Kenny’s Loggin’ – Working With Sam

Feb 17, 2022 - 3 years ago

The Teloskey family farm included the land that is now Thomas Haney Secondary and Teloskey Stadium plus a further 40 or so acres south of the Lougheed Highway in Haney B.C. They were also good baseball players. In fact Pete Teloskey built a stadium on his land that is still in use today.

Kenny’s Loggin’ – Working With Sam — Sam’s spot when raising the spar tree. This was his command centre where he barked orders at all the crew and you ran to get the tower up and logging. Sam was the best in the business at moving and rigging up the tower.

In those days if you were a good baseball player, companies would give you a job so you could play on their ball team. Sam and a couple of his brothers got employment with Comox Logging so they could play on the ball team. Sam later moved to Elk River Timber Co. for work.

In 1959 my family moved to Discovery Drive in Painter Barclay Subdivision in Campbell River. The Telosky family lived a few houses from us. I was the same age as Steve; we walked to the school bus stop together and hung out after school together, then when we were about 13 we started hanging out with our Dads at work. Sam worked for Elk River Timber Company and my Dad worked for Norie Bros. Logging.

In 1972 I had been exploring central B.C. When I got back in September I needed a job. Sam had moved to Nories’ by this time. I drove to his house and got a job on the rigging. That didn’t last too long as my Brother broke his leg working for my Dad and I replaced him.

My Dad had bought out a small company who worked for Elk River Timber. Around 1975 ERT phased us out and I was looking for work again. Sam hired me right away.

Norie Bros ran a crummy from town to Elk Bay and would stop by Duncan Bay Store to pick up some guys. I lived a bit farther up the road at Duncan Bay Road. There were three of us getting a ride here Sam would wave the crummy past and all three of us would have to climb in with Sam and all our stuff. He would wave the crummy by never letting it stop to pick us up. So we are all in the front of a F-250 ford truck with the heater wide open, windows shut. Lots of times we went quite a ways in third gear all the way to Roberts’ Lake where we turned off the highway. Nories’ were logging on Menzies Mountain.

You had to keep your eye on Sammy at lunch time. Usually had a fire, crew sitting around, in drives Sam. He would come over by the crew and when nobody was looking he would steal something out of somebodies lunch kit.

Not too long after we moved to C.R. mother got some Cascade berry cans from Sam. A cross between wild blackberry and logan berry. Big juicy berries, made delicious pies hot out of the oven with lots of vanilla ice cream. We now say “to die for”.

Ken Wilson worked in the logging industry in B.C. for over 50 years. Ken is a regular contributor to Supply Post newspaper with his column “Kenny’s Loggin’”, and resides on Vancouver Island, B.C.