Kennys Loggin – The MacMillan Bloedel Family

Aug 21, 2024 - one year ago

To say the M and B company was a family-orientated place to work is an understatement!

The Family Picnic Committee: Back row – Back left John Devlin (log loader operator), behind is Ed Lizor (boom department), **Ken Wilson** (yarding & loading / boom department), Wanda Brooks (timekeeper), behind is Mark Nichols (excavator operator), Roger Wright (faller), John Johnson (mechanic), Harold Brownson (supervisor). Front row: Left side Gordie Lee (yarding & loading department) and Ally Gibson (engineer). Photo courtesy Wanda Brooks.

Right away, the Attfield boys come to mind. There was Ken and Cecil; both fallers. Ken’s sons, Sid and Allan, and then Jerry, who was a cousin to Sid and Al. Allan spent his very first day logging at Norie Bros, Elk Bay working for Sam Teloskey. There, he started setting chokers with me. His brother-in-law Brian Oakford was the stacker operator in Nories’ dry sort. Al would join Sid and I later at Menzies Bay. Jerry spent a fair amount of time hooking on the grapple yarders and later he went hoe chucking. Sid was a landing bucker; first as a yarder operator, eventually ending up running grader. Al would quit, went to camp and got broken-in falling; he’s still working for Blue Thunder Falling as the bull buckers’ assistant in Campbell River.

The Bortolotto family had four men. Victor was my woods foreman for a bit at Menzies. Vince was a hooker on a steel spar at Kelsey Bay Division. Alvio and Lucci, who started washing crummies on the weekends in Kelsey Bay Division, both ended up on the dry sort for over forty years. When they retired, both were right on top of the seniority list.

My dad, Dennis Wilson, contracted his T.D. 15 cat there. Bull dozing for Bob Jordan, pushing out debris at the landings and helping the grade department. Later, my brother Rodney would run the Cat. They had him ditching the mainline, but too many railroad spikes starting showing up in the logging truck tires, which ended that job. My brother Stacy and I both joined in July 1978. Stacy would later quit and got broken-in on grapple yarder at Cleagh Creek, just recently retired from running grapple yarder for Olympic Logging.

Pictured: In the background wearing the red ball cap is Bruce Kohlhofer (mechanic). In the foreground, wearing the pink shirt is Personnel Manager Rob McKinnell, Manager Stan Zuke in the white shirt, and Wanda Brooks’ son Grady. Photo courtesy Wanda Brooks.

Mackenzies were the next family that comes to mind. Dan was Manager at Elk River Timber. His brother Roy was a faller at Franklin River for years. Dan’s son Dave joined us at Menzies. His cousin Brian also worked there and was my hooker for some time, ended up falling. My brother Stacy married Dave’s sister Mimi.

Gordie McCubbings was loading logs when I started there and I worked with “The Prince” — as he was known — many times. His son Graham worked there for a while, then left to become a hoe chucker/loader operator. My best friend.

The Jewels, Ivan and Dave, both were fallers. Harold Brownson was my woods foreman and his dad was a high-rigger at Franklin River, Harold’s son Greg was a first aid attendant at Menzies later upgraded his first aid and went to work for B.C. Ambulance.

Ernie Venus was manager at Menzies when I started. I went to school with his son, Glen, who would eventually become Manager at Kelsey Bay. His son Steve would get broken-in falling by Al Attfield and is now owner of Blue Thunder Falling.

The Amos family, Jim “Moose” Amos was fire warden when I started at Menzies, he had connected with my Dad in the Duncan area in the fifties, Larry, the oldest son, was a faller. I went to school with Denny Amos and his sister Brenda. Denny would join the fallers was also a very skillful artist. Brenda was married to Earl Einarson, who was a truck driver and would run one of the first “snippers” M&B tried out. Lots of guys were related to someone who worked at M&B, brothers-in-law, fathers-in-law, etc.

A program that was started at M&B was the Employer and Family Assistance program. A counselling service set up with a lot of work by John Morden in our H.R. department, with lots of help from Jim Work on the union side. This service would encompass most of Vancouver Island. Some of the participants were Raven Lumber, TimberWest and Steve Marshall Ford to name a few. This counselling service was great. I used it several times just as recently as just before the pandemic – Upper Island Counselling.

Another plan was the M&B Company Share purchase program. The employee would designate a certain percentage of their wages, and the company would match this with M&B shares. You could cash them in when you wanted to; it was a great little savings plan. The trick was to cash them in long before you were laid off in November so E.I. wouldn’t use them as income and deduct from your benefits.

Then we had Family Picnic. My manager at this time, Stan Zuke — who supplied much information for this article — said that the Family Picnic was spearheaded by Wanda Brooks, the payroll clerk. We had an organizing committee, usually members from the accident committee and anybody else who wanted to volunteer their help and expertise. There were lots of races and games for the kids. Stan Zuke would bring the hay for the coin toss and when that was done, Mark Nicholls opened the front door of Stan’s pickup and told the kids to put the hay back in the pickup. The kids were overjoyed to help fill the front of the truck with hay! There was also a booth set up with cold refreshments.

Kenny's Loggin' - The M&B Family — *Jim Work and Gordie Lee. Photo courtesy Gordie Lee Collection.*

Stan Zuke was trying to get Jim Work to come to the picnic. Jim was one of our union leaders and partying with management was kind of frowned upon. After long negotiations between Jim and Stan, it was agreed that Jim would come to the picnic on one condition. Jim did a lot of work for the Arbutus Group, a group of developmentally disabled kids attending Arbutus School. Stan supplied transportation and Jim brought his buddies from the school to the picnic. Some guys would take their Floater on the following Monday and there would be a short crew for Monday.

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.