pick up truck was too small to handle that large truck camper, not enough power (6 cylinders engine) and too light a suspension which made it very unstable when meeting those large 18 wheelers. So we briefly discussed what we should do on the way down to Regina. By the time we reached Regina we had decided to either trade in the truck for a bigger one that could handle the load or turn around and head up to Yellowknife right away and forget about a vacation for that summer.

When we got into Regina I spotted a GM dealer on the side of the road with a shopping mall just across the street, so I told Mushka that I could drop her and the kids to the mall while I went and talked to the sales personnel across the street. Within a few minutes I had picked a used but also a 1981 model Chevrolet ¾ ton with a big V8 engine that could handle the camper without any problem at all. So I got them to take the camper off my ½ ton truck and install it on the ¾ ton and we were on our way within one or two hours with the 1981 Chevrolet Pick up truck with Air condition, tilt steering, cruise control and electric lock with very low mileage, actually I think it only had about 5000 kilometres on it, the ½ ton I was trading in had a bit more than 10,000 kilometres, so we were all happy and got on our merry way.

We made it into Val d’Or after a brief stop in Elliot Lake, Ontario and visited the relatives there for a few days and then we decided to drive down to Montreal and visit the rest of the family down there. Mother decided to accept our offer to ride with us back to Elliot Lake to visit her Sister Aunt Florence and her sister in law Aunt Simone and Uncle Gerard. From there we drove all the way to Yellowknife with the exception that we had to leave our truck and the small trailer (my inheritance from my Dad) with a small aluminium boat and motor in Hay River and fly in from there. I had to come back about one month later once the ferry was back in the water to cross the McKenzie river. Of course the house that we were assigned by Human Resource was not ready for us so we had to stay at the Explorer Hotel for the first week or so before we could move in. I don’t remember if our furniture was there already or not, I really can’t remember what the reason why we had to stay at the hotel for those first few days.

My job at the mine (Giant Mine) was Surface Surveyor, I was supposed to take care of all the surveying of the Open pits and all other surveying that needed to be done on surface. That went pretty well for the first couple years, then one day my boss told me that there was going to be an opening in the open pit as Shift Boss and they were interested in offering me the position. So I accepted the offer and went to work in the open pit. The job was a lot easier than I first imagine it would be and I did well the whole time I was there, until they decided that they were closing the open pit operation and they offered me the position of TRP Foreman (TRP standing for Tailings Retreatment Plant) where I worked for a little over one year, the operation being a warm weather operation only they offered me a position in the maintenance department as maintenance planner for the off season, I did not like that job very much and did not put very much effort in to it.

Robin - Edmonton 2007

So the first chance to get out of there came when a position as Chief Surveyor opened up so I applied for it and got it. I stayed on that job until the day I left Yellowknife on a transfer to the company’s new operation in Hope Brook, Newfoundland. Things had not been going very good at the mine for sometime (actually things went sour the day Royal Oak Mine took over the operation) The new Big Boss was Peggy Whitte (Miss Piggy) and she imposed her twisted and oppressive system on the operation. The miners belonged to a very radical union (CASAW) and they immediately started to butt head and it got worse and worse, then came the negotiations for a new contract that did not go well at all for either side. I could see what was coming and did not like it one bit, I had to sit in some manager’s meeting where the discussion centered on the hiring of scab labour and heavy handed security personnel to fight the unionized workers when the strike was going to start, they had everything planned and people hired already before the strike was even voted on.

My wife MARY and I moved to Corner Brook Newfoundland at the end of April 1992. On our way down to Edmonton where we were planning to spend a couple days before heading East we had an accident on the road, about 300 kilometres North of Edmonton. It was about 1.00am and I was getting tired and thought I saw a dog or some animal on the road, I tried to avoid it and lost control of the car and ended up in the ditch, after hitting the side of a culvert the car actually went flying for a few feet where there was no tracks on the pavement whatever. Mary got hurt pretty bad but I was lucky not to get even as much as a scratch. She tried to get out of the car but could not move because of the terrible pain in her side, I assumed that she had at least one rib broken and told her not to move and I would get help right away.

Unfortunately the area did not have cell phone service so I tried to stop the next vehicle to come by. After about three or four vehicles drove right on so I kind of stood in the middle of the road and stopped the next one, a big rig, the driver had one of those radio phone and managed to call for an ambulance and the cops. The cops showed up first and helped me gather the car topper I had strapped on the roof that had gone flying over the farmer’s fence and some of the stuff that had gotten loose and scattered a little all over. By then the ambulance showed up and they got Mary out of the car and on a stretcher and in the ambulance. They wanted me to ride with her to the nearest hospital in McLennan about 375 kilometres north of Edmonton. The cops told me that they would take care of getting a tow truck and have all my stuff safely locked inside the car and have it towed to a garage near by where I could come back the next day or so and take care of business. 

Once in McLennan and in the hospital a doctor on duty examined Mary and decided that she was injured bad enough that they could not take care of her there, so he made arrangements to have her medivac to Edmonton. Since there was no room for me on the plane because they had to send a nurse with Mary I had to stay in McLennan overnight. There was no room available at either the Hotel or the motel in town so I spent the rest of the night walking the street, when I walked out of the hospital the door locked behind me so there was no way I could get back in there. I spent at least one or two hours standing under a gable in front of the motel after knocking on the door and the window with no answer. Then it started to drizzle just enough to get me wet right through before the motel owner finally woke up and let me in. I told them my story so they gave me a free breakfast and called a car rental company in Peace River 77 kilometres north of McLennan. They agreed to bring a car for me but they had to have the usual Visa credit card number first. I ended up waiting at least 4 to 5 hours for the delivery because the first car they were going to rent to me broke down so they had to head back to Peace River and get a different one.

