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The Stores Department held all the material, used
by all the various departments,
especially the I&R and Construction forces. They were housed in a
plywood
Office area, on the left side as you entered the old Wooden WWII Drill Hall,
at 4400 birch Ave,
up on the Bench, off the east end of Park Ave. in Terrace.
One of the first Stores man I remember was
John Stinson.
John was quite the horse trader. I believe even to this day,
his old house off of Queensway Drive in Thornhill,
has a metal door off of a BC Tel Phone Booth.
It still has the white top, blue middle strip, and BC Tel yellow bottom.
Haven't been out that way for a while, but it had those colors for years.
John transferred into I&R, and eventually retired to the south.
We still hear Evelyn and John stories to this day.
I'll never forget the night they came over to my house,
to play the game of Risk. It turned out to be quite a night,
Boy did they take that game seriously!
It is a game about taking over the world,
and I think they figured they were really doing that.
I thought we were going to have a murder in the house that night.
After the Barn fire, May 8, 1975 @ 9:30AM,
the Stores Department was moved to the
basement
of the Primary Center, or Toll / Operator building,
with Vic Filby as the stores man, until the new barn
at 5215 Keith Ave in Terrace, was built.
Vic later moved to Smithers as the Stores man there,
finally to Prince George Stores, where he passed away
just days before he was to retire.
In my radio history pages, I give Vic credit as a hero,
for saving the lives of those in the barn when the big fire hit.
Even though he suffered facial burns from a previous fire,
he still went to each room in the barn to get people to leave,
by the back door. They all escaped with no loss of life.
I would hazard a guess it was the most expensive fire in
the history of Terrace. Possibly the TPA hanger
at the airport was costlier, but would be close.
Today the Stores Department is housed in the
Plant Center
what we called "The Barn"
at 5215 Keith Ave in Terrace.
Now it occupies, the whole end of the building.
minus some Office space in the corner,
Where the original Stores Department area was.
I am not sure of the order in the next set of names,
and hope Ken or Mel will straighten me out one day.
Anyway some of the names that did the job,
John Stinson
Victor (Vic) Filby (Deceased)
Ken Blanes (who became I&R, then Facility man)
Mel Anderson (became I&R and CO Maint)
Bob Forsyth (became a construction guy, now in Kamloops)
Jim Shepherd (hired in 1976- went to PG, resigned there in 1981))
Betty Stephenson (1981)
Betty Hammerstrom (retired in Terrace)
Gord Lund (1981) (retired in Terrace)
Debbie Menzies, now Ziegler.
Gord Lund used to play Santa Claus
for all the
Company Christmas Parties.
In Feb 2006 they are still thinking of closing
Stores down in Terrace,
if they do, Debbie will be the last person in that job.
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