At six years old Gil (Giff) Rahier would pass the time by playing pitch and toss with fellow paperboys to while away the time in between selling the last of his papers.
That was 1947, when the 9 o'clock curfew spurred his mom to come looking for him with switch in hand.
Rahier arrived on the wooden sidewalks of Prince George by train on Feb. 17, 1946 with his mother, Marguerite, and two other mothers with their children from Love Siding, Saskatchewan.
It was 30 below.
His father, John, had already moved to Prince George for work in 1945 when the family came to join him.
The family lived at West Lake Sawmills, which was owned by the Meyer family who had recently purchased the business from the Lindstroms, said Rahier.
"We lived in the box of a three-ton truck that was sitting on four oil drums that first winter at West Lake - my father always joked it was the first motor home," said Rahier.
While John worked in the mill, Marguerite was camp cook.
The following spring the Rahiers moved into Prince George so Rahier could attend school. Rahier was already a year behind so the family knew it was important to make the move. They lived at 737 Third Ave. John had a Grade 6 education and Marguerite had Grade 3 so it was important to his parents that Rahier got an education.
When they moved to town, Rahier decided he needed a bit of spending money so that's when he started selling The Prince George Citizen newspaper by standing on the street and yelling "our Prince George Citizen for sale'. He quickly learned a more reliable way to sell was to try to get the local businesses to buy their papers from him.
Rahier had about 20 steady customers including Mason's Cafe, Ben Baird's Men's Wear, Spanner's Men's Wear and H.H. Douglas Stationers.
Once he had those customers established he heard that he could stay out selling extra papers at the local beer parlours, which had to close for supper back in those day, Rahier said.
"What was good for me was when they closed for supper, the inebriated men would come out and buy the paper from me - a little kid - for far more money than it was worth."
Rahier would wait for the beer parlours to open again after supper so he could sell the rest of his papers to the returning patrons. To pass the time, Rahier would toss nickels or dimes against the wall with his fellow paperboys. The game was known as pitch and toss. The boy who tossed his coin closest to the wall would win all the coins.
"I always did quite well," said Rahier. "I think my first bike I paid for with money I earned from selling papers."
Back then the newspaper boys would have to purchase the paper up front so they had to sell what they bought or suffer the loss themselves. That made each seller quite motivated and sometimes competition was stiff.
"You had to move fast to get the good spots to sell the papers in front of the beer parlours," said Rahier.
In 1951 he and his parents moved to Summit Lake, ending his lucrative career as a Citizen newspaper boy. Rahier's father John, who became the president of the Prince George Chamber of Commerce in the 70s, ran the logging side for the mill while his mother, Marguerite, was camp cook.
Rahier thought he would follow in his father's footsteps and went to BCIT in Vancouver to learn about forestry but quickly changed directions and settled into a career in insurance brokering.
He was a partner in Barton Insurance until 1998 when he sold out of the business and then stayed on under contracted with them until about two years ago.
"I've had a very interesting life," said Rahier, who used to be a busy sportsman boxing, playing hockey and ball and still enjoys hunting. "I was Harold Mann's sparring partner before he went off to the Olympics in 1960. I've done a lot of different sports and I have a trophy room downstairs. I think I have every kind of animal in B.C. down there."
Rahier has a son, Jeff, in White Rock in the insurance business. Rahier, his wife, Marjorie, and daughter, Erin, have an interest in Dandy Lines on Specialty Avenue as well as vested interests in many other local businesses including Viking Construction and Cascade Mechanical, Rahier said.
The Rahiers have five grandchildren and have lived in the same house in central Prince George since 1969.
"My dad would really get hot about it when someone tried to call down the City of Prince George or mother - they were in big trouble - and I feel pretty much the same way," said Rahier, who has lived here all his life.
- Are you part of the Citizen's 100-year history in Prince George with a great story to tell? Drop me a line at [email protected].