Robin and his friend Peter - 2010

I drove down to Edmonton and found Mary at the University Hospital where they had taken care of her problems, but she was still in intensive care where they kept her for three or four days before moving her to a regular room. When Robby and Sylvia heard what had happened they decided to fly down to Edmonton from Yellowknife to spend a couple days with us. I was staying in my Motor home that I had taken down to Edmonton about one month ahead to have some repairs done so I just went to the shop and took delivery and set it up at the Glowing Embers Campground just outside of Edmonton, instead of renting a room at a Hotel. I stayed there until Mary was released from the hospital and was ready to travel.

We were supposed to be at my new job at the end of April but by then it was already the last week of the month and the drive to Newfoundland would take at least 7 to 10 days in my estimation, so I called my boss and explained the situation and also told him that I would like to take a few extra days to visit my Mom and brothers and sisters in Quebec on my way in. They said that they would wait for me and I could take a couple weeks.

We did spend a couple weeks visiting all the relatives in Montreal and Val d’Or and spend some time just driving around the area with the motor home and visited all the old places that we used to spend time when we lived in St-Jean and Val d’Or before finally heading to Newfoundland.

If I remember well we got to Cornerbrook where we had decided to settle down during the first week of May and rented a house there. I stayed one day or two before heading to the Mine site. I had to book a flight with the company contractor. I was very well received there and as it turned out I found that I had the same boss that I had in Yellowknife, he had been transferred as well while we were in Edmonton and Quebec, so everything was good.

My job in Hopebrook was Site Service Foreman, my duties were everything that had to do with transportation on, in and out of the Mine Site, I also was responsible for all the heavy equipment on the mine site, the carpenters and all the surface heavy equipment operators. I also had to schedule the plane service in and out of the Mine site as well as the boat (Le Couteau Jaune). One of my first responsibilities at the site was the completion of the temporary runway for the Twin Otter plane making the trips in and out of the site. Once that was completed we started working on the permanent airport runway at the other end of the property. That was my main responsibilities I had to find a proper place where we could quarry some rock and set up a portable crusher to make the material needed for the top portion of the runway.

The only way in and out of the Mine Site was either by plane or boat in the summer. During the winter some of the man travelled by Snow Mobile but I was not there long enough to see any one making the treck by Snow Mobile, I got there after the season was over and left before the next season started. I started on that job sometime at the beginning of May 1992 and left sometime in mid-November 1992.



Robin and his son Robby -2010

Going back a few years, my pre-teen years, I did not have a very high opinion of myself. I thought that I could never make friend because I had nothing to offer and I thought that I was very holely looking so I probably never amount to anything. Then during my teen-years it got worse and I felt that i had to do things to draw attention to myself so I got into all kinds of mischief’s. It seems that without wanting to I would get in trouble all the time, I had to deal with my sister Rejeanne that was a couple years older than me and always had an exemplary conduct, she could do anything wrong it seems so it made it very difficult for me to live up to that. I always admired Rejeanne and tried at time to emulate her but I was never very successful I always ended up doing the wrong thing at the wrong time it seems. One example of my getting into trouble over stupid thing is one day in the middle of winter we were encouraged by our teachers to bring our skates to school and make the best of the newly flooded skating ring after school. So I got permission to bring my skates at school and stay for one hour or so until it was time to go home for supper around 5.00pm or so. Of course I could never do anything half measure so sometime around 7.00pm my Dad had to come out to school and take me home. He did not let me change to my boots, I had to walk with my skates on all the way home. Our home was only about 4 blocks away it’s still not very comfortable walking in soft snow on the side of the street. When I got home and managed to takes my skates off I found that my toes on both feet were frozen solid. So my Mom got me in the bath tub to taw out. I remember a big chunk of skin coming off the bottom of one of my big toe. And of course I had to spend some time kneeling down in the corner as punishment for not coming home at a decent hour like I was supposed to. I had so much fun at the skating ring that I completely lost track of time and had no intention of worrying my Mom but that’s what happened so here I was again being a bad boy.



Once when I was in grade 6 or 7 I had joined with the school marching band playing the bugle. Of course we had practice once a week or something like that in the evening, so one evening that it was very nice outside and my friends Denis Latulippe and Richard Gagnon were playing at the park in Bourlamaque not very far from home so instead of going to the practice at the school like i was supposed to I decided that I was going to stay with my friends and play at the park. It just so happened that there was a very bad accident that happened in the park that evening and I was right there when it happened maybe 10 or 15 feet away. There were some boys swinging on the big swing and the top cross piece where the swings are attached let go and fell on them. One of the boy Denis Eagar I did not know personally but I knew him to see him got hit right on the head and died right there and then, his friend Bob that used to live in a house on 16th street just behind our home was also on the head but the blow glanced off a bit and he was hurt very bad but eventually survived the accident. Of course I got all shook up and ran home. My mom kind of suspected that something had happened but for some reason decided not to question me, I must have been pretty shook up. Later on after I got married I found out that my wife Mary was there also that evening, some coincidence. I also worked with Denis Eagar’s Father when I worked at the Manitou Barvue Mine, he was the chief geologist there.